HBO’s Team Pulls No Punches

In March 1991, a month before George Foreman lost a 12-round decision to Evander Holyfield, he was visited by Ross Greenburg.

Greenburg, then the executive producer of HBO Sports, now the president, flew to Houston, Foreman’s hometown, to recruit the former two-time heavyweight champion as a boxing commentator.

“I thought he’d be the perfect Don Meredith type for our broadcasting team,” Greenburg said this week. “We already had a Cosell in Larry Merchant and a Gifford in Jim Lampley.”

What HBO ended up with is a three-man team somewhat similar to the “Monday Night Football” trio of Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell and Meredith.

Lampley, Merchant and Foreman, now in their 12th year together, are straight shooters who sometimes resemble the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. They don’t always get along, on or off the air, but they always claim to be a family, dysfunctional as it may be at times.

They’ll be calling Saturday night’s heavyweight championship fight between Lennox Lewis and Vitali Klitschko at Staples Center for HBO. Originally scheduled for HBO Pay-Per-View, the 7 p.m. bout now is free to HBO subscribers.

Greenburg said what initially drew him to Foreman was his sense of humor, his ability to connect to people and his ability to communicate.

Foreman is the type television loves, an uninhibited former athlete who has no agendas. Johnny Miller, John McEnroe and Charles Barkley are others. They say whatever pops into their heads, and sometimes it’s something of substance.

Foreman says he learned to “tell it like it is” from Cosell, the man who coined the phrase. Foreman worked with Cosell on a few fights in the mid-1970s. After Foreman lost to Muhammad Ali in Zaire in 1974, he signed a deal with ABC to do some commentating.

“I’ll always owe a lot to Howard,” Foreman said from his home in Houston. “He was a big help to me. I had to learn to not use double negatives and things like that. We’d watch film and he’d point out [that] I would say, ‘I need to ax you a question’ instead of saying, ‘I need to ask you a question.’ ”

Foreman also has learned that a little self-effacing humor goes a long way, something Cosell never grasped.

“This tell-it-like-it-is stuff is OK until you start believing yourself too much,” Foreman said. “You have to be careful with that.”

Asked if his current partners have offered help over the last 12 years, Foreman said, “No, not at all. They’re too competitive.”

Lampley, told of Foreman’s comment, laughed.

“You just never know what George is going to say,” he said.

Lampley and Merchant say they like Foreman, but have different viewpoints and aren’t reluctant to express them.

Merchant says Foreman is going to empathize more with the fighters.

“We agree to disagree,” Merchant said. “But nothing is contrived. Our disagreements are not an act. And I think both of us realize the fight and the fighters are the stars of the show.”

Lampley says Merchant and Foreman are “total truth tellers.” And he sees that as a plus for the viewing audience.

“The audience sees us as real, as people who are not going to hide the truth,” Lampley said. “And we usually offer three points of view.”

As for Foreman’s viewpoint on Saturday’s fight, he said: “I think it’s the most competitive heavyweight fight that could be made right now. I think the public may not have the right perception because of the injury [to Kirk Johnson, Lewis’ original opponent]. They may think this is not the best fight possible. But it is.”

Bad Omen?

Lampley may be leery the next time he has an HBO assignment at Staples Center.

About an hour before he was to go on the air to call a pay-per-view fight at Staples Center between Roy Jones Jr. and Julio Gonzalez on July 28, 2001, he dislocated his right hip in the press room and missed the fight. Lampley had had surgery for a second hip replacement a month earlier.

Two weeks ago, he was playing with his 11-year-old son at the pool of his Rancho Santa Fe home when he tore his right biceps. He had surgery last week and his right arm is in a sling, although he plans to take it off when he goes on the air Saturday night.

Wimbledon Update

Wimbledon begins Monday, and what’s new this year is the weekday cable carrier, ESPN, which won the rights formerly held by TNT. ESPN is offering 120 hours of coverage. NBC will have an additional 37 1/2 hours of coverage, beginning June 28.

ESPN’s coverage will begin each weekday at 4 a.m.

“There is no substitute for live television,” said Mark Shapiro, ESPN executive vice president . “People yearning to see the jewel of the Grand Slam are going to get out of bed, or they’re going to stay in bed and turn on the TV.”

Or they are going to set the VCR or TiVo.

The ESPN lineup of announcers includes two late additions, Tim Ryan and Brad Gilbert, who coaches fifth-seeded Andy Roddick. Among the other ESPN announcers are Cliff Drysdale, who has been with the network since it went on the air in 1979; Pam Shriver, Patrick McEnroe, Mary Joe Fernandez and Mary Carillo, for the first week only. Carillo also works for NBC.

Short Waves

Allen Bestwick, best known as NBC’s voice of NASCAR, will be anchoring NBC’s coverage of the U.S. outdoor track and field championships Saturday at Stanford. Bestwick returns to his regular role at the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, Fla., the Fourth of July weekend. The track meet Sunday will be on ESPN2 at 1 p.m.... CBS will have taped coverage of the NCAA track meet Saturday at noon.

CBS has a taped Professional Rodeo Cowboys Assn. event Sunday at 11 a.m. It’s one of three CBS will offer this year.... NBC has ArenaBowl XVII Sunday at 2 p.m. Commentator Pat Haden, on his first season of working Arena Football League telecasts, said, “I’ve had as much fun as I’ve ever had in 22 years of broadcasting.” He’d never seen an AFL game before this season and was won over.

TVG will televise Saturday’s Vanity Handicap from Hollywood Park featuring Azeri, 2002 horse of the year, going for her 10th consecutive victory. Post time is 4:53 p.m. The race is part of TVG’s “Trackside Live!” show on TVG and Fox Sports Net 2 at 3 p.m.... The AVP Pro Beach Volleyball tournament played at Hermosa Beach June 6-7 will be televised on Fox Sports Net on Saturday at 4 p.m. NBC will televise live three tournaments in August.

The 37th Victor Awards will be televised live by Fox Sports Net from the Las Vegas Hilton Sunday at 6 p.m. The Victor Awards are the longest running sports awards in television.... The NFL Network, which will launch this fall, has hired Rich Eisen, formerly of ESPN, as the anchor on its flagship program weeknights at 5 p.m. from Los Angeles. “Rich will be the face and the future of NFL Network,” said Steve Bornstein, the channel’s chief executive and president.

The NHL draft is this weekend, and KSPN (710) will broadcast the Kings’ draft party Saturday at 10 a.m.... This year’s NBA draft Thursday will be televised by ESPN at 4 p.m.... The Padres will be changing radio stations next year, going from KOGO to new all-sports Mighty 1090 XPRS. The station and the team signed a four-year deal this week.... Channel 5 will televise three San Francisco 49er exhibition games, beginning Aug. 9.

In Closing

Jose Mota, son of Manny Mota and the second baseman on Cal State Fullerton’s 1984 national championship team, is proving to be one of the most versatile announcers in baseball. He can do play-by-play or commentating in English or Spanish, and is currently the Angels’ Spanish-language radio commentator, working alongside Ivan Lara.

On Saturday, he crosses over to English and will be working alongside Thom Brennaman on Fox’s regional telecast of the Angel-Dodger game.

It will be his second English telecast for Fox. He was partnered with Kenny Albert on a Dodger-Colorado game in 2001.