EXPECT OVER-THE-TOP COVERAGE; SERIES TO BE SMOTHERED WITH HIGH-TECH DOODADS.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH

Down at ``Gadgets R Us,'' Fox Sports' most trusted baseball producer, John Filippelli, filled his shopping cart with goodies for what the network hopes is more than a week's worth of bicoastal World Series games starting Saturday.

From the checkout stand, check out this haul:

Microphones: 60 of 'em. He used his ``Buy 30, Get 30 Free'' coupon.

Cameras: 19. Three of them with super-slo-mo. All with zoom lenses, capable of capturing a Paul O'Neill hissy fit from a floating tower built on the Harlem River if necessary.

Tape machines: 15, for ad nauseam replays, silly. Or, just in case Springsteen's new boxed CD comes out early, they can makes tapes for everyone at Yankee Stadium.

The catcher-cam: Batteries included.

And don't forget up the counter the other bells, whistles, joy buzzers, air horns, bassoons, Geiger counters, Mr. Microphones, whoopee cushions, slide trombones, harpsichords, kazoos and pocket-comb harmonicas.

Short of calling this potentially the most overproduced, overdirected, over-and-out baseball broadcast in television history, the most interesting over-and-under bet in Vegas this weekend won't be the score but how many minutes of pure, unadulterated live action will be shown of the ballgame.

OK, so it's a director's medium. But it's also a viewers' form of enjoyment. Maybe what we need is a Viewer-Cam (patent pending) to show them what we end up seeing when they're done painting on their video canvas.

You know, if ``Casey at the Bat'' was done today, Ernest Thayer would have to include the entire pitch sequence with Tim McCarver's narration, the view from the Catcher-Cam, the reaction from the Mudville Nine's skipper, the reaction from the Mudville Nine's owner, the reaction from the other Mudville eight, another super-duper slo-mo see-every-seam-on-the-ball replay of the final pitch, a blimp shot, a tight slo-mo close-up of the pitcher's reaction after the whiff, a tight slo-mo close-up of Casey's reaction as he turns to the ump and asks if he swung at a strike, the reaction from Flynn when he was done a-huggin' third and a shot of somewhere where men laugh and children shout.

Maybe there's no crying in baseball, but for cryin' out loud, instead of tape machines, they ought to be looking at time machines to remember how the games used to be televised. We used to give these events time to come up for air instead of smothering them with technological advancements.

Now, you could have wandered from the TV for a moment to stick your head outside to gulp some oxygen in the middle of a Jim Leyritz at-bat, and then heard the crack and crowd going berserk as Leyritz hits out one out, only to rush back to the set and hear Joe Buck say, ``That was from 1996.''

Now, you could anticipate the slow walk Ken Caminiti makes from the on-deck circle to the plate to face David Wells with the bases loaded and two out, but they'll be busy showing the 12-pitch inside-outside, high-low sequence Wells just made to Greg Vaughn before he popped out to the catcher, then a shot of a turtleneck-wearing George Steinbrenner in the owners' box mouthing the words ``I'm glad we didn't make that trade.''

Now, you have to hope the umpires aren't trying to do their job - to speed the game along - so that we don't miss the first pitch of the inning because a promo to ``King of the Hill'' salutes baseball on its swell year.

(And how does a cartoon character say thanks to a real sport?)

On a conference call with reporters Thursday morning, Filippelli said, ``I'd like to see us continue the things Fox has been fortunate to pioneer, which are the sounds of the game putting mikes in bases and walls, the split screens to tell stories, the spray charts and hot zones graphics . . . all the things Fox brought to forefront. I just hope to just continue.''

That's not to pooh-pooh the innovations. Catcher-Cam, for example, could be the greatest single piece of equipment available for the game today. As long as it's used judiciously. Or else we'll be up there with Brendan Frasier on the roof of Yankee Stadium in ``The Scout,'' plum afraid to come down.

In '96, when Fox did its first World Series, it won an Emmy Award for live coverage and the network gained its first weekly prime-time ratings win. So at least it has some justification in doing what it's doing.

If not the viewers, there are the voters. And even at Price-Waterhouse, that's got to count for something.

McCARVER ON THE MARK

Although the faculty at Fox Tech seems to profess excess, no one has benefited more from the three-man announcing booth than Tim McCarver, who in pulling back to allow more time for Bob Brenly for postplay analysis has been able to do concentrate on anticipating the action.

Take the NLCS San Diego-Atlanta Game 6 Wednesday. Sixth inning, two out. Padres load the bases having pushed across two runs already. Sterling Hitchcock at the plate. Should be an automatic out, allowing the Braves to escape with minimal damage.

But McCarver notes the Padres' pitcher had a base hit in Game 3, to left field, and he has no power to right, meaning ``you have to shorten up if you're the left fielder Danny Bautista.'' Pitch fouled off for strike one.

McCarver continues: ``This is no time to have a flair drop in front of you if you're a left fielder. Danny Bautista, in my view, is too deep right now. He needs to play three more strides toward the infield.'' Pitch taken for strike two.

Next pitch: Hitchcock flares one to left, Bautista charges, drops what should have been a routine play, two more runs score. And McCarver looks like a genius, just as some might remember he did in the '88 NLCS, when he noticed Dodgers center fielder John Shelby playing too deep with the Mets' Gary Carter, who promptly dropped a hit in front of Shelby to put the Mets ahead in a critical game.

Given the time and space, McCarver has the tools, with or without a ex-Catcher-Cam.

SOUND BYTES

By Tom Hoffarth E-mail: sptmediaaol.com

WHAT SMOKES

Tailgating at the Rose Bowl on Saturday can start at 5:30 a.m., 'cause that's when ESPN's ``College GameDay'' crew will assemble for a first broadcast prior to UCLA's midday game against Oregon. Chris Fowler must pump UCLA favorite Lee Corso with caffeine and Kirk Herbstreit with information for the 8 a.m. show that will include a taped feature from Steve Cyphers about how a UCLA team meeting before the Arizona game resulted in the lopsided win over the Wildcats last Saturday night. ``College GameDay'' has done 37 live remotes during the regular season since 1993 before coming out to these parts. What's that tell you?

Got a USSB dish? Then you can watch the entire Mike Tyson Nevada relicensing hearing live on Channel 900 Monday at 9 a.m.

WHAT CHOKES

With ESPN Radio taking over the World Series from CBS Radio, Vin Scully's days are over as the voice of October. ESPN's ``Sunday Night'' broadcasting tandem of Jon Miller and Joe Morgan will do the job from here on out. Sure, a worthy team. And Morgan is superb at what he does. But no Scully?

Charley Steiner's ESPN Radio baseball play-by-play.

Not enough San Fernando Valley homes hooked up with ESPN Classic, which today at 4 p.m. starts its presentation of the ``Ultimate World Series'' with a condensed replay of the Dodgers-A's Game 1 from the '88 Series. (Don't worry, it'll include the bottom of the ninth.)

Fox Sports Net has talked about filling in missing Lakers and Clippers games with ``classics'' from the video library. A classic Clippers game is an oxymoron, indeed.

WHAT SMOKED ON LOCAL TV

The top 10 Nielsen-rated sports events (with their share numbers) on L.A. television from Oct. 8-14:

Event Date Station Rt/Sh.x

NLCS Gm 5: Atl.-SD 10/12 Fox 14.0/23

ALCS Gm 6: Cle.-NY 10/13 KNBC 13.4/23

NFL: Miami-Jacksonville 10/12 KABC 12.1/19

NLCS Gm 4: Atl.-SD 10/11 Fox 11.7/22

NLCS Gm 2: SD-Atl. 10/8 Fox 11.3/20

ALCS Gm 4: NY-Cle. 10/10 KNBC 10.3/21

NLCS Gm 3: Atl.-SD 10/10 Fox 10.2/27

NFL: Denver-Seattle 10/11 KCBS 10.0/23

ALCS Gm 3: NY-Cle. 10/9 KNBC 9.5/18

ALCS Gm 5: NY-Cle. 10/11 KNBC 9.0/21

Note: NLCS Game 6, SD-Atl., Wednesday afternoon on Fox had a 6.7/21 mark.

x -One rating point equals 50,092 TV homes in Los Angeles; a share is the percentage of all the TV sets in use at that time.

CAPTION(S):

2 Boxes

Box: (1) SOUND BYTES (See Text)

(2) WHAT SMOKED ON LOCAL TV (See Text)