PSYCHO BABBLE; LYONS TESTS THE ON-AIR JOCK LIMITS - AND HE'S TESTING IN PRIME TIME.Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media On a recent Fox Sports News Primetime broadcast, the video highlight from a New York Yankees  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. game showed Chuck Knoblauch taking a lead off second base when teammate Tino Martinez hit a liner up the middle. Anchor Steve Lyons looked down at the monitor on the desk and picked up the live narration. ``There goes Knoblauch. . . off like a prom dress. . .'' Did he just say. . .? When you live and die by the ``Psycho,'' that's what you've come to expect. Perhaps testing the boundaries of the Fox attitude to a psychotic extreme, Lyons continues a career in sportscasting with much the same, er, gusto, that he exhibited during a nine-year ride as a do-everything major-leaguer, when his most notable contribution to the game was as the Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are a professional baseball team based in Chicago, Illinois. The White Sox are a member of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the White Sox have played in U.S. player who sheepishly sheep·ish adj. 1. Embarrassed, as by consciousness of a fault: a sheepish grin. 2. Meek or stupid. sheep yanked up his pants after pulling them down in front of the Tiger Stadium crowd to shake out dirt after a head-first slide into first base nine years ago. A tour around the cable box reveals Lyons is the only ex-jock given the responsibility of delivering news on a national studio show five nights a week. But, please, he doesn't want to be called a journalist. ``I'm just an idiot ex-baseball player,'' the 38-year-old says. And many would agree. In the Fox Sports News rotation, Lyons isn't a bench player any more. He's teamed in an ``Odd Couple''-like sequel with Chris Myers on the 10 p.m. and midnight East Coast feeds and the 11 p.m. shows that go to the West Coast. It was much the same when Lyons was a player and he'd look at the lineup card posted on the dugout wall to see his name. ``Hey, aren't we trying?'' the career .253 hitter would announce to his teammates - he hoped before they could say it to him. The same thing was probably muttered around the Fox Broadcasting Center in Century City when Fox Sports News executive producer John Terenzio decided a few months ago that Lyons, who came to Fox after trying sports-talk radio in Boston and Chicago and spot reporting at ESPN ESPN Entertainment and Sports Programming Network 2 in his post-playing career, would be a permanent anchor. ``Everyone probably thought I was nuts, too,'' Terenzio said. Lyons jumped aboard Fox's expanding sports staff as a baseball game analyst several years ago. Terenzio said he noticed Lyons' broadcasting flair about a year ago when he was doing studio work for the news show. During a Fox Scope segment, Lyons described a player going from first to third ``faster than a 16-year-old on a third date with the same girl.'' Terenzio looked up. Did he just say. . .? ``It was a little crude,'' Terenzio agreed. ``But it showed imagination. He was doing highlights better than some of our highlight people.'' Terenzio asked Lyons if he'd be interested in trying out as an anchor. Lyons thought Terenzio was crazy. After a few auditions, which were ``terrible,'' Terenzio said, Lyons was ready to give up on it. But a month later, Lyons flew in three weekends in a row from his home in Phoenix to give it another try. Terenzio said Lyons kept getting better and better. ``I believe Steve has always been a natural broadcaster,'' said Terenzio. ``He talks so effortlessly to the viewer, as he was in their living room. All we needed to do was train him with the logistics of a sports anchor.'' Soon after Fox added Keith Olbermann and Myers to the news corral corral a small fenced-in enclosure with high, wooden fences, suitable for holding cattle or horses. corral system a management system in which range cattle are put into corrals and fed hay for a period when the environment is most , new anchor teams had to be drawn. Terenzio felt Lyons was ready. So did Lyons. But with what partner? If opposites attract, Lyons seemed to be a better fit with Myers. Lyons recognizes his shortcomings. He gets help writing his nightly scripts, and he types about as well as Myers might handle a curveball. But Lyons' sports knowledge, competitive nature and personality are the strengths he's banking on. ``If anything, I try to dumb down dumb down verb A popular term for simplifying language to a less sophisticated–ergo, 'dumb'–audience the scripts I'm given - if it's a three- syllable word, I'm in trouble,'' said Lyons. ``I'm thinking, `If I can't understand it, why make the guy sitting at home feel stupid?' '' Seriously, Lyons' promotion could start a ripple effect ripple effect Epidemiology See Signal event. in the ``jockocracy'' of sportscasting. If he's considered a success, more former players who aren't trained in journalism but who producers feel are engaging enough to pull it off could be lining up for these spots, rather than gaining experience by doing three-minute sports segments on local newscasts. ``He's not a blueprint for the new kind of anchor everyone will be looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. ,'' said Terenzio, who has also tried ex-NFL players Bill Maas and Ron Pitts as Fox Sports News anchors, with varying degrees of success. ``It's a case-by-case basis. Some can't pull it off five nights a week. ``There has to be three elements for success on a sportscast sports·cast n. A radio or television broadcast of a sports event or of sports news. [sports, pl. of sport + (broad)cast. : content, logical presentation and the strength of the personalities who front the show. If there's zero personality, the shows are simply no good. Clearly, Steve has the natural personality - a child-like wonderment - and the experience of a professional athlete. We can teach him the other things.'' Except when it comes to ad-libbing, which Lyons admits can work for and against him. Viewers might tune in to see what the loose cannon says tonight, but crossing a line of taste is something that could bring him down some day. Such as the time when Lyons said Oakland pitcher Kenny Rodgers was hit by a line drive and ``went down like a sniper got him'' right around the time of the Columbine High School Columbine High School is a secondary school in unincorporated Jefferson County, Colorado. The school is located at 6201 South Pierce Street, one mile west of the Littleton city limits and half a mile south of the Denver city/county line. shootings. Things Lyons says can come off as sophomoric soph·o·mor·ic adj. 1. Of or characteristic of a sophomore. 2. Exhibiting great immaturity and lack of judgment: sophomoric behavior. , homophobic or just plain mean-spirited, some at Fox privately fear, and it will reflect on everyone who works there in a negative way. ``I want to be reeled in,'' said Lyons. ``I'm not going to pull off everything I say. I know some people in the control room are probably rolling their eyes saying, `What is he doing?' But even as a player, I was that way. I relied on sarcasm. And maybe sometimes there's a little too much political correctness going around.'' Myers, who refers to Lyons and himself as ``the jock and the journalist,'' admits the pairing is a bit strange but says his partner has helped bring out more of his personality. ``Sometimes I wonder how he pulled me `out there' or how I allowed myself to get into these conversations with him,'' said Myers. ``But he brings a lot of the fun back in sports and reminds me why I got into this in the first place. Steve reminds of Phil Sims when he first started out working with me at ESPN - he was eager to learn and he did his homework.'' And the workload will only increase. Soon, Lyons will host a weekly half-hour ``Hardcore Baseball'' show for Fox Sports Net. And on Saturdays during the summer (starting June 5), he'll host the teen-oriented ``In The Zone'' show, then join Olbermann in the pregame show for the national Fox Game of the Week broadcast. It means Lyons won't be doing any more game analyses for awhile. ``As the risk of sounding conceited, I'm pretty proud of what I'm doing now,'' said Lyons. ``I have an opportunity that I wouldn't get probably anywhere else. I thought I'd be a studio or game analyst. But I feel this is a time in my life when I want to settle down and get serious. I take the job serious. But it is sports.'' SOUND BYTES By Tom Hoffarth E-mail: sptmediaaol.com WHAT SMOKES Check out the new movie ``Trippin' '' if only to see thespian/sportscaster Scott St. James play the president of the United States The head of the Executive Branch, one of the three branches of the federal government. The U.S. Constitution sets relatively strict requirements about who may serve as president and for how long. . The title has nothing to do with Linda Tripp. The 12-team Cricket World Cup, which started Thursday in England, has a TV home on the 2.2 million-strong EchoStar Dish Network. Order now, and it's only $299.95 - Jiminy Cricket! - for the whole six-week-long tourney. Fred Roggin's loss is Jim Hill's gain. Mike Cunningham, a producer at KNBC-Channel 4 for the last 16 years, was named executive producer of sports for KCBS-Channel 2. Indiana coach Larry Brown admits to Fox's Chris Myers on Sunday's episode of ``Goin' Deep'': ``Two of the greatest experiences I've ever had were coaching at UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX - I never should have left there - and coaching at Kansas. I think based on the way I am, and the kind of person I am, I am a college coach.'' Monday's edition of ``Rewind'' on Fox Sports Net includes an interview Van Earl Wright Van Earl Wright is an American sportscaster with over 20 years of national and local experience. A graduate of the University of South Carolina, Wright is known for a homespun delivery which reflects his Southern roots. His signature greeting is "Hellllooooo Everybodyy. did with Boston pitcher (and former Cleveland High star) Bret Saberhagen. WHAT CHOKES Jim Rome's nationally syndicated radio show cuts back from a four-hour frolic Frolic - A Prolog system in Common Lisp. ftp://ftp.cs.utah.edu/pub/frolic.tar.Z. to a three-hour romp starting Monday, when it'll run 9 a.m. to noon. The domino effect: ``The BodyShaper/Regenex Show'' on KXTA-AM 1150 gets another hour. Reaction to ABC's yielding to IMG's made-for-someone Tiger Woods-David Duval ``Showdown at Sherwood'' event in Thousand Oaks for Aug. 2. ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. sees its risk as minimal - it'll at least match whatever summer re-run they'd be airing in that prime-time 8-to-11 p.m. slot on the East. So what's the problem? Anyone ever see the Shell-sponsored matches between Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus or Gary Player in their day? The fact IMG IMG International medical graduate, see there represents both Woods and Duval and is shoving this ``rivalry'' at the public is what seems to irk media members most. Hey, it's just two guys golfing. Rent a Dorf video if it's so upsetting. ESPN's Joe Theismann is the latest sportscaster-turned-loan-shark for hire, hooking up with an Internet-based financial-services company called Financial Intranet. He'll be the commercial spokesperson in ads later this year. Break a leg, Joe. WHAT SMOKED ON LOCAL TV The top 10 Nielsen-rated sports events (with their share numbers) on L.A. television from May 6-12: Event Date Station Rt/Sh.x NBA NBA abbr. 1. National Basketball Association 2. National Boxing Association NBA (US) n abbr (= National Basketball Association) → Basketball-Dachverband (= : Houston at Lakers Gm. 1 5/9 KNBC KNBC Kings Norton Bowling Club 13.0/32 NBA: Houston at Lakers Gm. 2 5/11 FSW FSW Friction Stir Welding FSW Flight Software FSW Full Spectrum Warrior (video game) FSW Family Support Worker FSW Female Sex Worker FSW Fox Sports World (cable TV channel) 7.4/11 NBA: Minnesota at San Ant. Gm. 1 5/9 KNBC 6.9/19 NBA: Philadelphia at Orlando Gm. 1 5/9 KNBC6.3/17 NBA: New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of at Miami Gm. 1 5/8 KNBC 5.2/17 NBA: Sacramento at Utah Gm. 1 5/8 KNBC 5.1/14 NBA: Phoenix at Portland Gm. 1 5/8 KNBC 4.8/16 NBA: Sacramento at Utah Gm. 2 5/10 TBS 4.1/6 NBA: Utah at Sacramento Gm. 3 5/12 TNT TNT: see trinitrotoluene. TNT in full trinitrotoluene Pale yellow, solid organic compound made by adding nitrate (−NO2) groups to toluene. 4.0/6 MLB MLB Major League Baseball MLB Minor League Baseball MLB Middle Linebacker (football) MLB Motor Life Boat MLB Matt Leblanc (actor) MLB Mother Love Bone (band) : Angels at New York 5/11 KCAL kcal kilocalorie. kcal abbr. kilocalorie kcal kilocalorie. 3.3/7 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): Photo, 2 Boxes Photo: (Color) Steve Lyons, now an anchor for Fox Sports News, says he's just an idiot ex-baseball player. Gus Ruelas/Daily News Box: (1) SOUND BYTES (See text) (2) WHAT SMOKED ON LOCAL TV (See text) |
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