Will Drysdale Come Back and Do Some Dodger Pitching?

Since Jerry Doggett has decided to retire after 32 seasons with the Dodgers, the question is who will replace him?

Rick Monday, Channel 11 sports anchorman and Dodgervision commentator, is the early favorite.

Another strong possibility is Don Drysdale, now a broadcaster for the Chicago White Sox. He is considerably more experienced than Monday but would probably require a considerably higher salary.

Then there is Al Downing, who does an admirable job as one of the hosts of “Dodgertalk” on KABC radio and is also a Dodgervision commentator.

Longshots include Wes Parker of “Dodgertalk,” Eddie Doucette of Dodgervision and PA announcer Nick Nickson, who is also Bob Miller’s commentator on Kings’ broadcasts.

Another candidate is Joel Meyers of KMPC, who has shown solid play-by-play abilities doing UCLA football and basketball. And he filled in nicely for Al Conin as the Angels’ play-by-play man for one series.

Drysdale, in town this week for the White Sox-Angel series at Anaheim Stadium, said: “It sure would be nice to come home again. But we’ll just have to see what happens during the off-season.”

Drysdale, who makes his off-season home in the Palm Springs area with wife Ann Meyers and 2-month-old Don Jr., would seem to have all the credentials.

He’s a Hall of Fame former Dodger, and he made his mark as a broadcaster working with Dick Enberg on the Angels.

Money, however, may be a problem. Drysdale wanted to return to the Angels a couple of years ago, but his asking price, $300,000, was too high.

Angel announcers are paid out of KMPC’s budget, while the Dodgers pay their announcers, so a deal may be workable, if Peter O’Malley is willing to spend the money.

When Monday was playing for the Dodgers, there was a lot of talk that someday, because of his rich, resonant voice, he’d end up in the team’s broadcast booth.

His work on Channel 11 and Dodgervision has strengthened his case.

Monday returned home Wednesday evening, after spending six days marlin fishing off Catalina, to find the telephone ringing.

“Everyone has been asking when I report to Vero,” he said.

Well?

Monday, understating the case, said: “I guess it would be worthwhile for my agent to give the Dodgers a call.”

Actually, Monday is a bit more enthusiastic. “Any broadcaster in L.A. obviously would drop everything to at least discuss the possibility of working full time for an organization such as the Dodgers,” he said.

Speaking of Dodger announcers, Vin Scully got away with a rare slip earlier this month.

During a game against the Cincinnati Reds on Sept. 7, televised by Channel 11, Cincinnati’s Kal Daniels muffed one in left field, and Scully said: “Talk about a monkey playing with a football . . . “

When Howard Cosell called Washington Redskins receiver Alvin Garrett “a little monkey” during a Monday night telecast in 1983, the comment, considered a racial slur, got national attention.

Apparently no one is paying much attention to Dodger telecasts these days.

Some people may like Channel 5 sports anchorman Keith Olbermann’s work, but the feeling here is that the man comes from another planet.

“What is this guy talking about?” is a question that comes to mind often during his sportscasts.

He also comes across as egotistical, continually doing things designed to draw attention to himself. But the worst thing is that he fancies himself a comedian, despite an inability to make people laugh.

Last Friday, while showing highlights of a Pittsburgh-New York Mets game, there was a shot of the Pirates’ parrot mascot wrapped in plastic. In a high-pitched voice, Olbermann said: “Hi, I’m Peg Bracken and whenever I have parrot leftovers I wrap them in cellophane.” Say what?

Tuesday night, showing a girl at Anaheim Stadium with an illegible sign pinned to her shirt, Olbermann said: “Is that what they sell at the store?” Again, say what?

Also on Tuesday, he devoted two minutes to show how he covered the 1982 NFL strike for CNN. Talk about self-serving. He feigned humility at the end of the piece by making fun of his long hair back then. “Nice hair, Keith,” he said.

After showing the play of the day Tuesday, he said: “If I ever do one for soccer, I’ll call it the Pele of the day.” Ouch.

Wednesday night, he devoted 4 1/2 minutes to a baserunning mistake that occurred in 1908.

“If you know my work, you know it is Fred Merkle Day,” Olbermann humbly informed viewers.

Every year, Olbermann tells the story of how Merkle, a 19-year-old backup first baseman for the New York Giants, failed to tag second after an apparent game-winning hit by Giant shortstop Al Bridwell.

The mistake cost the Giants an important victory; they eventually lost the pennant to the Chicago Cubs, and the unfortunate baserunner is known to this day in baseball lore as Bonehead Merkle.

It’s a nice story but not worth 4 1/2 minutes on a newsy night in sports.

On the rare occasions when Olbermann plays it straight, as he did with last week’s series on the Raiders’ move to Irwindale, he’s OK. But usually it’s yuk-yuk time. And the man is simply not funny.

TV-Radio Notes

Thank goodness for college football, and there’s plenty of it Saturday. It’s Auburn-Tennessee on TBS at 9:30 a.m., PDT; Ohio State-LSU on CBS at 11:30; Nebraska-Arizona State on ABC at 12:25 p.m.; Miami-Arkansas on ESPN at 1, and Penn State-Boston College on ESPN at 4:30. . . . UCLA’s 3:30 p.m. game against Arizona Saturday will be shown, delayed, at 9:30 p.m. by Prime Ticket, which will also show Saturday’s USC-California game Sunday at 5 p.m., with Rich Marotta and Mike Garrett reporting. . . . Prime Ticket this week made a deal to show all but two of USC’s remaining games on one- or two-day delay. The games not scheduled to be shown are those against Oregon and Washington State. . . . Channel 13 originally had a deal to show USC delayed, but it fell through.

Instead of football next Monday night, ABC will show a movie, “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.” . . . A reminder: Sunday at 9:30 a.m., CBS and NBC will offer expanded, one-hour versions of “NFL Today” and “NFL Live,” respectively. CBS will then show a repeat of last January’s Super Bowl, and NBC will show a live baseball game, Detroit at Toronto. . . . ESPN’s “NFL Game Day” Sunday at 8:30 a.m. will, as usual, be a one-hour program, but the cable network’s “NFL Prime Time” wrap-up show--what’s to wrap up?--will be cut back to a half-hour. . . . The Raiders’ Todd Christensen will be interviewed during “NFL Prime Time,” and ESPN’s Jim Gray will report from El Segundo on the Raiders’ non-union team. . . . An ESPN on-air poll regarding the strike was conducted this week, and of more than 15,000 respondents, 73% were in favor of the owners, 25% in favor of the players and 2% undecided.

The Mita Tennis Festival, held at the Riviera Country Club last weekend, will be televised by Channel 7 at 3 p.m. Sunday after Ryder Cup golf coverage. The tennis competition, a benefit for the United Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation, included such tennis pros as Bjorn Borg, Stefan Edberg and Vitas Gerulaitis, and such celebrities as Bob Hope, Dustin Hoffman, co-chairpersons Donna Mills and Merv Griffin, Lloyd Bridges, Rick Barry, Steve Garvey and many more. Donna de Varona is one of the announcers on the two-hour ABC show, and her sister, actress Joanna Kerns of ABC’s “Growing Pains,” is one of the competitors. . . . There will also be celebrity tennis on Channel 4 Sunday at 1 p.m. when the Aspen Tennis Festival, taped Aug. 23, will be shown as substitute programming. Bill Cosby and Don Johnson are among the competitors.