Commentary : TV Coverage Solid but Unspectacular

The debate continues: Is this the year of the live sportscasters? Are sportscasters more souped up in 1987 than in 1986? Should they be tested?

Something has to be done. By the start of Tuesday’s All-Star game in Oakland, sportscasters had spent the season flying out of control at a record pace, cliches and errors spewing from their mouths at a horrifying rate. So you expected more of the same from two of the most prolific announcers in baseball as they described the action between the best of the National and American leagues.

But you were wrong. Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola were solid in NBC’s solid telecast of a solidly played game won, 2-0, by the National League in the 13th inning.

Solid, but not spectacular.

The first seven innings were so slow that you could have read a book while watching. So slow that the only suspense was wondering who would be selected player of the game (it was Tim Raines). So slow that you applauded when a white balloon blew onto the field.

Like all pitching duels, though, the longer this one lasted, the greater became the suspense.

It was also a technically clean telecast, despite NBC continuing to use supervisory personnel to fill in during a technicians’ strike. Some of the camera work was almost inspiring, in fact, especially that terrific replay shot of Dave Winfield kneeing Ozzie Virgil in a home plate collision.

Back to Scully and Garagiola, the now comfortably relaxed and well-matched announcers who never give you a bad performance. Not that they’re perfect, however.

Scully and Garagiola raised an interesting point in noting that the National League’s starting battery was Mike Scott and Gary Carter, the Mets’ catcher being one of those who repeatedly accuses the Astro ace of scuffing the ball. But they didn’t follow it up.

As for Garagiola, anyone who uses the announcer’s booth to campaign against chewing tobacco--as he occasionally does on NBC’s regular baseball telecasts--has to top somebody’s all-star list.

Scully brought along his usual stock of Vinisms: “Mark McGwire’s father is a dentist, and pitchers look at him like a root canal.” Does he stay up all night thinking of those?

There is no announcer in any sport better prepared than Scully. But all those years hanging around Ross Porter have apparently taken their toll. Oh, Scully doesn’t tell you anyone’s hat size yet, but stay tuned.

In the meaningless trivia category, he revealed that Winfield was “born that fateful day when Bobby Thomson hit that home run to beat the Dodgers.” Oh boy.

Scully simply outdid himself, though, in reporting that Jack Morris and Rick Sutcliffe were each the first out of their respective dugouts when their teams had brawls this season. Does that mean they are competitive--or merely dumb?

More important, who was last off the bench?

Meanwhile, NBC deployed Marv Albert in the stands for baseball celebrity interviews. He asked Kansas City Royals General Manager John Schuerholz his feelings about Bo Jackson signing to play football with the Raiders after the baseball season, but didn’t ask him if the Royals were using a double standard in allowing Jackson alone to engage in hazardous extra-baseball activity.

Albert did get Commissioner Peter Ueberroth to publicly commit to including a designated hitter as part of the 1988 All-Star game. Albert also asked him to comment on NBC’s proposal--reported before the game by Bob Costas--to include on the All-Star ballot a spot for an honorary all-star such as Reggie Jackson or Nolan Ryan, who no longer are likely to make the squad based on their statistics.

“Wouldn’t it be great to see a Nolan Ryan or a Reggie Jackson on a national stage one more time?” Costas had asked earlier. Say what? They still are capable of getting that national stage on NBC or ABC games of the week, so what’s the problem?

There was a problem was Albert’s pregame interview with Al Campanis, the former Dodger vice president who was fired last April after telling Ted Koppel on ABC’s “Nightline” that blacks lacked the “necessities” to hold down baseball management jobs.

The problem was that the story--and Campanis’ explanation for his statement--were old news. Campanis told Albert that he should have said that blacks lacked the “necessary experience” for such jobs. Small detail.

Albert should have replied--but did not--that Pete Rose was hired to manage without the “necessary experience.”

Albert also did not ask Campanis to explain his contention on “Nightline” that blacks lacked the “buoyancy” of whites when it came to swimming.

To his credit, Albert did ask Campanis what hardly anyone else has publicly asked him--if he thought Peter O’Malley, the Dodger president, didn’t act prematurely in firing him. Campanis replied that he “might have taken more time” had he been in O’Malley’s place.

But even this exchange missed the central point.

If Campanis was not a racist and didn’t mean what he said about blacks on “Nightline,” then the Dodgers certainly must have known that, given his long association with the team. And if the Dodgers did know that--and fired Campanis anyway merely to appease his critics--then the Dodgers are spineless.

Not a very pleasant thought on a night devoted to all-stars.