Kings’ Bob Miller: a Nice Guy Who Had Hoped to Finish First

Bob Miller arrived at his home in Woodland Hills from Edmonton about 3 a.m. Thursday, frustrated and depressed.

But he was up again at 9. His in-laws, Harold and Vy Loomer, visiting from Elkhorn, Wis., had a flight to catch to Hawaii, and Miller had told them he would take them to the airport.

He could have begged off, but a promise is a promise.

That’s typical Bob Miller, the ultimate nice guy.

There’s really nothing unusual about Miller, except that he’s the best hockey announcer in the business.

No juicy gossip here. He’s as ordinary as his name. You won’t find Miller hanging around Beverly Hills or Hollywood, acting like a celebrity, which he could do.

Miller, 52, has lived in Woodland Hills since arriving in Los Angeles in 1973 to become the Kings’ play-by-play announcer, although he did move into a different house five years ago.

He and his wife, Judy, have two grown children--Kristin, 25, a teacher’s aide at a school for the mentally and physically disabled, and Kevin, 23, a budding sports photographer.

Miller, just a regular guy, is nice to everyone and liked by everyone.

Maybe it’s his Midwestern roots. Miller, a Chicago native, started his career in Oelwein, Iowa, was soon working in Milwaukee, and later became the voice of University of Wisconsin sports before coming to Los Angeles.

Whatever it is, Miller is the prototype of what a sports announcer should be--a professional on the air, a good person off the air.

Miller is to the Kings what Chick Hearn is to the Lakers and Vin Scully to the Dodgers.

One difference, though, is the Kings have never won a championship, never even made it past two playoff series.

This was supposed to be the year.

“I’m really disappointed,” Miller said Thursday before lying down to take a nap. “It looks like another year of frustration. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but it’s a longshot.”

The Kings go into Game 5 of their playoff series with Edmonton tonight trailing, three games to one.

But the situation, particularly since the Wayne Gretzky trade, is a lot better than it used to be.

Generally, he’s happy these days, and raves about owner Bruce McNall.

Miller, whose three-year contract is up for renewal, doesn’t foresee any problem in agreeing on a new one.

He remembers when he first joined the Kings. Only 15 games were televised, with about 15 viewers for each.

He labored through the lean years--the losing, the almost invisible ratings, the weak-signaled radio stations.

During his 18 seasons with the Kings, Miller, who replaced Roy Storey, has worked with six commentators. Jim Minnick, who didn’t last long, was the first; then came Dan Avey in a return stint, followed by Rich Marotta, Pete Weber and Nick Nickson.

With the simulcast format discontinued this season, Nickson went to radio play-by-play, and former player Jim Fox joined Miller on the Prime Ticket telecasts.

Fox has improved, although he still gets too excited when the officiating goes against the Kings. On the other hand, he was too soft on Oiler bad boy Craig Muni during a between-periods interview Monday.

But overall, the Kings have a winning team in the television booth.

The rest is up to the team on the ice.

TVKO KO’d: Last Friday’s Evander Holyfield-George Foreman fight grossed a record $55.8 million in pay-per-view revenue, and the total gross was $75 million, but the production of the TVKO telecast was worth about a nickel.

It was amateur hour all the way. New York sportscaster Len Berman wasn’t ready to call a fight. He was ill at ease and ill prepared.

Of undercard fighter Tommy Morrison, Berman said that Morrison doesn’t like the “Great White Hope” tag, adding that he doesn’t want to be compared to the likes of Trevor Berbick and Gerry Cooney.

Problem is, Berbick is black. Maybe Berman was thinking of Duane Bobick.

Commentator Joe Goossen did fairly well, particularly considering he had no broadcasting experience. At least he has potential.

But the host, Khambrel Marshall, offered little, and he and Berman really had trouble filling time while waiting for Foreman’s postfight comments.

Then there was Cindy Bartin, a Nevada boxing judge who didn’t seem to have a clue about anything. She didn’t even know the basic rules, like why the Lupe Suarez-Jorge Paez fight ended in a technical draw, even through the ring announcer explained it perfectly.

TVKO is a division of Time Warner, which owns HBO. It would have made sense to have used HBO’s proven pros, Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant, who called the fight for Wednesday night’s replay.

Jerry Buss’ first pay-per-view fight on June 3, Virgil Hill vs. Thomas Hearns at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, apparently will have a more capable announcing team.

Word is the commentators will be Ferdie Pacheco and Al Bernstein, with Rich Marotta handling the blow-by-blow. An announcement is expected next week.

Oops Dept.: Al Campanis was bleeped while talking to Steve Edwards on radio station KABC Wednesday night.

Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda was talking to Edwards and then handed the phone to Campanis, who began praising Edwards when he was bleeped.

George Green, KABC’s general manager, said Campanis was not aware he was on the air and said minor obscenities. “It was really nothing,” Green said.

Add oops: It wasn’t as bad as Dewey beating Truman, but the CBS radio network reported on KNX Friday night that Foreman had beaten Holyfield. KNX had Gil Stratton in Atlantic City, N.J., calling in reports, but it was not Stratton who made the mistake.

Also, Dimension Cable in southern Orange County, due to technical problems, was unable to show the undercard fights. Then, after fixing that, the cable company reportedly sent the main event out to subscribers free. A company spokesman said they received a few reports of that from viewers, but couldn’t verify how widespread the problem was.

Dimension services 100,000 homes, and 7,000 ordered the fight.

TV-Radio Notes

TNT will televise two more NBA playoff games tonight--Indiana vs. Boston and Seattle vs. Portland--beginning at 5. . . . NBC will have doubleheaders both Saturday and Sunday. Marv Albert and Mike Fratello will announce Saturday’s Golden State-San Antonio game as well as Sunday’s New York-Chicago game. Dick Enberg and Steve Jones will work Saturday’s Laker-Houston game, with a new team, Tom Hammond and Ron Rothstein, coach of the Miami Heat, handling Sunday’s early game, Indiana at Boston. Joel Meyers will be the sideline reporter at both the Laker game and the game in Chicago. Ahmad Rashad will work the other two games.

ABC offers a 30th anniversary special of “Wide World of Sports” Sunday at 3 p.m. Jim McKay and Frank Gifford will be the co-hosts. There will be special looks at Muhammad Ali, Olga Korbut and Vinko Bogataj, the ski jumper in the “agony of defeat” opening. . . . Raghib (Rocket) Ismail is scheduled to run the 100 meters in Saturday’s Penn Relays, which will be televised by ESPN, beginning at noon.

Phil Stone and Dwight Stones worked a recent Washington State-Oregon track meet for ESPN. No, it wasn’t held in Boulder, Colo. . . . Attention Hollywood Park: Complaints are coming in about the replays on Channel 56, which not everyone can get. Also, the start time of 8:30 p.m. is too late and, as KMPC’s Jim Healy reported, Wednesday’s show didn’t start until about 8:50 p.m.