No Errors for CBS After ESPN’s Big Blunder in Boston

CBS’ postseason opener Thursday night was a lot better than ESPN’s regular-season finale Wednesday night.

CBS didn’t really miss anything in covering Pittsburgh’s exciting 4-3 victory over Cincinnati in Game 1 of the National League championship series, which is more than you can say about ESPN in covering Boston’s American League East-clinching victory over the Chicago White Sox.

With two out in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Red Sox leading, 3-1, ESPN positioned all but two of its nine cameras to get player and crowd reactions.

The center-field camera was used to show the pitch to Chicago’s Ozzie Guillen, and that left only the high camera behind home plate to follow the ball to right field, where Tom Brunansky, blocked from view in a corner of Fenway Park, made his big catch.

ESPN missed the live shot of this momentous play and, worse yet, had no replays. The cable network was left with nothing but egg on its face.

ESPN, it is hoped, learned something: Never sacrifice game action for reaction shots.

The crowd in Cincinnati demonstrated knowledge of CBS announcer Jack Buck, holding up a “Go Crazy, Folks, Go Crazy” banner. That was Buck’s radio call on Ozzie Smith’s home run that gave the St. Louis Cardinals a 3-2 game lead over the Dodgers in the 1985 NL playoffs.

Buck’s succinct style works well with Tim McCarver’s more animated delivery. “I think we’re tied,” Buck said when the Pirates’ Sid Bream hit his two-run homer to catch the Reds at 3-3 in the fourth inning.

The National League’s Game 2 begins at 12:18 p.m. today, and Game 1 of the American League championship series, Oakland at Boston, is set for Saturday at 5:30 p.m. The AL announcers are Dick Stockton and Jim Kaat.

The season is over for the Dodgers, but not for announcers Vin Scully and Jaime Jarrin.

Scully will work the World Series for CBS Radio, and Jarrin will work the playoffs and the Series for CBS Radio’s Spanish-language network.

Jarrin’s words will go to 40 stations reaching 80% of the 12.8 million Spanish-speaking people in the United States, plus 175 stations throughout Latin America. The Los Angeles affiliate is KTNQ.

Jarrin relishes the assignment. But then he relishes about everything these days. Mainly, he is thrilled to be alive.

Jarrin almost died from injuries suffered in an auto accident at Vero Beach, Fla., in March. He had a lacerated liver, a ruptured spleen, broken ribs and a collapsed lung. He underwent surgery the night of the accident and again a few weeks later to clear an intestinal abscess.

Jarrin didn’t return to work until the All-Star game July 10, and didn’t return full time until July 23.

He says he’s now about 85%. “There’s still some pain from the incisions, but I feel pretty good,” he said. “My weight is coming back.”

Jarrin, who lost 36 pounds, dropping to 138 after the accident, is at 158 and looking fit.

Add Jarrin: The auto accident isn’t the only recent tragedy in Jarrin’s life. Two years ago, his son James died of an aneurysm at 29.

Jarrin has two other sons--Jorge, the popular traffic reporter for KABC Radio, and Mauricio, a student at UC San Diego.

Life has been good to Jarrin. The two tragedies made him realize how good. “I’ve learned to appreciate everything just that much more,” he said.

Jarrin, possibly the most popular member of the Dodger organization, came to the United States from Ecuador with his wife, Blanca, in 1959.

He got a radio job with KWKW that year and began covering the Dodgers. In 1972, he became the Dodgers’ No. 1 Spanish-language announcer and was soon called the Vin Scully of the Spanish-speaking community.

As Fernando Valenzuela’s translator in the early 1980s, he became known to the English-speaking community, as well.

While recuperating in the hospital, Jarrin got the chance to listen to Scully extensively. “There’s no question he is the best,” Jarrin said.

That’s what Spanish-speaking listeners also say about Jarrin.

Even though the baseball playoffs are here and the World Series is next, KABC Radio has cut its “Sportstalk” program in half.

Beginning today, “Sportstalk,” which has been running from 4 to 8 p.m., will be on the air from 5 to 7 p.m. This is not exactly a good omen for host Ed (Superfan) Bieler, and KABC management has reportedly met with other talk-show hosts.

Stu Nahan will continue with his “Stu’s Views” segment at 5:45 p.m., and Ross Porter will be on three times a week during the second hour with “Dodger Focus.”

Buffoon Dept.: Just before going on the air, Victor Kiam, the New England Patriots’ owner who also makes Remington shavers, mentioned to NBC’s Will McDonough and Bob Costas that he has already bought Christmas advertising on NBC.

Presumably, it was supposed to soften them up. It didn’t work. Costas grilled Kiam.

New show: The Rams’ Mike Lansford will kick off “Sports Confidential” on SportsChannel Los Angeles Nov. 5, and the show is scheduled to move to the full SportsChannel America network in December. Janniene Keahl, who works for an Orange County cable channel, will be the co-host.

Lansford does a radio show Monday and Friday mornings on KEZY and KORG in Orange County, and the TV commercial he does for Smogpros is seen everywhere. One thing about that commercial: It’s not Lansford’s voice. Why? “Beats me,” Lansford said.

TV-Radio Notes

Either USC or UCLA has appeared on ABC every weekend this season, and the trend continues. The Arizona at UCLA game will be on ABC Saturday at 12:30 p.m., with Brent Musburger and Dick Vermeil reporting. And on Oct. 13, ABC will televise USC at Stanford, with the same announcing team. . . . Saturday night, USC’s 7:30 home game against Washington State will be on ESPN, with Steve Physioc and Neil Lomax reporting. . . . With KNX carrying baseball Saturday night, the Trojan radio broadcast will be on KLAC.

The Rams were 6,559 tickets shy of selling out in time to lift the blackout for Sunday’s home game against the Cincinnati Bengals. So the NFL lineup will be Kansas City at Indianapolis at 10 a.m. on NBC, with Charlie Jones and Todd Christensen; Green Bay at Chicago at 1 p.m. on CBS, with Pat Summerall and John Madden, and the Raiders at Buffalo at 4:30 p.m. on TNT and Channel 9, with Skip Caray and Pat Haden. . . . Joe McDonnell’s Sunday night talk show on KFI will air after the Raider game. . . . The Rams’ game at Chicago on Oct. 14 will also have a 4:30 p.m. kickoff. TNT is going with 4:30 starts the next two Sundays to get a head start on the baseball playoff games on CBS. There will be no TNT Sunday night football on Oct. 21 to avoid competing with the World Series. Instead, the New England-Miami game will be televised on Thursday, Oct. 18, a Series travel day.

John Rooney and Jerry Coleman are the CBS Radio announcers for the National League playoffs; Jim Hunter and Johnny Bench are handling the American League playoffs. Bench will join Vin Scully for the World Series. . . . Chicago White Sox Manager Jeff Torborg will be a studio guest on the CBS-TV baseball pregame show Saturday night, and Don Baylor will be on the Sunday night show. . . . The Dodgers’ Rick Dempsey was Channel 2’s postgame guest Thursday night, the Angels’ Wally Joyner will be the American League guest commentator, and St. Louis pitcher Joe Magrane will take over on the National League show Tuesday. . . . Dodger pitcher Tim Belcher will be a KFWB contributor during the playoffs and the Series.

Channel 2 announced that KMPC’s Jim Healy, along with fellow radio personalities Ed Bieler, Lee Hamilton and Gabe Kaplan, would be a part of this week’s “The John Robinson Show,” which airs Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and again Sunday at 10 a.m. But Healy said he will not be on the show. He said KMPC sent along a mug shot of him, but that was it. . . . Kaplan will do his KLAC “Sportsnut” programs from Honolulu next week. . . . Talk about a big dropoff: Roy Firestone, possibly the best sports interviewer on television, will be replaced by Joe Fowler on the Laker pregame shows on Channel 9 this season. Ted Green remains as the producer.