Hearn Is Fine but Schaap Isn’t

All indications were that Chick Hearn was doing fine Thursday, a day after having open-heart surgery.

Not doing so well is another noted broadcaster, Dick Schaap.

Schaap had hip-replacement surgery at a New York hospital more than a month ago and developed a post-operative respiratory infection. His condition has been grave ever since.

Schaap, a multifaceted print, radio and television journalist, is probably best known as the host of ESPN’s “The Sports Reporters.”

An ESPN spokesman said Schaap’s situation is serious but doctors believe he will recover.

“He’s fighting real hard,” the spokesman said.

A close friend said it has been touch and go.

Humor Helps

When the local television crews showed up at Northridge Hospital Medical Center after Hearn’s heart surgery Wednesday, wife Marge decided to let their granddaughter, Shannon Hearn Newman, talk for the family.

And Shannon got off a pretty good line about her grandfather.

“The doctors gave him a choice of getting a new valve from a cow or a pig,” Shannon said. “He chose a cow and said, ‘If I wake up mooing, just shoot me.”’

Marge said Susan Stratton, Channel 9’s longtime Laker producer/director and the other woman in Chick’s life, had a different idea.

“Susan said, ‘Too bad they didn’t have one from a mule,”’ Marge said, “Chick is pretty stubborn, you know.”

Marge said her husband had tubes removed from his throat and chest and his doctor was planning to have him sit up later Thursday. She said he’ll be in intensive care for five days.

“He’s got a fabulous doctor and everything seems to be going well,” she said.

Of Hearn’s temporary replacement, Paul Sunderland, Marge said, “He’s a good choice. Chick suggested three or four people, and Paul was one of them.”

Of Hearn’s consecutive-game streak ending at 3,338, Marge said, “He never even mentioned the streak. I don’t think he gave it a thought. His doctor said he needed to do the surgery now, and that was that.”

NBA Update

Still no official word on a new NBA television contract, even though it has been reported everywhere that NBC is out and ABC, ESPN and Turner are in.

WNBA games will apparently be carried by ESPN.

The hang-up appears to be the proposed AOL Sports channel, a joint venture involving AOL Time Warner, Turner Broadcasting’s parent company, and the NBA.

But speculation on the main announcers has already begun. NBC’s Marv Albert and Bill Walton will become free agents and could move over to ABC and ESPN.

Another possibility is that Al Michaels will become the main play-by-play announcer for the games on ABC.

Michaels is considered primarily a football and baseball announcer, but he did a lot of basketball early in his career, including two seasons of UCLA basketball for Channel 5 in the mid ‘70s. Michaels was around for John Wooden’s final two seasons.

Michael’s last basketball assignment was the 1989 Pacific 10 Conference tournament championship game between Arizona and Stanford at the Forum. His partner was Dick Vitale.

That evokes a frightening thought--Vitale working NBA games.

Football Shakeup

Some of the Pac-10 and Big 12 games that Fox Sports Net has been carrying could be moving to TBS. Turner has been negotiating with Fox to acquire rights to some of the games.

Goodbye Goodwill

The Goodwill Games, a Turner Broadcasting venture, are history.

Plans for Winter Goodwill Games at Calgary in 2005 have been scrapped, so the Goodwill Games held at Brisbane, Australia, in September will stand as the last.

He’s Back

Frank Chirkinian, the award-winning golf producer for CBS who retired seven years ago, is returning to the golf-TV world as president of Gaylord Event television.

“I’m enthusiastic about having a free hand to do some of the things I couldn’t do with CBS,” Chirkinian said. “The possibilities to take Gaylord to the next level are endless.”

Chirkinian, 73, replaces the popular and respected Terry Jastrow, who said he plans to create some new events on his own. Jastrow retains 25% interest in Gaylord.

The Wendy’s Three-Tour Challenge, taped last month at Henderson, Nev., and televised by ABC this weekend, is a Gaylord Production. So are the Hyundai Team Matches, held recently at Monarch Beach in Dana Point.

Memorable Hole

A highlight of the Wendy’s Three-Tour Challenge on Sunday is what happens to Fuzzy Zoeller on the final hole. After starting the back nine with six consecutive birdies, Zoeller has to hit his second shot at 18 off the side of a mountain. Then has to take a penalty stroke for an unplayable lie and ends up with a six, forcing a playoff.

“This is more fun than killing rattlesnakes on a Sunday morning,” Zoeller quips.

He then explains to the gallery around the green, “I’m coming boys and girls. I’ve had a minor little glitch in my giddy-up.”

Another Return

Larry Kahn, the former USC football radio announcer, will be announcing the Trojans’ game against Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl Christmas Day. Kahn and commentator Bruce Snyder can be heard on KNX (1070).

KMPC (1540), the regular USC flagship, will also broadcast the game.

Kahn now owns Pacific West Radio Sports, which broadcasts college football games to about 100 stations nationally, and the Las Vegas Bowl is one of those games.

Kahn and Mike Lamb used to own a company that had the rights to USC football, but ended up in a bitter dispute with the school over rights fees.

“It’s ironic how things work out sometimes,” said Kahn, who also used to work at KNX.

Christmas Doubleheader

Besides the Trojan game, Christmas Day sports fare includes an NBA doubleheader on NBC. Toronto plays the New York Knicks at 3 p.m., followed at 5:30 by the Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers from Staples Center.

The announcing team for the Laker game will be Albert, Walton, Steve Jones and sideline reporter Jim Gray.

Some Story

The holiday edition of ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” to be shown Sunday at 6:30 a.m. and reshown at 10 a.m. on ESPN2, focuses on the story of Ronnie Vinklarek, an assistant coach for the Buffalo Bills.

Vinklarek was 6 when his father, a truck driver, was killed in a head-on collision. When Vinklarek was 12, his mother suffered a brain aneurysm and was left speechless and bedridden for five years before dying on Christmas Eve in 1976.

Vinklarek, the oldest of five boys growing up in a poor, rural area of Texas, had to work and run the household while attending school. And when Vinklarek was injured in an auto accident, his right leg was so mangled that doctors considered amputation.

SportsCenter Specials

An ESPN “SportsCenter” special Saturday at 4 p.m. with Robin Roberts will recognize prominent sports figures who died this year. They include Dale Earnhardt, Al McGuire, John McKay, Willie Stargell, Korey Stringer and others.

Chris Berman and Stuart Scott will host a 90-minute special Monday at 4:30, looking back at the top stories of the year.

Good Point

John Feinstein, a guest on Jim Rome’s radio show the other day, suggested that maybe Notre Dame Athletic Director Kevin White hired George O’Leary as the football coach just because of his name.

“And maybe he made that up too,” Feinstein said.

In Closing

Mike Garrett, a guest of Chris Myers and Bob Golic on KMPC the other day, said, “I find it humorous to see my name in the paper so often. I find it humorous when a guy says I am ducking him. Football teaches you that you do not run from people.”

Wonder if T.J. Simers was listening?