Once Again, Sutton Comes Up With Spot in Dodger Rotation

For Don Sutton, the search is over.

Pitching himself for a broadcasting job in baseball, Sutton was getting shut out until this week, when he landed a commentating job with Z Channel.

He replaces Rick Monday as the cable station’s Dodger commentator. The opening was created when Monday was hired as a radio announcer by the San Diego Padres, a job Sutton also sought.

Z Channel’s 35 Dodger telecasts begin with the home opener against Houston April 13.

Sutton will work with play-by-play announcer Eddie Doucette, who has replaced Tony Hernandez.

Sutton, after retiring from baseball last season, his 19th, was first rumored to be headed to the Angel radio booth.

But KMPC, because Ken Brett showed considerable improvement from 1987 to ‘88, extended his contract.

Sutton, besides applying for the Padre job, also sought a television job with the Milwaukee Brewers and a cable TV job with the New York Yankees.

The Yankee job was still up in the air when he accepted the Z Channel position.

Sutton also will work for Channel 11 as host of the “Dodger Central” shows, which Monday used to do, and Sutton will file spring-training reports on the Dodgers for Channel 11 news.

“Next to working for a network, this is the best job possible for me,” Sutton said.

Sutton leaves for Vero Beach, Fla., Monday, but will stop off in Montgomery, Ala., where that evening his son, Daron, makes his college pitching debut with Auburn Montgomery. Sutton also may end up doing some college baseball for ESPN and is in the running to become one of the cable network’s major league commentators, beginning in 1990.

The team of Joel Meyers and Joe Torre will return as Z Channel’s Angel announcers.

Torre is also among the candidates to replace Joe Garagiola at NBC for that network’s final season on baseball, which would not take him out of the running for a job at either CBS or ESPN the next season.

Other NBC possibilities are Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson and Steve Garvey.

Former manager Dick Williams has been hired by ESPN as a college commentator, and will work Sunday’s 5 p.m. telecast with San Diego State at Fresno State. The play-by-play announcer will be Steve Physioc.

Rich Marotta has quietly returned to Prime Ticket. He served as host of Thursday night’s “It’s Your Call” program, and will be the host of a special “It’s Your Call” tonight at 6:30 from the LAX Hilton, where the Muscular Dystrophy Assn.-Magic Johnson dinner and auction are being held.

Beyond that, there has been nothing official about Marotta’s status with Prime Ticket.

Bud Furillo will be the host of Monday night’s show from the Las Vegas Hilton, with boxing’s Don King and Mickey Duff the guests.

Furillo was the host last Monday when Detroit Pistons Coach Chuck Daly, the scheduled guest, was bumped in favor of Jim Hill and Brad Pye Jr.

About his temporary dismissal, Marotta said: “It was just a misunderstanding and I’m happy it’s been cleared up and I’m back at Prime Ticket.”

During Super Bowl Week, John Severino, Prime Ticket president, asked that a friend, astrologer Joyce Jillson, be used as a guest on “It’s Your Call.”

Sources later said Jillson complained about how she was treated, and Marotta was told by underlings that he had been fired. He called Brent Imia, Prime Ticket’s executive producer, who told him he, indeed, had been fired, and Furillo, the backup host, took over.

Marotta finally talked directly to Severino over lunch and was reinstated. It’s a strange story, even for a business as strange as broadcasting.

Marotta might have gotten the run-around from Prime Ticket, but otherwise things have been going well for him.

A lifelong dream has been to call a heavyweight championship fight, and that’s what he’ll do for a new radio network on Feb. 25, the night Mike Tyson takes on Frank Bruno at the Las Vegas Hilton.

The Radio Sports Network, a division of the Q-Com Corp., and Premiere Radio Networks, are distributing radio coverage of the fight to stations across the country, including KABC in Los Angeles and KSDO in San Diego.

Marotta’s commentator will be Seat Williams, a stand-up boxing expert from Las Vegas.

The Radio Sports Network is scheduled to broadcast a number of fights during March, including Michael Dokes vs. Evander Holyfield at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas March 11, and Michael Nunn vs. Sumbu Kalambay at the Las Vegas Hilton March 25.

It’s about time radio got back into the boxing business. With the big fights now on cable or pay-per-view, a lot of fans have been getting shut out.

HBO will televise Tyson-Bruno and Nunn-Kalambay.

Iran Barkley and Roberto Duran will fight next Friday in Atlantic City, N.J., and that bout will be shown on pay-per-view. The price being asked by most cable systems is $14.95.

The fight, a Top Rank promotion, will be available in about 900,000 homes in Southern California, which includes Cox Cable in San Diego. Torrance-based Choice Entertainment is the national distributor.

This fight has an interesting supporting card, which begins at 6 p.m., PST. Five Olympic medal winners will make their pro debuts in separate four-rounders.

They are heavyweight gold medalist Ray Mercer, light-heavyweight gold medalist Andrew Maynard, light-flyweight silver medalist Michael Carbajal, and bantamweight gold medalist Kennedy McKinney, all Americans, and welterweight gold medalist Robert Wangila of Kenya.

Michael Moorer and Frank Swindell meet in what should be a decent light-heavyweight fight on NBC’s “SportsWorld” Sunday at noon, but NBC refuses to call it a title fight, even though it is being billed as such.

The World Boxing Organization, recently started by disgruntled members of the World Boxing Assn., awarded its championship belt to Moorer on Dec. 5, after a fifth-round TKO of Ramzi Hassan.

NBC commentator Ferdie Pacheco said: “The proliferation of meaningless world titles has confused everybody and has degraded the definition of a champion. Last December, Michael Moorer fights his first scheduled 10-round fight, and the WBO decides to make it a world championship fight. That’s ridiculous.”

TV-Radio Notes

The Daytona 500, which is almost always a good show, thanks in part to the use of in-car cameras, will be televised by CBS Sunday at 9 a.m. . . . After the auto race at 12:30 p.m. on CBS will be the Lakers and Boston Celtics from the Forum. Without Larry Bird, the Celtics are having an off year, but they’re still the Celtics. At halftime, CBS offers a tribute to Magic Johnson. . . . The never-aging Chick Hearn was at his best during the Lakers’ games with Detroit and Portland this week. The man is simply phenomenal. . . . Tonight’s Times/Eagle indoor track meet at the Forum will be televised Saturday at 3:05 p.m. as part of TBS’ “U.S. Olympic Gold” series.

Joe McDonnell, a producer of KFI’s sports talk show, talking on the phone to Margo Adams, Wade Boggs’ former mistress, asked her why she agreed to pose for Penthouse magazine. “Wouldn’t you for $500,000?” she said. Replied McDonnell, who is more than a few pounds overweight: “If you could see me, you wouldn’t ask that question.” . . . A new radio sports talk show started this week on Orange County’s KORG (1190), formerly KPZE. It runs weekdays, 3:30 to 4:30, and the host is Lon Brunk.

Attention journalist Jim Healy: Why get out the crying towel for the poor souls who bet on Oklahoma and gave 3 1/2 points against Arizona? OK, the officials didn’t make the Sooners’ Stacey King, who was fouled at the buzzer, shoot two free throws that could have covered the spread. But the game was over and decided, and anyone who bets on college basketball usually gets what he deserves.