Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 8, 1995 TAG: 9507110003
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
``It's got to start somewhere,'' said Palmer, the Hall of Fame pitcher who will be reunited with longtime ABC telecast partners Al Michaels and Tim McCarver in the booth at the All-Star Game (8 p.m., WSET). ``After the strike, just playing the All-Star Game is important. The baseball part of it is very important.
``Yes, baseball still needs a collective bargaining system and a commissioner with some power. But it's not about telling fans we care, it's about showing them we care, and part of that is getting back to some sort of normalcy, getting back to what baseball is about. Order is part of what baseball's about, and that means an All-Star Game, followed by pennant races, followed by the postseason.''
The ABC telecast marks the return of The Baseball Network, a lame duck on which ABC and NBC already have announced they'll pull the plug at season's end. Palmer, the former Baltimore right-hander said the cooperative network ``had no chance'' after the strike last Aug. 12 canceled the World Series for the first time in 90 years.
``How could The Baseball Network work when baseball doesn't work?'' Palmer wondered.
``Baseball has to make some hard decisions. It needs a commissioner. How many other $2 billion industries have no CEO? ... If any other business treated its consumers the way baseball had, it would be out of business.''
Palmer, 49, said that considering that play-by-play man Michaels ``just doesn't know sports, he's a great journalist, as he proved at the 1989 World Series [after the San Francisco earthquake],'' the trio will undoubtedly delve into baseball's labor impasse and related doldrums.
``It hurts me,'' Palmer said of the depressed state of the game. ``It hurts because although I'm a broadcaster now, baseball has been a big part of my life, and I still love the game.''
The former Baltimore pitcher said he believes the players ``learned their lesson'' during the strike, but the club owners haven't. ``What the players expected would happen and what happened are two different things,'' Palmer said. ``They'd been part of a system that had been pretty generous, and I don't think they realized what life would be like without baseball.
``As for the owners, I think they have it in their minds that they are going to run baseball. Well, anybody with a business that has a 10-month strike without a solution or resolution to it isn't doing a good job of running that business.''
On the game's eve, ESPN has its own All-Star night Monday from The Ballpark, airing the taped Legends oldtimers game (7:30), Home Run Derby (9 p.m.), the All-Star Gala (10:30 p.m.), SportsCenter (11:30 p.m.) and Baseball Tonight Round Table (midnight).
GOLD RUSH: Eli Gold, who has become a familiar NASCAR voice on the Motor Racing Network, figures to move from radio to TV next season. Speedway Scene, a racing publication, reported that Gold will replace Mike Joy as the race-caller on The Nashville Network's racing shows starting in 1996.
Gold, who also hosts the Tuesday night ``NASCAR Live'' call-in radio show, was the Roanoke Valley Rebels' play-by-play voice in 1976-77. Although there was no word on Joy's future, the newspaper speculated that Allen Bestwick will replace Gold as Barney Hall's partner in the MRN booth.
MOVING SOUTH: The new analyst on the ACC's noontime football series this season is a familiar face and voice. Rick ``Doc'' Walker, the former Washington Redskins tight end, moves from the Big East package, where he spent the 1994 season.
Walker, an Oakton resident, will work with Jack Corrigan, who is switching from color to play-by-play of the Jefferson-Pilot Sports telecasts. Steve Martin gave up his game-calling role on the ACC package, due to increased responsibilities as the Charlotte Hornets' director of broadcasting.
The Big East and its syndicator, Creative Sports of Charlotte, N.C., have yet to name the new announce team for the conference's 1995 TV schedule.
NO 'SKINS: The Washington Redskins' four preseason games won't be televised in Virginia outside of the club's local market. No Redskin exhibition games are scheduled for national telecasts on the networks, and Terry Connelly, general manager of Washington's WJLA, said his station's contract with the club permits only local delivery of the four games, none of which are at RFK Stadium.
There are 16 NFL preseason telecasts scheduled by ABC, Fox, NBC and cable's ESPN and TNT, with San Francisco having the most appearances (3). The first preseason game is the July 29 Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio, between expansionists Carolina and Jacksonville, on ABC. (Schedule in Scoreboard, Page B4).
A-10 INCREASE: ESPN and the expanded Atlantic 10 have announced a new basketball contract to extend through the 2000-01 season. ESPN will air an A-10 Saturday afternoon games in February, and ESPN2 will have a Monday night game. The men's and women's tournament finals also will be aired on the networks, in addition to several other dates.
One of the conference games on ESPN this season is expected to be Massachusetts' visit to Virginia Tech. Each A-10 appearance on ESPN should bring the conference about $50,000. ESPN, which lost the Pacific 10 rights, also has conference telecast deals far into the future with the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Southeastern, Western Athletic and the new Conference USA
CABLEGRAMS: ESPN's Extreme Games will play for a second year in 1996, starting June 27 at a site to be determined. The 27-event competition created by the network has attracted interest from several potential host locations. Newport, R.I., was the Extreme base this year. The first Ex-Games did a 1.0 rating on ESPN, which doesn't sound like much, but that number was the ESPN goal and it's .2 higher than the network had for its 1995 NHL regular-season schedule.
by CNB