Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 14

D2 The Arizona Republic Thursday, October 31, 1996 Ratings game shoves ASU off regional telecasts SPORTS BRIEFS a ON THE AIR Coach Bruce Snyder's weekly show, will carry only one ASU game this season and it could be the season's most important. Suns shake-up There will be a new look on Cox Communication's cable and pay-per-view telecasts of Suns games this year, with former Arizona center Bob Elliott joining play-by-play man Gary Bender as his new analyst. Keith Erickson, Bender's former mike mate and a former Sun, has been exiled to sideline reporter, with John Cannon hosting pre- and post-game shows. Ferreting out reasons for Erickson's diminished role hasn't been easy because of friendships, egos and rumors. No one wants to explain publicly.

But the consensus is that the Bender-Erickson team drew considerable complaints from viewers last season. The Suns and Cox Communication officials decided to expand the program, shake up the mix and improve the product without rolling heads. Rumor has it, though, Erickson first learned about the move from someone on the production crew and wasn't too pleased. Elliott was one of three candidates who auditioned. Former Sun Frank Johnson and former ASU and NBA guard Lafayette "Fat" Lever each voiced-over a videotape of a Suns game, with Tom Leander doing play-by-play.

Elliott was able to provide a number of actual game tapes, because he's has been analyst of the Pac-10 Game of the Week for years. The most experienced man won the job. Add Suns-Cox: Bender won't be available to do Saturday's season-opening telecast and will be replaced by Leander. I hear Cox officials preferred someone else who didn't have KUTP-TV, Channel 45 identification, but yielded to the Suns. Channel surfing First there was ESPN, then ESPN2 and now ESPNEWS.

The 24-hour sports news network will debut for one hour Friday at 5 a.m. on ESPN's SportsCenter, before wandering off into the cable solar system. Cox Cable, the Valley's largest cable system, has no plans to add ESPNEWS at this time. For that matter, the cable system is still trying to provide ESPN2 to all its subscribers. Only those areas recently rebuilt (Phoenix south of Glendale Avenue, Paradise Valley 1 and Tempe) now carry "the Deuce." Folks in Chandler and Peoria can cheer up.

Plans are to begin rebuilding those areas within a year. ESPNEWS begins with an audience of 1.5 million. Prime Sports and Prime Sports West officially disappear Friday, becoming Fox Sports Net and Fox Sports Arizona. Fox Arizona has shared Channel 34 with ASPN, but according to Ivan Johnson, Cox Communication's vice president of community relations, it will eventually change. "What is happening is we're phasing out ASPN as an identity and replacing it with Cox Sports, which will involve the Suns, high-school and Roadrunners games and SportsTalk," Johnson said.

"Eventually, Cox sports will basically represent the Suns." Henceforth, Johnson says reference to Channel 34 should be Fox ArizonaCox Sports. Tim Tyers can be reached at 271-8003. There is always a reason for television programmers' decisions, and more often than not, it's ratings. Even when it makes no sense, which is the case with the Arizona State-California game Nov. 9 at Sun Devil Stadium.

Keep in mind, it's a game that should decide the Pac-10 Rose Bowl representative, if ASU whips Oregon State this weekend and polishes off Cal. But in all their wisdom, TV officials turned down the game twice, and now it has ended up as the third option. ABC has first choice to select a weekly Pac-10 Conference game for regional coverage. Fox Sports Net's Pac-10 Game of the Week, screened on most national cable outlets, has the No. 2 pick.

Finally, Fox Sports Net's weekly syndication game has third choice for its presentation on about 21 independent stations on the West Coast. ABC chose UCLA-Washington State (zzzzzz). Fox Sports Net made Southern California-Stanford the Pac-10 Game of the Week (yawn) and Fox's 21 -station syndication system ended up with the pearl. "I was surprised at ABC's decision, too," said Duane Lindberg, Pac-10 assistant commissioner for electronic communications. "In essence, the ratings for last week's Arizona State-Stanford game weren't good in Los Angeles, so ABC decided to go with UCLA-Washington State to take care of LA and the Northwest markets.

"Naturally, with LA being the nation's Number 2 TV market, ABC likes to maximize coverage of UCLA and USC, and UCLA has only appeared twice on ABC, against Michigan and ASU." AT A GLANCE Money loser? No reason to feel sorry for Pac-10 ARIZONA SPORTS FOR THE WEEK Denotes TODAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY EES. 31 1 I 2 3 4 5 6 Ffg LAUxers Houston Emmk I- (l 8:30 p.m. 7 p.m. 7pm. I Ch 45.

PPV ASPN TNT KTAR 620 KTAR 620 KTAR 620 KPHX 1480 KPHX1480 I Calgary Montreal Jjt 7:30 p.m. 7 pm. KUKQ 1060 KUKQ1060 XjlTx KDKB93.3FM KDKB93.3FM i fox Fort Wayne Manitoba 5:30 p.m. 1p.m. KIDR 740 KIDR740 MMW Mesa Mesa Mesa Peoria Peoria Scottsdale Peoria at Tempe at Scoltsdale at Scottsdale at Mesa at Mesa at Mesa at Phoenix yZ'O.

105 jun. 7:05 p.m. 1:05 m. i 05 p.m. 105p.m.

7:05 p.m. J'4- Scottsdale Sun Cities Sun Cities Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix Mesa K47 at Peoria at Phoenix at Phoenix at Scottsdale at Scottsdale at Peoria at Sun Cities 'm-fflzzMtrmr 105 pm. 7:05 p.m. 7:05 p.m. 1:05 p.m.

1:05 pm. 7:05 p.m. 7:05 p.m. Sun Cities Tempe Tempe Tempe Tempe Scottsdale Tempe TT at Phoenix at Peoria at Sun Cities at Sun Cities at Tempe at Scottsdale 105 m. 7:05 m.

7:05 m. 1:05 p.m. 1.05 p.m. 7:05 p.m. 7:05 pm.

Men's Soccer W. Soccer Vouevmu New Mexico UC-San Diego SOCCER ffiWfiV'lPr 7 m. Cal State V0UEY8ALL VOLLEYBALL BakefSfiell) Cal St, LA. State Bernadino inm 7:30 pm. 7:30 pm.

7:30 p.m. A Volleyball ZZ. W' SoC" W' Smm" -VjMl UCLA 7p m- Washington St. Arizona 4 Cross Country Pac-10 Champs 7 p.m. atfpnmord 2 pm.

3:30 p.m. TIM TYERS The Arizona Republic To spread exposure, the Pac-10 limits a team's number of exposures on ABC to five. USC will make its fourth appearance Saturday against Washington, which means its annual bloodbath against UCLA won't be carried on ABC because USC's season-ending game with Notre Dame game will. So, a chance to exploit the LA market with UCLA, coupled with the fact Arizona State has been an ABC fixture three straight weeks, swayed the decision. Also, while the Bay area is the nation's No.

5 market, it displays raging apathy toward Cal and Stanford football. "What's funny is we didn't think the UCLA-Washington State game would even be on TV and it went from the outhouse to the penthouse," Lindberg said. Ironically, KTVK-TV (Channel 3), former ABC affiliate and now an independent, will air the game in the Valley. It also means Channel 3, home station for BOB JACOBSEN The Arizona Republic State). Now if some of this past success can just relate to the present.

Stub your toe You can look at Arizona State Coach Bruce Snyder's record on AstroTurf two ways. He's either 1-11 on that funny stuff while at ASU, or he's the proud owner of one in a row. After all, he did win his last game on turf at Oregon last year. One reason? Well, to play well on turf you need to practice on turf. And that's impossible here.

"I believe to reach and maintain the pinnacle of success we want to have, we should have easy access to some type of AstroTurf to practice on," he said. Let me make that clearer. He wants the school to construct some kind of turf surface on campus. Isn't it about time? Another mailman Jake Plummer has done it all so far this season. All except deliver mail.

But Snyder says that may not be far away. "Nothing bothers him," said Snyder of the Boise, Idaho, native. "Neither rain, sleet, hail nor snow." He was speaking of possible inclement weather in Corvallis, this weekend. "We're really tough in hot weather," Snyder said. "I don't know how we are in the other stuff yet." Snyder did tell his team they were not made out of sugar.

"I told them they wouldn't dissolve if they got wet." A strong possibility. Not much left There are 18 bowl games and obviously, 36 spots. Thirty-three are already filled by conference affiliations. Stick in Notre Dame, and the short life of the Haka Bowl, and that doesn't leave No. 5 in the Pac-10 much hope.

The Big 12 has six slots, the Big Ten and Southeastern five, the Pac-10, ACC and Big East four, the WAC two and Conference USA and the Big West and Mid-American (the Las Vegas Bowl) one each. I've always said we need more bowls. LINE jfpmsmr- Mm Monica Seles Pete Sampras from the German player loses to a.v Tennis Federation. power server. Sampras, Becker lst-round losers at Paris Open Pete Sampras and Boris Becker, who played a stirring final three days ago in Germany, lost their opening matches at the Paris Open on Wednesday, with Becker denouncing the arena as a "zoo" "and "madhouse." Marc Rosset reeled off 20 aces and clocked one serve of almost 129 mph to beat Sampras, the top seed and defending champion, 6-4, 6-4.

"When he gets his serve going, you just pray for rain," Sampras said. "When he gets into. 4he rhythm, he's 6-foot-7, it seems like 'he's slam-dunking on you every time." Becker lost to Carlos Moya of Spain, 6-3 6-4, then complained bitterly. Second-seeded Barbara Paulus defeated Anna Kurnikova, 6-4, 6-3, in the Kremlin Cup tournament at Moscow. Fourth-seeded Sabine Appelmans defeated Sarah Pitkovsky, 6-4, 7-6 (6rl), and fifth-seeded Ruksandra Dragomir eliminated Magdalena Grzybowska, Court proceedings began in Hamburg, Germany, in a civil lawsuit filed by Monica Seles against the German Tennis Federation over her 1993 stabbing.

Seles is seeking $16.3 million in damages for lost income after the attack, and is blaming Jhe federation or lack of security. The attack sidelined the top-ranked Seles for "27 months. Although the knife wound in her back healed quickly, Seles blamed psychological problems for delaying her return. Meredith McGrath breezed to a 6-3, 6-2 upset of fourth-seeded Iva Majoli in the second round at the Ameritech Cup at Chicago. McGrath controlled the 56-minute match, putting together an assortment cf overheads, volleys and deep baseline drives.

Second-seeded Jana Novotna overpowered Amy Frazier, 6-2, 6-1, and No. 5 Martina Hingis whipped Stephanie DeVille, 6-1, 6-2. COLLEGES Texas is investigating a report that football players may have met with an agent on Sunday. John Bianco, the assistant sports information director, wouldn't release the names or number of players believed to have been at the meeting, which reportedly took place at a restaurant in Austin. Bianco said a member of the Longhorns coaching staff first found Out about the meeting.

BOXING I A new opponent was quickly found for HIV-infected heavyweight Tommy Morrison, and it appears he'll be a much mpre difficult foe than the one Morrison was supposed to meet in Tokyo this weekend. Anthony Cooks, originally scheduled to fight Morrison, was wanted by law-enforcement authorities in Oklahoma and, promoter Ron Weathers said, was on his way back to that state. Weathers said Morrison (45-3-1) will instead fight Marcus Rhode of St. Joseph, on he undercard of the George Foreman-Crawford Grimsley bout. The 24-year-old Rhode is 15-1 with 15 knockouts, according to the promoter.

Cooks, of Muskogee, had said his record was 11-5. The British Medical Association introduced a new anti-boxing advertisement to illustrate what boxing does to the brain. The 60-second black-and-white film, which will run in a hundred theaters nationally over the next two months, is the latest move in the association's 14-year campaign to ban boxing. The ad is meant to be a health warning so spectators understand what is really going on in a fight, Dr. Vivienne Nathanson said.

BOWLING Anne Marie Duggan held a six-pin lead after the opening 24 games of match play in the Ladies Pro Bowling Tour $75,000 Lady Ebonite Classic. Duggan had a 13-10-1 record, and knocked down 5,605 points. Dede Davidson was second with a 17-7 record, 43 pins ahead of Wendy Macpherson (17-7). Fourth with a pinfall of 5,422 was Cindy Coburn-Carroll (14-10-0). Lisa Wagner (16-8) was fifth, another 10 pins behind.

Arizona digest The Grand Canyon men's soccer team clinched the California Collegiate Athletic Conference championship Tuesday night with a 1-1 tie at Cal State-Los Angeles. The Antelopes (8-4-4, 5-2-3), who won the title in their third year of conference play, went into the game ranked No. 4 in Division' II and No. 1 in the West region. They hd've two regular-season games remaining.

TJie victory gives Grand Canyon a bye in the first round of postseason play and puts it in a good position to host a Final 8 gamejn late November, either at Phoenix Collegeior the Cave Creek Sports Complex. Schdol officials have until Friday to submit a bid: Compiled from reports by the Associated Press. Horse Racing: Turf Paradise, simulcast, first post 1:45 p.m. Dog Racing: Phoenix Greyhound Park, first post 7:30 p.m. You may have noticed that Associated Press story on Wednesday noting the Pac-10 Conference had lost $246,933 in the 1994-95 academic year.

The Pac-10 noticed it. And it certainly came as news to them. "No conference operates at a deficit," Assistant Commissioner Jim Muldoon said. "There can't be a disparity in leagues like that." (The story said the Atlantic Coast Conference generated $50.8 million during the same period.) What Muldoon is saying is somebody is simply not comparing apples and apples. The Pac-10 and Big Ten (both have eight-figure television contracts for football and basketball) simply do not lose money.

"The Big Ten television contracts are better than anybody's," Muldoon said. "Our football and basketball television contracts are over $20 million, and our conference budget is $2.4 million. "We keep all TV revenues, deposit them, make money on the interest and distribute them at the end of the school year." Sounds pretty reasonable to me. Of course, I still want to check Commissioner Tom Hansen's, and Associate Commissioner David Price's, and Muldoon's homes the next time I get to the Bay area. Favorite Sun I was alarmed, too.

I checked the NBA's top 50 all-time players list Wednesday, and surprise! There was no Joe Kleine. "I woke up, opened the paper, and read I wasn't on the team," Big Joe told to KGME's Bruce Jacobs on Wednesday. "I was ticked off." Obviously a gigantic oversight. I'm calling David Stern. If you noticed, no less than 10 of the 1992 "Dream Team" members made the squad.

And eight are still active. Only Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are not playing, and only Chris Mullin and Christian Laettner (maybe the top 5,000) didn't make it. So, let's hear no more talk, ever, about any Dream Team matching the first one. Trust me, we will never see the likes of anything close to that again. Champions We'll give Aeneas Williams credit for this one, but there are no fewer than eight players on the Cardinals who have won collegiate championships.

Or mythical titles, if you prefer. From Notre Dame, there's Kent Graham and Devon McDonald. And from North Alabama are Ronald McKinnon and Jarius Hayes. The other four are Jeff Feagles (Miami), Ronnie Bradford (Colorado), Aaron Graham (Nebraska) and on the practice squad Kevin Knox (Florida LATEST Nov. 24 Philadelphia 2 p.m.

KHTC 96.9 FM KIOR 740 Oec.1 Minnesota 11a.m. KHTC 96 9 FM KIDR 740 Ch. 10 Dec. 8 Dallas 2 p.m.-KHTC 96.9 FM KIDR 740 Dec. 15 Washington 2 p.m.

KHTC 96.9 FM KIDR 740 Nov. 23 Arizona 7 p.m. KTAR 620 TV, TBA Nov. 23 Arizona Statj 7 p.m. KGME 1360 TV, TBA FOOTBALL AT A GLANCE Nov.

3 N.Y. Giants 11 am KHTC 96 9 FM KiDR 740 Ch. 10 Nov. 10 Washington 11 am. KHTC 96.9 FM KIDR 740 Ch 10 Nov.

17 N.Y. Giants 2 p.m. KHTC 96.9 FM KIDR 740 Nov. 2 Oregon State 2 p.m. KTAR 620 Nov.

9 California 4:30 p.m. KTAR 620 FOXAZ Nov. 16 Bye Week Nov. 2 California 1:30 p.m. KGME 1360 Nov.

9 Oregon 2pm KGME 1360 Nov. 16 UCLA 12:30 pm. KGME 1360 Nov. 2 Idaho State 8 p.m. Nov.

9 Eastern Washington 2 p.m. ON THE AIR 4 TENNIS Time IV VCR Jiadid 2 Paris Open 2 p.m. ESPN 404238 HOCKEY lyejanigWnjng 5:30 pm. ESPN2 5487870 1:30 a.m." 2114517 FOOTBALL Boston College at Pittsburgh 6 p.m. ESPN 500528 Tf30 672604" BASEBALL Sun Cities atJhoenix 7 p.m.

ASPN 115412 FIGURE SKATING U.S. Professional Championships 8 p.m. 15 13431 TENNIS Time iTV VCR Radio Paris Open 11 a.m. TDjESPN 434284 HOCKEY Roadrunners at Fort Wayne 5:30 p.m. KIDR 740 JBIackhawks atStars 6:30 P.JUES PN2 9859246 1:30 a.m.

2181289 Coyotes at Flames 7:30 p.m. KDKB93.3. FM JyKQJ060 BASKETBALL KnMsatRaptors 6p.m. TNT-. 413325" "Suns at Lakers 1:30 45 909468 620 ILZI1ZZ 1 tnt 775710" BOXING Romero vs.

Sosa 7 p.m. ESPN 991994 FOOTBALL High School Tolleson at Peoria 7 p.m. KXEG1Q10 VOpLEYBAiT Arizona J30 p.m."F 2IL1 midnight TD.FOXAZ 412266" NHL TODAY'S GAMES Favorite Goals Underdog BOSTON 1-1 'a Hartford Philadelphia Even- Vj TAMPA BAY Toronto Even- 'a NYISLANDERS NFL SUNDAY'S GAMES Favorite Points Underdog NY GIANTS 5 Arizona DALLAS 9 Philadelphia KansasClty 1 MINNESOTA INDIANAPOLIS 4 SanDlego PITTSBURGH 13 St.LoulS GREEN BAY 11 Detroit BALTIMORE 4 Cincinnati CHICAGO 7 Tampa Bay Carolina 1 ATLANTA NEW ENGLAND 4 Miami BUFFALO 3 Washington Houston 3 SEATTLE San Francisco 9Vj NEW ORLEANS MONDAY'S GAME Favorite Points Underdog OAKLAND 2 Denver OPEN DATES Jacksonville and NY Jets. For Thursday, Oct. 31.

Home learn In capital letters. College football TODAY'SGAME Favorite Points Underdog BostonCollege 12 PITTSBURGH SATURDAY'S GAMES Favorite Points Underdog Arizona State 23 OREGON STATE CALIFORNIA 1 Arizona SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Vh Washington UCLA 13 Stanford Nebraska 35 OKLAHOMA Syracuse 3 WESTVIRGINIA MICHIGAN 9'a Michigan State Notre Dame 17 Navy Miami No line Temple CLEMSON 6V2 Maryland NORTH CAROLINA 26 North Carolina State OHIO STATE 33 Minnesota Florida 33 Georgia PENN STATE 10 Northwestern Tennessee 17 SOUTH CAROLINA Virginia 23 DUKE Central Michigan 12'j KENT Miami (Ohio) 2 TOLEDO OhloUnlv. 3 WESTERN MICHIGAN BallState 5 EASTERN MICHIGAN BowllngGreen 6 AKRON Colorado 21 MISSOURI AUBURN 16 Arkansas WISCONSIN 13 Purdue Iowa 9'j ILLINOIS Brlgham Young 32 Texas-El Paso Kansas 7 IOWA STATE TULSA 2 New Mexico MISSISSIPPI STATE 19 NE Louisiana 12Vi OKLAHOMA STATE Utah 6 RICE SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI 11 Cincinnati WYOMING 15 Southern Methodist LOUISVILLE 9'2 Memphis AIR FORCE 11 ColoradoState Texas Christian 17 Nevada-Las Vegas TEXAS 12 Baylor SanDlegoState 21 SAN JOSE STATE Florida State 19 GEORGIA TECH TULANE 2 Houston TRANSACTIONS Baseball AMERICAN LEAGUE BALTIMORE ORIOLES Selected Brian Ebel assistant trainer and Kevin Harmon minor-league medical coordinator. TORONTO BLUE JAYS Signed RHP Mike Timlin to a two-year contract. NATIONAL LEAGUE CINCINNATI REDS Released RHP Jerry Spradlln.

PHILADELPHI A PHILLIES Appointed Terry Francona manager and announced that third-base coach Larry Bowa will not return next season. TD--same day tape taped. FOXAZ Fox Sports Arizona is on same cable channel as ASPN Over-the-air channels listed by channel number. Cable channels listed by call leters. Broadcast listings are supplied by stations.

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