Assignment for CBS Means We Haven’t Seen Last of Lasorda

Tom Lasorda, who seemingly is on television more than Johnny Carson, or even Jay Leno, will be back in front of a camera this weekend.

The Dodgers may not have made it to postseason play, but Lasorda has.

CBS will use the Dodger manager as an analyst on its National League pregame programs Saturday and Sunday.

Lasorda will fly to New York to join Pat O’Brien in a CBS studio for the weekend shows.

Lasorda, still reeling from the Dodgers’ failure to win the National League West, said his fondness for O’Brien is the main reason he accepted the CBS offer.

“I have a lot of respect for Pat O’Brien, so when he called, I said I’d be glad to do it,” Lasorda said from his home in Fullerton.

Lasorda does so much broadcasting work, you’d think he might consider going into it full time.

“You never want to say never, but I really enjoy managing,” Lasorda said. “I love my job. I just can’t see myself doing anything else.”

To preempt as little prime-time programming as possible, CBS is doing pregame shows only on the weekends during the playoffs. The first half-hour pregame show will be Saturday at 11:30 a.m., before Game 3 of the NL series.

Channel 2 has taken advantage of the absence of a weeknight pregame show, offering 15-minute pregame programs of its own, plus postgame wrap-ups.

Cutting out pregame shows is one indication that CBS doesn’t have a lot of money to spend on baseball, but the overall production hasn’t suffered--unless you count the lack of introductions.

The players’ families and friends may miss them, but to many viewers they are a waste of time.

Also missing have been the singing of the national anthems and the traditional first pitch.

This is what you call “no-frills” baseball.

Despite trimming production costs, CBS’ camera work has been superb.

Hardly anything has been missed, whether it is Commissioner Fay Vincent chowing down a hot dog or Minnesota catcher Brian Harper picking up signals from Manager Tom Kelly.

The announcing has been OK. Jack Buck and Tim McCarver tend to chatter too much, which is hardly anything unusual, but they rarely offend.

On the AL series, Jim Kaat has been tremendous, but partner Dick Stockton has been struggling.

With Stockton, you often ask yourself, “Say what?”

Stockton is fine as long as the action is routine. But when things get a bit confusing, watch out.

He got lost when Roberto Alomar’s pop fly to shallow center field fell in during the sixth inning of Game 1. “The ball is safe,” Stockton finally blurted out.

In the same inning, with Devon White on first base and Alomar at the plate, Stockton got the two confused, saying: “Alomar started to go (to second). . . .”

Instead of correcting himself and saying he meant to say White, Stockton kept going and made things worse, saying: “ . . . but then thought of it” instead of “had second thoughts.”

CBS reporter Andrea Joyce, working the NL series, made a worthy contribution Wednesday night when she interviewed Pirate trainer Kent Bickerstaff about pitcher Doug Drabek’s pulled hamstring.

But Lesley Visser, assigned to the AL series, has offered little.

Worse yet, it wasn’t good planning for CBS to have Visser working with her husband, Stockton. This arrangement looks bad.

Pro football: For the second week in a row, Los Angeles is being deprived of seeing the undefeated Washington Redskins.

Last week, the Redskins’ game against Chicago wasn’t shown here because NBC, which had priority that day, was forced to televise a 10 a.m. game--Houston vs. Denver--because its only 1 p.m. game--San Diego at Raiders--had to be blacked out. So, CBS had to show a 1 p.m. game, a dud between the New York Giants and Phoenix.

This Sunday, because of baseball, CBS will give us a 10 a.m. game--New Orleans vs. Philadelphia, which might have been a good matchup a few weeks ago.

NBC will show a 1 p.m. game--Miami vs. Kansas City.

In most areas, NBC will deliver a doubleheader, opening with Cleveland vs. the Redskins. But NBC can’t show a doubleheader here because the Rams are at home.

Once again, Los Angeles gets short-changed by the NFL’s short-sighted TV policies.

The TNT telecast of the Raiders’ 4:30 p.m. game at Seattle Sunday also will be carried by Channel 9, something the NFL requires so that viewers without cable in the Raiders’ home market will not be deprived.

It’s TNT’s last game of the season, with ESPN taking over the following Sunday, meaning it’s also commentator Pat Haden’s final game of the season for TNT.

Haden will switch to CBS Radio for the second half of the season.

Haden, on Seattle’s Chuck Knox, who was Haden’s coach when he played for the Rams: “I think Chuck is a tremendous coach. He gets the most out of the players he has. His problem is, he’s never had a dominating quarterback, including myself.”

Haden, on Raider backup quarterback Todd Marinovich: “I think the best thing for Todd is for him not to play a down this season. The Raiders have a history of bringing quarterbacks along slowly, and it has worked well for them.”

Haden has known Marinovich since he was a toddler. Marinovich’s uncle, Gary, was Haden’s high school coach at Bishop Amat.

TV-Radio Notes

It’s quite a weekend for sports viewing. Besides postseason baseball and lots of football, there is also Lakers vs. Celtics on Channel 9 tonight, delayed until 6. Gary Cruz’s pregame show will be on at 5:30. . . . Saturday’s college football lineup is a good one. There’s Penn State-Miami on ABC, Notre Dame-Pittsburgh on NBC, Oregon-California on ABC and USC-Washington State and Arizona-UCLA on Prime Ticket. . . . Oregon-Cal, with Gary Bender and Lynn Swann reporting, is going only to the West Coast. ABC’s main regional game is Ohio State-Illinois, which won’t be shown here. . . . On Oct. 19, ABC’s main regional game will be Washington at California.

Ratings game: CBS got an impressive 14.0 Nielsen rating for the Pirates-Braves opener Wednesday and won the night. The 14.0 is up 15% from the 12.2 for Game 1 of the National League series last year. For its first two night playoff games this year, CBS averaged a 12.8 rating. ABC, after getting a 17.7 for Kansas City vs. Buffalo last Monday, is averaging a 17.4 for regular-season NFL football. . . . If there is a Game 5 of the NL playoffs Monday, it will begin at noon so CBS’ blockbuster prime-time lineup can remain intact. . . . A reminder: KNX is carrying CBS Radio’s postseason coverage, with Jim Hunter and Johnny Bench on the American League series and John Rooney and Jerry Coleman on the National League series. . . . KABC radio will broadcast a salute to the Dodgers tonight from 6 to 7, with Steve Edwards and Ross Porter. Also, Fred Claire will be in the studio to take calls.

Prime Ticket’s “Press Box” half-hour news show, off to an excellent start, celebrates its one-year anniversary Wednesday. “Press Box” scored a coup this week, getting Doc Rivers live from Atlanta to talk about his contract dispute with the Clippers. Rivers’ side of it was that the Clippers have gone against their word. Also, Randi Hall deserves some kind of bravery award for her bungee-jumping piece Tuesday night--actually doing it herself. Just watching her jump out of a hot-air balloon gondola was scary.

Channel 7’s Jim Hill remains on a hot streak, landing Darryl Strawberry as a guest on the final day of the Dodger season. . . . Channel 9 will show a one-hour special on minor league baseball Sunday at 9 p.m. Sportscaster Cruz spent a week on the road with the High Desert Mavericks. . . . Five members of the 1951 Ram team--Tom Fears, Dan Towler, Dick Hoerner, Woodley Lewis and Harry Thompson--will be on the “John Robinson Show” on Channel 2 Saturday at 3:30 p.m.