Baseball Season Gets Late Start on Network TV

Coming Tuesday, a real oddity: Baseball on network television.

All baseball on television so far this season has been on local stations or cable, but the networks are finally getting into the act.

NBC will televise Tuesday’s All-Star game, then the new baseball network kicks into gear July 16 with the debut of “Baseball Night in America,” which will have a 12-week run.

ABC will have the first six weeks, NBC the second six--provided there’s no strike by the players.

Then comes postseason play, with ABC carrying the first, best-of-five playoff series, NBC the league championship series and ABC the World Series.

On July 16, ABC’s featured game in Los Angeles at 5 p.m. will be the Dodgers at Philadelphia. The announcers will be Chris Wheeler, a Phillie announcer, and Jim Kaat, formerly of CBS.

The main difference between this Dodger telecast and one on Channel 5--besides the absence of Vin Scully, Ross Porter and Rick Monday--is that ABC can switch to any of 12 other telecasts at any time.

Is this a good thing, or will it be distracting? A lot will depend on how well it’s done.

ABC’s second night will be July 18, when the featured game in Los Angeles, at 8 p.m., will be Boston against the Angels at Anaheim, with Al Michaels, Tim McCarver and Jim Palmer calling the action.

ABC’s other nights will be July 25, Aug. 6, Aug. 13 and Aug. 20.

NBC takes over Aug. 26, and all its games will be on Fridays.

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There are 15 announcing teams on the baseball network, among them NBC’s “A team” of Bob Costas, Joe Morgan and Bob Uecker and ABC’s “A team” of Michaels, McCarver and Palmer.

The 13 other teams are made up mostly of local announcers. The Dodger announcers are not included, nor is the Angels’ Ken Brett. The Angels’ Ken Wilson is, and his partner is Bert Blyleven.

None of the baseball network teams regularly work together, and some announcers the network sought couldn’t do it because their employers didn’t want them appearing on a competing station.

That was the case with the Dodgers. Brent Shyer, the Dodgers’ director of broadcasting, said the team, in consultation with Channel 5, sought to keep the local telecasts unique.

In other words, if you have Vin Scully, you don’t let him go off and work on another station. When he was NBC’s main baseball announcer, that was a different case.

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Costas, Morgan and Uecker will work together for the first time on the All-Star game. To get ready, they had only one dress rehearsal--at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night, when the Yankees played the Oakland A’s.

Said Costas: “I’ve actually been practicing by watching tapes of the 1975 World Series (when Morgan played for the Cincinnati Reds) and reruns of ‘Mr. Belvedere’ (the ABC sitcom Uecker starred in).”

During a conference call with the three announcers this week, the possibility of a strike-shortened season was discussed at length. But Costas said it will not be a big part of Tuesday’s telecast.

“I really see the All-Star game, maybe more than any other game, as kind of a celebration of baseball, a respite from everything else,” Costas said. “And while we’ll probably acknowledge the strike possibility in the broadcast and, in a very general way, perhaps touch on some of the issues, it’s not the appropriate place to do it.

“People who know my approach know that I like to talk about issues, but I try to find the appropriate forum to do it.”

Morgan had one suggestion for expediting negotiations.

“I think salary cap is a bad word in this negotiation,” he said. “I think there’s another term that needs to be used, another way of getting to the point. I think you’ve seen what a salary cap or free agency has done for the NFL. It’s put it in turmoil.”

Said Uecker: “A new term, Joe, could probably be like in Monopoly: ‘Do not pass go, do not collect $200.’ This whole pension issue . . . I went to check my pension, and I owe.”

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Sports award shows come and go, but one that has caught on is the “Jim Thorpe Pro Sports Awards” show. Now in its third year, it will be televised Monday, 9-11 p.m., by ABC from the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles.

“I think we’re over the hump,” said Ken Wolfe, the creator of the show who is also the executive producer of ABC’s “Monday Night Football.”

“I think we’ve established ourselves in the sports world as a real credible, quality show, and one that is going to be around for a while.”

Wolfe created the show and produces it with Dick Clark. ABC is only the carrier. Among the celebrities scheduled to take part are Paul Newman, Lloyd Bridges, Morgan Freeman, Danny Glover, Paula Abdul, Gloria Estefan, Dennis Hopper and “Blossom’s” Joey Lawrence.

Mark Curry, star of ABC’s “Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper,” is the host.

Henry Aaron will be on hand to accept the Thorpe Lifetime Achievement Award. Previous winners are Joe DiMaggio and Muhammad Ali.

Wayne Gretzky will be presented the Thorpe Legacy Award, Don Shula the Career Achievement Award, and the NBA’s Chris Webber will be honored as the best rookie in any sport. Winter Olympic gold medalists Dan Jansen and Oksana Baiul will also receive special awards.

Winners in 10 categories will be announced during the show. Three finalists in each category were selected by a panel of sports legends and journalists. For example, the panel for football includes Willie Davis, Gale Sayers and Roger Staubach, and journalists Frank Deford and Jim Murray.

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Wolfe was always inspired by Thorpe, the legendary athlete who died in 1953 at the age of 65, and was even more so after reading “Jim Thorpe: World’s Greatest Athlete.” The book was written by former ABC colleague Bob Wheeler, who is now vice president of public relations for Texas-based Liberty Sports, the division of TCI (Tele-Communications, Inc.) that recently acquired Prime Ticket and also owns 13 other regional sports networks.

Wheeler’s book, first published by the University of Oklahoma in 1979, is in its fifth printing and has sold more than 300,000 copies.

Thorpe, an Indian orphan born on a settlement in Oklahoma, overcame all odds to become arguably this country’s greatest all-around athlete.

Wolfe’s awards show is a reminder of that greatness.

TV-Radio Notes

The All-Star game will be NBC’s 38th, but first since 1989. . . . Greg Gumbel will be the host of the coverage, and Johnny Bench and Hannah Storm will serve as reporters. . . . CBS offers radio coverage with Jerry Coleman, John Rooney and Jeff Torborg. . . . Jaime Jarrin will be part of CBS radio’s Spanish-language broadcast.

Jim Lampley, replaced by Gumbel on “NFL Live,” will be teamed with Todd Christensen on game telecasts this season. The question is, will there be enough room for all the big words? . . . Kenny Albert, 26-year-old son of Marv, has been hired by Fox as an NFL play-by-play announcer. . . . James Lofton has been hired as a studio analyst by CNN for its Sunday morning “NFL Preview” show. . . . Brian Golden is now doing a weekend show for the new KMPC, “The Sunday Sports Lounge.”

Celebrity golf has become a top television draw, and the biggest of the celebrity events, the Isuzu tournament at Edgewood Tahoe, is being played this weekend--on Prime Ticket today at 1 p.m. and on NBC Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at noon. Former Dodger Rick Rhoden, who has won $69,209 in celebrity events this year, will defend is title in the $400,000 event. Other competitors include Ram quarterbacks Chris Miller and Chris Chandler and Raider punter Jeff Gossett.

Prime Ticket’s “Press Box” news show has added a weekly Sunday night feature focusing on sports business and law. Anchoring the segments will be Rick Horrow, a graduate of Harvard Law School, who will make his debut Sunday. . . . Leroy Burrell’s record-breaking 100 meters will be shown on CBS’ “Eye on Sports” Sunday at 11 a.m.