Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 1, 1995 TAG: 9504030062
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: SEATTLE LENGTH: Long
Jim Nantz is 35, going on the hundredth-something page of preparation material Thursday for doing Final Four play-by-play today (5:30 p.m., WDBJ). He's a man in serious need of a break.
Forget it. The lead CBS basketball play-by-play man is about to work two of the nation's premier sports events at opposite ends of the country in the same week. That doesn't even bring a sigh.
``It's more like Heaven Week,'' Nantz said when asked about what could be the opposite. ``All year I gun for this stretch. Besides, if I did complain, no one would ever want to hear about it.''
After calling Monday night's NCAA title game, Nantz has a 10:40 flight, the red eye to Atlanta. He'll get a rental car, drive to Augusta (Ga.) National Golf Club and be at the Masters site - where he will anchor CBS coverage next weekend - by 9 a.m. Tuesday.
``I have to soak up every second of Augusta National I can,'' said Nantz, a former college teammate and roommate of pro golfer Fred Couples at Houston. ``It's such a settling feeling.
``You come off the pandemonium, the deafening crowd noise at the Final Four, which is often won by a last-second shot, and as you head for Augusta, that's still ringing in your ears.
``Then you're in this tranquil, pastoral setting and it hits you that you're unwinding at the world's greatest golf tournament. That's a pretty good job.''
This is the 10th year Nantz will be making the transition from hoops to golf in the same week. If he sounds like a guy who knows both sports and appreciates his opportunity, he is.
Nantz probably left his ego in some sand trap long ago. In that regard, he's something of a rarity among TV talent. In the CBS tower at the Greater Greensboro Open, Nantz doesn't even mind when fans walk past, look up, see his visiting basketball buddy Billy Packer and holler, ``Hey, Mr. Cash!''
Asked how he would decide if he had to choose between calling the NCAA Tournament and the Masters, Nantz said, ``I ask people how many children they have, and which one they love the most. You can't choose.
``Now, if you asked me to pick between the sports, not the events, then there would be no decision. Golf was about the earliest sports memory of my life. That's the favorite.''
Nantz, a North Carolina native who was reared in New Jersey, started with CBS a decade ago. His original work on the NCAA Tournament was a studio host, a role he still has - and wants - during the tournament's first weekend.
``I've been there, I can do it, and trying to say this without macho great pride, I think I'm the best guy to do that, because I have,'' he said. ``It's amazing what our technical people do. It's 48 games, a mind-boggling potential train wreck of four days.''
Nantz made it through that, and now on April 17, he'll add to his work with a weekday 2 1/2-minute radio show on CBS Radio in afternoon drive time.
``It will give me a chance to tell some stories, and do some writing, which I really like,'' Nantz said. ``When you're doing games, that's the thing. You don't have time for all of the good stories out there, or the depth in them you might want.''
FOSTERING: Packer, who will be doing telecast analysis on his 21st consecutive Final Four, said Virginia Tech coach Bill Foster ``maybe does as good a job in building programs as anyone has in coaching.''
Packer said Friday that the Hokies' NIT championship was just another reflection of Foster's expertise.
``He started things at UNC Charlotte, although he didn't get credit for the Final Four,'' which the 49ers reached after Foster left for Clemson, Packer said. ``Then he took Clemson, built there and reached the [NCAA] final eight. Then he got the program started again at Miami [Fla.].
``Now, he's done it at Virginia Tech. And those guys really ought to be good next year with everybody back.
``Think about it,'' he added. ``The two Bill Fosters have both built programs in pretty much the same way. Bill has his four, and the other Bill Foster did it at Utah, Rutgers, Duke and South Carolina.''
TRIVIA TEST: Can you name the five play-by-play men with whom Packer has called Final Fours since 1975? (Answer below).
NO PITCH: Marty Brennaman, the Cincinnati Reds' radio voice who will call today's Arkansas-North Carolina NCAA semifinal for CBS Radio, said he would be surprised if the major-league season begins Sunday night with replacement players.
``But if they do, if they throw one pitch, then you aren't going to see the regular players for a month,'' Brennaman said. ``That's because the owners, once a game begins, have a $1 million nut tied up in [replacement salaries]. They aren't going to throw that away.''
Brennaman, a UNC graduate and former Hokies and Virginia Squires voice, said the longevity of the strike can be blamed on the players' union chief Don Fehr.
``If the players had told him to get out of the way, this would have been done two months ago,'' Brennaman said. ``He thinks he's another Marvin Miller [the retired union head]. Well, he isn't, and he never will be.''
AIRWAVES: Home Team Sports made its debut Friday on Salem Cable TV as one of five new channels on the system of 11,000 subscribers. ... WFIR (960 AM) will carry the Final Four games from CBS Radio today and Monday night. However, sports director Bob Clark said the Roanoke station will not air any of the CBS baseball package as long as replacement players are on the field.
TRIVIA ANSWER: Packer has worked with Curt Gowdy and Dick Enberg at NBC and Gary Bender, Brent Musburger and Nantz at CBS.
by CNB