NBC Should Fault Wimbledon

This isn’t the way NBC was hoping things would turn out at Wimbledon. The women’s field lacked depth going in, and now the men’s field has been depleted.

NBC was dealt a big blow when Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi were eliminated Wednesday. The network is left trying to hype Andy Roddick, the 11th-seeded player, or maybe Jeff Morrison, to its American audience.

Morrison, a former collegiate champion at Florida who is ranked No. 98 in the world, upset ninth-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero Thursday.

“If there was any question about the men’s draw being pretty wide open, I think that’s been answered,” NBC commentator John McEnroe said during a conference call with reporters after Sampras and Agassi lost. “The good news is, we’ve got some guys now believing they can win it.”

That’s McEnroe, always looking for a silver lining.

Meanwhile, commentator Chris Evert didn’t sugarcoat things on the women’s side.

“Unlike the men’s, it has been pretty uneventful on the women’s side,” she said. “I think it’s a three-way race between the Williams sisters [Venus and Serena] and Jennifer Capriati. Those three are the only ones who have a shot. My pick is Venus.”

Nothing there to get too excited about, nor warrant the kind of coverage NBC is committed to next week. There’s also continued coverage on TNT and sister channel CNNfn, which came into the mix after CNN-SI shut down last month. CNNfn, which reaches only 19 million homes, offers nightly highlights at 6.

NBC will have delayed coverage every day through the finals, plus a late-night highlights show that will run from 11:35 to 11:50 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11:35 p.m. to 12:05 a.m. a week from today.

You can imagine how thrilled Jay Leno is to have part of his show preempted for what has become a dud of a tournament.

McEnroe will host the late-night highlight shows. Maybe to spice things up, NBC could invite Tatum O’Neal to join him.

Local Moves

Channel 4 has told Carlos Del Valle his contract will not be renewed, which comes as a surprise. The affable Del Valle seemed to be doing a fine job. He’ll be replaced, at least for the time being, by Mario Solis, who has been working as the station’s No. 3 sportscaster. Exactly when Del Valle will be leaving is not known, but his contract expires in August.

Still no word on a replacement for Bill Weir, who said months ago he would be leaving Channel 7 sometime before his contract expires in September to pursue opportunities outside sports. But Rod Fukuzaki, the station’s No. 2 sportscaster, has already been told he will replace Weir as the host of “Monday Night Live.”

Fox Sports Net has hired Carolyn Hughes as a reporter and anchor for “Southern California Sports Report.” Hughes comes from the ABC affiliate in El Paso, where she was the host of a popular morning show and was a weekend sports anchor before that.

Jennifer Gould is the new weekend sportscaster at Channel 11, having replaced Randy Kerdoon. The USC graduate comes from San Diego, and she worked in Miami before that. However, her background is in news, not sports.

Buck’s Replacement

Before the baseball season, Joel Meyers was asked to fill in for Jack Buck on St. Louis Cardinal road broadcasts and maybe do a few home games too. But with Buck’s health continuing to fail, Meyers ended up doing all the Cardinal radio broadcasts with Mike Shannon. After the death of Buck last week, Meyers will continue in that role through at least the end of this season.

Meyers, originally from St. Louis, has lived in Southern California for 20 years. He said he’s not sure what the future holds.

“Right now, I’m just worried about this season,” he said.

Meyers also does Sunday night football for CBS Radio/Westwood One and San Antonio Spur telecasts for Fox Sports Net Southwest. He has also been mentioned as a candidate to replace Chick Hearn whenever he retires.

Paul Sunderland is the front-runner, but the Lakers are going to have to hire two play-by-play announcers when Hearn retires--one for TV, one for radio. There will be no more simulcasts.

Charity Department

The 36th Victor Awards, a live television event in the past, will be tape-delayed this weekend. The event, which benefits the City of Hope Cancer Center, will be held Saturday night at the Las Vegas Hilton and televised Sunday from 6-8 p.m. by Fox Sports Net.

Among the honorees will be Terry Bradshaw, the annual Victor Awards Hall of Fame inductee, and Dick Enberg, who will be presented the Walton Payton “Sweetness” Award by Fox Sports Net’s Chris Myers.

On Thursday, Enberg was in New York to serve as the host of the Academic Hall of Fame ceremony.

Channel 2’s Jim Hill will again serve as master of ceremonies for the 17th Cedar-Sinai Sports Spectacular Sunday night at the Century Plaza Hotel. The dinner helps raise money for children with genetic birth defects, a cause Hill has donated a lot of his time to. Among other things, he was master of ceremonies when a new center at Cedars-Sinai was dedicated in December.

The Sports Spectacular has raised about $12 million, including $1 million last year. Barry Bonds, Kobe Bryant and Lisa Leslie will be among the honorees this year.

Short Waves

Give Channel 7 credit. It will show ABC’s coverage of the World Cup championship game live Sunday at 4 a.m. And for the real diehards, ABC’s pregame show with Terry Gannon and Giorgio Chinaglia starts at 3:30 a.m. Univision’s pregame show starts a half-hour before that.... The third-place game, on Univision live at 4 a.m. Saturday, will be shown tape-delayed at 3 p.m. Saturday by ABC.

For the first time, baseball will have an All-Star selection show. ESPN will televise it Sunday at 4 p.m., followed at 5 p.m. by the New York Mets and Yankees.... ESPN, which said goodbye to “Unscripted” on Tuesday after a run of only eight months, has a new show, “Sports Reporters II,” making its debut Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. Jack Ford, who has anchored ABC’s “20/20” and hosted “Good Morning America,” will be the show’s moderator. The first panel will be made up of NBC’s Jim Gray, Yankee commentator Michael Kay and Dan Le Batard of the Miami Herald and ESPN Radio.

Boxing beat: Last weekend’s pay-per-view fight between Marco Antonio Barrero and Erik Morales will be part of the HBO’s “Boxing After Dark” show Saturday at 9:45 p.m. Featured is a heavyweight fight between Wladimir Klitschko and Ray Mercer.... Saturday night at 8, Channel 9 is offering another card from the Arrowhead Pond. This one features Julio Gonzalez taking on Jonathan Young.

Not recommended for children: Tonight’s edition of “Best Damn Sports Show Period” on Fox Sports Net will feature taped highlights of a bachelor party/roast for Tom Arnold.

Included is the appearance of a Roseanne impersonator, spoofing his first wife.

Arnold is getting married for a third time Saturday.

In Closing

TNT’s Ernie Johnson turned in an impressive performance this week. He flew on the Concorde from London, arriving in New York at 9:30 a.m., served as the host of Wednesday’s NBA draft coverage, then headed back to London on the Concorde shortly after midnight.

Also, Johnson was all class as TNT ended an 18-year run of covering the NBA draft, saying, “Our friends at ESPN will take over next year, and I know they’ll do a fine job.”

But it won’t be the same without Charles Barkley.