Carillo and McEnroe: Tennis’ Version of Carla and Cliff

Mac is back, and in top form.

John McEnroe, who will serve as a tennis commentator for the USA network’s weekday coverage of the U.S. Open, unknowingly stirred things up when he said women should not announce men’s tennis.

“I don’t know any women who know the men’s game,” McEnroe said during a conference call with reporters this week.

Then, in an attempt to soften that comment, he added: “At the same time, I’m not sure men can really know the women’s game.”

And then, making matters worse, he said: “I mean, how would they know how women are feeling certain times of the month?”

Mary Carillo, who grew up with McEnroe in Queens, N.Y., and is his former mixed-doubles partner, has been announcing both men’s and women’s matches for years. She is part of the CBS crew that will work the U.S. Open, which begins Monday.

“What can I tell you?” she said Thursday. “His view of women and their roles in society would fill your notebook.

“As a friend of mine said, he showed a lot more imagination on the court than he is showing as a social critic. But this is not news to me.

“When John interviewed for the CBS job a couple of years ago, he said all the same stuff. I guess I’m lucky that not enough people agreed with him or I’d be out of a lot of work.

“Basically, what he’s saying is that when he speaks about men’s tennis, half the population can’t really understand him.”

Carillo laughed and said that although she might bounce a serve off his head the next time they play doubles, she and McEnroe will continue to be close friends.

“I adopt the attitude that it’s like Carla Tortelli (of ‘Cheers’) dealing with Cliff Clavin. (McEnroe has) got the same mind set as Archie Bunker, Ralph Kramden and Cliff Clavin.”

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Add McEnroe: Despite some of his ideas, he is a pretty good tennis commentator. Obviously, he has opinions and isn’t afraid to express them.

Besides doing the U.S. Open for USA, McEnroe also works the French Open and Wimbledon for NBC.

He said that schedule suits him just fine.

“I wouldn’t want to do commentating full time because of all the travel,” he said. “That’s the main reason I retired as a player, because of the travel.”

Although he and wife Tatum O’Neal are separated, McEnroe, who lives in New York, said he likes staying home because it allows him to spend more time with his children. He also said he would like to start a club for young tennis players and do some coaching.

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Time warp: These days, boxing is found almost exclusively on pay or basic-cable television. But there will be boxing shows on free, over-the-air television tonight and Saturday night.

What is this, 1963 ?

Channel 13 will televise tonight’s five-bout card at the Beverly Wilshire hotel, beginning at 8.

The fights, to take place in the hotel’s main ballroom, will benefit the fight against diabetes. Oscar De La Hoya meets Angelo Nunez in the main event. Rich Marotta and Joe Goossen report.

On Saturday night, in a real oddity, Channel 9 will televise the second half of a 10-fight Forum card that includes four title bouts. Prime Ticket will handle the first half, beginning at 6 p.m., with Channel 9 taking over after it finishes with the Ram-Raider exhibition game at Anaheim Stadium, around 8 p.m. The football game begins at 6.

Tom Kelly and guest analyst Doug Krikorian, Long Beach Press-Telegram columnist, will announce the entire card, which commemorates the Forum’s 11th year in boxing.

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Talk radio: KMPC, continuing to reel from poor ratings, has invited the Los Angeles Daily News’ Paola Boivin back full time. Beginning Monday, she will be part of the morning show, which Scott St. James joined this week. Fred Wallin is the host.

Mornings have been hurting KMPC the most. The latest Arbitron ratings book shows KMPC getting only a .1 share in adults 25-54 in the mornings. Just turn on the transmitter and you’ll get at least a .2. Robert W. Morgan was getting ratings in the 2.8 range when he left.

The addition of Boivin doesn’t figure to help much. It’s a cosmetic move and what the show needs is major surgery.

St. James proposed a non-sports morning show, with him and actor Harold Sylvester and a bevy of guests. That proposal was rejected.

Scott O’Neil is KMPC’s new program director. He replaced Len Weiner, who left of his own volition and says he is not bitter or angry at anyone. O’Neil, former KMPC disc jockey, has been the program director at sister station K-LITE ever since KMPC went to its all-sports format, and still has that job as well.

O’Neil said there was considerable discussion of St. James’ proposal, but that things just couldn’t be worked out.

O’Neil also said that Krikorian, who earlier was dropped by KMPC management in a cost-saving measure, has also been invited back to spice things up.

“We want to use Doug on a salt-and-pepper basis, bouncing him around in different spots two or three times a week and on weekends,” O’Neil said.

What would make more sense would be to again pair Krikorian with Joe McDonnell, resurrecting “McDonnell Douglas” and putting more pizazz into the afternoon show.

O’Neil said Krikorian may fill in for McDonnell for a few weeks next month after McDonnell has knee surgery.

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Add talk: As if we don’t already get enough sports talk on radio, it’s coming to television as well. When ESPN2 launches in October, XTRA’s Jim Rome will serve as the host of a weeknight show, “Talk2,” which will run from 7:30 to 8:30.

Rome, a workaholic, will continue to do his midday show for XTRA, but he will do it from the KWNK studio in Woodland Hills, and he will do his ESPN2 show from Los Angeles.

TV-Radio Notes

NBC will devote two one-hour prime-time shows to this week’s National Gymnastics Championships at Salt Lake City--Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7, going up against CBS’ “60 Minutes.” . . . Don’t tell John McEnroe, but Tim Daggett, 1984 Olympic gold-medal winner from UCLA, will be the commentator for both men and women. Actually, Canadian Elfi Schlegel was also supposed to work the event, but some customs paperwork got messed up and governmental red tape kept her from flying to Salt Lake on Thursday. . . . NBC put a Fred Roggin special, “Top Secret Television,” up against “60 Minutes” last Sunday, and it fared very well, getting a 6.5 national rating.

College football arrives this weekend. ABC will televise Florida State vs. Kansas in the Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium in New Jersey on Saturday at 9 a.m., with Keith Jackson and Bob Griese reporting. Sunday’s 6 p.m. Pigskin Classic at Anaheim Stadium with USC and North Carolina is being nationally televised by Raycom and will be carried by Channel 5 in Los Angeles. The announcers will be Phil Stone and Dave Rowe.

Pro beach volleyball gets more national exposure Sunday at 2 p.m. when NBC televises the Miller Lite U.S. championships live from Hermosa Beach. Chris Marlowe and Paul Sunderland report. . . . Preceding the beach volleyball at noon on NBC will be the final round of a Michael Jordan celebrity golf tournament at Woodridge, Ill. The first round today will be carried by Prime Ticket at noon, with NBC televising the second round Saturday at noon. . . . Recommended viewing: TNT’s preview of the NFL season Sunday at 5 p.m.

The Arthur Ashe AIDS Challenge will be televised Sunday live at 10:30 a.m. by CBS as a prelude to the U.S. Open. . . . Good news for good-guy Ed Arnold and the crew of Channel 5’s Sunday “Sports Page.” According to July’s Arbitron ratings, their show beat out the competition on three network stations. It averaged a 5.3 rating, Channel 4’s “Sports Sunday night” a 4.2, Channel 7’s “SportsScene” a 3.8 and Channel 2’s “Sports Final” a 2.9. Of course, Channel 5’s show has the benefit of an earlier start time.