Columnist Tim Graham: America’s Pastime needs a commissioner

Tim Graham

Wednesday, Feb. 18, 1998 | 1:25 a.m.

TIM GRAHAM is a Las Vegas SUN sportswriter. His media column appears Wednesdays. He can be reached on the Internet at tim@lasvegassun.com

He calls baseball "relatively healthy."

But if Bob Brenly were baseball's attending physician, he would prescribe a strict rehabilitation program to help the sport regain its status as America's Pastime.

Brenly has developed into the wittiest -- and possibly the finest -- color commentator in baseball. He says a commissioner would be the best and most obvious remedy for its ills. But as spring training gets under way, there are no signs of executive progress.

"Baseball traditionally has been very slow when it comes to change or making any kind of decision on anything," Brenly said in a recent interview at Big Dog's restaurant. "I don't see anything happening any time soon, but it's certainly something that needs to be done."

Brenly, who turns 44 next week, has dedicated his life to baseball.

He spent nine seasons (1981-89) as a catcher in the major leagues, mostly with the San Francisco Giants. He was a career .247 hitter, but turned in an all-star campaign in 1984, when he registered career highs in batting average (.291), runs (74), home runs (20) and RBIs (80).

Brenly made a full-fledged attempt at broadcasting in 1996. Alongside play-by-play partner Thom Brennaman, Brenly works for Fox Sports on weekends. Brenly and Brennaman also serve as the in-house announcers for the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks, whose games can be heard locally on KSFN 1140-AM.

After all those years of calling a ballpark his office, Brenly believes his diagnosis is on the mark. To him, it's inconceivable that acting commissioner Bud Selig, who also happens to own the Milwaukee Brewers, can be in charge of running the show.

"The commissioner always has been picked by the owners, been a representative of the owners and with few exceptions they have been shills for the owners," Brenly said.

"I just don't see how any business can have someone in charge who is supposed to be impartial and in the best interest of the game itself when they represent one of the sides that's been at war with the other side since the beginning of the game.

"Bud Selig has done the best he can under the circumstances and, all things considered, I think he's done a very, very good job. But honestly, they need to have somebody in there that isn't an owner."

Brenly said there is a man who could be just what the doctor ordered.

"I've suggested (former Los Angeles Dodgers manager) Tommy Lasorda," Brenly said. "Being a San Francisco Giant, I hated the Dodgers. But I don't know anybody else that immediately jumps to mind who has such an honest love for baseball.

"He's seen it as a player, he's seen it as a manager, and now he's seeing it from the side of the front office. I think he's a guy who would understand what's good for the game."

With or without Selig in power, Brenly foresees continuing revolution within the sport.

"Ultimately, we're going to see a merging of the two leagues and a realignment geographically to set up new rivalries to make travel a lot easier, the schedule easier for the players," said Brenly, a proponent of interleague play.

"If baseball was aligned geographically you could probably even shorten the schedule, shorten the season. The playoffs would be over sooner, you could expand the first round of playoffs to (best of) seven games instead of five games -- which is something that should be done.

"I think 154 games is enough to determine who's the best in each division."

Hype it, baby!

Nobody can sell a sportscast like Dick Vitale. And on Monday night, ESPN required his services.

The bombastic college basketball analyst worked hard to retain interest in UNLV's 75-66 loss to No. 11 New Mexico at the Thomas & Mack Center. Vitale evoked images of the Rebels' glory days rather than play up their recent problems in an attempt to capture a modicum of the game's originally scheduled flair.

He routinely compared UNLV's more impressive plays to those turned in by Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon during the school's championship season of 1989-90. And he repeatedly mentioned Jerry Tarkanian and the aura of Gucci Row while glossing over the recent suspension of Keon Clark and other woes until later in the telecast.

Much to the current Rebel regime's dismay, it appears the program's biggest selling point remains its past.

* STATIC: The Las Vegas Thunder's two remaining telecasts scheduled on Prime Cable Channels 1 and 48 -- Sunday at Long Beach and March 14 at Kansas City -- have been scrapped. ... Fox Sports West 2 announced its Los Angeles Dodgers schedule Tuesday. Vin Scully and Rick Monday call 40 games this season, starting with the April 7 home opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Although it has been considered, FSW2 is not available on Prime Cable.