Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 24, 1993 TAG: 9304240028
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
When Mel Kiper talks about the NFL draft, people listen. They have for a decade on ESPN, which will televise the first 6 1/2 hours of the draft live Sunday, starting at noon. Actually, Kiper won't be doing anything different than he does any other day of the year.
"This is my job," he said.
Kiper is a draft expert. He begins familiarizing himself with players when they are high school seniors. By the time they are college seniors, he knows heights, weights, times in the 40-yard dash - of 800 players. He also knows which ones NFL teams need and want.
How do you become a draft expert?
Kiper, 32, was a receiver and shortstop at Calvert Hall School in Towson, Md. Before that, when he was 12, he began keeping charts on the NFL draft. A few years later, he hung around the Baltimore Colts offices and training camp. When most kids are 16, they want a driver's license. When Mel was 16, he decided that prospecting the draft would be his job.
"In the late '60s and early '70s, the NFL draft was starting to interest more people," Kiper said. "Football was the one sport where the draft meant instant return. In baseball, a player has to go through the minors. In basketball, there weren't enough names."
Kiper attended Essex Community College, but doesn't have a degree, and he's never needed one. His father, Mel Sr., bankrolled his dream. Draft Publications Inc., which began in 1981 by issuing one report each March, has expanded to five reports annually.
The satellite dishes at his Baltimore office allows Kiper to watch 20-25 college games a week. No, Kiper doesn't work out of his basement, which a New York Jets' executive derisively said in 1989 when Kiper ripped the Jets' first-round choice of former Virginia linebacker Jeff Lageman.
Kiper talks a good game, and most often he does it without notes. He has his own 900 phone number where you can get his opinions, and 87 percent of the subscribers to his Draft Report last month will renew next year.
"The business is basically on cruise control," Kiper said.
Mel talks that way, too.
\ RACE DELAY: With ESPN airing the NFL draft, the telecast of Sunday's NASCAR Winston Cup Hanes 500 from Martinsville Speedway will be tape-delayed until Monday at 7:30 p.m. Although it is the only Winston Cup event in 1993 that is not televised live, Martinsville still is paid a $150,000 rights fee by ESPN for the race.
Today's Hanes 150, part of the NASCAR Dash Series, will be aired live from the speedway by ESPN at 2 p.m. And while Sunday's race won't be televised live, there will be live television on the cable network from the track during the Winston Cup event at the .526-mile track.
Kansas City's new quarterback Joe Montana, who has an endorsement contract with Hanes, will be the grand marshal of the Martinsville race. Montana is scheduled to appear live Sunday at 11:25 a.m. on ESPN's "SportsCenter" just before the NFL draft show, from the Goodyear Building adjacent to the Martinsville pits.
\ GOOD AS GOLD: Eli Gold, who will co-anchor Sunday's Hanes 500 radio broadcast for the Motor Racing Network, goes to Salisbury, N.C., Monday for the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association awards. Gold, a former Roanoke hockey voice, has been named the Alabama Sportscaster of the Year for the third time.
A Birmingham resident, Gold is in his 17th year with MRN. He's also the host of the weekly "NASCAR Live" call-in show, but in Alabama, he's best known as the football and basketball play-by-play voice of the Crimson Tide.
\ HOOP HEAVEN: NBC's move to early-round triple-headers highlights an increase in the coverage of the NBA playoffs this year. Depending on the length of series, viewers could see as many as 66 games on NBC (WSLS, Channel 10) and cable's TNT.
TNT begins its coverage with Game 1 doubleheaders in the best-of-five opening series Thursday and Friday nights. TNT will air 17 games in the first nine days of the playoffs, through May 7.
TNT and NBC will combine to air four games next Saturday and Sunday. Each has a Saturday doubleheader. NBC will air three games in eight straight NBA hours starting at noon next Sunday, while TNT follows with a 9 p.m. tipoff.
NBC also will have tripleheaders May 9 and 16. NBC could air up to 29 games, including the best-of-seven NBA Finals starting June 6 or 9. TNT will show a minimum of 26 games, but likely about 10 more.
Last year, TNT aired 37 playoff games in 30 days.
Before the regular season ends, however, NBC has a meaningful contest. Sunday's Chicago-New York game (1 p.m., WSLS) will determine which will have the home floor advantage in a potential Eastern Conference finals matchup.
TNT will air a one-hour NBA playoff preview Sunday at 8 p.m. Hose Ernie Johnson Jr. will be joined in the studio by analysts Doug Collins and Hubie Brown.
\ SNOW DAY: There are special moments in sports television, and then there are times when the instant gratification of a live telecast can touch even the veteran couch potatoes.
One occurred back in February when CBS analyst Ned Jarrett rooted his son, Dale, across the finish line in calling the last seconds of the Daytona 500. It was one of those times when a network analyst isn't just allowed to cheer, he's encouraged to do so.
Another happened Tuesday night on ESPN's coverage of the California-Cleveland baseball game. Former NFL star Jack Snow, a Los Angeles Rams' broadcaster and father of Angels first baseman J.T. Snow, stopped by the ESPN booth in the seventh inning.
He not only spoke candidly about his rookie son's career, but when the Indians changed pitchers to turn around the switch-hitting Snow to the right side of the plate, the father told viewers it was a good move because J.T. hits better from the left side.
Then, Snow homered. His dad was somewhat stunned, but happy, and asked, "Can I say, `Way to go, son?' "
Gladly.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING BASKETBALL
by CNB