Guerrero Glad to Be Sidelined

Lisa Guerrero sees her new job as sideline reporter on ABC’s “Monday Night Football” as one of the most coveted in sports television.

“It is the pinnacle,” she said.

Obviously, ABC narrowed its search for a replacement for Melissa Stark to an attractive woman, but still, the competition was intense.

And Guerrero, despite being a viewer favorite, particularly in Los Angeles, had a few things to overcome.

She has been working full-time in sports television only since 1998, and not for a major network. She’s 39, which is borderline old for what ABC was looking for. And she has posed in rather revealing fashion -- braless and blouse unbuttoned -- for Web sites and magazines. One would think that’s not something family-conscious, Disney-owned ABC endorses.

So what gave Guerrero an edge?

For one thing, she made a good first impression on Fred Gaudelli, the producer of “Monday Night Football” who did the hiring. Another factor was a visit to the Brentwood home of Al Michaels, who may not be management but still has an influential voice at ABC Sports.

Gaudelli set up the meeting about three weeks ago in hopes of getting feedback.

“I saw a spark, a vitality,” Michaels said Thursday. “She has a way of lighting up a room. Of course, living here, I was familiar with her work and had always been impressed. I was even more impressed after meeting her.”

What was supposed to be a brief meeting lasted a couple of hours.

“She told me about her background, that her mother had died when she was young [she was 8 when her mother, Lucy, died of cancer] and how her relationship with her father had turned her into a sports fan.

“She’s very enthusiastic about sports, and that’s important. She told me she had been in New York recently and attended games at both Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium.”

With Michaels’ endorsement, it basically came down to working out the details. Guerrero was offered a three-year contract, which indicates that Stark, who is pregnant, is not coming back. As for the financial aspects, no one is saying, but it is believed that the job pays about $300,000 a year.

Now, about those sexy photo shoots?

“There are no restrictions, except that now all my publicity goes through ABC,” Guerrero said Thursday. “ABC has control.”

Mark Mandel, vice president of media relations for ABC Sports, said, “It’s no different than with any of our other announcers. Everything goes through this office.”

A Welcomed Call

It has been a hectic week for Guerrero. She flew to New York on Tuesday to sign the contract. That night she called her father, Walter Coles -- Guerrero uses her mother’s maiden name -- to give him the news. She said they both cried. Coles now lives in Dallas.

After doing TV, radio and print interviews all day Wednesday, Guerrero and her boyfriend, Scott Erickson, flew back to Phoenix, where Erickson, a pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, is undergoing rehabilitation on his surgically repaired right shoulder. Thursday was another day of interviews.

“I have been on my cell phone constantly,” she said.

But one call got through, and Guerrero is glad it did. It was from Stark.

“We had never met,” Guerrero said. “But she called to congratulate me, and we ended up talking for an hour. She offered some good advice and broke down the job for me. She said it’s one-third giving injury updates, one-third doing prepared stories and one-third doing live interviews.”

A Fan Favorite

Vitali Klitschko no doubt won over a lot of fans with his gutsy performance against Lennox Lewis at Staples Center on Saturday night. He has won over more fans with how he has conducted himself since then.

Klitschko, from Ukraine, might just be what the heavyweight division needs. He did an interview with Jim Rome on radio Wednesday, calmly and concisely presenting his case why the fight shouldn’t have been stopped.

He came across as bright, articulate -- particularly considering English is not his native language -- and likable. He even kidded with Rome that he could never fight his brother Wladimir.

“We have only one mother,” he said. “We could not break her heart.”

Klitschko apologized to Rome that his English wasn’t better and said it would be the next time they talked. Rome told him he was a better interview than almost any English-speaking athlete he’d ever had on the show.

Short Waves

Lately, they’ve been dropping like flies on the network side of Fox Sports Net. Guerrero left in April, and tonight is Michael Irvin’s swan song on “Best Damn Sports Show Period.” Irvin is headed for ESPN and “NFL Sunday Countdown.” Fox Sports Net has lost some good behind-the-scenes people as well. About 50 jobs have been eliminated in the last month. Publicity manager Seth Palansky recently left for the NFL and respected publicist Kim Williams put in her final day Thursday. She will become a teacher.

It’s a big weekend for golf, with the U.S. Senior Open on NBC. But maybe the Golf Channel has the top attraction -- the LPGA ShopRite Classic that features Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie.

On Monday and Tuesday, ESPN will show the Tylenol Par-3 Shootout from Treetops Resort in Gaylord, Mich. The telecast times are Monday, delayed at 7 p.m., and Tuesday, delayed at 5 p.m. Fred Couples, Phil Mickelson, Lee Trevino and Fuzzy Zoeller compete.

This event is similar to one Fox televised on Thanksgiving from Four Seasons Aviara in Carlsbad. That event, though, had women competing even up against the men, with Sorenstam participating all three years the event was held. It was sort of a precursor to what she did this year at the Colonial. Michael Weisman, the creator of the Aviara event, plans to bring it back after a one-year hiatus, provided a new sponsor can be found.

Mike Pearl, one of the most respected producers in sports television, is leaving Turner Broadcast after an eight-year run and joining ABC as senior vice president and executive producer. Pearl worked at ABC from 1980 to ’88 and was at CBS from 1988 to ’95. By returning to ABC, Pearl fills a void left by the departure of Howard Katz, who served as president and executive producer of ABC Sports. Katz’s role as president was filled by ESPN President George Bodenheimer, who now presides over both networks.... CBS has hired former ESPN anchor Rich Eisen to help with its U.S. Open tennis coverage. Eisen, along with Rick Barry, has been filling in for a vacationing James Brown on the Sporting News radio network this week.

XTRA (690, 1150) is working on a deal to carry Raider games this season.... Fox Sports Net Angel announcers Steve Physioc and Rex Hudler, as they did once last year, will broadcast from the stands Wednesday night.... When the Sparks play the Sacramento Monarchs on Fox Sports Net 2 Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Coach Michael Cooper will be wired for sound.

It may be summertime, but the nation’s top two high school basketball teams, as determined by a 64-team competition in Philadelphia, will play on Fox Sports Net Sunday at 4 p.m.... Award winners: Channel 5 sports anchor Tony Hernandez and producer Mark Brinks were honored by the Los Angeles Press Club last weekend for a feature they did on Long Beach Ice Dog goalie Danielle Dube. And KNX’s Steve Grad was named best sports anchor.