The TV Repairman:
The Fox Network is talking a good game about what it is going to do to popularize hockey on television, but its claims fall down a little bit when you consider it's not even going to begin doing games until April. Hey, ain't that baseball season?
After regionalizing Sunday games during April, Fox will skip ahead to the Stanley Cup final for Games 1, 2, and 7, which figure to be staged sometime in June.
The net says it's going to go heavy on player personality spots by "taking the helmets off the players," hardly a new approach. Also, players will be used in spots to explain the rules of the game. Zounds! How 'bout a studio show with Terry, Howie, Jimmy and J.B.? Or perhaps a time clock in the upper left-hand corner of the screen?
* The football season's last gasp, the Pro Bowl, known in some quarters as the "Defection Bowl," will be on ABC Sunday at 6 p.m. With time to kill tomorrow, obviously, the net will send along a Pro Bowl Skills Competition hour at 2 p.m.
The NFC leads in the series, 14-10, in case you were wondering. Next season starts Feb. 15 with a draft to stock the new NFL teams, Jacksonville and Charlotte, on ESPN. Have a nice vacation in the interim.
* The U.S. takes on France in Davis Cup action with a pair of singles matches at 1:30 p.m. today on ESPN, then doubles tomorrow (2 p.m.) and the concluding singles Sunday (1:30 p.m.). Be reminded that Guy Forget and Henri Leconte whipped the favored Yanks in the semifinals a couple of years ago.
* Deion Sanders (remember him?) had an interesting reply to the query: Is there one quarterback you would like to blitz and really wipe out? "Terry Bradshaw," he said.
* In a half-admission that perhaps they were wrong four years ago in unloading Ernie Harwell as their announcer, the Detroit Tigers recently zapped his replacements, Bob Rathbun and Rick Rizzs, and ol' Ern will be getting more work at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull this season.
* HTS landed an interesting show for Monday at noon: The "Super Showdown" will be taped Sunday in Atlanta and involves Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe playing Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova in doubles. Watch, one of the men will try to hit 40-year-old mother of two Chris with the ball.
* Fans of Olympic sports, specifically track and field, can thank their lucky stars NBC has the Summer Games from Atlanta in '96. The net will begin familiarizing us with track names tomorrow (4-5 p.m.) with a tape of tonight's Millrose Games. Other meets will be on Feb. 11, Feb. 18, Feb. 25 and March 4.
* Tim McCarver, signing on to do two more years of Mets telecasts, says "I wouldn't even know how to go about announcing games involving replacement players, and I hope I don't have to find out." Wouldn't know how?
* ESPN's answer to the new Golf Channel is a 1995 schedule of 330 hours of coverage, including 50 tournaments and two weekly magazine shows.
* NFL Films is presenting an interesting angle in its "Inside the NFL" show this week, taking what some of the San Diego Chargers players said prior to the Super Bowl and following through on what transpired. For example, Stan Humphries said, "Not many teams run the ball like we do." Isolated cameras caught the 49ers closing off the holes, Natrone Means garnering only 33 yards in 13 carries and later pacing the sidelines ranting at his offensive line.
* Television may have a long-standing series winner, a la Evert-Navratilova, if Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi continue to meet in meaningful matches. Agassi's victory over Sampras in the Australian Open last weekend gave him six wins in 13 matches as the guys have met in each of the Grand Slam events plus three World Cups.
According to friends, Jim Courier had no trouble getting over his dramatic, five-set loss to Sampras in Melbourne as, the next night, he got to sit in as the drummer for one of his favorite groups, R.E.M., in concert. So many touring players are in to music -- McEnroe, Yannick Noah, Pat Cash, Mats Wilander, etc. -- don't be surprised if they put a group together.
* If you're having just one college hoops this weekend, make it the Syracuse-Kentucky game on CBS at noon Sunday. Or maybe Joe Smith moseying down to Atlanta tomorrow to take on Georgia Tech at 1:30 p.m. (Channel 54). Be advised, though, that the announcing team will be Tim ("Smash Mouth") Brant and the very prim and proper Terry Holland. Maybe Johnny Holliday (WBAL Radio) might not be a bad idea. . . . The NBA twin bill Sunday has the Knicks and Magic at 1 p.m., followed by the Rockets and Suns at 3:30. Seems these guys are on all the time.
* ESPN isn't hitting us with a rush of hockey games, sending along just one Sunday night game throughout the month starting with the Mighty Duck vs. the Kings Sunday (8 p.m.) . . . Meanwhile, ESPN2 is doing games Wednesdays and Saturdays mostly, much to the chagrin of Baltimore City cable subscribers who won't be getting "The Deuce" until mid-year, according to sources.
* Lee Trevino and Arnold Palmer might not have picked up the major check in last week's Senior Skins Game, but they had the best prediction on the Super Bowl, both forecasting a 25-point differential when the final was 23 (49-26).
* Now that Steve Young has cashed in a Super Bowl, what's the media story line going to be with the 49ers? To hear some tell it, there was no Niners until Joe Montana arrived, which prompts one to ask, what were Frankie Albert and John Brodie, a song and dance team?
* Just 10 more days until the Espys (award show) from Radio City Music Hall in the Big Apple live. Can you wait? The show has become so big, ESPN will have a 30-minute preview show Feb. 12 (11 p.m.)
* Orion Home Videos has prepared no less than seven tapes covering baseball's bloopers and lighter side and they'll be in stores March 8.
* "The agencies should all be shot," an advertising man told USA Today after viewing the commercials produced by his industry for free-spending advertisers on the Super Bowl telecast. "No big [new] ideas, no fresh voices," he complained. This becomes a big deal because, in effect, that's what the game has become, a vehicle for companies to peddle their wares and overflow the coffers of the NFL.