His Success Didn’t Come by Chasing Paper Moons

Patrick O’Neal has what he calls a dream job. As an anchor and reporter for FSN West’s “Southern California Sports Report,” he gets to talk about the teams he rooted for as a kid growing up in Southern California.

O’Neal’s route to a major-market job wasn’t unusual.

O’Neal, 37, first became interested in broadcasting as a teenager, played football and basketball in high school, studied broadcasting in college at La Verne, tried acting and worked as a bartender for four years in New York.

In 2000, after moving back to L.A., he finally landed a radio job with the Fox network, working the midnight to 5 a.m. shift doing sports updates. After about six months, he got to serve as the co-host of an 11 p.m.-to-2 a.m. show five nights a week.

In 2002, he broke into television with FSN, doing national headline updates and serving as the host of such shows as “NCAA on Campus,” “Totally Football,” and the “Ultimate Fantasy Football Show.”

With the football shows going on hiatus during the off-season, O’Neal moved over to regional network FSN West.

“We knew about his incredible work ethic and what everyone was saying about him,” said Steve Simpson, FSN West general manager. “We went after him.”

However, there is one thing that sets O’Neal apart from being just another young talent, something he doesn’t like to talk about. He is the son of actor Ryan O’Neal.

“We hired Patrick strictly on the merits of his ability,” Simpson said. “I knew his background, but nobody else here did. Even now, few know. He is very reluctant to talk about it.

“He was a great find for us. Everything we’ve asked him to do he has handled in a professional manner, and he gets along with everyone -- his peers, his co-workers, his bosses.”

Patrick O’Neal is one of Ryan O’Neal’s four children, the only child O’Neal had with actress Leigh Taylor-Young. They met while starring in the old television series “Peyton Place.”

Tatum O’Neal is Patrick’s half-sister. She is one of the two children O’Neal had with actress Joanna Moore, who died of cancer in 1997. O’Neal and Farrah Fawcett had one son.

Patrick O’Neal is a father himself, sharing custody of daughters Sophia, 7, and Veronica, 4, with actress Rebecca De Mornay.

“My job is very important to me, but nothing is as important in my life as my daughters,” O’Neal said.

As for his father, O’Neal said they have a great relationship and they talk often.

“My father watches me on TV and tells me how proud he is,” O’Neal said. “I’ve worked very hard to get where I am. That’s one thing I have in common with my father. He worked very hard to get where he did.

“But I am my own person. I don’t want to be known as Ryan O’Neal’s son.”

Someday, the way things are going, it may be that Ryan O’Neal will be known as Patrick O’Neal’s father.

Red Carpet Treatment

The pregame festivities before baseball’s 76th All-Star game Tuesday at Detroit’s Comerica Park will look like something you’d expect to see at an Academy Awards show, with players arriving at the stadium riding in cars rolling down a block-long red carpet.

The “MLB All-Star Game Red Carpet Special” will be taped and shown on FSN at 4 p.m., one hour before game coverage begins on Fox. Chris Rose will serve as the host of the FSN show, with Josh Lewin and Carolyn Hughes reporting.

Short Waves

Look for retiring Raider Tim Brown to end up on a new FSN NFL show to be taped at the Fox Sports Grill in Irvine and shown Sunday mornings during the season. Other probable cast members include Jason Sehorn, Chris Myers and Jay Glazer.... Michelle Wie’s round at the John Deere Classic today will not be over by the time USA Network’s coverage ends at 3 p.m. To remedy that, CNBC will pick up coverage until Wie finishes.

Despite a two-hour rain delay and coverage that didn’t end until 2 a.m. in the East, NBC got a 5.5 national rating for last weekend’s NASCAR Pepsi 400, up 6% from the previous year.... The AVP Nissan beach volleyball series on NBC opened last weekend at Cincinnati and drew solid overnight national ratings of 1.1 and 0.8. Upcoming NBC tournaments will be the Hermosa Beach Open July 23-24, the Huntington Beach Open Aug. 13-14 and the Manhattan Beach Open Aug. 20-21. The season finale will be at Chicago Sept. 4.

Bob Costas will interview Frank Robinson and Jack Nicklaus on HBO’s “Costas Now” tonight at 9.... Bernard Hopkins will be profiled on “Beyond the Glory” on FSN Sunday at 6 p.m. ... The stock-car racing boom is examined in “NASCAR Gold” on CNBC Monday at 8 and 11 p.m. ... Matthew Perry will serve as host of the ESPY Awards on July 17 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.... Vin Scully will be profiled in the next edition of HBO’s “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel,” which begins airing July 26.

Ross Porter, filling in for Petros Papadakis for two days, will be on KMPC (1540) again today at noon. John Wooden was among Porter’s guests Thursday, and Ron Cey will be on today. With Porter, it’s a little different show than it normally is, to say the least. Papadakis is filling in for vacationing Tony Bruno in the mornings.... KMPC has been boasting that Bruno has the only local radio sports-talk show in L.A., but, according to Sporting News Network President Clancy Woods, Bruno’s show will become nationally syndicated in late summer or early fall.

An all-day auction of sports memorabilia will be conducted by espnradio.comWednesday to benefit the V Foundation and raise money for cancer research.