ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609170010
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: ON THE AIR
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
While most of the nation is tuned to college and pro football today and Sunday, they'll be dissecting dimples on CBS.
The network returns to Lake Manassas for the second Presidents Cup, a biennial international golf competition in which - this year anyway - the names are bigger than in the last Ryder Cup.
The Ryder pits the U.S. against European golfers in a team format. The Presidents Cup, played at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, has the U.S. against an international team of non-Europeans.
Or, as U.S. team member Fred Couples described it this week, ``the U.S. against Florida'' - where most of the international players reside.
``The match-play format, it gets their eyes a little brighter,'' said always-acerbic CBS analyst Gary McCord on a media conference call earlier this week. ``You don't blink as much when you have teammates putting pressure on you and your country's flag is waving behind you.''
After ESPN aired 81/2 hours of the Presidents Cup opening competition Friday, CBS has nine hours during the final two days. Local CBS affiliate WDBJ (Channel 7) will join today's four-ball and foursomes in progress (approximately 3:30 p.m.) after the Virginia-Maryland ACC football telecast, then air the singles match-play round Sunday (1-6 p.m.).
The U.S. won the first Presidents Cup two years ago at Lake Manassas, 20-12, but the international squad is better-stocked this time, with Greg Norman, Ernie Els, Jumbo Ozaki, Nick Price, Steve Elkington, Vijay Singh and Frank Nobilo among the 12-man squad.
``The international team has the real show ponies,'' McCord said. ``It's much more of a marquee team than the U.S. plays in the Ryder Cup.
``Anytime those guys don't blink for a long time, and at the Ryder Cup some of them don't blink for seven days When you see the whites in their eyes that long, you know it's special.
``For this event to reach the level of the Ryder Cup, it has to have great competition, and this international team can deliver that.''
Peter Kostis, another CBS analyst, remembers working the Ryder Cup in 1989 at the Belfry when USA was the only American network showing the event. Then, the U.S. lost.
``That's what it took to make the Ryder Cup popular,'' Kostis said. ``If the U.S. loses the Presidents Cup, then this event will become more popular.''
The CBS crew also will have a new and accomplished expert. Two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw, who just signed a contract to work at least 10 golf events for the network in 1997, will be a studio analyst for the Presidents Cup telecasts.
JUST FOR KICKS: Virginia's football date with Maryland today (noon, WDBJ) likely is the first of six consecutive Cavaliers' games scheduled on TV. The dates with Wake forest (ACC package), Texas (ESPN), Georgia Tech (ABC), N.C. State (ACC) and Florida State (ABC) are probable telecasts. Virginia Tech's TV appearance today at Boston College (12:30 p.m., ESPN) is the Hokies' 17th regular-season date on the tube since the start of the 1993 season, and third on ESPN. Eight of those have been in the Big East package. Tech will have at least seven TV dates this season. The Big East Football Conference shares its TV money based on appearances. Tech will get $125,000 for an ESPN game, including the one today. A CBS date, like the one Sept.28 at Syracuse, pays Tech $233,750.
AROUND THE DIAL: If the baseball pennant or wild-card races aren't decided until the final day of the regular season, ESPN and ESPN2 (if a second game is significant) will televise Sept.29 games. An ESPN2 game would be aired at 1 p.m., with an ESPN game three hours later. WDBJ and Radford University are negotiating for a live telecast of a Highlanders' men's basketball telecast in January or February. Jimmy Johnson might be the Miami Dolphins' coach, but he could be honored for his recent TV past in November. Johnson is a nominee for a CableACE award in the analyst category for his work on ``Inside the NFL'' on Home Box Office. He also was a Fox Network studio analyst. Johnson's competition is Tom Jackson and Joe Theismann from ESPN's pro football studio, ESPN baseball voice Joe Morgan and John McEnroe for his tennis work on USA Network. Four of the CableACE play-by-play nominees are from ESPN: Jon Miller, Brad Nessler, Gary Thorne and Mike Patrick The Hanes 250 NASCAR Truck Series race at Martinsville next Saturday will be aired on same-day tape on ESPN at 4 p.m., two hours after the race is scheduled. Danville's WDRG (Channel 24) will return as part of the Charlotte Hornets' TV network affiliates, airing a portion of a 47-game NBA schedule. fX, the Fox cable network, gets into college football next Saturday, with Clemson-Missouri at 7 p.m. Bruce Seldon's crash in the ring against Mike Tyson last Saturday night was bought by more than 900,000 pay-per-view homes. Add in DirecTV and sports bars, and the fight was bought by more than 1 million locations. As P.T. Barnum said, ``There's a sucker born every minute.'' Meanwhile, PPV executives are predicting a record audience for the Nov.9 Tyson-Evander Holyfield bout. The top PPV draw was 1.56 million for Tyson-Peter McNeely, another joke.
LENGTH: Medium: 89 linesby CNB