Baseball’s Latest Trick: Limiting Playoff Games Shown on Television

Remember the good ol’ days, when every postseason baseball game was televised?

In 1993, baseball staggered its playoff games. You got a day game and a night game, or just one game and the other league had a day off.

Then along came something called the Baseball Network with one of the worst plans imaginable. Yes, worse, much worse, than NBC starting its Ryder Cup coverage last Saturday at 5 a.m. and then putting a Notre Dame football game right in the middle of it.

The Baseball Network, which will televise games via NBC and ABC, has scheduled playoff games to be played simultaneously and televised regionally.

There was no furor last year because there was no postseason play.

But just wait until the playoffs begin Tuesday, with four games at the same time and each going to a different section of the country.

And this awful format will continue through the second round as well--two games, one telecast.

If you’re a Cleveland Indian fan or a Boston Red Sox fan, forget it. Los Angeles will get only Dodger games as long as the Dodgers are playing.

No matter how well the Baseball Network people switch back and forth among the games, there will be problems, guaranteed.

It will be sort of like watching the early rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament on CBS. Only this is major league baseball, the national pastime.

At least it used to be.

We’re bracing for all the complaints.

Perhaps, with the Baseball Network expected to dissolve, there will be a better plan by next season.

But, for now, we’ll have to endure.

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The Dodgers’ game at San Diego tonight at 8 will be on Channel 4, with announcers Greg Gumbel and Joe Morgan drawing the Dodgers for the second week in a row.

The Angels’ home game against Oakland is also being televised by the Baseball Network via NBC throughout much of California, but not Los Angeles.

Of course it would be nice if both games were being shown here, giving viewers a choice. But no.

The Baseball Network, don’t you love it?

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Ratings game: The Dodgers, in the heat of the title race, couldn’t come close to matching NFL football Monday night.

The Dodgers and Rockies on Channel 5 got an 8.8 rating, the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions on Channel 7 an 18.9.

But with no football on Tuesday night, the Dodgers got a 12.9 rating with a peak of 18 around 9:30 p.m., both highs since a Dodger telecast from San Francisco on Oct. 4, 1991, got a 15.2 rating with a peak of 18.1.

TV-Radio Notes

TNT commentator Pat Haden is one Southern Californian who gets to go to a Raider game this season, but he has to go all the way to New York. The Raiders and Jets are on TNT Sunday at 5 p.m. . . . Haden, a former Ram quarterback, will also announce a Ram-Atlanta Falcon game in St. Louis on Thursday, Oct. 31. “I finally get to do a Ram game, but I have to go to St. Louis to do it,” said Haden, who lives in San Marino. . . . The new USC radio announcers, Larry Kahn and Mike Lamb, have started off well, even though Kahn lacks play-by-play experience and doesn’t have the classic play-by-play announcer’s voice. They attend every practice, and it shows. Lamb, in particular, has been outstanding. So has Brian Golden, who is the host of “Trojan Talk” on KMPC. “Trojan Talk” on Saturday, when the Trojans play host to Arizona State at 4 p.m., begins at 1:30 p.m.

Because of the USC game, KMPC will join Saturday night’s Angel game in progress, after the Trojan postgame show. KMAX-FM (107.1) will have the Angel game in its entirety. . . . Last week, it was in the works for Pete Rose to do his nationally syndicated talk show from the KMAX studio in Arcadia three weeks a month and use KMAX’s Joe McDonnell as his co-host. But that plan is on hold. Rose likes the idea because his wife, Carol, and his 5-year-old daughter, Cara Chea, are living in the Los Angeles area, hoping to develop Cara Chea’s career as a child actress and dancer.

Jorge Paez and Jose Vida Ramos, who fought a memorable battle on Channel 9 in July, will be back on Channel 9 for a rematch from Caesars Tahoe Saturday from 8-10 p.m. The July 8 fight got an 8.0 rating, highest in L.A. that night. . . . The Kings’ new radio commentator is former player Mike Allison. He has replaced Brian Engblom, who moved on to ESPN. . . . The Los Angeles Ice Dogs’ hockey games will be carried by KMAX beginning tonight, with Pete Arbogast announcing, though Sunday’s game is on KWNK (670). Prime Sports will televise 13 games, beginning with the team’s home opener against Minnesota Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at the Sports Arena. Bill Macdonald will do the play by play. . . . Randy Kerdoon, formerly of KFWB radio, is the new weekend sports anchor at Channel 11.

ESPN will use Fred Couples as an analyst during its coverage of the Senior PGA Vantage Championship at Clemmons, N.C., beginning today. . . . NBC averaged a 3.6 rating for the Ryder Cup, compared to a 3.8 in 1993. . . . Former UCLA gymnast Maura Driscoll is one of the announcers working ESPN’s taped coverage of the recent World Gymnastics Team Championships at Austin, Tex. The women’s competition, with John Naber and Driscoll announcing, will be shown Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. The men’s competition, with Naber and Bart Conner, will be shown Wednesday at the same time.