Early Rehearsal for Monday Night Crew

ESPN’s first “Great Outdoor Games” began a 10-day run Thursday. Among the events are tree sawing, bass fishing and something called sporting-dog fly ball racing.

That’s sports television, always looking for something different.

ABC checks in Monday with “Comedian in the Booth.” It could be called “Dennis Miller Live,” but that’s already taken.

As the nation awaits, the new “Monday Night Football” announcing team of Dennis Miller, Dan Fouts and veteran Al Michaels makes its debut on the Hall of Fame game between the San Francisco 49ers and New England Patriots from Canton, Ohio. Maybe never has there been as much anticipation for an NFL exhibition game, and not because anybody cares about the 49ers or Patriots this time of year.

On the West Coast, it really isn’t a Monday night game. It will be over before the sun goes down.

ABC recently asked the NFL to change the starting time from 5 to 4 p.m., PDT, so the game wouldn’t conflict with its coverage of the opening night of the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.

ABC also has a 4 p.m. start for an exhibition game Aug. 14 between the Super Bowl teams, the St. Louis Rams and Tennessee Titans, because of the Democratic National Convention at Staples Center.

ABC will use halftime of both games for political reports. That means less time for Miller’s jokes, which is good or bad, depending on your point of view.

THE OTHER NEWCOMERS

Miller has overshadowed the arrival of Fouts and sideline reporters Eric Dickerson and Melissa Stark.

Fouts made sense. He’s a Hall of Fame quarterback with proven broadcasting skills.

Dickerson was a surprise. He has little broadcasting experience, but the ABC brass was taken with his Hall of Fame induction speech a year ago.

Stark, 26, an ESPN reporter, said her hiring came out of the blue and happened quickly. She was at Pebble Beach covering the U.S. Open in June when she got a message to call producer Don Ohlmeyer. She met with Ohlmeyer the next Tuesday in Los Angeles and the announcement of the new team was made two days later.

In the meantime, on that Monday at Pebble, Stark got engaged. Her fiance is Mike Lilley, a Wall Street bond trader. They’ve set a date for May 27.

“I’m one woman who can legitimately say, ‘We can’t get married during the football season,’ ” she said.

BELATED RULE CHANGE

When Los Angeles had NFL teams, this market was almost always deprived of network doubleheaders because NFL policy wouldn’t allow them when the Rams or Raiders were playing at home.

Finally, the NFL is backing off and has agreed to a one-year experiment in which doubleheaders will be permitted, as long as the local team’s game is sold out 72 hours in advance. This should have been done years ago.

MORE NFL

Channel 13, looking to establish more of a sports presence, plans to show four NFL exhibitions, beginning with a doubleheader Aug. 5 featuring the Rams and Raiders at 5 p.m., followed by the New York Giants at Chicago Bears.

This is a plus for Michelle Bonner, the station’s lone sports anchor since Newy Scruggs left for Dallas in January. Bonner is one of two female sports anchors working at over-the-air broadcast stations in Los Angeles, and Channel 13 claims she is the only female lead sports anchor working in a major market in the country.

But Channel 5’s Claudia Trejos has gotten considerably more attention.

Bonner came to Channel 13 as a weekend sports anchor a year ago with little fanfare. Maybe that’s because she took a more traditional route than Trejos, who came from a Spanish-language station with no experience at doing English-speaking sports broadcasts.

Bonner, who turned 30 July 10, has been in sports television since her college days at Northeastern University in Boston and her roommate, knowing how much Bonner loved sports, persuaded her to apply for an internship in sports at WCVB, Boston’s ABC affiliate. She later worked in Charleston, W.Va.; Bangor, Maine; Manchester, N.H., and Houston before coming to Los Angeles.

SHORT WAVES

The pro football Hall of Fame induction ceremony Saturday will be televised live at 8:30 a.m. by ESPN2. ESPN Classic will have a Hall of Fame special at 4 p.m. . . . CBS has hired former Dallas Cowboy Daryl Johnston as an NFL game commentator. . . . Sunday’s Angel-Chicago White Sox telecast on ESPN will have a Spanish-language version available on cable systems that take the feed. ESPN offers it free.

Boxing beat: ESPN2 has Tony Ayala, 5-0 with five knockouts in his comeback, facing Luis “Yori Boy” Campas in his hometown of San Antonio tonight at 6. . . . Channel 9 has a live Forum-promoted card from Caesars Tahoe Saturday at 8 p.m. There has been a change in the main event, with Julio Gonzalez now fighting Patrick Swann. . . . Saturday at 10 p.m., delayed, Julio Cesar Chavez makes a record 19th appearance on Showtime, fighting Kostya Tszyu. Unbeaten Hector Camacho Jr. is on the undercard.

Attention, horse racing fans: There are three one-hour radio shows covering Del Mar on Saturdays and Sundays. “Thoroughbred Hot Line” with Felix Taverna is on KOGO (600) at 7 a.m.; Roger Stein’s show on XTRA (690) is on at 8 a.m., and the well-established “Thoroughbred Los Angeles” show with Mike Willman and Kurt Hoover is on KRLA (1110) at 9 a.m.

IN CLOSING

Radio talk-show hosts do many irritating things, but maybe the worst is never shutting up. One-on-One weekender Peter Brown, filling in for Nestor Aparicio this week, is a prime example. He never lets a caller complete a thought. Even when he had investigator John Dowd on the other day to provide insight into why Pete Rose accepted a lifetime ban from baseball, Brown kept interrupting.

What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for July 22-23.

SATURDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Golf: British Open 7 5.5 17 Track and field: U.S. Olympics trials 4 4.6 13 Baseball: San Francisco at Dodgers 11 3.5 9 Boxing: Mike Tyson vs. Lou Savarese (tape) 2 3.2 9 Cycling: Tour de France 7 2.6 7 Figure skating: Ice Wars, Four the World (tape) 7 2.3 7 Superstars competition 7 2.2 6 NFL Quarterback Challenge 2 2.1 5 Golf: LPGA, U.S. Women’s Open 4 1.8 5

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Cable Network Rating Share Boxing: Felix Trinidad vs. Mamadou Thaim HBO 2.8 6 Horse racing: Hollywood Park Today ESPN2 1.2 3 Soccer: MLS, Galaxy at Tampa Bay ESPN2 0.9 2 Prep football: CaliFlorida Bowl FSN2 0.7 1 Olympic trials: Volleyball, sailing, wrestling PAX 0.6 1 Tennis: Davis Cup semifinals, U.S. vs. Spain ESPN2 0.4 1 Tennis: A&P; Classic FSN 0.4 1 Golf: Senior Instinet Classic ESPN 0.4 1

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SUNDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Golf: British Open 7 7.4 25 Track and field: U.S. Olympic trials 4 6.5 12 Auto racing: CART Michigan 500 7 3.5 9 Golf: British Open highlights 7 3.3 8 Soccer: Mexico at Trinidad & Tobago 34 3.2 8 Basketball: WNBA, Houston at New York 4 2.1 5 Baseball: Angels at Oakland 9 2.0 5 Golf: LPGA, U.S. Women’s Open 4 1.8 5 NFL Quarterback Challenge 2 1.8 4 Basketball: WNBA, Sacramento at Sparks 9 1.5 3

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Cable Network Rating Share Baseball: San Francisco at Dodgers ESPN2 2.2 5 Soccer: World Cup qualifier, U.S. at Costa Rica ESPN 1.9 4 Horse racing: Swaps Stakes ESPN 1.2 3 Baseball: New York Mets at Atlanta ESPN 1.0 2 Cycling: Tour de France ESPN2 0.9 2 Tennis: A&P; Classic FSN 0.8 2 Auto racing: NASCAR Pennsylvania 500 TBS 0.7 2 Golf: Senior Instinet Classic ESPN 0.4 1 Tennis: Davis Cup semifinals, U.S. vs. Spain ESPN2 0.2 0

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Note: Each rating point represents 51,350 L.A. households. Cable ratings reflect the entire market, even though cable is in only 63% of L.A. households.