FERNANDO FACES OFF VS. FLUTIE

Doug Flutie, Jim Kelly and the rest of the USFL had their chance: a couple of weeks to grab all the sports headlines, to dominate the pages with their accomplishments and to avoid sharing TV time with other major sports. That’s over now.

It’s “play ball!” already. Baseball arrives this weekend.

Not the season opener, granted, but the preseason games for a few weeks, which is all that the old bleacherites need to start the juices flowing for the “grand old pastime.”

These die-hard fans don’t even mind all the springtime cliches they hear every year. You know--”We’re looking forward to a great year. . . . If nobody’s injured and the pitchers and hitters live up to their potential, we’ll go all the way. . . . There’s a tremendous enthusiasm in camp. . . .” It’s the same script; just fill in a few new names.

How does a sportscaster cope with dredging up all those familiar phrases that he finds himself having to say every year about this time, repeating the hype about the club and players?

“Your enthusiasm builds as you get closer to it, I think,” says Ross Porter, laughing in agreement about the annual chatter he finds himself mouthing. Porter, speaking by phone from Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Fla., just arrived there Thursday--delayed because of working some University of Nevada Las Vegas basketball games.

“It was good to get out and look at the guys. They played an intrasquad game. And we watched the Koreans play. We play them Saturday (today, 10:30 a.m., Dodgers vs. Samsung Lions on KABC radio). So it was fun to talk to some of their people too.”

No doubt about it, the old enthuasism was there for Porter, who’s starting his ninth year with Vin Scully and Jerry Doggett. Porter and Doggett will work Sunday’s first telecast (10:30 a.m. over Channel 11), when the Dodgers host the Cincinnati Reds. Scully, working golf tournaments for NBC, joins Porter and Doggett on the last three preseason telecasts.

“Scully will spend more time here this year,” says Porter, “so he can get an early line on some of the American League teams he’ll be seeing on NBC on Saturdays. Scully is beginning his 36th season with the Dodgers; Doggett, his 30th.”

(Scully hosts the third Dodger special tonight at 9 over Channel 11, “ ’55 Brooklyn Dodgers,” a reunion with members of that 1955 team, marking the 30th anniversary of the Dodgers’ first world championship.)

Not contemplating any startling changes in the broadcasting booth, Porter is hopeful of picking right up where he left off last season--with this additional thought: “I hope we have a successful season. The main thing is it’s more fun when the Dodgers are in contention than when you finish fourth.

“But I’ve been fortunate, though. In six of the past eight years I’ve been with the club, we either won it or got beat on the last day.”

The USFL will have to face its first stiff test of the season in this TV market Sunday. Along about the fourth inning of the Dodgers-Reds game on KTTV, the L.A. Express and New Jersey Generals will be kicking off on ABC, 11:30 a.m. over Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42.

Will Doug Flutie of the Generals (1-1) and Steve Young of the Express (0-2) be able to outdraw Fernando Valenzuela, who’s scheduled to start for the Dodgers? And the Dodgers have three more Sunday TV dates at about the same time for the USFL to think about.

ROUNDUP: Today, Tennis, U.S. Women’s Indoor, 9 a.m. (2)(8) . . . Baseball, Expos vs. Braves, 10:30 a.m. (WTBS) . . . Basketball, Big Eight Finals, 11 a.m. (2)(8) . . . Basketball, DePaul vs. Marquette,11 a.m. (WGN) . . . Golf, Bay Hill Tournament, 11:30 a.m. (4)(36)(39) . . . Basketball, Washington vs. Stanford, 1 p.m. (4)(39) . . . Sports Saturday, 1 p.m. (2)(8) . . . Basketball, PCAA Tournament final, 3 p.m. (4) . . . Basketball, USC vs. Oregon State, 3 p.m. (5) . . . Pro Bowlers Tour, 3 p.m. (7)(3)(10)(42) . . . Wide World of Sports, 4:30 p.m. (7)(3)(42) . . . Basketball, UCLA vs. Oregon, 7:30 p.m. (5).

SUNDAY: Basketball, Michigan vs. Indiana, 9 a.m. (2)(8) . . . Basketball, ACC Tournament final, 10 a.m. (4)(36)(39) . . . Golf, Bay Hill final, noon (4)(36)(39) . . . Sports Sunday, figure skating, 1 p.m. (2)(8) . . . SportsWorld, 2 p.m. (4)(36)(39) . . . NCAA Tournament Picks, 2:30 p.m. (2)(8) . . . NBA Basketball, Trail Blazers vs. Bucks, 5 p.m. (WTBS).