It’s a Good Bet Forte Knows What This Is Like for Jordan

If it takes a compulsive gambler to know one, maybe that’s why XTRA’s Chet Forte is afraid for Michael Jordan.

Thursday, Forte and morning co-host Steve Hartman interviewed San Diego businessman Richard Esquinas, author of a book about gambling with Jordan, who was making the media rounds but stiffed KMPC.

On XTRA, Hartman hammered away, trying to get Esquinas to answer the question: “What are you going to do with the money (made from book sales)?”

Esquinas danced around before finally acknowledging that he may make some money, but he kept saying he wrote the book mainly as part of his own therapy and to try to reach out and help Jordan.

Forte showed more compassion than Hartman. Forte knows where Esquinas is coming from. Both belong to Gamblers Anonymous.

“I’ve been there, done that,” Forte said by phone after Thursday’s show. “It’s very legit that Esquinas would by trying to help Michael. As a GA member, you’re always trying to help each other out.

“Michael shows all the signs of having a serious problem, and he needs help. Michael and I are analogous. Like Michael, I was at the top of my game when my problem was at its worst.”

Forte was the top producer-director for ABC Sports during its heyday, and admits to having gambled away millions, a problem that came close to landing him in prison for fraud. Forte ended up getting probation.

“Everybody knew about my gambling--Pete Rozelle, Roone Arledge--but nobody had the nerve to tell me to stop gambling,” Forte said. “Nobody except my wife, and I never listened to her.”

These days, Forte credits his wife, Tricia, with saving his life.

“I had to hit zero before I sought help,” Forte said. “Somebody has to come forward and tell Michael to stop. That somebody may have to be (NBA Commissioner) David Stern, but Michael has Stern by the. . . . Michael Jordan is the NBA.

“You hate to think about it, and I pray Michael is not betting on basketball, but it’s come out that he’s not paying his debts. So what if he owes a gambler $300,000, and to settle up he simply tells the gambler, ‘Bet on us tonight. We’ll cover the points.’ ”

A worse scenario, the worst possible, would be Jordan telling a gambler, “Bet against us.”

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Cable furor: The complaint calls started coming in Wednesday night and continued through Thursday. Most were from subscribers to Century Cable on the Westside of Los Angeles, a system that seems to draw more complaints than all others combined. Subscribers were furious because they couldn’t watch the Angels on Prime Ticket Wednesday night.

Century Cable is among a few systems in the area--others include Sammons in Glendale, Cablevision in Orange, Jones Intercable in Palmdale-Lancaster and King Video in Tujunga--that refused to pay three cents a month per subscriber to get Prime Ticket’s 20-game Angel package.

You really couldn’t blame viewers for being upset. All they missed was one of the most exciting Angel games in recent memory, complete with one of the wildest of baseball brawls.

By the way, Prime Ticket’s second Angel telecast is scheduled for Saturday, June 12. It will be rescheduled if the Kings need a Game 6 against Montreal.

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Hockey fever: The Kings are beginning to get Laker-type ratings. Game 1 Tuesday night got a 7.1 rating for all television households in the Los Angeles market, and peaked at 9.8. Both numbers are records for hockey.

Game 3 of the Laker-Phoenix playoff series on Prime Ticket averaged a 9.8, so the Kings are getting close.

In cable households, the rating for Tuesday night’s game was a 14, with a peak of 19.5. That means that in almost one of five cable households, the end of the Kings’ victory over the Canadiens was being watched.

But basketball still rules. Phoenix-Seattle on Channel 4 Tuesday night got an L.A. rating of 9.7--compared to the Kings’ 7.1--and Chicago-New York Wednesday night got a 13.2 with a peak of 18.5. That game averaged a 50.4 in Chicago.

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Tough competition: The George Foreman-Tommy Morrison pay-per-view fight Monday night in Las Vegas will go up against Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals, prompting promoter Bob Arum to say: “What can I do about it besides melting the ice?”

Added Arum: “You think I was rooting for Toronto? You bet I was.”

However, Arum expects the $29.95 fight to do well nationally. “It looks like we’ll do closer to 2 million buys than 1 million,” he said. “We got an 8% buy rate for Foreman-Evander Holyfield, and we hope to get a 7% for this fight.”

Foreman will be the subject of a Charley Steiner interview on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” Sunday night. Also, ESPN will televise the weigh-in Sunday morning during its coverage of the James Toney-Glen Thomas fight, which begins at 11 a.m.

TV-Radio Notes

After being given permission on Wednesday to carry the national radio broadcasts of the Stanley Cup finals, supplied by an Eastern packager, KMPC went on a promotional blitz Thursday morning, ballyhooing the fact that it would have that night’s game. But it didn’t. Glen Adamo, vice president of broadcasting for the NHL, called KMPC on Thursday afternoon to let the station know it did not have the right to broadcast the game. “Bottom line is, we were told we had the right to broadcast the game when we didn’t,” said KMPC General Manager Bill Ward, who also went on the air to explain to listeners. . . . KMPC, in less than three hours, sold out the 17 commercial spots it had on the national broadcast, and then ended up giving those spots to rival XTRA for use during its postgame shows. “We felt obligated to those advertisers,” Ward said. . . . Due to hockey fever, XTRA has added an additional hour of postgame King talk, for a total of two hours.

CBS has reacquired the Tour de France bicycle race, an event it televised from 1983-88. ABC and ESPN shared coverage from ‘89-’91, and last year ESPN offered exclusive daily coverage through the 22 days of the race. There will not be daily coverage this year. The only coverage will be a 90-minute special on CBS on July 25, the final day of the race. . . . Attention, XTRA’s Jim Rome: Monica Seles was stabbed with a boning knife, mostly used on chicken, not a steak knife, which is no great error. But calling Seles “T-Bone” was in bad taste, any way you look at it, and not the least bit funny. . . . Add bad taste: After ESPN golf commentator Gary Koch had analyzed Lawrence Taylor’s golf swing during the NFL Golf Classic last Sunday, pointing out the flaws, announcer Jim Kelly suggested that the New York Giant linebacker might want to get Koch out on the football field and give him a few pointers about pass blocking. “You’re liable to do to Gary Koch what you did to Theismann,” Kelly said. Taylor didn’t laugh, nor would have Joe Theismann, an ESPN colleague, or anyone else. There’s nothing funny about a compound broken leg.

Ventura’s Channel 63 begins doing a nightly news show on June 28, and the sportscaster will be Joe Buttitta, formerly of Channel 5. Buttitta said he will continue as a teaching pro at Westlake Golf Course and continue writing his golf column for the Daily News. . . . Remember “Time Out for Trivia” with Todd Donoho, carried on the now-defunct Financial News Network’s SCORE? Well, it has returned, on radio. XTRA is now carrying it four nights a week, Monday through Thursday at midnight. Geoff Nathanson and the show’s creator, former SCORE General Manager Arnie Rosenthal, are the hosts. . . . KMPC moved the nightly repeat of Jim Healy’s 5:30 p.m. show from midnight to 11:30 p.m. so that it would be included in the rating period that ends at midnight. . . . Geoff Witcher has been named voice of the Los Angeles Salsa soccer team, replacing Mario Machado, who was released last week.

Tom Lasorda appeared on the “Tonight Show” Thursday night to dunk Jay Leno in 500 gallons of water. Seems Lasorda bet Leno the Dodgers would win 10 games in a row. . . . Barry Bonds will be Arsenio Hall’s guest on Monday night. . . . Mike Piazza will be featured on CNN’s “Baseball ‘93” Saturday at 8:30 a.m. . . . There was a fascinating story on last weekend’s edition of “This Week in Baseball” on Channel 4. It dealt with former U.S. fighter pilot Bert Shepard, who pitched one game for the Washington Senators in 1945 after having lost his right lower leg when shot down over Germany in 1944. Shepard was reunited with the man who saved his life, Ladislaus Loidl, after all these years. Shepard lives in Hesperia, Calif.

Nederlander Sports Marketing, the Raiders’ new radio rights holder, was expected to have an announcing team in place this week. But Roger Blaemire, president of the group, said nothing has been completed. Finalists for the play-by-play job include Joel Meyers, Randy Rosenbloom and Rich Marotta, and commentator candidates include Jim Plunkett, Bob Chandler and Mike Haynes. Blaemire said Marotta, KFI sports director, will be involved in the broadcasts in some capacity, no matter what.

Bill King, who called it quits after refusing to take a substantial salary cut, said recently that Raider owner Al Davis almost talked him into returning. “He said, ‘We can get this thing done,’ and I told him I was content and that what was done was done,” King said. “He told me to think about it, and I told him he was bucking long odds that I would change my mind. But I wrestled with it for quite a while, and it was quite a wrestling match. It was a gut-wrenching decision, but I said no.” King added that, ideally, he would have liked to return for one more year--his 28th--and made it a grand finale.