NBC’s World Series Coverage Has Very Tough Act to Follow

NBC is in a tough spot. How, you wonder, can the World Series, which NBC will televise beginning Saturday, top the National League playoffs?

And ABC’s coverage, particularly the announcing, was as good as the games. Al Michaels, Tim McCarver and Jim Palmer were simply marvelous. They were informative, witty and fun to listen to.

Of course NBC has a few things going for it heading into the Series, namely announcers Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola and longtime director Harry Coyle.

Scully and Garagiola have been together for 6 seasons. But there have been rumors that Garagiola’s performance on the Series may determine whether he returns to NBC next season, and Garagiola has heard these rumors.

“If indeed they are putting my career on the line on the World Series, then it’s totally unfair,” Garagiola told some writers during a conference call this week. “I don’t like it. I’ve been twisting in the wind.

“I just read a Sports Illustrated article in which (NBC sports President Art) Watson said we’ll talk after the Series. I don’t like reading that. I’m tired of being asked about it. I don’t know what’s going on.”

An NBC spokesman said a new deal with Garagiola, whose contract expires after the season, is contingent on whether NBC signs a new contract with major league baseball.

Although the current 6-year contract doesn’t expire until after the 1989 season, a new one is expected to be negotiated before the end of the year.

It wouldn’t make a lot of sense to sign Garagiola, who reportedly makes $800,000 a year, to a new multiyear contract if NBC isn’t doing baseball after 1989.

Meanwhile, NBC’s Coyle, who has been directing baseball as long as it has been on television, has said this may be his last season.

What a trio: Michaels, McCarver and Palmer have proven that three men in a booth can work. Oh, sure, at times the announcers talk over live action, but, as McCarver said the other night, “You get that with 2-man teams, too.”

What was particularly impressive about ABC’s coverage of the National League playoffs was the information the announcers, particularly Michaels and McCarver, had at their fingertips. How do they do this? It’s called preparation.

McCarver gives the impression that he’s a free spirit, but he is a meticulous note-keeper who carries all his records in a large attache case. “I have a visual memory, so I have to see something written down to remember it,” he said.

How much time does he spend poring over his information?

“Oh, gosh, a lot,” he said. “The key, though, is not just having a lot of information memorized. It’s knowing when to use it.”

A couple of unsung heroes during the National League playoffs were veteran statistician Allan Roth of Los Angeles, who was in the booth next to Michaels, and Steve Hirdt, executive vice president of the New York-based Elias Sports Bureau who was in the production truck working with a graphics operator.

Michaels, for his part, keeps abreast by watching game after game on his satellite dish at his home in Brentwood and reading about 15 newspapers daily.

“I used to write down a lot of information and bring it to the ballpark with me,” Michaels said. “But I found thumbing through paper work was distracting. So I try to keep most of it in my head.”

Rams on TV: For once, both the Rams and Raiders will be on television Sunday, since the Rams’ game with San Francisco at Anaheim Stadium sold out in time to lift the TV blackout. The announcers for the CBS telecast will be the A team of Pat Summerall and John Madden.

The Raiders’ game at Kansas City will be televised by NBC at 10 a.m., with Tom Hammond and Joe Namath reporting.

A quirk in National Football League schedule Sunday has CBS covering 9 games, NBC only 4. NBC, going from the Olympics to the World Series, can use the break.

CBS is using all of its football announcing teams, and with commentator Terry Bradshaw having called in sick--he has an intestinal inflammation--Irv Cross is being pressed into commentating duties for the first time. He’ll work the Detroit-New York Giants regional telecast.

Radio station KMPC’s talk show, “Sportsline,” with Joel Meyers, returns Monday, Oct. 24. It will be on weeknights, 5 to 7, with a half-hour interruption for Jim Healy’s show.

Although Meyers is an excellent all-around play-by-play announcer, he is not a hard-hitting or controversial interviewer. But he is smooth and pleasant, usually has good guests, and allows them and his callers to have the spotlight.

Add KMPC: The station has picked up the option year on Angel announcer Ken Brett’s contract. At one time, the station was talking to Don Sutton about replacing Brett. But Brett showed considerable improvement last season and the station wisely didn’t give up on him. Brett is a hard worker and figures to continue to improve.

Meanwhile, Sutton probably would have used the Angel job only as a steppingstone to a network position.

Sutton still may do Angel games on TV if commentator Joe Torre is offered a managerial job. But so far Torre hasn’t had any offers.

Z Channel has hired former Laker commentator Keith Erickson as its Clipper commentator. Hubie Brown, possibly the best basketball commentator anywhere, has been hired to work the Clipper telecasts on Channel 5.

But Brown is a strong candidate to replace Billy Cunningham at CBS. If he gets that job, he probably would have to give up the Clipper job. “I really can’t say anything because I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Brown said.

The first Clipper telecast on Z Channel will be a home game against Phoenix Nov. 12. The first Channel 5 telecast will be a road game at Denver Nov. 19.

Clipper radio play-by-play announcer Ralph Lawler will work both the Z Channel and Channel 5 telecasts. It has not been determined yet who will fill in on radio when Lawler is on TV, but it probably will be Pete Arbogast.

TV-Radio Notes

The Raiders’ Bill King is also a radio announcer for the Oakland A’s. But he’ll miss Sunday’s World Series game because he will be in Kansas City with the Raiders. His contract stipulates that the Raiders get priority. However, the Raiders’ Al LoCasale said the team will consider letting King work Game 7 if there is one. . . . Because of CBS radio’s contract with major league baseball, the Dodgers’ network radio stations must carry the CBS World Series broadcasts, with Jack Buck, Bill White and John Rooney. However, Dodger flagship station KABC will have Don Drysdale and Ross Porter. KNX will carry the CBS broadcasts.

ABC’s “20-20” will have a follow-up on the Mike Tyson-Robin Givens soap opera on tonight’s 10 o’clock show. . . . The Chicago TV station that carries the White Sox is suing the team for being so bad. Fox Broadcasting’s WFLD is seeking to end its contract with the White Sox, which runs through 1991, because the team is “not desirable to watch.”

MTV gets into the spirit of the World Series Sunday, airing taped interviews with players from the division champions about twice an hour. The players talk about their favorite music, among other things. The Dodgers taking part are Orel Hershiser, Mike Scioscia, Rick Dempsey and Steve Sax. . . . What a day Saturday is for college football viewing. CBS televises No. 1 Miami and No. 4 Notre Dame at 11:30 a.m, with Brent Musburger, Pat Haden and, on the sidelines, John Dockery. ABC brings you Washington-USC at 12:30 p.m., with Keith Jackson, Bob Griese and Mike Adamle.

Reggie Jackson is host of a World Series special, “The Seventh Game--What Dreams Are Made Of,” on Channel 4 tonight at 7:30. . . . Channel 4’s Fred Roggin will have 5-minute World Series wrap-up shows with Tom Lasorda after each Series game. . . . Oops Department: Channel 7’s Jim Hill, after the Dodgers’ win in Game 7 Wednesday night, kept reminding viewers to tune in to Channel 7 for the World Series Saturday. But of course the Series will be on Channel 4. News anchor Paul Moyer corrected Hill twice.