READY FOR ELWAY, PAST AND FUTURE; RETROSPECTIVES AIR AND `MNF' SPECULATION MOUNTS.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

When asked about the possibility that John Elway will spend his first year of NFL retirement as the third wheel in ABC's ``Monday Night Football'' booth - and, by the way, the '99 season opener is at Denver when the Broncos meet the Miami Dolphins - ABC officials have managed to stand in the pocket and face the rush just fine.

``It's an often-asked question and the best I can answer is that we're happy with a two-man booth (of Al Michaels and Boomer Esiason), but we're exploring all options and we're not excluding or including anyone,'' said ABC Sports spokesman Mark Mandel.

Unofficially, there'll be a scramble by everyone to get Elway as a broadcaster - but only if he's committed to doing it.

Elway might appear to be a perfect fit for ABC, which has an opening and has shown a willingness to change personnel, having dumped both Frank Gifford and Dan Dierdorf in consecutive years. But ABC hasn't been the kind of network to just hire someone for star value.

No network wants a repeat of what happened when NBC signed freshly retired Joe Montana and plopped him in the Sunday NFL studio show, only to expose his lack of communications skills.

Same with CBS' hiring of George Seifert (who has left) and Marcus Allen (who probably should). CBS should be most cautious about showing interest in an unproven broadcaster like Elway. It has already started offseason moves by putting Randy Cross in studio and hiring Dierdorf for games.

Fox's studio show needs no tweaking and it hasn't panicked, putting someone on as a game analyst for the sake of ratings when it has John Madden as its hitching post.

ABC can also draw from its ESPN pool of talent, which would seem to give Paul Maguire a better shot than Elway at joining ``MNF.'' If he's interested, they could even do that and let Elway sit in Maguire's chair on the ESPN Sunday night game. If anything, the best Elway fit on TV might be ESPN's ``NFL GameDay.''

But is that enough exposure for him?

Maybe ABC's best ratings bet would be to have Elway in as a guest analyst for the opener.

Tributes a mile high: ESPN, Fox Sports News (on Fox Sports West 2) and CNN/SI plan to go live with Elway's retirement press conference at noon Sunday. Then everyone will scramble to tell you what this all means.

At 12:30 p.m. ``John Elway: Farewell to a Champion,'' hosted by Chris Myers, will air on Fox Sports West.

Elway not only has to endure the ``Sunday Conversation'' with Roy Firestone, but the 8 p.m. ESPN ``SportsCenter'' will have a report by Andrea Kremer on Elway's future and a Chris Berman retrospective on Elway's place in history.

On ESPN Classic, an eight-hour Elway marathon called ``The Magnificent 7,'' which already aired Thursday, will re-air during a 24-hour period starting Sunday at 6 p.m. That cluster of shows includes a Super Bowl XXXIII recap, Broncos season highlights from 1987 and '89 and an hour-long show called ``Elway's Greatest Comebacks.''

Lawn bowling or leaf blowing? This could be the weekend when you hear Parker Bohn III say the words, ``I lost the ball in the sun.'' Or see Pete Weber struggle to light his cigarette in a stiff breeze.

Saturday at noon, CBS will be there live to cover - with cameras and canopies - the Brunswick Long Island Open, otherwise known as the first outdoor bowling event called ``The New York PBA Experience.''

After the preliminary rounds are finished Friday indoors in Coram County Lanes, the final four go outside to play at Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan. Four 53-foot trucks started building the lanes Wednesday along with horseshoe bleachers to accommodate 2,000 fans and a video Jumbotron that allows thousands more in the park to watch.

If it rains, finalists will bowl under a tent. Which'll make this look even more like a circus with empty beer bottles used as wind chimes.

Bowling as a TV event was never carnivalized like this in its 36 years on ABC, yet PBA Hall of Famer Marshall Holman, in his second year as the analyst for CBS, is ``thrilled by it.''

``New York is awe-inspiring and I hope there are thousands of fans yelling on every roll,'' said Holman - the Johnny Miller of TV bowling, since he also competes in a couple of events a year to stay connected with the game.

``Normally you go to an arena and the players have to acclimate themselves to the environment - but at least there are walls and a ceiling. Now you're dealing with all the elements. Just think about all the things in the air, whatever is flying around in Manhattan, landing on those lanes and dealing with that.''

Is that fair, throwing caution to the wind - or whatever else blows by?

``If it was a completely fair world, we'd finish match play (Friday) and whoever was ahead would win,'' said Holman. ``But the (Saturday) television final is very important to the tour. Without it, people don't see the product. This is another way to call attention to the product.''

Eye black, anyone?

Right on track: When NASCAR announced in February it would end the practice of each track negotiating its own TV deal and assume control of all media rights fees from its central location starting with the 2000 race season, speculation spread about the pros and cons of such a move.

Imagine each NFL team negotiating its own national TV deal. As a league, look at where it's gotten. NASCAR, second only to the NFL in terms of sports TV ratings, has that idea in mind as it sees its current slate of 34 events spread over six networks, including one on NBC for the first time this September.

Because of existing rights fees, fans won't see much of a change in NASCAR coverage until probably 2003.

But of all the TV players, the ABC/ESPN would be more apt to gain an edge if NASCAR had to pick one outlet as its main partner. Including Sunday's California 500 from Fontana, ABC and ESPN do 18 - more than half - of the NASCAR events, with the Nashville Network (8) and CBS (4, including the Daytona 500) ranked next. ESPN also provides daily programs and race repeats.

``NASCAR has a lot of components that are just as important as the races,'' said Mark Quenzel, an ESPN vice president of programming. ``Other sports can offer something every day for their fans. We have provided that connective tissue between events with other shows.

``I like to believe we are (in a good position with NASCAR). They've been a large part of what we've been doing here for years.''

In addition to ABC's live coverage of the California 500 at 11 a.m. Sunday, ESPN2 has 90 minutes of live qualifying today at 2:30 p.m. and re-airs the race at 8 p.m. Sunday. ESPN repeats the race at midnight Sunday.

SOUND BYTES

By Tom Hoffarth E-mail: sptmediaaol.com

WHAT SMOKES

The May issue of Brill's Content has revealed annual salary figures for several media members, which supposedly everyone wants to know but is afraid to ask. The magazine admits the numbers aren't entirely accurate because they don't include outside incomes, speaking fees, etc. As for that $1 million deal Fox reportedly gave Keith Olbermann - Brill's has KO pulling down $2.67 mil. ``I have no problem with printing those figures, nor did I when I was making $26,000 a year at CNN,'' said Olbermann, who - for the record - had no comment on his figure. Other numbers: ESPN's Robin Roberts makes $650,000, Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly gets $450,000, Chicago Tribune columnist Skip Bayless makes $225,000 and an ESPN production assistant makes $9 an hour.

When you've got it, you've got it. And Hank Goldberg, more of an NFL expert for ESPN, has picked four of the last five Kentucky Derby winners. So he's been added to Saturday's ABC telecast. ``Hopefully, I wasn't just hired to pick the winner,'' Goldberg said. ``If that's the case, I could have a very short career.'' Psst: If you're using ABC's crew to make a wager, Goldberg says go with Prime Timber.

WHAT CHOKES

In arguing before the Nevada Athletic Commission last week for experimenting with open scoring, boxing promoter Bob Arum successfully pointed out the disservice HBO brings by allowing Harold Lederman to post his unofficial scorecard during the bout. But in doing so, Arum managed to get another shot at HBO commentator Larry Merchant, who he once basically had banned from an Oscar De La Hoya bout because he took offense to comments Merchant made about mariachi music played for De La Hoya's entrance. At the meeting, Arum played a tape of HBO's broadcast of De La Hoya's recent close call over Pernell Whitaker, when Lederman continued to score the bout in favor of Whitaker because of Merchant's opinions. In those same rounds, the judges, it was later revealed, were with De La Hoya. ``The point I'm trying to make is not whether Harold Lederman is good or bad,'' Arum said while making that exact point. ``In fact, he wasn't watching (the fight). He was listening to Merchant . . . right then, when it happened, Lederman's error would have been exposed (if open scoring was in place).'' Just as Arum's bias against Merchant was exposed again.

WHAT SMOKED ON LOCAL TV

The top 10 Nielsen-rated sports events (with their share numbers) on L.A. television from April 22-28:

Event Date Station Rt/Sh.x

NBA: Lakers at San Antonio 4/24 KNBC 6.5/14

MLB: St. Louis at Dodgers 4/23 KTLA 5.7/10

MLB: St. Louis at Dodgers 4/24 KTLA 4.7/9

NBA: Lakers at Houston 4/26 KCAL 4.2/9

NBA: Seattle at Utah 4/25 KNBC 3.8/10

NASCAR Diehard 500 4/25 KABC 3.7/10

PGA Greater Greensboro Open 4/25 KCBS 2.7/8

MLB: St. Louis at Dodgers 4/25 ESPN 2.7/5

NBA: Houston at Phoenix 4/25 KNBC2.3/6

PGA Greater Greensboro Open 4/24 KCBS 2.1/6

Note: The 4/26 Lakers-Houston game also had a 1.0/2 number on TBS.

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)