Ex-Bruins Talk a Good Game

High and lows, bests and worsts, and other observations about 2001:

The start of the new year should be a sweet one for David Norrie. He and Mike Tirico will be announcing the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day.

The assignment makes Norrie our up-and-comer of the year.

Norrie, in his second season with ABC, also worked the Ohio State-Michigan game this season.

He is a former UCLA quarterback, and there seems to be a pattern here.

Tom Ramsey of Fox Sports Net is one of the best college football analysts, Troy Aikman has had a good rookie year with CBS, and Matt Stevens, moving from the sidelines to the booth with Chris Roberts, had a good first season as the Bruins’ radio commentator.

Norrie was the Bruins’ radio commentator for five seasons, 1991-95, and spent four seasons at Fox Sports Net before moving on to ABC, where he also does games for ESPN.

Norrie, first-team academic All-Pacific 10 and a Rhodes scholarship candidate, never thought about broadcasting until Terry Donahue and Pete Dalis recommended him for the UCLA radio job.

Things have worked out pretty well.

Other up-and-comers--James Lofton, used mostly as a sideline reporter by Westwood One/CBS Radio, should get more assignments in the booth. He worked as a commentator with Joel Meyers on the San Francisco 49er-Philadelphia Eagle broadcast last Saturday and was outstanding.

When Garrison Hearst was tackled for a loss, Lofton had this to say about self-centered 49er Terrell Owens: “He comes out here before the game, parading around in a tight T-shirt and showing off his muscles. Then in the game, when he is supposed to block the linebacker, he chooses to block the wide receiver and the linebacker ends up making the tackle.”

Former Arizona State coach Bruce Snyder, who works with Larry Kahn on some of the Pacific West Radio Sports national college football broadcasts, offers insight. KNX (1070) carried Pacific West’s coverage of the Las Vegas Bowl.

Best announcer--Vin Scully could win this one every year, but the nod this year goes to Chick Hearn, who had to have heart surgery to learn just how beloved he is.

Worst announcer--Jesse Ventura. He was so bad on the XFL that in midseason Vince McMahon said he was on thin ice. Got to mention Dennis Miller in this category too. What does he add? Al Michaels and Dan Fouts would be just fine by themselves.

Best fill-in--Paul Sunderland is not Chick, but he is doing a pretty amazing job, particularly when you consider he’d never done a simulcast before. He hasn’t forgotten the radio listener.

Sunderland, in the hot seat on the “Plaschke and Simers Show” on Fox Sports Net last Sunday, also handled that assignment well. T.J. Simers, trying to be provocative, asked Sunderland if the Lakers had “tanked” in a loss to Memphis. Sunderland said of course they hadn’t, they’d just had a bad game.

Host Todd Donoho then “tanked” Sunderland for coming in.

Donoho, by the way, deserves some kind of comeback award for reestablishing himself as a major sports anchor in Los Angeles.

Worst fill-in--The wrestling announcer, Jim Ross, who replaced Matt Vasgersian on the main NBC XFL telecast for one week. McMahon admitted he’d made a mistake by demoting Vasgersian.

Best local sports anchor--While Jim Hill, who seems to be everywhere, and Fred Roggin continue as the deans, Channel 7’s Bill Weir continues to make inroads with his wit. Weir may be weird at times, but he is mostly funny.

Worst local sports anchor--Channel 5’s Steve Grad, although an improvement over Claudia Trejos, tries too hard to be cute. Bring back Ed Arnold.

Best executive--George Bodenheimer has pretty much operated in the background since becoming president of ESPN in November 1998. But his name has come up as a driving force behind getting the NBA for ESPN, even though that deal has yet to be announced.

Worst executive--Fox Sports Net President Tracy Dolgin may not be the one to single out here, but someone at his network needs to come up with a way to compete with ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and stick with it. Putting more emphasis on regional news may be the answer.

Best radio talk show host--ESPN Radio’s Dan Patrick. Sporting News Radio’s Jay Mariotti is well-informed, but with Patrick you get the complete package. Patrick’s partner, Rob Dibble, is good too, except when he starts complaining about baseball players being paid below their market value.

Worst radio talk show host--Arnie Spanier of KXTA (1150). Chuck Booms of the Fox Sports Radio network was the leader here until Spanier and co-host Dave Smith had Houston Rocket Coach Rudy Tomjanovich on as a guest last week. It was bad enough that Tomjanovich was asked if he keeps in contact with Kermit Washington. But then Spanier, in thanking Tomjanovich for being on, told him he was “someone who could take a punch.”

Best line--McMahon, appearing on HBO’s “On the Record” with Bob Costas: “What, I have no class?”

Weakest answer--Lisa Leslie, appearing on a celebrity “Weakest Link” during halftime of the NBA Finals, was asked to name one of the Roosevelts. She said, “JFK.” Then again, Steve “Snapper” Jones thought Helsinki was in Sweden.

Biggest fall--Fred Edelstein, the onetime ESPN NFL insider who lost his job because of too many erroneous reports, is awaiting trial in Philadelphia on charges that he scammed $945,000 from 11 investors. Among his alleged misdeeds: promising investors he could acquire tickets for scalping from NFL owners.

Best move--Overall, the recognition of the importance of Spanish-language broadcasting. The Rose Bowl game Thursday will be broadcast in Spanish on XPRS (1090), with Radio Deportes announcers Jorge Villanueva and Efren Dominguez.

Worst move--The Clippers, seeking a deal from Channel 9 similar to what the Lakers have, broke off negotiations with the station in hopes of landing somewhere else. The result is, the Clippers are without an over-the-air station.

Worst move II--Channel 13, de-emphasizing sports, eliminated its weeknight sports anchor. The station later signed as the Dodger station, beginning next season.

Best rationalization--Loren Matthews, ABC senior vice president of programming, on not getting the ideal national-championship matchup in the Rose Bowl: “We have to play the hand that is dealt us. We knew the rules going in. One area where we may well benefit from a ratings standpoint is with the Fiesta Bowl, because you have two teams who figure they should be in the Rose Bowl.”

Another viewpoint--Keith Jackson, who will be announcing the Rose Bowl game with Tim Brant, said, “I’m an old-timer. We still think in terms of Big Ten vs. Pac-10. That match this year would be hell on wheels, Oregon vs. Illinois.”

Best documentary--”Do You Believe in Miracles? The Story of the 1980 U.S. Hockey Team” on HBO.

Worst film--ABC’s remake of “Brian’s Song.”

Back to the future award--ESPN Classic showed a 1993 World Series game that included backstop advertising signage behind home plate. One problem.

That technology didn’t exist when the game was played.

Best camera work--Fox during the World Series. The only bad thing was the advertising signage behind home plate, but the Fox production crew had nothing to do with that.

Early exit--Fox left the Daytona 500 shortly after Michael Waltrip had won, then had to come back later to report that Dale Earnhardt was dead.

Early exit II--Mike Ditka, a guest on a Westwood One/CBS Radio “Monday Night Football” broadcast, told announcers Howard David and Boomer Esiason, in the middle of the third quarter, that he was leaving to beat the traffic.

We could go on and on, but this might be a good place to exit.

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