RADIO SHOW PROVES GOOD GUYS WIN.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY

Good guys don't finish last. They win. Ross and Lin Porter are proving that.

The former Los Angeles Dodgers announcer and his wife of 46 years have teamed up to bring us important, poignant stories of real sports heroes.

Those would be the athletes without rap sheets and criminal defense attorneys.

"I got up one morning about five or six months ago, picked up the sports page, and it looked like a disaster sheet," Ross said Monday from his Woodland Hills home.

"Michael Vick, Tour de France competitors being disqualified for using illegal substances, a couple of drunk-driving arrests and a few more athletes beating up someone.

"I was so tired of it. I figured there had to be other people tired of it, too. That's when I knew this kind of show would work."

This kind of show is Porter's daily drive time radio gig on KABC-AM (790) featuring the positive, good things athletes and coaches do -- from local youth sports coaches all the way up to pro athletes and major league managers.

It's not fluff. It's solid stories filled with inspiration and integrity, a throwback to times when you'd smile after hearing or reading a sports story, not shake your head and frown.

The show, which airs at 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 7 to 10 p.m. Sunday, reminds us that good guys can and do win.

"Lin and I wanted to focus on the everyday athlete or person who has no spotlight," he says. "I think those are the people we all want to hear and read about."

For people who are not in their cars or listening to the radio at home when Ross is on the air, Lin writes stories for their Web site, realsportsheroes.com.

She writes about Angel Manager Mike Scioscia making hospital visits to a young boy dying of cancer and how they made the boy's last weeks of life fuller and happier.

She writes about AYSO Region 71 in Woodland Hills forming a VIP team for special-needs children, and a Chaminade High School business teacher and his students opening the Higher Grounds coffee shop on campus to sell coffee and help poor Ethiopian farmers trying to sell theirs.

With each story about a well-known athlete or coach, like Tiger Woods or John Wooden, she includes the charity they sponsor because that goes hand in hand with being one of the good guys.

"Athletes, coaches, teachers, they're all role models who have an impact on young lives," Lin says. "You can't go out and do something disgraceful and have that same impact."

The Porters have invited people to write to them on their Web site about an athlete, coach, or teacher who was inspirational in their lives.

The stories will be judged and the best of them will be posted on the Saluting Teamwork link on the site. One winner will receive four free tickets on American Airlines, which sponsors Porter's radio show and Web site.

"It's a way for the community to give credit to local groups -- high schools, sports teams, etc. -- who are doing something that is positive for charities and people in need," Ross said.

The idea for "Real Sports Heroes" grew out of a weekend Lin and Ross spent in Ojai baby-sitting their grandkids shortly after learning the Dodgers were not going to renew his contract.

"We talked about what he wanted to do next because Ross still had a lot to give," Lin said. "He wasn't going to stop working."

Whatever it was going to be, it had to be positive, they agreed. Both were tired of the negative, sensational sports reports getting far too much attention.

"I've been a sports fan all my life," Ross says. "My dad said that when I was 3, I'd sit on his lap while we read the sports page together."

Did dads still do that with their sons and daughters today, he wondered. Were they bonding reading about Michael Vick going to jail, or another superstar being pulled over for drunk-driving or getting in a fight?

Somebody needed to balance this madness -- talk and write about the real sports heroes showing integrity in their lives on and off and field.

And now someone is.

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com

818-713-3749

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Photo:

Lin and Ross Porter, shown at their at their Woodland Hills home, are highlighting the positive stories about athletes, coaches and managers on a KABC-AM (790) radio show.

Photo by Bradley Mintz