Greg Gumbel Gives Fresh Perspective To M's TV

If nothing else, the Seattle Mariners are not lacking for television exposure this season.

It's a record season not only for viewers but for the stations.. Mariners games have been found on three spots on the dial this season shown by four different broadcast teams. KSTW (Channel 11) has the 60-road-game rights, ESPN (Channel 8) has the national cable rights and has shown three games. CBS, which has the national over-the-air rights, has shown one game on KIRO (Channel 7). And KIRO has carried two home games with another scheduled tomorrow (7 p.m.) when the Mariners play host to the New York Yankees.

Nationally respected broadcaster Greg Gumbel, free-lancing from his duties with CBS, again will do the play-by-play for KIRO, with Joe Simpson providing the analysis. Previously, KIRO had broadcast the home opener, April 9, and the May 4 Yankees-M's game.

KIRO elbowed in on the TV coverage because of a clause in the Mariner contract with KSTW. It gives the club the right to make a deal with any station to televise home games. The televised opener was a first in club history.

"The first broadcast (opener) was in reaction to the fact it was a sellout," Randy Adamack, Mariner vice president for communications, said. "We had a lot of phone calls, letters and questions from the news media relative to putting that game on. We picked up speed when that happened."

The viewer numbers for that first game were substantial. The rating was 18.8 with a 30 share. That's roughly twice what a normal Mariner broadcast would generate. The May 4 telecast had a 8.4 rating and a 17 share. Both were impressive, considering many of the prospective viewers were already at the Kingdome.The club drew more than 50,000 fans for each game.

KTSW also has experienced a relative ratings bonanza with M's games this season. Through the first 25 games, the Tacoma-based station has had an average 9.1 rating. That compares to a 6.4 last season and a 4.3 rating in 1989, a 112 percent increase. The overall Mariner TV rating is 9.3, which raises a giant question of why the club is having difficulty attracting a reasonable rights fee for next season.

"We're very pleased with the numbers," Adamack added. "It was good to see we had the crowds we had (for the home telecasts). It's something all sports teams talk about, how will local TV affect attendance. (Owner) Jeff Smulyan believed it wouldn't have an effect. You have to be careful, but it's good so far."

Gumbel gives the KIRO telecasts a professional polish. He has one of the broadcast industry's more recognizable voices. National audiences first saw him during his 5 1/2 years with ESPN, anchoring "SportsCenter" and hosting "The NBA Tonight." He joined the Madison Square Garden network in 1986 and did the Yankees and Knicks before joining CBS full time in 1989. He is host of the network's "The NFL Today" but also has covered a variety of events from the NFL and Major League Baseball to NCAA gymnastics and the College World Series.

However, the reason he was hired for selected Mariner games has more to do with his radio work than TV. He was the original morning drive-time host for WFAN-AM, Smulyan's innovative New York-based, all-sports radio station. It was Smulyan who suggested Gumbel when KIRO sought an announcer.

"I was his morning guy at WFAN and got to know him well," Gumbel said. "When this came up, they picked up the phone and I was able to work it out with CBS."

Gumbel will spend fewer than 24 hours in the city, flying in from New York and leaving shortly after the game. It's not the best circumstance for a game announcer, especially considering Simpson also flies in from his home in Omaha.

However, cramming for his broadcasts, just like studying for an exam, is a way of life for Gumbel. He's used to it. His first MSG assignment was a Knicks-Lakers game. The first time he saw Yankee Stadium was also his first Yankee broadcast. As a national play-by-play announcer he can't cover a team consistently, but prepares himself enough so that he's not embarrassed.

"I'm not pretending to know everything about the Seattle Mariners," Gumbel said. "That's why the analyst is there. I've never hesitated to ask on-the-air questions that a fan might ask."

He used his experience at the NCAA West Regionals this spring an an example of what he goes through before a telecast. He and partner Quinn Buckner jammed and crammed for a week, pouring over data on the eight teams.

"You wouldn't be expected to have a running knowledge of more than four of the teams," he said. "But we grabbed as much research material as we could and intensely studied the teams. We studied films all week. We read newspaper columns from each home city. We sat and talked and talked about them. We talked to the players to make sure we didn't mispronounce their names."

Gumbel knows about the Mariners and likes what he sees.

"It's not a stretch to say they're having an up-and-down season," he said. "I think that's because they have a lot of talented youth. (Manager) Jim Lefebvre has made it clear he has a bunch of talent. Believe me, no one argues that. They just need to learn how to win. There's a knack to it, knowing how to pull games out as opposed to hoping."

Gumbel said his old friend Smulyan's recent complaint on the problems of competing with a small-market team "are valid. It's probably the reason why they're pushing revenue sharing. They have no guns to compete in shootout. That puts more pressure on corporations and the average fan to help them be competitive with everyone else."

Gumbel, who grew up a White Sox fan, added "people used to make them part of community. It was natural to watch them all summer. I'm not sure they've (Mariners) been in Seattle that long to build that kind of following. The problem is how long they can wait for that to happen."

Gumbel, whose brother Bryant also was a sports broadcaster before he moved on to host NBC's "Today," doubts he could do what his brother does.

"There's the saying `never say never' but I'm about close to saying never as I can get," he said. "I can't fathom getting up early in the morning to talk to a politician. I never liked politics or politicians. I can do without them.

"I'm sure Bryant thought sports was the end-all and be-all when he did them. But every job I've taken I thought I could do for the rest of my life. I just want to continue to improve as a broadcaster and never take a step backward."