Ready or Not, Brett Takes Over as No.2 Angels’ Announcer

If, for some reason, you are still listening to Angel games on radio, you may have noticed the disappearance of Steve Bailey as the No. 2 play-by-play announcer.

Bailey, KMPC’s sports director, was supposed to eventually give way to Ken Brett after Brett gained some experience. But Bailey was removed earlier than expected.

A source said the station and the Angels got a lot of complaints about Bailey, whose forte is behind-the-scenes work, not announcing.

Brett, who was progressing nicely as a commentator, is now having to do play-by-play during the third and seventh innings even though he isn’t ready for that assignment.

Bailey would have been spared some embarrassment had KMPC given capable Joel Meyers the No. 2 job in the first place and used Brett strictly as a commentator.

Al Conin, the Angels’ No. 1 radio announcer, has a great voice and a smooth delivery. Some people compare him to Dick Enberg. They may sound alike, but the similarity ends there.

Conin’s problem is control. He often says things without thinking.

After reporting last week that former Kansas City manager Dick Howser, who is battling cancer, had been hospitalized again, Conin said: “This may be the beginning of the end for Dick. We sure hope not.”

It wasn’t meant that way but it came across as insensitive.

The other night, he said: “If you’re scoring along, the Angels win.” Even if you weren’t scoring along, the Angels won.

Earlier this season, Conin said: “Red Sox hold San Diego near and dear.” Why? “San Diego gave them Ted Williams.”

Of course.

Another time, he said Don Sutton would rather give up solo homers than homers with runners on base. No kidding.

Who’s biased?: After the Lakers’ one-point win Tuesday night, Chick Hearn said: “I can see Tommy Heinsohn down there and he doesn’t look very happy.”

Too graphic: CBS has had a tendency to overdo its graphics during the NBA finals--those numbers, graphs and charts that are superimposed on the screen. The key to good graphics is keeping them simple and not showing them just for the sake of showing graphics. When you display VCRs with fingers pushing buttons, you’re just showing off.

The one graphic that can’t be overdone is the one that shows the score. It should be put up after every basket. And graphics that show such things as shooting percentages are informative. But some of those fancy, colorful graphics are confusing and hard to follow.

Mr. Congeniality: HBO sent a crew to California last weekend to film some “Where Are They Now” segments for this season’s “Inside the NFL” shows. One of the subjects was Duane Thomas, the hard-to-deal-with former Dallas Cowboy and Washington Redskin who recently moved to an apartment near the Griffith Park area of Los Angeles.

Thomas, who now is working on a book with Sports Illustrated’s Paul Zimmerman, last year had a job as salesman for a medical equipment company. Duane Thomas, a salesman? “He was very cordial and personable when we taped him,” said HBO producer Rick Bernstein.

Talk about a transformation.