Clearing Air Not an Easy Task

An attempt is made in this space each week to make things as clear as possible. Nothing is worse than confusing the reader.

A real challenge is trying to explain the television schedule for the first round of the baseball playoffs. Some games are on Fox. Some are on ABC Family. There will be one game on FX on Saturday. And there may be a game on ESPN2 on Sunday.

We’ll try to clear things up, beginning with Game 3 of the Angels’ series against the New York Yankees tonight at 5. You can watch it on Channel 11 or ABC Family.

But if you tune into Channel 11, a Fox station, you’ll notice the announcers are not Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, who called the first two games in the series.

Instead, the announcers will be Jon Miller and Joe Morgan, who work for ESPN.

So what are they doing on Fox?

Here’s where it gets a little tricky.

In case you missed it, ABC Family is carrying the postseason baseball telecasts that were on Fox Family last season. Fox Family was sold to Disney and became ABC Family. Included in the sale were the rights to as many as 12 first-round games.

Disney chose to leave the first-round playoff games on ABC Family as a way of promoting the channel and attracting new viewers.

ESPN, another Disney entity, is producing the telecasts for ABC Family. ESPN also is providing the announcers because ABC Family doesn’t have any.

Tonight’s Angel-Yankee game is being televised to the nation by ABC Family. But baseball requires that games on ABC Family, a cable channel, also be made available to over-the-air stations in the participating teams’ markets.

Because Fox holds the rights to the majority of the postseason, Fox stations have first dibs, at least this year.

So that’s why today’s Angel game, with ESPN announcers, ended up on Fox-owned Channel 11 as well as ABC Family.

As for the weekend, Fox and ABC Family are allowed to farm out games if there is an overlap. There will be two 1 p.m. games Saturday, so one will be on Fox and the other on FX. If there are two 1 p.m. games Sunday, one will be on ABC Family and one on ESPN2.

Still confused? Well, we tried.

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Growing Pains

ABC Family’s first venture into sports has come with some growing pains--literally. If you happened to still be watching Tuesday night’s St. Louis-Arizona game at 11 p.m., when the Cardinals led, 12-2, with two out in the bottom of the ninth, an old episode of “Growing Pains” suddenly showed up on the screen.

Someone flicked the wrong switch, but the problem was almost immediately rectified. And probably not too many people noticed, considering the lopsided score and the time.

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Change in Plans

Buck was hoping to announce two games in two sports in San Francisco on Sunday--the 49ers and St. Louis Rams followed by the Giants and Atlanta Braves. But because baseball scheduled Game 4 of the Giant-Brave series for 1 p.m., Buck will work only the football game. He’ll also take Saturday off to prepare for the Rams and 49ers. His replacement on baseball both days will be Thom Brennaman.

But after Sunday, Buck will be off football for two weeks to work baseball full time through the World Series.

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Ratings Update

Although Los Angeles had a higher rating than New York for Game 1 of the Angel-Yankee series, New York edged L.A. for Game 2, 15.0 to 14.8.

After the first two prime-time playoff telecasts, Fox is averaging a 6.7 rating and a 12 share. After the first two prime-time telecasts last year, both Oakland-Yankees, Fox was averaging a 5.8/10. That’s a 16% increase.

Also, ratings for the games on ABC Family through Wednesday were up slightly from those on Fox Family for the same period last year.

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College Football

USC, which plays at Washington State on Saturday at 4 p.m., makes its second appearance on TBS. The Trojans’ game at Kansas State also was on TBS.

The same announcers who worked that game, Ron Thulin and Charles Davis, will work Saturday’s game. Davis, a former Tennessee defensive back, is a relative newcomer to broadcasting. But he was excellent on USC-Kansas State.

UCLA’s game at Oregon State Saturday at 12:30 p.m. will be on Channel 7.

Meanwhile, Channel 4 has an interesting matchup at 11:30 a.m., with Tyrone Willingham’s Notre Dame team playing host to his former team, Stanford. Tom Hammond and Pat Haden report from South Bend, Ind.

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Hockey News

The NHL season begins Wednesday, and the Kings start things off by retiring Wayne Gretzky’s No. 99 jersey at Staples Center. Fox Sports Net will televise the ceremony before Wednesday night’s game against the Phoenix Coyotes on its “Break the Ice” pregame show at 7 p.m. Bill Macdonald and Jim Fox are the hosts.... Fox Sports Net 2 will televise Saturday night’s exhibition game between the Kings and Colorado from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The game marks the beginning of announcer Bob Miller’s 30th season with the Kings.... It took a while, but the Mighty Ducks finally have found a radio station. KPLS (830), an Anaheim station, will carry the Ducks when there isn’t a conflict with USC football or basketball or syndicated programming that the station is required to carry.... EchoStar’s Dish Network has announced it will begin offering the NHL’s Center Ice pay package.

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Technology Department

NASCAR this year offered a $99 in-car pay package available on digital cable through In Demand. The package includes in-car bonus coverage on five separate channels for 22 races.

Jeffrey Pollack, NASCAR’s managing director of broadcasting and new media, said the package is being offered as a free preview Sunday, when NBC televises the EA Sports 500 from Talladega, Ala. Also, Digital cable subscribers will be able to purchase the package, which will have six races left after Sunday, for $35.

The NFL has its eye on NASCAR’s package, hoping to do something similar in the future with its Sunday Ticket pay package--offering various camera angles on separate channels.

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Short Waves

Raider fans may not have been too happy, but CBS did the right thing last weekend, shifting from the runaway Oakland-Tennessee game to the more competitive New England-San Diego game.... The Gravity Games, featuring extreme sports, begin an eight-week, 13-hour run on Channel 4 Sunday at 1:30 p.m.... The NASCAR Craftsman Truck series, ending a five-year partnership with ESPN, is shifting to the Speed Channel next year.

With the start of the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita, Fox Sports Net 2 is carrying the TVG-produced “Trackside Live” show on race days from 3-5 p.m.... HBO has announced a multiyear agreement to televise fights involving welterweight champion Vernon Forrest.... Some schedule Rich Marotta has these days. Today, beginning at 5 a.m., he’ll be in his regular sidekick role on the “Bill Handel Show” on KFI (640), then host his new 3-7 p.m. sports talk show on KXTA (1150), and finish up by hosting “Rich Marotta’s Neutral Corner” on KXTA from 9-11 p.m.

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In Closing

Did you see that young girl at the Angel-Yankee game at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night after she was told she was Fox’s “fan of the game” and her prize was a picture of Fox’s Steve Lyons?

As if on cue, the girl said, “Who is Steve Lyons?” Her father didn’t know who he was, either.

It couldn’t have gone any better, even if it had been scripted.