McCarver All Wet--Thanks to Sanders

There may be times when viewers feel like dousing the verbose Tim McCarver with ice water, but Deion Sanders actually did it--three times.

The drenchings occurred in the Atlanta locker room after the Braves’ pennant-clinching victory Wednesday night.

The ice water left McCarver boiling, and he and his CBS superiors have asked National League President Bill White to do something about it.

McCarver said the first time Sanders doused him, he was so shocked that he pulled a muscle in the right side of his back. After it happened a third time--while he was doing interviews--McCarver said he went in search of Sanders in the Braves’ clubhouse.

“I didn’t know what I would do or say, but as I was going toward the middle of the clubhouse, Sanders was creeping up with another tub of water,” McCarver said during a conference call with reporters Thursday. “He said, ‘Where’s McCarver?’ and I said, ‘I’m right here.’

“He tried to hit me with another tub that missed me, and I said, ‘You know, Deion, you’re a real man, you are a real man.’ I thought it was a deliberate, cowardly act.”

Sanders, in a taped interview with TNT’s Ernie Johnson, said: “How can you be a coward for throwing water on someone? The guy just didn’t want us to win and we did. He just got a little wetter than anybody else.

“He’s flat-out ignorant. He’s more of a coward. I never met the man, and I never spoke to him in my life. We were just having a good time.”

Sanders’ action was in apparent retaliation for critical comments McCarver made last Saturday about Sanders’ plans to play for both the Falcons and Braves the next day.

“How can he leave in the playoffs and go play in a football game?” McCarver said. “The way I look at it, that’s just flat wrong and I guess could be construed as a breach of contract.”

The Atlanta Journal quoted officials of the Atlanta CBS affiliate, WAGA, as saying that White asked for copies of a tape shot by a cameraman, showing the final confrontation between McCarver and Sanders.

“I don’t know what steps I plan on taking or what steps Bill plans on taking,” McCarver said.

First Sanders says he’s not speaking with reporters except those who work for a national network. Then he douses a network reporter with ice water because that reporter dared give an opinion.

Great guy, huh?

CBS got just what the doctor ordered--a dramatic Game 7 in the National League championship series, and the first international World Series.

With the Braves playing the Toronto Blue Jays, the Series is being called the United States vs. Canada. The Braves actually have a pretty good national following, thanks to TBS.

The right teams made it, unless you’re from Pittsburgh or Oakland. But are Sean McDonough and McCarver the right team to have in the broadcast booth?

CBS could do a lot worse.

Let’s give McDonough a chance. Sure, he’s no Vin Scully. Or Al Michaels or Bob Costas, although he sounds a lot like Costas, a fellow Syracuse graduate.

But for a 30-year-old working postseason baseball on national television for the first time, he’s not so bad.

Radio talk-show hosts and other critics have been ripping McDonough, saying he’s boring. But whom do they want, Dick Vitale?

CBS, which dumped veteran Jack Buck after last year’s World Series, would be wise to stick with McDonough. The feeling here is, he’ll grow on the viewing public.

As for McCarver, no one can accuse him of not being prepared. And he isn’t afraid to express an opinion, even if he winds up being all wet.

Radio days: If Scully, who will again work the World Series for CBS radio with Johnny Bench, would rather do the Series for television, he’s not saying so.

“I’ve worked enough World Series on television,” he said. “I love radio. For one thing, the broadcasts are less restrictive.”

Another thing Scully prefers about doing radio is less attention on him.

“When you do television, you spend so much time doing newspaper interviews and things like that,” he said. “One of the things I learned from Red (Barber, his mentor) is the game is what is important, not the announcers. I never like to draw attention to myself.”

Scully, by the way, was named to the American Sportscasters Hall of Fame this week. He will be inducted at a dinner Dec. 3 in New York.

Add radio: When Sid Bream scored the winning run Wednesday night, this was Skip Caray’s call on the Braves’ radio network: “Braves win! Braves win! Braves win! Braves win! Braves win!”

That’s right. Five times he said, “Braves win!”

Thursday, Caray was still excited.

“It was the greatest moment of my broadcasting career,” he said.

Had Caray not given up his job as TNT’s NFL play-by-play announcer, he would have missed the game, since he would have been in Minneapolis preparing for Thursday night’s Viking-Detroit Lion game.

TV-Radio Notes

Even though Wednesday night’s thriller got an impressive 18.2 national Nielsen rating, the overall average for CBS’ eight prime-time playoff telecasts was a 12.7, down from a 13.7 for eight prime-time telecasts last season. . . . CBS’ World Series coverage will begin at 5 p.m. every game day, with the first pitch scheduled less than 30 minutes later.

ABC offers a UCLA-USC doubleheader on the West Coast Saturday. It’s UCLA at Washington State at noon, with Roger Twibell and former Philadelphia Eagle tight end John Spagnola reporting. At 3:30 p.m., it’s California at USC, with Al Michaels and Lynn Swann calling the action. It’s an easy trip for Michaels, who lives in Brentwood. It’s not so easy for Swann, who lives in the Pittsburgh area. . . . Because of ABC’s 3:30 telecast, there is no Prime Ticket Pacific 10 Game of the Week. . . . Because KNX is carrying the World Series, Cal-USC will be carried by KLAC.

The deal that will bring Bob Starr back as the Angels’ lead play-by-play announcer on radio has been completed, but KMPC will not announce it until the station hires Starr’s partner. KMPC General Manager Bill Ward said he hopes to be able to have a No. 2 man by the end of the month.

Who goofed? A listing in this space last week of past hosts of KABC’s now-defunct “Sportstalk” brought a note from Jim Healy, who wrote: “How could you overlook three of the legends--Leo Durocher (1965), Jimmy Piersall (late ’65 to early ‘66) and Jim Healy (Feb. ‘66-Nov. ‘66)?” Healy added that he quit the lucrative job “because I couldn’t stand talking to those idiots who called every night.” . . . Someone else left off last week’s list was Ira Fistel, a trivia buff and a favorite of many.

Recommended viewing: Yearning for something positive about college athletics? Then set the VCR for “Portraits of Excellence: The GTE Academic All-Americans,” to be televised Sunday at noon by Channel 4. The GGP-produced syndicated show, with Dick Enberg as host, focuses on athletes and former athletes who succeeded in the classroom and on the playing field. “Anyone who believes collegiate sports in America are going down the drain should watch this telecast,” Enberg said. Among those featured are Pablo Morales, U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, Mike Krzyzewski, Bill Walsh, and Merlin Olsen, who was also featured this week on the outstanding NFL Films series on ESPN, “The NFL’s Greatest Moments.”

Channel 9’s first Laker exhibition telecast, against Portland from Honolulu, will be televised Saturday night live at 10:30. Preceding the game at 10 p.m. will be a special, “Magic’s Back,” in which Magic Johnson is interviewed by Chick Hearn. . . . Last October, NFL Films did a “This Is the NFL” show on the late John Facenda. Because of the response it is being repeated this weekend, with Channel 2 carrying it Saturday at 3:30 p.m.