As Usual, Baseball Forgets to Touch Bases

Are the geniuses who run baseball really trying to destroy the sport, or does it just seem that way?

Scheduling playoff games all at the same time, then televising them regionally, was a terrible idea. Baseball has already admitted that.

What would have helped at least a little bit this week would have been for ABC to switch over to the National League championship series between Atlanta and Cincinnati on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, once the American League games between Cleveland and Seattle were over.

Both Atlanta-Cincinnati games went into extra innings.

But, no. ABC, here in Los Angeles, gave us “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” instead of the conclusions of those games.

No offense to Alex Trebek or Pat Sajak, but we think more people were interested in the Braves and Reds.

The problem is, local stations have sold advertising, for local news or syndicated programming, and they don’t want the network preempting local commercials.

“We’re not cold-hearted; we know what the viewers want,” ABC spokesman Mark Mandel said. “But there are business considerations.”

Fine. Then baseball should have staggered the playoff games as before. But the powers that be decided to bring in ABC and NBC as partners and form something called the Baseball Network, which has turned out to be the Baseball Notwork .

The Baseball Network has been a disaster. The way it’s going, baseball will rank somewhere below chess as a television attraction before the turn of the century.

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What could baseball people possibly have been thinking when they came up with this crazy plan? Basically, they weren’t thinking at all.

They noticed that ratings for baseball on television were on a down slide and panicked. Instead of trying to fix baseball from within to get the ratings back up, they tailored everything to accommodate the networks--and forgot about the viewers.

Of course that’s typical of baseball. The fans always come last, or so it seems.

The networks really don’t want weekday daytime baseball. They don’t want to irritate the loyal followers of soap operas. Nighttime baseball gets better ratings. And so does regionalized baseball, at least in theory.

The national rating of 14.6 for the first night of the league championship series was up 24% from what it was two years ago, but then dropped off 4% to 14.0 Wednesday night.

A further drop-off wouldn’t be surprising.

Baseball thought it was giving the networks what they wanted. But ABC and NBC have already denounced the Baseball Network, and want no further part of it. They’re no longer partners.

Think about what NBC was going to do to baseball Wednesday night. It was going to air O.J. Simpson’s first interview since his acquittal opposite baseball, at least in the East.

That would have killed the baseball rating that night. Is that the way you treat a partner? Hardly.

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There is some good news. With the playoffs switching from ABC to NBC, there will no more Brent Musburger.

Musburger does some things well, he’s just not a baseball play-by-play announcer. He doesn’t know the sport that well but tries to pretend he does, which simply irritates viewers.

Bob Costas is NBC’s play-by-play announcer on the American League series, which Los Angeles gets tonight.

At least that was the plan the last time we checked. NBC had trouble making up its mind Thursday.

NBC’s schedule for Saturday and Sunday has yet to be determined.

NBC’s play-by-play man on the National League is Greg Gumbel and his partner is Joe Morgan. Bob Uecker is paired with Costas.

Al Michaels, Tim McCarver and Jim Palmer will be ABC’s World Series announcers. Costas and Uecker will do NBC’s Series games.

ABC does Games 1, 4, 5, 7; NBC Games 2, 3, 6.

Sort of a crazy schedule, right? Of course. It’s baseball.

TV-Radio Notes

Pat Haden, former Ram quarterback, finally got to announce a Ram game Thursday night. And he got all choked up about it. Literally. Haden, TNT partner Verne Lundquist and TNT publicist Mike Manning were having lunch with a St. Louis Post Dispatch reporter Wednesday in St. Louis when Haden choked on a piece of broccoli. “At first I didn’t think it was any big deal and just took a drink of water,” Haden said. “But then I couldn’t breathe.” When he stood up and pointed at his throat, Lundquist jumped up and applied the Heimlich maneuver. Since the incident happened in front of a reporter, it was big news in St. Louis and made the wire services. “I can already hear all the abuse I’m going to take when I get home,” Haden said. “Maybe I’ll just stay here in St. Louis.”

Dodger flagship radio station KABC axed its “Sportstalk” program this week for the umpteenth time. This seems to happen after every baseball season, and then it is brought back before the next season. General talk shows with Larry Elder and newcomer Bob Heckler have been extended to fill the void. “Sportstalk” co-hosts Steve Edwards and Eric Tracy were called in Monday and given the news. “I can’t really complain,” Tracy said. “It was the best year of my 25 years in broadcasting. But I am hurt.”

Sports talk has always been a tough sale in L.A. KMAX-FM didn’t register a blip in the last rating book and XTRA, although doing well in San Diego, where it is No. 3 among men 25-54, doesn’t rank in the top 20 in L.A. . . . Great hire for KMAX was Bob Golic, who is destined for stardom. He is doing a fine job as a football analyst on NBC. His only problem at KMAX is he has to put up with a wacky partner, Rich Herrera. . . . Here’s a twist. Former sports talk-show partners Brian Golden and Doug Krikorian have been invited by KABC to try a general talk show. They’ll be on this Sunday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Chick Hearn is the 1995 inductee into the American Sportscasters Assn.’s Hall of Fame, and Jim McKay will be inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame during a dinner Sunday night in Los Angeles. . . . Fox’s James Brown received the national sportscaster-of-the-year award from the Washington Quarterback Club.