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Monday, October 18, 1999

Watch Dallas tonight, but turn down the volume

By Bart Wright
Caller-Times Sports Editor

If this is Monday, it's notes to me:

The Cowboys have the stage to themselves again tonight on Monday Night Football and that's about where the good news ends.
   If you've had a chance to catch Boomer Esiason's act in the ABC broadcast booth this season, you'll probably be among the growing numbers of folks around the country who opt to turn down the TV volume and listen to the game on radio.
   Play-by-play man Al Michaels remains one of the best in all of sports but Esiason has been disturbingly inadequate. It is amazing that a person who had a long, if not glorious career, could spout as many mind-numbingly boring cliches as Esiason.
   If there's a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, look for Boomer to say something like, "Big play coming up here, Al."
   A few years ago I would have bet you ABC couldn't possibly have found a more mundane, colorless announcer than Frank Gifford.
   That's another bet I would have lost.

Speaking of the Cowboys, is it too soon to declare the rebuilding project officially underway following the loss of wide receiver Michael Irvin? It sounds like Irvin is going to do the smart thing and retire. He and Mike Modano of the Dallas Stars both came away from their recent neck injuries very fortunate and both are devoting serious consideration to their futures.
   The Cowboys looked like a borderline playoff team prior to the Irvin injury. Now, they may be on the bad side of the border.
   But it could always be worse. You could be a San Francisco 49ers fan holding breath until quarterback Steve Young makes his anticipated retirement announcement.
   Without Young, the Niners look a lot like a 6-10 team.

Did anyone else notice that this year's baseball pennant playoffs is an all-Boston and all-New York matchup in terms of franchise birthplaces?
   The Braves were in Boston until 1952 when they moved to Milwaukee, then later took up residence in Atlanta.

We're always getting criticized in this business for telling you what we think and then being proven wrong.
   Nothing wrong with that, it's our lot in life.
   But I'd like to see the Las Vegas betting stub held by the guy who plunked down $100 or more on the St. Louis Rams to win the Super Bowl. Doesn't seem the most outlandish possibility today, does it?
   Before the season started, the Wise Guys in Vegas were giving 200-1 odds on that happening.

Sure, I'm old enough to remember Wilt Chamberlain and yes, I do think sports were more fun back then.
   Case in point - Chamberlain scored 100 points a single game one night in Hershey, Pa.
   Last year, only one team in the NBA - the Sacramento Kings, for cryin' out loud - averaged 100 points a game.
   Advantage: Old days.

Not that long ago the Big 12 Conference moved to St. Louis to play in a dome and they said it wouldn't be played anywhere other than a dome to assure fans of a comfortable, warm setting for the game.
   Then Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt stepped up to the table, offered to put the Big 12 Championship game in his season ticket package, virtually assuring an attendance of 70,000 with a fat financial guarantee.
   You'll see it happen next year in, what, 40-degree temperatures?
   You gotta love the purity of amateur athletics, untainted as they are by the greed of professionalism.

Sportswriters aren't the only "experts" who are often wrong.
   How about those genius professional football minds who determined Brett Favre was the third best quarterback in the 1991 draft.
   And who did they decide were better quarterbacks?
   How about Dan McGwire and Todd Marinovich?

It's a marathon, not a sprint, but sometime over the next two or three years, the NFL is going to choose a winner in the Los Angeles franchise sweepstakes, awarding that city to an existing franchise for relocation. The winner will almost certainly come from among the Bears, Vikings, Raiders, Cardinals and Eagles.
   Reading between the lines, I'll put my early money on the Eagles following the statement I read last week from their chief operating officer Joe Banner, who has been the organizational point man for the new stadium drive in Philadelphia.
   "The Eagles have been exhausting every possibility in their commitment to get this deal done in Philadelphia," Banner said.
   Translation - Build us a new stadium and fast or you can watch us on TV in Los Angeles.





Contact Sports Editor Bart Wright at 886-3745 or by e-mail at wrightb@caller.com

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