Hernandez’s Dream Job Gone, but Now There’s a Fantasy

By most standards, Tony Hernandez has had a successful career in sportscasting.

After a few brief stints in such places as Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he went on to work in four major markets--San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles.

He has been a sports anchorman and reporter in L.A. for 10 years, having spent 5 1/2 years at Channel 7 and the last 4 1/2 at Channel 2.

But what Hernandez always dreamed of was announcing major league baseball.

After he had long given up on that possibility, it finally happened a year ago when Z Channel hired him as its Dodger play-by-play announcer.

“I thought if I was to ever become a baseball play-by-play announcer, I’d have to go to a small market and start all over,” he said. “And I didn’t want to do that.”

Hernandez, who played baseball at San Jose State, spent one season, 1967, with the Chicago Cubs’ rookie league team at Caldwell, Ida. He then returned to San Jose and, while working as a radio disc jockey, also announced games for the San Jose Bees of the California League.

But that was the extent of his baseball play-by-play experience.

After Philadelphia-based Spectacor bought Z Channel in January, 1988, and acquired rights to Dodger games, the pay-cable station tried to recruit Jim Lampley to be its Dodger play-by-play man.

Because of an already overloaded schedule, Lampley had to say no. But knowing Hernandez’s love for baseball, he recommended his Channel 2 colleague for the job, and Hernandez got it.

And Hernandez improved as the season progressed.

Even so, neither Hernandez nor commentator Rick Monday is coming back.

Monday left to take a full-time announcing job with the San Diego Padres, and last week it was announced that Eddie Doucette, a more experienced baseball announcer, will replace Hernandez and work with new commentator Don Sutton.

“I was really looking forward to this season,” Hernandez said. “That job was the highlight of my career, and now it has been taken away from me.”

Hernandez may sound a little bitter, but he understands the politics involved.

“I kind of foresaw what was going to happen,” he said.

Z Channel has been undergoing an ownership change the last few months, and this week it became official. Z Channel is now owned by Rainbow, a New York-based company that operates SportsChannel America’s regional networks.

John Mohr, executive producer of sports programming for Los Angeles’ ON TV from 1977 until it went off the air in 1983, is now the head of those regional networks, including Z Channel.

Also, Jim Zrake, formerly of the USA cable network, is Z Channel’s new executive producer of sports.

Both Mohr and Zrake have ties to Doucette. Mohr, although he says he was not the one who hired Doucette for Z Channel, selected Doucette as a Dodger announcer when he was at ON. And Zrake hired Doucette to work for USA.

Although the Dodger job has fallen through, other things are going well for Hernandez.

He is still Z Channel’s blow-by-blow man on boxing, and tonight has a separate boxing assignment. He will serve as host of the pay-per-view telecast of Iran Barkley-Roberto Duran fight.

Also, Hernandez and a few friends have started a new business, called Big League Fantasy, Inc., which caters to the needs of those involved in rotisserie baseball.

Rotisserie leagues are a craze in which a group of fans get together and draft imaginary football or baseball teams made up of actual pro players. How each team fares is based on the statistics of the players.

According to Hernandez, a couple of New Yorkers came up with the idea while they were in a restaurant called La Rotisserie Francais.

“I originally thought the name had to do with barbecues and the Hot Stove League,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez became the commissioner of Channel 2’s rotisserie league three years ago and was spending about three hours a day going through box scores to keep up statistics in eight different hitting and pitching categories.

He eventually invested in a computer, and late last year, spurred by a friend who asked if he could buy his daily computerized statistical data, Hernandez formed his company.

The company, which he plans to expand to include football and basketball, is located in an office above a bank in Redondo Beach. For more information call (213) 316-1120.

Hernandez lives in Torrance, not far from his company’s Redondo Beach location. He has a 10-year-old son who, coincidentally, is named Torrance--Tory for short.

“When my wife Dale was pregnant, we were on vacation in California,” Hernandez said. “We drove through Torrey Pines and then Torrance. That’s how we came up with the names, although Tory is spelled T-o-r-y. At the time, we never thought we’d ever end up living in Torrance.”

The Hernandez family also includes Josh, 16, Dale’s son by a previous marriage.

TV-Radio Notes

Boxing highlights the weekend fare. Tonight’s Iran Barkley-Roberto Duran pay-per-view fight at Atlantic City, N.J., is being sold for $14.95 or $19.95 to cable and SelecTV subscribers, but Saturday night’s Mike Tyson-Frank Bruno bout at the Las Vegas Hilton is free to HBO subscribers. Figure that one out. . . . Tonight’s Barkley-Duran card, which has five Olympic medal winners making their pro debuts in separate four-rounders, begins at 6 o’clock.

For Tyson-Bruno, the prefight coverage, which begins at 7 p.m., figures to be more interesting than the fight itself, which is scheduled to begin at 7:28. Ross Greenburg, HBO executive producer, says the prefight coverage includes a lengthy Tyson profile, with flashbacks shown in black and white. About 4 1/2 minutes will be devoted to Bruno. . . . Tyson will also be the subject of a half-hour special on CNN Saturday night at 6. Nick Charles is the host.

Calling the fight will be the regular HBO team of Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant and Sugar Ray Leonard. . . . An HBO first for this fight is a Spanish-language audio being offered by selected cable companies, including those in South Gate, El Monte and Bellflower. . . . The fight will also be on radio, beginning at 7. KNX, not KABC as earlier announced, will carry the Radio Sports Network feed, with Rich Marotta and Seat Williams calling the action. In San Diego, KSDO has the fight.

Recommended viewing: This weekend marks the 25th anniversary of the first Sonny Liston-Cassius Clay fight, and it is the subject of NBC’s “SportsWorld” Sunday at noon. Producer David Neal has put together an outstanding show, which includes footage of Clay, who changed his name to Muhammad Ali after the fight, wanting to quit when he got some medication in his eye after the fourth round. Also included are the pre- and post-fight press conferences, in which Clay gained notoriety by proclaiming, “I am the greatest.” There are also old interviews with a number of reporters who were covering the fight. All said Clay had no chance. Among those is Times columnist Jim Murray. . . . Steve Ellis and Joe Louis are the fight announcers.

Olympic volleyball players Bob Ctvrtlik and Missy McLinden are scheduled to appear on the “Pat Sajak Show” on CBS tonight at 11:30. . . . The Ironman Triathlon, held last October on the big island of Hawaii, will be on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” Saturday. . . . More signs that Channel 9, now owned by Disney, is beefing up its sports coverage: The station is sending free-lance reporter Randi Hall and producer Tony Richards to Vero Beach, Fla., to file reports on the Dodgers next week during the 9 o’clock news shows. And this week the station did a five-part series on learning high to ski with Scott St. James, himself a beginner. It was taped at Mountain High.

ABC has dropped Gary Bender as its No. 2 play-by-play announcer on baseball and hired former New York Mets and new Chicago White Sox announcer Gary Thorne to replace him. . . . ABC’s regular-season baseball coverage this season, its last, involves only eight Thursday night telecasts, beginning June 8, plus the World Series. . . . Tom Seaver is the front-runner to replace Joe Garagiola at NBC. . . . Guess who NBC opens with on the first of its 32 Saturday telecast April 8? The Dodgers, of course, who play at Atlanta that day.

The best news about this week’s sale of Z Channel is that SportsChannel America’s national hockey package will be picked up, probably in mid-March. There are no plans at this time for Z Channel to change its name. . . . CBS has taken some heat for missing the start of last Sunday’s Laker-Boston game. It was bad enough that the Daytona 500 ran late. CBS made things worse by going to a number of commercials before switching to the Forum.