Melrose Makes the Transition

Barry Melrose, who now lives in Glen Falls in upstate New York and keeps an apartment in Bristol, Conn., where he works as a hockey commentator for ESPN, is glad to be back in Southern California.

“I always enjoy coming back here,” he said.

The Kings play in a different building than they did when Melrose coached them from 1992 through April 1995. But L.A. rekindles some fond memories, particularly from Melrose’s first season as King coach.

That was the season the Kings made their only appearance in the Stanley Cup finals.

“You could get a courtside seat at a Laker game,” Melrose said, “but you couldn’t get a King ticket.

“I can still remember seeing Bruce McNall before Game 4 of the finals, shaking his head and looking down. I asked him what was wrong and he said, ‘I’ve got 24 celebrities looking for tickets and I’ve got none left.’”

Hockey is big again in L.A., at least for this weekend, because Staples Center is the site of Saturday’s NHL All-Star game and tonight’s All-Star Celebration.

But it will take more than an All-Star game to turn L.A. into the hockey town it was when Wayne Gretzky was leading the Kings’ glory run in 1993. And Melrose knows what that is.

“You can market, market, market, and that won’t do it,” he said. “Win and they will come. The Kings are starting to do that, but what this town needs is for both the Kings and Mighty Ducks to be winning at the same time.”

Melrose is talking about something more than a five-game streak. “If both teams start winning consistently over a period of time, it will bring in the fans and people will be talking hockey.”

Busy Broadcaster

Melrose, who has adapted well to his new profession, may be the most visible broadcaster during the ESPN and ABC coverage of this weekend’s NHL festivities.

During the start of tonight’s 2 1/2 hours of coverage on ESPN, beginning at 6, Melrose will coach one of the teams in the YoungStars game, which features players 25 and under. Melrose will be wearing a microphone, which could prove to be interesting.

After the game, Melrose will join Gary Thorne and Darren Pang to describe the SuperSkills competition.

Thorne and Bill Clement will call Saturday’s game, which begins at noon, and Melrose, along with John Saunders and John Davidson, will be part of the pregame, intermission and postgame shows. Former King Brian Engblom will serve as the ice-level reporter.

Melrose has been busy since arriving in town Wednesday. That night the former NHL defenseman played in the All-Star Celebrity Challenge.

Melrose, an analyst for “National Hockey Night” and “NHL2Night,” has been full-time with ESPN since 1996, following successful guest analyst stints during the playoffs in 1994 and ’95. He also has been working games for ABC since 2000.

He says he still gets the itch to return to coaching at times, but then he sees all the firings.

“The problem with coaching is, you’re going to get fired. It’s inevitable,” he said. “Look at Larry.”

He was referring to Larry Robinson, fired this week by the New Jersey Devils and the person who replaced Melrose when he was fired as coach of the Kings.

“Firings are so common, we joke about it,” Melrose said. “But it’s no joke. It plays hell on you. It’s tough on you, and it’s tough on your family.”

ESPN Books Booker

ESPN sent out a news release Thursday saying that running back Lorenzo Booker of St. Bonaventure High in Ventura will announce his college decision live on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” Wednesday at 3 p.m. Wednesday is national signing day for high school seniors.

Booker, who has narrowed his choices to USC, Notre Dame and Florida State, will be profiled by Shelley Smith on the 10 p.m. edition of “SportsCenter” on Tuesday.

Fox Sports Net will have a national signing day preview Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. A number of players will be featured, including Booker. Times high school columnist Eric Sondheimer will be part of the show.

Fox Sports Net will have a signing day wrap-up show Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

ESPN Books L.A.

ESPN announced this week that its has chosen L.A. as the new site for its ESPY Awards show. The 10th edition of the show will be held July 10 at the new Kodak Theater in Hollywood, site of the Academy Awards March 24.

The first seven ESPY shows were held in New York, the last two in Las Vegas.

Short Waves

A deal that will have TBS carrying Pacific 10 and Big 12 football Saturdays at 4 p.m. beginning next season has been completed. The Pac-10 games will be the ones from the syndicated package that previously was carried by Channel 9. Fox Sports Net owned the rights to those games and syndicated them to Channel 9 and other stations. Turner Broadcasting bought the rights from Fox Sports Net. The deal will be announced next week.... Fox Sports Net 2 celebrated its fifth anniversary Jan. 27. With the addition of the Las Vegas market today, the network now reaches 3.7 million homes. Fox Sports Net is in 5 million homes.

CBS announced that Lanny Wadkins will replace Ken Venturi as the network’s lead golf announcer in July. Venturi is retiring after 35 years.... The San Francisco Giants have hired Tim McCarver as a TV commentator. He will continue with Fox as well.... Sunday’s Laker game at Dallas, which NBC is televising at 11:30 a.m., is available in high definition on Mark Cuban’s HDNet channel, which is Channel 199 on DirecTV.... At 11 a.m., NBC offers an NBA special, “The Fans’ Ultimate All-Star Preview.” The special features the top five NBA players, as selected by fans on NBA.com. Yes, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant made the list.

Former NFL players will be featured on a “Toughman” special called “Tough Bowl II” on FX tonight at 10.... Taped coverage of the skating spectacular held at Staples Center at the end of the recent U.S. Figure Skating Championships will be on Channel 7 Sunday at 1 p.m. The show includes an excellent feature on California skaters, including Mabel Fairbanks, an African American born in 1915, and Catherine Machado, the first Latin athlete to represent the U.S. in a Winter Olympics.

Radio Daze

Channel 7’s Bill Weir, taking a cue from Channel 4’s Fred Roggin, who is now doing a one-hour sports talk show for KMPC (1540), is going to try his hand at sports talk radio. He’ll be on KSPN (1110) from 1-3 p.m. today and Monday.... “Blind Date” host Roger Lodge has been excellent while filling in for Chris Myers on KMPC this week.

In Closing

Whatever became of Kevin Malone’s career as a radio sports talk-show host?

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

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