Meyers at Home in Final Four

ESPN play-by-play announcer Mike Patrick, after reading a promo for high-definition television last weekend, said, “It’s the best thing to happen to television since Ann Meyers.”

That might have been an overstatement, but Patrick was only doing what comes naturally.

“I’ve never met anyone who knows Annie who doesn’t rave about her,” Patrick said from his home in Burke, Va., before heading to New Orleans for the NCAA women’s Final Four.

And Patrick, who will be working his ninth Final Four with Ann Meyers Drysdale for ESPN, knows her pretty well.

“You never hear an unkind word spoken about her from anyone,” he said.

Meyers, who will be announcing her 13th women’s Final Four, could be called the Billy Packer of women’s basketball. But there is a difference, besides their paychecks: There certainly have been unkind words spoken about Packer, most recently by fans of Saint Joseph’s.

Like Packer, though, Meyers is grounded in the game.

Meyers, who has been announcing women’s basketball for 25 years, was the first four-time All-American basketball player, male or female, when she played for UCLA.

In 1979, she was the first, and remains the only, woman to sign a free-agent contract with an NBA team, although there were no expectations of her actually making the Indiana Pacers’ roster.

In 1987, she was the first woman inducted into the UCLA Sports Hall of Fame.

In 1997, NBC made her the first woman commentator to work an NBA game for a major network, pairing her with longtime friend Dick Enberg.

“I was just talking to Dick the other day,” Meyers said Thursday after arriving in New Orleans. “He has been in broadcasting for 50 years. I’m only halfway there.”

The WNBA will keep her busy beginning next month, and later this summer she will be announcing women’s basketball for NBC at the Athens Olympics.

Meyers, however, is a lot more than just a broadcaster. First and foremost, she is a full-time mom.

Son D.J., 16, is a 6-foot-1 basketball and baseball player at Huntington Beach High. Son Darren, 14, who will be a freshman at Huntington Beach High in the fall, is a 5-foot-9 basketball and soccer player. And daughter Drew, an 11-year-old fifth-grader, is into soccer, basketball and water polo.

Meyers also helps with Pete Newell’s Tall Women’s basketball camp and brother David Meyers’ camp in Temecula. She’s also in demand as a motivational speaker.

Meyers says she has been offered jobs in the WNBA as a coach or an executive, but such things will have to wait until her kids are off to college.

Meyers has been a widow since July 1993, when husband Don Drysdale, a Hall of Fame Dodger pitcher turned broadcaster, died of a heart attack in Montreal while on a trip with the Dodgers.

“Don is still a big part of my life,” Meyers said.

Earlier this week, Meyers was in Washington, attending a baseball Hall of Fame luncheon as a guest of Sandy Koufax, Drysdale’s former teammate.

After announcing Sunday’s Final Four semifinals and before Tuesday night’s championship game, Meyers is hoping that she will be able to fly back to Los Angeles for the Dodgers’ season opener Monday against the San Diego Padres.

That’s because, before the game, Eric Gagne will be presented with his Cy Young Award, and all former Dodger Cy Young winners have been invited to participate in the ceremony. She would represent her late husband.

Don Newcombe, Mike Marshall and Fernando Valenzuela have already committed to being there. Koufax and Orel Hershiser have other commitments.

“I’m going to try and be there,” Meyers said. “The kids will be there, and I want to be with them.”

Short Waves

Fox Sports Net has said goodbye to Steve Tello, who for six years was the senior vice president of news. His contract was not renewed.

His departure may signify a continued de-emphasis of hard news, nationally, at Fox Sports Net.

“All the assets are being poured into the regional news reports,” Tello said. “On the national side, the emphasis is on softer, more entertaining news.”

Anyone who has watched “Best Damn Sports Show Period” understands that.

Tello spent 13 years at ABC News, where he was a senior producer for Peter Jennings, and said he was pleasantly surprised Thursday when Jennings called to see how he was doing. Tello said he wanted to get back into hard news.

An interview with former Baylor assistant coach Abar Rouse, taped by Seth Davis, will be part of CBS’ two-hour “Road to the Final Four” Saturday at 1 p.m. It’s Rouse’s first interview since the Baylor scandal, which included Rouse’s secretly taping conversations with former coach Dave Bliss.

Says Rouse, “I am not perfect, nor do I portray myself to be. I make mistakes, as does anyone. Who hasn’t had a conversation that, if caught on tape, would make you look horrible? But most people aren’t out to hurt people....I can’t ever see myself in that position. I don’t care how much money is involved.”

A feature on the Oklahoma State plane crash on the evening of Jan. 27, 2001, will also be part of the show.

Bob Costas’ HBO show, “On the Record,” returns tonight at 11. Costas had hoped to interview Barry Bonds and Willie Mays, but because of a Bud Selig edict, Bonds said he could not address the steroids issue. So the interview was canceled.

Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby will be televised live on ESPN....Pro beach volleyball returns to Fox Sports Net on Sunday with coverage of an AVP tournament at Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The pro beach volleyball show “DiG” returns Wednesday at 3 p.m....ESPN is profiling spring football at five top schools on “SportsCenter” next week. USC will be featured Tuesday.

Look for Pam Oliver, Fox’s outstanding football sideline reporter, to do some sideline reporting for TNT during the NBA playoffs. Oliver apparently was given the OK by Fox.

In Closing

The “Lakers Living Room” telecast on Fox Sports Net 2 on Tuesday night, aimed at female viewers, drew only a 0.5 rating. But the concept apparently brought more viewers than normal to the regular Laker telecast. The game against New Orleans, despite being lopsided, drew a 6.4 rating on Fox Sports Net, its highest rating for a weeknight Laker telecast this season.