In Announcer Ratings, Dodgers Go 1-2-3

Don Drysdale says if he were building a major league baseball franchise, his first pick would be shortstop Barry Larkin of the Cincinnati Reds.

Not a bad start, but there is someone who deserves consideration over Larkin, only he is not a player. He is Drysdale’s broadcast partner, Vin Scully.

Scully will bring more fans to the park than any player. He is the Dodgers’ MVP, most valuable person, every season.

Of course, Scully has his critics. This market is too big and too diverse for it to be otherwise. And he does make mistakes now and then. A listener swears that the other night, with Mike Scioscia at the plate, Scully said, “The 2-0 pitch to Hodges . . . “

Gil Hodges wore No. 14, same as Scioscia, but of course that is no excuse. If indeed Scully made the mistake, it was simply a slip. Although it’s sometimes easy to forget, Scully is human.

That slip is not as bad as the tape KMPC’s Jim Healy plays of Angel broadcaster Ken Brett saying of a pitcher: “Sherm Corbett is throwing up in the bullpen,” when he probably meant to say, “Sherm Corbett is up, throwing in the bullpen.”

If you concede that Scully’s job description would read something like, “Call the action between the foul lines in an informative and entertaining manner, bring people to the park and sell the sponsors’ products,” then Scully goes on top of any list of baseball announcers.

There has never been anyone better, and Los Angeles is lucky to have him.

In rating L.A.’s other baseball announcers, they all get in line behind Scully.

In this one-man poll, No. 2--and this may surprise some people--is Ross Porter.

Porter has his critics. They say there is too much talk, too many statistics, too few anecdotes and a total lack of humor.

OK, but now the good points. The worst thing an announcer can do is show up unprepared. No one can accuse Porter of lack of preparation. If anything, he over-prepares.

To the Dodgers’ credit, they have stuck with Porter through the years. And it has paid off. His game announcing is better than you will find in most cities.

On his “Dodgertalk” programs, Porter is a little soft, even a Dodger apologist at times. He was called a homer in this space recently, and more than a few people said, no, Porter is not a homer, that he doesn’t openly root for the Dodgers as does, say, Harry Caray for the Chicago Cubs.

Not to appear partial to the Dodgers, but the No. 3 spot goes to Drysdale.

Talk about varied opinions! One fan will prefer Drysdale to Scully; another will claim to turn the radio or TV off whenever Drysdale is on.

The feeling here is that although Drysdale can be hard to follow at times, his folksy style is comforting and often entertaining. And he is not afraid to express an opinion.

Drysdale, however, doesn’t seem to get much air time. With Scully no longer taking time off to do network telecasts, there isn’t much room for Drysdale in the Dodgers’ one-announcer format.

And that’s a shame. Drysdale usually has something to say. He is not as adept as Scully at weaving a story into a broadcast, but he gets it done. Tuesday night from Cincinnati, a story about the relationship between Bob Quinn, the Reds’ general manager, and owner Marge Schott was spread out over two halves of an inning. But it was worth the wait.

Drysdale said Quinn had to pay his own way and take vacation time to go to the All-Star game in Toronto. The story didn’t put Schott in a good light.

Of course, no one in the Dodger booth would have told a similar story on Peter O’Malley. They know who signs the paychecks.

The Angels have been searching for many years for another Dick Enberg, and they might have found him in new television play-by-play man Ken Wilson, who gets the No. 4 spot here.

Wilson, who calls the games on both Channel 5 and SportsChannel, is smooth and articulate. He might rate higher if this weren’t his first season in the L.A. market. If he sticks around for a while, his popularity no doubt will grow.

No. 5 is Wilson’s partner, Brett, who has found his groove as a TV commentator.

No. 6 is versatile Joel Meyers, SportsChannel’s play-by-play man on the Dodgers, who has shown that he does baseball as well as he does football and basketball. The Angels and KMPC made a mistake by not making Meyers their main play-by-play man before he went off to glory at NBC.

Meyers’ SportsChannel partners, Duke Snider and Al Downing, tie for No. 7. Downing fills in on games that Snider misses. SportsChannel is lucky to have Snider, a Dodger legend, and Downing is solid.

There is a big drop off to No. 9, the Angels’ Al Conin. His weaknesses have been dealt with in this space before. Basically, he has an excellent voice, but his style lacks substance. And he talks too much.

No. 10 is Angel newcomer Bob Jamison. He spent 12 seasons in Nashville, Tenn., and worked in Richmond, Va.; Anderson, S.C.; Newport News, Va., and Utica, N.Y., before that. Sorry, he hasn’t shown this season that he is ready for the bigs. He also has a nice voice but relies too heavily on cliches and corn.

TV-Radio Notes

Honesty works: Credit Channel 2’s Jim Lampley, doing the play-by-play of the Rams’ exhibition opener against the Atlanta Falcons at Jacksonville, Fla., last weekend, for not trying to fool the public. First, Lampley explained that the opening with him and commentator Jack Snow was taped, thus letting the viewer know the empty seats in the background were not an accurate indication of the attendance. Second, he said Channel 2 was sharing a feed with an Atlanta station, thus explaining certain things, such as an unknown sideline reporter suddenly appearing on screen. And after saying that linebacker Roman Phifer, a second-round draft choice from UCLA, had an “outside shot of making the roster,” Lampley later corrected himself by saying that he meant to say Phifer has a shot at making the starting lineup. . . . In an NBC game that day from Berlin, commentator Paul Maguire said of the Chicago Bears’ Neil Anderson: “You know, I called him Ottis Anderson earlier in the telecast.” Said partner Marv Albert: “If you hadn’t said anything, probably no one would have noticed.” Wrong. People notice.

ESPN’s Joe Theismann seems to be learning about word economy. When partner Mike Patrick asked him about the first half of the Raiders-Miami Dolphins game in Tokyo, Theismann said: “Sloppy, sloppy.” Succinctly put. . . . The Raiders’ exhibition game against the Cowboys at Dallas Monday night will be televised by ABC at 5 p.m. . . . The Rams’ home exhibition against the San Diego Chargers Monday night will be televised by SportsChannel at 10:30 p.m. that night (delayed), with Greg Papa and Snow reporting. SportsChannel had also planned to show the Rams’ Aug. 17 home exhibition game against the Seattle Seahawks but has decided against it.

Ratings game: The Rams’ game last Saturday got an L.A. rating of 6.9, while Dodger telecasts on Channel 11 Saturday and Sunday got a 6.9 and a 6.2, respectively. The Pan American Games on ABC got a 1.8 Saturday and a 2.9 Sunday. Top L.A. sports rating of the weekend was an 8.0 for the taped NFL Quarterback Challenge on NBC Saturday.

In a unique setup, Saturday and Sunday action in the PGA Championship at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., will be shown in sequence on TBS and CBS. TBS covered Thursday’s first round, will be back on the air today at 9:05 a.m. with the second round and will handle early coverage Saturday and Sunday from 8 to 10 a.m. each day. CBS will take over at 10:30 a.m. on those days. The only announcer who will be on both networks over the weekend will be Gary McCord of CBS, who will join Bob Neal in the 18th-hole tower during the TBS portion. . . . During Saturday’s PGA coverage, CBS will air a one-year retrospective on the Shoal Creek situation, with James Brown as host.

Bo Schembechler, in a conference call with reporters to talk about his new job as college football studio host with ABC, was asked what would get priority if the Detroit Tigers advance to postseason play. Schembechler, who is the president of the Tigers, sidestepped the issue by saying, “We’ll face that when it happens.” . . . Gene Washington, the former Stanford and San Francisco 49er wide receiver who used to work at Channel 7, has been hired by Prime Ticket as a sideline reporter for Pacific 10 football. . . . John Czarnecki, formerly a sportswriter for the Herald Examiner and the National, has been hired by CBS as a writer for “NFL Today.”

NBC this week named Dick Enberg and Katie Couric as the co-hosts for the morning coverage of next summer’s Olympic Games at Barcelona, Spain. It has been a big year for Couric, who in April was named co-host of the “Today” show and two weeks ago had a baby. This won’t be Couric’s first Olympics. She worked as a messenger for ABC News during the 1980 Winter Games at Lake Placid, N.Y., “fetching coffee and answering the phone,” as she puts it. . . . Former President Ronald Reagan will deliver the commencement address to 152 graduates of the seventh annual Sportscaster Camp of America at 10:45 a.m. today at the Airport Marina Hotel.

During “This Week in Baseball” on Channel 2 last weekend, all 27 outs of Dennis Martinez’s perfect game were shown. It didn’t take long. . . . “The Greatest Games Ever Played” series on Prime Ticket Sunday at 10:30 p.m. will show Game 6 of the 1971 World Series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Baltimore Orioles. . . . There is a TVKO pay-per-view boxing card tonight at 7. Originally, Ray Mercer was to have fought Tommy Morrison in the main event, but first Mercer got hurt, then Morrison. So it will be Riddick Bowe against Bruce Seldon. Mercer and Morrison will fight in October on TVKO. Also on tonight’s card: Bobby Czyz vs. Bash Ali. . . . Channel 4’s series of syndicated college football previews, Saturdays at 3 p.m. through Aug. 24, takes a look at the Big Ten this week.