ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 1, 1996 TAG: 9606030021
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
For all of the dialogue about baseball wanting to bring new fans to the sport, it's telling that the national pastime hopes to accomplish that with something old.
The Fox Network makes its ballpark entrance today when the ``Game of the Week'' returns. It will look different, but it will be the same, too.
"Baseball needs the `Game of the Week' badly,'' said Thom Brennaman, one of the new generation of broadcasters Fox will send to the booth. "I think a lot of people my age grew up watching those games.
``The Game of the Week can do a lot for the sport's image. Just that it's there is one thing. Sure, there are teams that televise, and there are cable games, but those are at night.
"Having a Saturday afternoon game puts the game at a time where people are off. Kids can watch because the game isn't starting around their bedtimes. The Game of the Week can do a world of good for baseball.''
Fox makes its first pitch today (1 p.m., WJPR/WFXR) with the Atlanta-Cincinnati game, which Brennaman and Bob Brenly will call at Riverfront Stadium. That game is going to 48 percent of the country.
Every Saturday for the rest of the season, Fox will televise four games on a regional basis in the same time periods, either 1 or 4 p.m. The network and baseball hope that regionalization will help ratings.
CBS, during its baseball years (1990-93), aired two regular-season games on about half of the Saturdays in a season. Fox is doing 18 of 26 Saturdays. The last weekly Saturday afternoon game schedule belonged to NBC, in 1989.
ESPN, thanks to the superb booth duo of Jon Miller and Joe Morgan, has established a Sunday night Game of the Week. Brennaman's daytime point is well-taken, however.
How many viewers don't watch Sunday night games because they have to work or attend school the next day? How many tune out once college football begins occupying Saturdays in September?
"I think there are a lot of people out there who still love baseball, but maybe they've been turned off by some of the things that have happened,'' Brennaman said. ``The game has to do everything possible to get those people back and to bring new fans to the game.
"The Game of the Week is part of that. They're going to try some different things, and that's great, but we're not going to reinvent the wheel. Baseball is baseball.''
Brennaman, 32, is part of that attitude change at Fox. The former Chicago Cubs' voice on WGN is one of several "broadcasting sons'' who will work for Fox, which also will air its first World Series in October.
Brennaman is the son of longtime Cincinnati radio voice Marty Brennaman, a former Virginia Squires and Virginia Tech broadcaster. The lead Fox play-by-play voice, Joe Buck, is the son of Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Buck of St. Louis.
The names on Fox's top team will be the same as those on the CBS games in 1990-91 - Buck and McCarver. The younger Buck will work with veteran analyst Tim McCarver, who will be calling a Series for his third network this autumn.
The Fox studio host is Chip Caray, son of Atlanta Braves voice Skip Caray and grandson of St. Louis-turned-Chicago legend, Harry Caray. Dave Winfield and Steve Lyons, two new TV faces, will share the studio role with Caray.
That show airs at 12:30 p.m., just after a half-hour baseball show directed at a teenage audience. "In the Zone'' has a magazine-style format with no regular host, and ties into Fox's promotional campaign to bring a new generation of fans to the sport.
This doesn't mean the game's history and traditions won't be completely changed by different camera and replay angles, although Fox Sports President David Hill has said he would fire any Fox announcer "who talks about dead guys during a broadcast.''
The quote, taken literally, would leave McCarver with much less to discuss. However, Fox is serious about portraying the game's roots to the younger generation.
Twentieth Century Fox still owns the old Movietone News reels, shown in theaters years ago. Fox sports is taking those newsreels and their baseball highlights and creating clips for telecast during the Game of the Week.
``I think what you'll see is that these guys [Fox] aren't afraid to take a chance,'' said Brennaman, who has done NFL games for Fox for two seasons. ``Some may not like it, some may find it great.
``Bob Brenly and I did a practice [telecast] in San Francisco [last week], and some of what they did technically I compare to what Fox does with football. There are some tighter shots, some replays from different angles, different ways of framing things.''
There is one problem with the Game of the Week concept for some baseball fans in some markets, like Roanoke. The regionalization to boost ratings means area viewers will see what we see all season.
While it's true most fans want to see the teams in their own markets, regions like ours distant from major-league parks have more diversity in their followings.
Fox and WJPR/WFXR have announced the first 16 games, with the last two in September to be selected based on pennant race implications. In those first 16 weeks, local viewers are scheduled to see either Atlanta or Baltimore 14 times.
There are 125 Braves' games available on TBS cable, and 90 Orioles' games on Home Team Sports. There's no question that some variety, always a highlight of the NBC Game of the Week, would be nice.
Brennaman has been named the Arizona Diamondbacks' TV voice, but the expansion team won't begin playing until 1998. So, the Game of the Week is important to him, too.
``I miss being at the ballpark,'' he said. ``I love announcing baseball games.''
That's the kind of young attitude Fox and baseball is seeking on Saturdays.
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Brennaman.by CNB