In two games last weekend, Doug Collins and
Tim McCarver proved why they are among the
best analysts in sports. In a third, Bill
Clement showed why ABC should have chosen John
Davidson to call the Stanley Cup, not stick
him in a studio.
NBC's Collins is not a wit and he speaks
too quickly, but Game 3 of the National
Basketball Association finals on Sunday
showcased his analytic dexterity and urgency.
''If Rik Smits is discouraged with Rik
Smits, he should sit down,'' Collins said of
the Indiana Pacers' center, who seems to play
in cement shoes.
Collins noted with alacrity how Indiana
switched to a new scheme of baseline screens
against the Los Angeles Lakers to spring
Reggie Miller for jump shots; explained with
admiration the way Laker forward Robert Horry
needed only one dribble from the 3-point line
for a dunk; counted the 26 dribbles Travis
Best employed over 19 seconds to bore his
inert Pacer teammates; and castigated Smits
and the Lakers' Rick Fox for committing stupid
fouls.
Collins questioned Coach Phil Jackson of
the Lakers for benching Glen Rice for most of
the second half (''he's supposed to be the
second option'') and adroitly described that
the way to defend Shaquille O'Neal is to face
him ''rather than try to rebound,'' a
difficult task because ''it's against your
instincts.'' (If in need of a second analyst,
NBC should hire John Wooden, a mere 89, who
said in a halftime interview Sunday that
O'Neal would improve by dieting.)
But Collins saved his passion for Miller.
One wonders if Miller, who hit a field-goal
drought on Sunday, heard Collins chiding and
riding him with calls of ''Where is Reggie
Miller?'' and ''Reggie, this is your time, you
said you'd attack!''
McCarver's work for Fox on Saturday's Mets-Yankees
game accentuated his strengths. No one
anticipates plays better.
He scorned Met left fielder Jason Tyner for
bunting with runners on first and second with
one out. ''What he's saying is, 'Let the next
guy do it,' '' McCarver said. He questioned
Manager Bobby Valentine of the Mets for
leaving in his struggling starter, Bobby J.
Jones, with the score tied in the fifth
inning, and reproved Yankee second baseman
Wilson Delgado for not sliding on a force
play. ''He even pulled up,'' he said.
He avoided bad puns, but introduced a new
term into his lexicon: the antiperspirant
fastball -- a high heater that forces a batter
to jerk his arms up as if he is in dire need
of a swipe of Right Guard.
What makes McCarver better on Fox than he
is with Bobby Murcer on local Yankee games on
Channel 5 is his partner, the terrific Joe
Buck. McCarver connected Tyner to Ralph Kiner
and ''Kiner's Korner,'' prompted Buck to ask
McCarver if he had ever been on the recently
revived chatfest.
''Yeah, the $50, man,'' McCarver said,
recalling when that was a generous gift to be
a guest of Kiner's. Buck then related how his
father, Jack, with whom he calls Cardinals
games, had run out of gifts to give players
after they'd been interviewed, so he handed
the multimillionaire pitcher Greg Maddux $50.
''Maddux took it and put in his pocket,''
the younger Buck said.
No major sport leaves less room for an
analyst than hockey. Gary Thorne's
play-by-play dominated ABC's Stanley Cup
broadcasts, leaving Clement to squeeze his
analysis into short doses. When Clement was
called upon, his remarks were more pedestrian
than significant. Davidson and Barry Melrose
were more trenchant during the intermissions.
Much analyst talk is a verbal crapshoot.
Early in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals on
Saturday night, Clement suggested that Dallas
held the emotional edge over the Devils, who
missed many chances to win Game 5. He turned
out to be wrong. The Devils' physical play
belied any pregame anxiety.
When Derian Hatcher of Dallas leveled Petr
Sykora of the Devils in the first period with
an elbow, Clement excused the absence of a
penalty call. ''Sykora was crouching, so it's
hard to say if the elbow was intentional,'' he
said. Later, at intermission, Davidson said
bluntly, ''The elbow was up and it should have
been a major penalty.'' He said that when
Hatcher saw the Devils' manhandling of Joe
Nieuwendyk and Darryl Sydor ''he had to come
out and be one big mean guy.''
Musical Play List
On Saturday Fox enlivened its weekly
baseball ''Fan of the Game'' feature with a
snippet of ''Too Darn Hot,'' from ''Kiss Me,
Kate.'' Fox also employed the theme song from
''The Sopranos'' in a humorous opening
vignette to the game; leading into the Mets-Yankees
game on Sunday, ESPN disappointingly used the
trite ''New York, New York.''
But for about as long as NBC has carried
the N.B.A., its theme music has been
unchanged. You hear it when NBC heads to a
commercial and usually when it returns. Twenty
or 30 times a game. Its time is gone. Hearing
it is as annoying as the blaring rock music
must have sounded to the former Panamanian
dictator Manuel Noriega when United States
forces invaded his country.
Airwaves
Fox Sports Net is promoting its new 11 p.m.
Regional Sports Report -- which begins rolling
out tomorrow -- with a meanspirited
promotional campaign that makes Russians,
Indians, Turks and Chinese look like morons.
Give me the ESPN ''This is SportsCenter''
spots where athletes and anchors
lightheartedly mock their images. . . . NBC's
national Nielsen rating for the first two
games of the N.B.A. finals is down 4 percent
to a 10.2. One rating point represents about
1.01 million households. The overnight rating
for Game 3 rose 4.8 percent to a 13.0. . . .
NBC's French Open overnight rating plunged to
a 2.5 Sunday from a 4.0 last year.
