They giggled like a couple of schoolgirls, these former champions. Brought together last week by HBO to promote the pay-cable network’s 21st straight year of Wimbledon coverage, Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova gave a hint of what fun they’re going to have starting at 8 a.m. Monday.
They laughed about interrupting each other (“It’s like we’ll be at HBO,” said King, ” `After you. . . . no, after you.’ “) and they laughed about their broadcasting duties (“Finally, you’ll get the names right,” said Navratilova).
“Martina will do great,” said King. “She has a great memory. She remembers ev-ery-thing,” drawing out the last word until both women are–what else?–laughing. “We have such an advantage having Martina because she can pronounce all the European names that we cannot pronounce. Also, it’s great that she’s playing doubles. She’ll be in the locker room. Those little things add up to knowing the inside scoop. She’s going to have a lot of great insights.”
King did give Navratilova one piece of TV advice: “The most important thing I tell people is add something that they don’t see, because TV is a visual medium.”
While King’s playing days are over, Navratilova still will dabble in doubles, teaming with Steffi Graf. “Doubles is fairly easy,” said Navratilova, making her 23rd consecutive Wimbledon appearance. “It’s almost like a vacation. But obviously I’m taking it seriously. I want to do well; Steffi wants to do well. We’re not playing for fun. It’ll take away from my commentary because I won’t be in the booth all the time. But I’m sure those guys can handle it pretty well without me. I’ll have first-hand knowledge of how Graf is playing and what the conditions are like.”
Navratilova and King will be joined at HBO’s Wimbledon complex by host Jim Lampley, analyst John Lloyd, play-by-play man Barry MacKay, reporter Cris Collinsworth and highlights show host Larry Merchant. John McEnroe, who seems to be everywhere these days, will NOT be on HBO.
“We made our stabs at John a couple of years ago,” said Ross Greenburg, executive producer for HBO Sports. “We just can’t share John at Wimbledon .”
In all, HBO plans at least 45 hours of live coverage, up from last year’s record 36 hours. And if last week’s call was any indication, lots of giggles from the two former champions.
– NBC, which has been running some creative (if not enlightening) promos of top seeds Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, picks up its record 40 hours of Wimbledon coverage (even overlapping HBO for six hours on July 3-4) at 11 a.m. Saturday on WMAQ-Ch. 5. The network, which like HBO is in the first year of a new five-year deal with the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, will have exclusive coverage of the women’s and men’s finals at 8 a.m., July 8 and 9, respectively. Dick Enberg hosts with analysis from McEnroe, Chris Evert and–would it be Wimbledon without him?–Bud Collins. Hannah Storm will host the nightly updates.
– The 10 promos, the outtakes of which NBC showed Sunday, were shot in three hours March 29 in Palermo, Italy, where Agassi and Sampras were preparing for a Davis Cup match. “They know that their rivalry has attracted some interest,” says co-producer Brian Brown as to why the two stars agreed to the shoot. “And I think they’re thinking of the game, too, when they do things like this. This was very difficult to fit into their schedule. But they saw an opportunity to seize the moment and help a sport, which needs their personalities and excellence.”
Random thoughts: SportsChannel’s experiment with America Online was a success Friday night, with even Cubs and Indians fans taking part and giving White Sox fans a hard time. AOL estimated 250 chat-line users at its peak, with another 200 comments sent to White Sox announcers Ken Harrelson and Tom Paciorek via e-mail. . . . Now let me get this straight: Mike Goldberg left SportsChannel for ESPN so he could do more play-by-play work and he’s at the Extreme Games describing skysurfing? Good career move, Spike. . . . Didn’t CTV’s Rod Black, who helped Bob Costas co-host NBC’s coverage of Saturday’s NBA expansion draft, bear a striking resemblance to ex-Cubs (and current ESPN) broadcaster Dewayne Staats, from his curly hair and mustache to baritone voice? . . . Not only were certain team owners glad to bid good riddance to The Baseball Network, but so too were critics of the regionalized regular-season and playoff telecasts. But even if the rights are sold to one or two networks next year, don’t be surprised to see the same kind of scheduling as created by TBN.
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Programming notes: Moose Skowron reminisces about former Yankees teammate Mickey Mantle on SportsChannel’s White Sox pregame show at 6:30 p.m. Monday. “I’ve never been thrown out of a game, but I was thrown out of a bar with Mickey Mantle,” says Skowron, later a member of the White Sox. “That was the only time I had a drink with the Mick.” . . . Bulls broadcaster Tom Dore and WGN-AM sports anchor (and college basketball expert) Dave Kaplan discuss the NBA draft on a special edition of “The SportsChannel Report” at 10 p.m. Tuesday. . . . Ernie Johnson hosts TNT’s coverage of the draft at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, with analysts Hubie Brown, Rick Pitino and Dick Versace and reporters Craig Sager, Kevin Kiley and Reggie Theus.