ABC Should Be Called for Double Drivel

Please, please ABC. Never again put Dick Vitale and Jim Valvano together.

They weren’t too bad when they worked a doubleheader in Florida with Brent Musburger.

But only a week later they were totally out of control when they worked Sunday’s UCLA-Duke game with Roger Twibell.

Maybe it was because their comfort level was higher, maybe it was because the more-reserved Twibell was the play-by-play man, or maybe it was because they knew this was a big game with a big viewing audience.

Whatever, Vitale and Valvano were an embarrassment. In this case, V stood for verbose.

The chatter never stopped, even when UCLA’s Tyus Edney lay injured on the court.

Vitale, naturally, was the worst with his off-center and irresponsible tantrums and commentaries. Valvano’s presence seemed to egg him on.

Vitale started off complaining that the officials came from the Pacific 10. This was even before they made their first call.

Then a little later, in an apparent effort to play up to the officials, Vitale interjected in the midst of a four-on-one break that referee Bob Garibaldi had once been a major league pitcher.

That was too much even for Valvano, who yelled: “Who cares if he was a pitcher!”

Vitale got off track once again, boosting his friend George Raveling and saying that USC Athletic Director Mike McGee should give Raveling a lucrative five-year contract. What did that have to do with UCLA-Duke?

Vitale later boosted his broadcast partner, saying that Valvano had ranked higher as a candidate for the UCLA coaching job than Jim Harrick, even though Harrick got the job. If Vitale knew what he was talking about, he would know that, although certain alumni were pushing for Valvano, UCLA officials didn’t want Valvano.

Vitale used to be entertaining. He was a character. He may have irritated you, but he also made you laugh.

Now he’s a bad joke. He not only detracts from the telecast, he’s become inebriated with power.

He uses television as a forum to plug his buddies and deliver commentaries that often have no basis in fact.

Somebody needs to put a muzzle on Vitale. His act has run its course.

Hoarse play: Those who got fed up with the V boys on television and switched to KMPC got a surprise--an announcer without a voice.

John Rebenstorf woke up Sunday morning with a bad case of laryngitis.

“It was really too late to call anybody else,” Rebenstorf said.

So he gave it a go, and, under the circumstances, did yeoman work. At one point in the second half, after UCLA had gone ahead, he simply said: “To heck with the voice,” and let the emotions bellow out.

Rebenstorf went directly from the game to a hospital in Anaheim Hills where his wife works as a nurse. He got some antibiotics and sounded better on the phone Monday.

It would have helped him on Sunday had he had a commentator. But, as a cost-saving measure, KMPC has Rebenstorf working alone.

Big news: John Robinson has been hired by the USA network as a commentator for the World League of American Football.

Well, you’ve got to start somewhere.

There have been rumors that Jim Lampley has decided not to accept Channel 2’s offer to remain at the station as its main sportscaster.

But Lampley said Monday that he has not decided, although he will do so before he leaves Thursday for a trip to New York.

Channel 2 has signed Rory Markas to a contract as its weekend sportscaster. Markas has been filling in on weeknight sports without a contract.

There has been talk about Channel 2 cutting sports back to the bone, possibly doing without a regular weeknight sportscaster.

“I think what the station does is predicated on who they get to do sports, whether it is me or someone else,” Lampley said.

Steve Gigliotti, Channel 2’s general manager, said Monday that the rumors about sports cutbacks are not true, and that either Lampley, whom he calls a “valued employee,” or someone else will be doing sports full time.

Wait a minute: Barry Tompkins, working Channel 13’s Los Angeles Marathon telecast Sunday, got a little too excited after Madina Biktagirova broke the course record by more than three minutes. He compared it to Bob Beamon’s breaking the long jump record by almost two feet at the 1968 Olympics.

“That may be stretching it a bit,” Tompkins admitted.

That was stretching it more than a bit.

Katherine Switzer chipped in with an inappropriate comment when she said that Biktagirova’s hometown had been obliterated in World World II, then added: “And now she will obliterate the course record.”

Can you imagine Al Davis going out on the field in the middle of a Raider game?

Well, then, what does race president William Burke think he’s doing following the Los Angeles Marathon leader while standing in a car on the course? The least he could do is sit down.

It was particularly irritating when Channel 13 tried to show the distance between the leader and the second-place runner, and there was Burke’s mug blocking the view.

There were other not-so-glorious moments during the marathon telecast.

After Larry Rawson said of the back of the pack, “That’s the cake of the race; the elite runners are the frosting,” Tompkins added, “And we’re just a couple of crumbs talking about the race.”

Ouch.

In a five-hour live telecast, you can count on a lot of corny lines, such as this cliche from Tony Hernandez: “They came, they ran, they conquered.”

Much worse was Fred Roggin’s off-color comment on Channel 4 Sunday night. After showing highlights of the wedding that took place at Mile 13 of the marathon, Roggin said of the newlyweds: “Then they developed the runs and went on their way.”

The police-involved fatal shooting at Exposition Park put a damper on the last 1 1/2 hours of Channel 13’s marathon telecast.

To its credit, the station reported the shooting as soon as it found out about it, even though it put the marathon in a bad light.

“We had no choice but to report the shooting,” station manager Rick Feldman said. “If one of our people hadn’t reported it, and we found out about it, that person would have been fired.”

Overall, Channel 13 delivered the kind of telecast promised by Executive Producer Frank Belmont. An extra helicopter added some great aerial shots, and there was more statistical information provided than in previous years.

With the weather cooperating--rain would have grounded the helicopters that relay the signals from the mobile cameras--Channel 13 came shining through.

Belmont and his crew deserve congratulations for a job well done. And a special hustle citation should go to Tim McLoone, the director of a New Jersey marathon who was imported to run the race wearing a microphone and talk to people along the way.

As McLoone kept saying, “Who came up with this idea, anyway?”