NBC Glad ‘Seinfeld’ Ranks Over Yankees

Good thing they didn’t play Thursday’s Baltimore Oriole-New York Yankee playoff game at night. Can you imagine the uproar had “Seinfeld” and NBC’s prime-time lineup been preempted?

In fact, when Game 1 of the Oriole-Yankee series was rained out Tuesday, forcing a Thursday game, NBC and baseball officials huddled and came up with a noon start (3 p.m. in the East) to avoid any possible conflict.

Wednesday’s American League game, which started an hour later than Thursday’s, didn’t end until 8:30 in the East, running into prime time and overlapping with Fox’s game.

That wasn’t entirely bad. The last half-hour of Wednesday’s game got a 15.4 overnight rating, pushing the overall overnight rating to a 10.3, good enough to

beat the 9.6 Fox got for the later National League game.

The New York rating for the Yankee game was a 22.4, compared to a 9.0 for Atlanta-St. Louis on Fox.

In Los Angeles, however, Fox’s later game was the winner, 8.8 to 8.2.

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NBC is taking some heat, and rightfully so, for making a hero out of Jeffrey Maier, the 12-year-old kid whose deflection of a fly ball in the right-field bleachers turned a potential fly out into a home run for the Yankees.

NBC reporter Jim Gray, who interviewed Maier, didn’t even ask the youngster if he was aware of the consequences of what he did.

“It was a tough situation,” Gray said Thursday from New York. “If you don’t put him on television, then people will want to know why. If you ask tough questions of a 12-year-old kid and get on him for breaking the rules, it comes across as child abuse. If you go easy on him, then you’re being soft. It’s one of those situations where whatever you do you’re going to be criticized.”

Maier was still the hot topic when NBC opened its coverage of Thursday’s game.

Commentator Joe Morgan said even if umpire Richie Garcia had ruled fan interference, the Yankees’ Derek Jeter, who hit the fly ball, would have been allowed to reach base. Which base would have been determined by the home-plate umpire, Morgan said.

Morgan’s counterpart, Bob Uecker, disagreed, saying it should have been an out.

Gray, meanwhile, reported that security would keep fans back away from the fence. And if a fan gets too close? Well, Gray held up a set of handcuffs.

“Jim Gray, always the enterprising reporter, even brought his own props,” quipped Bob Costas.

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College football: ABC has to be hoping UCLA gives No. 4-ranked Arizona State a game Saturday because CBS has what should be a good game, No. 3 Florida State at No. 6 Miami, on opposite UCLA-Arizona State on ABC at 12:30 p.m.

If the Bruin game turns into a blowout, you can be sure a lot of viewers will be switching over.

Brent Musburger and Dick Vermeil will call the UCLA-Arizona State game, which is going to 20% of the country. ABC’s main game is Wisconsin at Ohio State, which is going to 47% of the country.

The Florida State-Miami game is the second of a CBS doubleheader. The first game is No. 1 Florida at No. 12 Louisiana State. Announcing the first game will be Sean McDonough and Mike Mayock, a former New York Jet and Boston College defensive back.

Jim Nantz and Terry Donahue will work CBS’ second game.

CBS studio analyst Craig James said of Florida State-Miami: “I don’t see Florida State going into Miami with an unproven quarterback [Thad Busby] and winning. They’ve lost to Miami with a proven quarterback. I think Miami is for real and will beat Florida State.”

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Pro football: When are the networks going to figure out Los Angeles doesn’t want to see every Oakland Raider game?

NBC gave L.A. the Raiders and the (ugh) New York Jets last Sunday, and this Sunday Fox is scheduled to show the Detroit Lions at Oakland at 1 p.m.

The Raiders and Jets, unopposed in the morning last Sunday, got an L.A. rating of 13.7. The San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos, despite going up against San Francisco and Atlanta at 1 p.m., got a 13.5.

NBC has a good game Sunday, Miami at Buffalo at 10 a.m., while at the same time Fox has Arizona at Dallas.

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Near disaster: Last Sunday, while Tiger Woods was on his way to winning his first professional golf tournament by beating Davis Love III in a one-hole playoff, ESPN left the Las Vegas Invitational at 4 p.m. for the start of “NFL Prime Time.”

Fortunately, ESPN returned to the golf, but still missed Love’s approach shot on 18, and both tee shots on the playoff hole. Love’s bunker shot on the playoff hole was shown on tape.

After Love’s shot that went in the bunker almost went into the water, Chris Berman used this line to segue from the golf to the NFL highlights: “Speaking of in the water, the Seahawks and Dolphins. . . . “

TV-Radio Notes

Channel 9, which showed the Lakers’ exhibition opener against Denver on Thursday night at 10, will have the Lakers and Nuggets again on Saturday night at 7:30. . . . The Clippers have a new radio station, KNEWS (540 and 1260). Tonight’s exhibition at Detroit will be on, delayed, at 6. . . . Prime Sports will televise the Mighty Ducks’ home opener against the Philadelphia Flyers next Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., preceded at 7 by the debut of the “Ducks on Ice” pregame show with Bill Macdonald. The pregame show is on only for home games. . . . The Ducks have a new radio announcing team, Brian Hamilton and Pat Conacher, but television announcers Brian Hayward and Chris Madsen are back. Wednesday night’s game will be the third of 37 Prime will televise this season. Channel 9 will show 20, beginning Nov. 1 with a home game against San Jose. . . . Saturday night’s pay-per-view boxing telecast of the Pond of Anaheim card featuring Julio Cesar Chavez against Joey Gamache will include a Ron Shelton-produced tribute to Allan Malamud, the Times columnist who died recently.

XTRA, Extra: Rick Schwartz, formerly of XTRA radio, is now a correspondent for the Warner Brothers syndicated television show “Extra.” Schwartz has a piece on “football widows” on Saturday’s edition on Channel 4 after baseball. . . . Rich Herrera, formerly of KWNK and KMAX, is now doing a night-time sports-talk show for San Francisco’s KNBR.

The popular “Ringside With Johnny Ortiz” show on KWNK (670) is now on Sundays, 4-5 p.m. Ortiz’s guest this Sunday will be Fernando Vargas, and his guest the next Sunday will be Jake LaMotta, the “Raging Bull.” Ortiz is also on with Joe McDonnell Fridays 2-3 p.m. . . . Richard Brown, the former president of the Angels who, among other things, is now a sports broadcast agent, will be one of Irv Kaze’s guests tonight on his KIEV show at 6:15. The other guest will be former USC and San Francisco 49er linebacker Riki Ellison, the executive director of the new Haka Bowl to be played Dec. 26 in Auckland, New Zealand. . . . The first of a series of UCLA Olympic sports radio broadcasts will be on KIEV at 7 p.m. Saturday, when the Bruin women’s volleyball team plays host to Washington State.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for sports programs Oct. 5-7.

SATURDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share Baseball playoffs: Dodgers-Atlanta 11 9.8 24 Baseball playoffs: St. Louis-San Diego 4 8.1 17 College football: California-USC 7 5.9 14 Golf: LPGA Big Apple Tournament 4 2.7 8 College football: Stanford-Washington State 9 1.8 4 Golf: Ralphs Senior Classic 9 1.6 3 Horse racing: Breeders’ Cup preview 2 1.3 3 College football: South Carolina-Auburn 2 1.0 2 Hockey: Utah-Long Beach Ice Dogs 13 .3 1

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SUNDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share NFL: Oakland-New York Jets 4 13.7 34 NFL: San Diego-Denver 4 13.5 17 NFL: San Francisco-Atlanta 11 7.9 18 Golf: Ralphs Senior Classic 9 1.3 3

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MONDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share NFL: Pittsburgh-Kansas City 7 20.3 31

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Note: Each rating point represents 49,424 L.A. households.