For What It’s Worth, Here’s an Idea

There is just no way the promoters of Saturday night’s Mike Tyson-Peter McNeeley pay-per-view fight can justify an asking price of $49.95, which most cable systems are charging.

A system in San Bernardino, Mark Cablevision, has the right idea. It will refund viewers $5 if the fight does not last two rounds.

If Tyson fighting a tomato can is worth $49.95, what are price-gouging promoters going to ask when he fights a real opponent? It’ll be $100 or more, and that’s even more ridiculous.

They say it’s an attractive undercard--two fights, then the Tyson fight at about 8 p.m.--and then one more fight.

It doesn’t make any difference. The card is still overpriced.

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Vin Scully’s philosophy has always been to stick to the action between the foul lines when calling a baseball game. Not so the announcers working the Baseball Network’s coverage carried by ABC last Saturday of the Dodgers’ wild 11-10, 11-inning victory over Pittsburgh.

During a long, drawn-out fifth inning, it sounded more like “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” than a baseball telecast.

It may have been OK to invite Billy Crystal to the booth and ask him a few questions, but Ted Robinson, a free-lancer, and Steve Blass, former Pirate pitcher and current Pirate broadcaster, went overboard.

Preceding Crystal in the booth was actor Jon Lovitz and following Crystal’s lengthy stint was a 4-year-old fan who could rattle off the Dodger lineup. The child was cute, and by himself may have been all right.

But the whole thing went on and on, no doubt irritating viewers more interested in the ballgame.

Wonder if John Filippelli, the executive producer of the Baseball Network, will have his crews pulling such stunts during the playoffs?

Hope not.

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One good thing about last Saturday’s telecast was that the cameras caught Pirate catcher Angelo Encarnacion picking up a pitch in the dirt with his mask, a mistake that gave the victory to the Dodgers.

Before going off the air at about 12:45 a.m. (the game ended at 12:42), Blass pointed out what Encarnacion had done. But he and Robinson were about as confused as everyone else, except for Dodger coach Joe Amalfitano, who spotted the infraction, and Manager Tom Lasorda, who pointed it out to the umpiring crew and got them to award the victory.

By then some viewers had already turned off their sets. The ratings for the telecast peaked at a 10 at 11:30 p.m. It was down to an 8.2 an hour later.

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Rating game: An 8.2 rating for baseball at 12:30 in the morning is still pretty incredible.

While ratings for baseball on ESPN and in most local markets are down, Los Angeles, with its two first-place teams, is enjoying a boom season.

The Dodgers are averaging a 5.3 rating through 35 telecasts on Channel 5, up from a 5.0 after 35 telecasts last year. And recent ratings have been in the 8s.

The Angels, after 39 telecasts, are averaging a 3.9, up from a 3.1. And recent ratings have been in the 6s.

Angel ratings on Prime Sports are double what they were last season and have tripled since June.

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Changing channels: Although details have not been worked out, it appears Jim Rome will be leaving his nightly “Talk2” show on ESPN2 and will become the host of a new weekly Sunday night show, “fX: The Sports Show,” which is scheduled to make its debut on fX, Fox’s cable network, on Sept. 3 at 8 p.m.

The cable network, which reaches about 23 million homes, about the same as ESPN2, this week announced a producer and director for the new show.

The producer will be Robert Banagan, formerly of Prime Sports’ “Press Box,” and the director will be Deborah Ward, who was in charge of production facilities at ESPN and ESPN2.

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XTRA has moved talk-show host and former award-winning network director Chet Forte into the Charger broadcast booth as a commentator. Forte, who has joined play-by-play announcer Lee Hamilton and commentator Jim Laslavic, replaces Pat Curren, a Charger executive who was part of the radio broadcast team the last nine seasons. Curren left the team to go into private business.

XTRA gave Forte a new three-year contract, but the catch is, according to sources, he isn’t getting any more money for working Charger broadcasts and may be getting even less in these economically difficult times.

Hamilton, a workaholic, used to do play-by-play on San Diego State football for no pay, despite the logistic problems of also working Charger broadcasts.

The Aztecs, because of conflicts on XTRA with UCLA, have moved to KFMB. Hamilton said he was willing to continue calling the games, but recently retired athletic director Fred Miller instead decided to go with Channel 39 sportscaster Jim Stone as the team’s new play-by-play announcer.

“After all I had done for that program, at no pay, Fred Miller didn’t even have the decency to call and let me know,” Hamilton said.

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Healy encore: A tape of the Jim Healy tribute that was broadcast on KMPC a year ago is going back on sale. Patrick Healy, the Channel 4 reporter and son of the legendary sportscaster who died July 22, 1994, from liver cancer, recently accepted an award from the American Cancer Society for a $12,000 donation from sales of the tape.

Channel 4 covered the award presentation, and the response to the station was so overwhelming that KMPC, which has already sold more than 2,000 copies, decided to again sell the tape. Information: (310) 840-4913.