MANAGERS WILL HAVE THE LAST SAY.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH Media

It could be one of the greatest coups in Fox Sports history - it has actually been allowed to have Bob Brenly sit in uniform on the Arizona Diamondbacks' bench during its coverage of this year's World Series starting Saturday.

So what if he'll be slightly distracted as he's managing the team against the New York Yankees. For the last few years, when he sat in the booth with Tim McCarver during the network's coverage of the Fall Classic, he practiced working while being distracted.

Fox won't know until Saturday morning whether Brenly or Yankees manager Joe Torre (another former broadcaster, once with the Angels) will be willing to wear microphones during the series. But chances are, even on tape, the two will provide much more intriguing audio as the games unfold than if it was Bobby Cox trading strategy with Charlie Manuel.

``He's the one manager who will wear a microphone,'' play-by-play man Joe Buck said of Brenly, a Fox analyst for five seasons before taking his first managerial job after the 2000 season. ``That was the one thing I think Ed (Goren, Fox executive producer) told him, 'That's fine, you can leave, we'll miss you and you were a great employee, but if you don't wear a microphone, then you've just crushed everything we've tried to build up around here'

``So he wears the microphone and anything we need to know, (producer Michael) Weisman is listening to him throughout the game and he just passes it on in our ears, and we act like it's our own information. It's a wonderful setup.''

As for Fox ferreting better information out of Brenly since they know him so well, it's not that simple.

``We went into his office the first game we were in St. Louis - Game 3 of the division series - and we sat down in some meeting,'' said Buck. ``We found ourselves looking at Bob and my first question to him was, 'Well, if you were us, what would we ask you?'

``It is awkward somewhat. He is willing to share. But the sad fact of it is when it's Tim, myself, and (producer) Mike Weisman sitting in Bob Brenly's office, there's about 5 percent shop talk and there's 95 percent joking around about everything but the games. It's probably taken less seriously than it should be, but it's such a pleasure to sit across from him and tell him how much we admire the job he's doing.''

--A new Zone: The brawl on ESPN's ``Up Close'' that Lennox Lewis and Hasim Rahman had in August at the ESPN Zone restaurant in Anaheim's Downtown Disney was completely unscripted, if you believe then-host Gary Miller.

Nearly two months later, Chris Connelly replaces Miller for a new version of the half-hour chat-it-up called ``Unscripted,'' which, as the name implies, wants to continue the illusion that it's based in reality.

Except this time, Connelly says it'll take realism in a different direction. No, really.

``I think `Up Close' was a victim of its own success,'' said Connelly, the former MTV reporter, sitting at one of the ESPN Zone restaurant tables for a quick lunch after taping Wednesday's show with guest Dennis Miller.

``In the early days, you couldn't find another show like it. These days, it's like every other interview show. People are still curious about X's and O's, but the sports culture has crossed over, much like MTV saw with its youth culture.''

While this and other shows in ESPN's lineup provide more reality-based programming to fill in between live-game coverage, Connelly doesn't agree with those who've decided that the all-sports channel has embraced the MTV philosophy and veered too far from what its original intentions.

``ESPN will always be about sports because a sports audience is always the best informed,'' said Connelly, who grew up in New York as a Mets, Jets and Islanders fan. ``Sports will always be at the center of it and shows like this will be like a radiant of that center.''

With Connelly's connection to the entertainment world, don't be surprised if Connelly has Mick Jagger on to talk about cricket or Matt Damon for his thoughts on synchronized swimming. Connelly, after all, says he's as comfortable grilling Old Dirty Bastard as he would be with Mary Lou Retton.

For starters, one element of ``Unscripted'' that makes it different from ``Up Close'' is the fact it embraces the lunch crowd/audience. People are seated behind the stage - some are clapping, some are hitting the bottom of ketchup bottles.

Another twist is that people can submit questions to guests via computer video phone (the process is explained on the ESPN.com Web site at http://unscripted.espn.go.com/video/).

--Miller Q and A: The first question Connelly hit Miller with on Wednesday's show had to do with the lower ratings on ``Monday Night Football'' in proportion to the increased media scrutiny of Miller's booth work on the show.

A less-than-defiant Miller responded: ``It seems a little ... I just can't focus on that as much as most people seem to want to. The world has seemingly changed in the last month to where I can't get up and come to a restaurant in Anaheim and sweat bullets about all that.

``The ratings are what they are. And the media criticism, jeez, I've been in this business long enough to know I'll always be in someone's crosshairs. I've grown accustomed to its face.''

Connelly later asked if Miller, hired by ABC primarily because he was an NFL outsider, suddenly had a problem figuring out if he wanted to be sort of an insider on the air now that he has access to coaches and players.

Miller seemed baffled by the concept, finally answering: ``I don't think about it that deeply. I show up, I watch the football game. I talk. I'll talk to the point they either rehire me or they'll whack me.

``And if they whack me, I always thought G. Gordon Liddy was a madman during Watergate, but I did dig it when he said, 'If you're going to take me out, just let me know what corner you want me on.' ''

SOUND BYTES

WHAT SMOKES

--All the sports-related quips from Dennis Miller's latest book of transcribed HBO monologues, ``The Rant Zone'' ($23, Harper Collins, 196 pages, available in audio), this particular one on sports-talk radio: ``I'm not saying everyone in the sports-punditry business is an idiot. I believe I'm in there somewhere, and I'm sure I'm not everybody's cup of tea. What I'm talking about is the four-hundred-pound sports-talk radio host who, in between mouthfuls of corned-beef sandwiches and mayonnaise salad washed down with a glass of pureed Snicker bars, says he thinks Derek Jeter's starting to get a little soft. ... Sports-talk radio is too often a lethal concoction of ego and bravado masking in deep-rooted insecurity. That doesn't mean I don't love it. In fact, that's exactly why I love it. But I'm also aware that it takes a huge chunk out of my day, time that could otherwise be spent doing something a little more productive. You know, like watching sports-talk television with my family.''

WHAT CHOKES

--``Ever since Wayne Gretzky came to the team, I can't remember four straight Kings games not being in TV in years,'' said play-by-play man Bob Miller, who, with analyst Jim Fox and producer Bob Borgen, flew home after Tuesday's road game in Columbus, Ohio, since the games Thursday at Tampa Bay, tonight at Florida, Sunday morning at Carolina and Tuesday at Chicago aren't part of Fox Sports Nets' 65-game TV schedule. The bummer is most of L.A. won't be able to see new center Jason Allison in action until Nov. 1. ``Unfortunately, that's the way the schedule was set before the season and it's just bad timing,'' said Fox Sports Net spokesman Dennis Johnson, noting economics and scheduling conflicts with the Lakers and college basketball goes into the decision process. To add to the frustration, DirecTV satellite's ``Center Ice'' pay-per-view package has only one of those four Kings games available through the home team's broadcast.

--Wrong treatment for ``Rites of Autumn.'' The Ken Burns documentary about the history of football has had a ragged start on ESPN and ESPN2 because of postponements. Then the hour-long snippets seem to be scattered among the programming schedule. We're probably going to just wait for the thing to come out as a boxed set to enjoy the Burt Reynolds-narrated work the way it was intended.

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

no caption (book: RANT ZONE)

Box: SOUND BYTES (see text)