Douglas Didn’t Give the Viewers Money’s Worth

Well, that sure wasn’t worth $40, or whatever it cost.

Indications are the pay-per-view take will break all records, but Buster Douglas was as big a pay-per-view bust against Evander Holyfield as Michael Spinks was in 1988 when he lasted only 91 seconds against Mike Tyson.

Showtime, which paid more than $2 million for the delayed rights to Thursday night’s illusion at the Mirage, should demand a refund.

Telecast host Jim Hill made a good point when he noted that Douglas didn’t even try to get up. Hill reminded viewers that Tyson said Douglas was a quitter and added that was what a lot of people are going to be saying.

Perhaps commentator Ferdie Pacheco had the quote of the night when, in the first round, he said of Douglas: “You can see the jelly in his body, especially in his breasts.�

Pacheco came across as very pro-Holyfield, but obviously not without reason.

Buster Douglas turned this $40 fight into one that wasn’t worth a nickel.

Bob Chandler, an NFL wide receiver for 12 seasons, knows something about amazing games.

He once played two quarters with a ruptured spleen. Adrenaline kept him going, masking that he was in critical condition. He almost died in a hospital that night.

The former USC star’s whole career was somewhat amazing. He played nine seasons with the Buffalo Bills and three with the Raiders despite nine major operations along the way. Now he is again involved in amazing games.

Chandler is the host of a new show, “Amazing Games,� which makes its debut on ESPN Sunday at 5 p.m.

The first of five planned shows takes viewers on a tour of Thailand and a look at such sports as elephant soccer, Thai kick-boxing and an incredible game called sepak takraw, a form of volleyball played by using the feet.

The well-produced, fast-paced one-hour program also takes a look at two “amazing� U.S. sports, Frisbee football and horse pulling.

Chandler this week returned from the Soviet Union, where he filmed another segment. One sport that left an impression was motoball, which is soccer played on motorcycles. “I’m really surprised it hasn’t caught on here,� he said.

The country left an impression too, but not a good one. “I met a lot of good people, a lot of great people, but this is a country that is falling apart,� he said. “It’s broken, and nobody knows how to fix it.�

Chandler and some members of his crew did eat out one night--at the Moscow McDonald’s. “Believe me, that was a real treat,� he said, “although we had to stand in a line that was 100 yards long.�

Add Chandler: The new show marks a return to television for the personable Chandler.

He worked as a football commentator for NBC in 1983, then as a sports reporter for Channel 7 for one year, before a two-year stint with Channel 2’s “Two on the Town.�

After that, he became the marketing and publicity director of the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain, working for his friend Leo Hart, a former Bill quarterback who is a Ritz-Carlton vice president.

Chandler, who has a law degree, is now a West Coast representative for a New York-based investment firm, the Noel Group, which allows him to take 10 days off at a time to shoot “Amazing Games� segments. He went to Japan in September and has a trip planned to New Zealand and Australia in January.

College snafu: ABC is in somewhat of a jam this Saturday. In March, the network committed to televising USC at Arizona State, which is OK if you’re a Trojan fan. But the big game in the Pacific 10 is California at Washington.

ABC spokesman Mark Mandel said his network tried to get permission from the Pac-10 to switch games, but Commissioner Tom Hansen suggested that ABC instead televise both games on a regional basis. ABC, because of production costs, declined that offer.

The Bear-Husky game won’t be on Prime Ticket, either. If Prime Ticket did the game, it would have to be switched to 3:30 p.m., because ABC owns exclusive rights to the 12:30-3:30 time period.

But a 3:30 start would mean lighting would be needed before the game was over, and the University of Washington, when it added an upper deck to Husky Stadium in 1988, made an agreement with area residents that it would not use lights this time of year.

So Prime Ticket instead will show Oregon State at UCLA at 3:30 p.m. and Washington State at Arizona at 7 p.m., and Cal-Washington goes untelevised.

Talk about a dedicated father. Announcer Bob Miller of the Kings will miss Wayne Gretzky’s attempt at scoring his 2,000th point tonight so that he can attend his son Kevin’s graduation from Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara.

“I made the commitment in August,� said Miller, who hasn’t missed a game since 1984, when his mother died.

So radio announcer Nick Nickson will fill in, with the Prime Ticket telecast becoming a simulcast.

Prime Ticket did some recent juggling and took tonight’s game at Winnipeg off its schedule, then had to put it back on.

World Series aftermath: Tim McCarver’s popularity seems to have dropped. The main problem was he somehow picked up Dan Dierdorf disease, excessive talking.

He made some good points, but he also tended to ramble on.

At one point, he got carried away trying to tell viewers that you can’t watch the wind. “You can watch the effects of the wind, but you can’t watch the wind,� he kept saying.

Who cares?

TV-Radio Notes

NBC’s 4 1/2 hours of Breeders’ Cup coverage Saturday begins at 10:30 a.m. Dick Enberg and Tom Hammond are again the hosts, and Tom Durkin is again the race caller. Santa Anita’s Trevor Denman will be part of the telecast, but only as a contributing analyst. That’s like having Joe Montana on your team and using him only on special teams. . . . SportsChannel America offers a three-hour Breeders’ Cup preview tonight at 8:30 and a two-hour review Sunday at 1 p.m.

Add horse racing: “Thoroughbred Nightly,� the Southland’s only nightly radio talk show about horse racing, is in its second year on Anaheim’s KORG (1190). The program, with John Hernandez and Bruno DeJulio, is on every racing day at 9 p.m. weeknights and 8 p.m. weekends. KORG is also the Los Angeles outlet for “Thoroughbred Connection,� a five-minute nationally syndicated show with Jim McKay. . . . Channel 18 offers a preview of the $1-million California Cup Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., with Denman serving as host and Gil Stratton providing features on the seven races. The California Cup will be run at Santa Anita on Nov. 3.

With the Raiders off and the Rams not playing until Monday, Los Angeles gets an extra NFL game Sunday. The lineup: Minnesota at Green Bay at 10 a.m. on Channel 2, with Dick Stockton and Merlin Olsen, followed by Washington at the New York Giants, with Pat Summerall and John Madden; Cleveland at San Francisco on Channel 4 at 1 p.m., with Charlie Jones and Bill Walsh, and then Cincinnati at Atlanta on TNT at 5 p.m. Jones is filling in for Enberg because of his Breeders’ Cup assignment.

Even though the Raiders are off, Joe McDonnell’s Sunday KFI radio talk show will run from 4 to 8 p.m. . . . Plans for radio broadcasts of Loyola Marymount’s basketball games to be carried on KIEV have reportedly fallen through. . . . Meanwhile, UC Irvine has made a deal with KWIZ-FM (96.7). Bill Macdonald of Prime Ticket and Rob Halvaks will share play-by-play duties, with former coach Tim Tift doing commentary.

The Great Shootout, a new tennis event, will be televised by ABC Nov. 11 from Milan, Italy. Eight of the world’s top tennis players will play a series of tiebreakers for a first prize of $200,000.

“NBA Inside Stuff,� NBC’s new weekly basketball show, makes its debut Saturday at 10 a.m. Ahmad Rashad and Julie Moran are the hosts. . . . FNN Sports handicapper Wayne Root, who is 27-10 after correctly predicting four of five games last weekend, has a new show, “Huddle Up,� which makes its debut Saturday at 7:30 p.m. . . . George Foreman will be profiled on “American Chronicles� on the Fox network Saturday night at 9:30. . . . ABC’s Keith Jackson will be a guest on the conversation segment of ESPN’s SportsCenter Sunday night at 8.