Like Canseco, CBS Coverage of Series Both Hit and Miss

Overall, CBS is doing a good job on the World Series. Given an exciting game Wednesday night, the network captured the drama.

But there have been some flaws.

Harry Coyle, NBC’s respected longtime baseball director, had a rule: Always follow the ball. It’s a simple rule, but CBS has been breaking it.

The best, or worst, example was on the triple to right field by Cincinnati’s Billy Hatcher--the one Oakland’s Jose Canseco bungled--in the eighth inning of Game 2.

Viewers saw Canseco giving up on the ball, then, suddenly, were switched to Hatcher rounding second base. Viewers never saw--not even in replays--what happened to the ball.

It was left to announcer Tim McCarver to explain that A’s center fielder Dave Henderson came over to field it.

This wasn’t the only time CBS left the ball to show a baserunner during the first two games of the Series, but it was the most noticeable.

Most revolting have been the closeups of the Reds’ Eric Davis spitting tobacco juice. Does the director believe the nation wants to see this disgusting practice? Some people might be eating dinner in front of the set. What’s next? A slo-mo replay of Davis spraying his juice around the batter’s box while an analyst goes to the chalkboard to diagram how he does it?

McCarver, while with ABC, worked within the confines of a three-announcer format in which play-by-play man Al Michaels also offered quite a bit of analysis.

McCarver didn’t have time to ramble on. He had to be concise and to the point.

Now, working with low-key Jack Buck on CBS, he has more time for analysis, and in this case, more is not better.

McCarver, who generally got rave reviews while at ABC, is talking too much.

He still offers important insights and makes a lot of good points, but at times he wears the viewer out with chatter.

And sometimes he’s hard to follow.

During Game 1, while talking about Davis’ $3-million contract and the fans’ expectations, McCarver came up with this gem: “When players like Davis sign big contracts, most of the time the reason they don’t do it (excel) is they’re trying too hard, not hard enough, not not trying hard enough.” After a pause, he added: “I guess that was clear?”

Sorry, Tim, it wasn’t.

Brent Musburger, who was going to be CBS’ main man at the Series until he was fired on April 1, watched the first two games from his Montana home before leaving for Palo Alto to work Saturday’s Washington-Stanford football game for ABC.

Does he feel any disappointment?

“No, no, not at all,” he said by phone. “Hey, I’ve been so busy with college football I haven’t been able to give the World Series much thought.”

He said he hopes CBS does well, adding: “I still have a lot of friends there.”

Musburger turned off Game 1 after Oakland’s Mark McGwire popped out in the fifth inning so he could watch Washington and Stanford tapes.

“I’m getting ready for Saturday’s game, and I’m very excited about that,” Musburger said.

So football was what Musburger wanted to talk about.

“You know what I’ve come to realize is the Eastern bias toward the Pac-10,” he said. “I don’t think the Pac-10 gets the credit it deserves. If Washington played Virginia and USC played Georgia Tech, I think you’d have to favor Washington and USC.”

Add Musburger: Interviewed recently by NBC’s Bob Costas for his “Later” show, Musburger said he would have been willing to step aside as CBS’ No. 1 baseball play-by-play announcer if the network had hired one of three people--Vin Scully, Michaels or Costas.

“I know about that conversation at the hotel they (CBS) had with you,” Musburger said, which brought no response from Costas.

Musburger also chided Costas about his concern over television critics. “You worry too much about that,” Musburger said. “And you’re lucky. They like you.”

Boxing beat: The departure from HBO of Sugar Ray Leonard as a boxing commentator seems to be one of those “only-in-boxing” things.

HBO announced it wasn’t renewing Leonard’s contract because it hadn’t been allowed to bid on Leonard’s proposed fight against Terry Norris, the World Boxing Council junior-middleweight champion, tentatively scheduled for late January or early February at the Las Vegas Hilton.

HBO thought Leonard slighted his employer of 10 years.

But Leonard’s manager, Mike Trainer, said he did have conversations with Bob Greenway, HBO’s vice president of marketing, about the Norris fight and was led to believe that HBO, close to a $100-million deal with Mike Tyson, wasn’t interested in Leonard-Norris.

HBO countered that Trainer simply handed the fight to Showtime.

Trainer said Leonard’s HBO contract had expired anyway, and now he’s free to work for other networks. He said Leonard has already received offers from ABC and ESPN.

ESPN will use Leonard on its coverage before and after the Buster Douglas-Evander Holyfield heavyweight title bout, and he’ll be a guest on “Good Morning, America” next week.

Add boxing: Contrary to some reports, Rick Kulis, the coordinator of the pay-per-view and closed-circuit telecasts for Douglas-Holyfield next Thursday night, claims that sales are going well.

The fight, being sold by most cable companies for $39.95, will be available in a record 14.8 million homes nationwide and at about 400 closed-circuit sites, including 50 in the Southland. The closed-circuit locations are such places as Legends in Long Beach, various Red Onion restaurants and the Sports Deli in Century City.

The announcers will be Bob Papa and Ferdie Pacheco, with Jim Hill as host. The undercard, highlighted by a 10-round fight between heavyweights Riddick Bowe and Bert Cooper, will begin at 6 p.m.

TV-Radio Notes

Game 2 of the World Series got a national Nielsen rating of 21.8, bringing the two-game average to 21.1, a 26% increase over the 16.8 average for the first two games last year. . . . Series game times have been moved up a few minutes to 5:24 p.m., with the exception of Sunday, when game time will be 5:37. . . . A reminder: For those who prefer the poetic and insightful prose of Vin Scully, he’s announcing the Series with Johnny Bench for CBS Radio (KNX in Los Angeles).

The appeal of CBS’ Notre Dame-Miami telecast, at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, has dropped considerably, but it still should be quite a game. . . . ABC sure fell asleep at the switch last Saturday when it didn’t leave USC-Stanford to show the finish of the Michigan-Michigan State game to West Coast viewers.

Channel 4’s Fred Roggin called Dave Taylor of the Kings Dave Stewart last Sunday night. It’s understandable. Stewart is a common name. Roggin did correct the mistake. . . . Roggin will work with Todd Christensen on the NBC telecast of the Raiders’ game against the Chargers in San Diego Sunday. The CBS game at 10 a.m. will be Philadelphia at Washington, with Pat Summerall and John Madden reporting.

Prime Ticket has a winner in “Press Box,” its new nightly half-hour news show. Already, it’s nearly as good as ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” and that’s saying a lot. . . . Steve Garvey has been doing very well as a World Series analyst on “Press Box.” So has the Dodgers’ Rick Dempsey on Channel 2, although Dempsey now gives way to St. Louis Cardinal pitcher Joe Magrane, who was on Channel 2 during the National League playoffs. Magrane is a broadcasting natural.

Channel 4’s Brett Lewis came up with an interesting idea for a feature, getting Angel pitcher Jim Abbott and Montreal Expo pitcher John Costello to do an Abbott-and-Costello “Who’s on First” routine. It was shown only last Sunday afternoon. Lewis said the estate of Lou Costello, which owns the rights to the routine, would permit only one showing. . . . George Steinbrenner will be interviewed on “A Current Affair” on Channel 11 tonight at 7:30 and will serve as host of “Saturday Night Live” Saturday.