Deeb on TV (excerpt)

By Gary Deeb

Sportsbrief: Final figures aren't in yet, but NBC's World Series telecasts were among the most-watched in baseball history, The final game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Kansas City Royals was the all-time top-rated audience-grabber, breaking the record held by the final game of the 1975 Series between the Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds.

The NBC visual coverage was generally superb. A little-known fact: Last Sunday afternoon, when an argument developed over whether Philly outfielder Bake McBride caught or "trapped" a fly ball, NBC wiped out a commercial minute worth $250,000 to $270,000, so that various replays of the catch could be televised. The killing of the commercial was ordered by Don Ohlmeyer, executive producer of the World Series telecasts. As it turned out, NBC lost nothing on the deal - because the pre-empted commercial ran a few innings later during a delay in bringing in a relief pitcher.

And meanwhile, the folks at ABC Sports still are bristling over the criticism they received from fans and the press for their rotten coverage of the exciting playoffs that preceded the Series. Dennis Lewin, who produced much of the ABC coverage, said: "It's a shame that freedom of the press applies to people like you, who aren't objective and have axes to grind.” Poor baby.

The Bubbly Cauldron Sings:  Carter

The debates are over, the endorsements are made, and with the weekend to go before the elections, a survey of 290 American witches conducted by the New York Center for the Strange picks Jimmy Carter the winner Tuesday by "a narrow, but decisive, margin.”

The group also predicts:

Billy Carter will become a citizen of Libya;

Scientists will turn sea water into gold, driving the price of the precious metal down to $5 an ounce;

People from a planet near the star Alpha Centauri will send a message to Earth that will contain "many dirty words"; and.

The United Nations will move out of New York and relocate in Casablanca, Morocco.

Before their predictions were scoffed at, the center pointed out that the witches accurately predicted Carter would defeat Sen. Edward Kennedy for the Democratic presidential nomination, the eruption of Mount St. Helens, and that the Philadelphia Phillies would win the World Series.

Then again, the also predicted George Bush would win the GOP presidential nomination.