Byline: Dusty Saunders
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
Denver-reared Jim Gray left NBC and joined ESPN last fall. Hardly anybody noticed.
Lisa Guerrero recently departed Fox Sports Net's Best Damn Sport Show Period, and last week it was announced she is joining ABC's Monday Night Football as a sideline reporter.
Everybody noticed.
The story got big national play, and her picture has been on the Internet more often than Pamela Sue Anderson's.
The reason, of course, is obvious.
Guerrero's reporting skills are stronger than Gray's.
I recall watching BDSSP (one of the few times I've tuned in) as Guerrero breathlessly asked host Tom Arnold if his new shirt was purple or magenta.
Talk about in-depth stuff.
Gray deals in such unimportant issues as asking Pete Rose why he hasn't admitted he bet on baseball.
Remember the big flap in October 1999, before the second game of the World Series, when Rose was introduced as a member of baseball's All-Century Team? Gray was heavily criticized for asking Rose a legitimate question because the timing was ``inappropriate.''
In 1997, Gray was the first to grill Mike Tyson about why he bit off a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear.
Maybe at halftime of this fall's Denver Broncos-Oakland Raiders game, Guerrero will ask coach Mike Shanahan how he keeps his teeth so white.
Of course, Guerrero, replacing Melissa Stark, who left the sideline job after three years, is there for sports journalism. I can already hear the boys at the bar whooping it up when Guerrero is on the field displaying her journalistic qualities.
And you thought putting Dennis Miller into the MNF booth was a showbiz move?
TV sideline interviewing, particularly on Monday Night Football, seldom produces worthwhile information, even when the reporter supposedly is equipped with a lot of knowledge. Eric Dickerson, canned a year ago, at times acted as if he wasn't sure the NFL existed. Stark, who improved as she went along, always dressed well.
Now we have Guerrero, who, according to MNF producer Fred Gaudelli, ``is doing so many things in the entertainment world she will be a perfect complement to Al Michaels and John Madden by going down a different path.''
Guerrero, a former Los Angeles Rams cheerleader, was a reporter for FSN's regional sports network as well as a regular on BDSSP.
At least she's under no illusions why she was hired, telling USA Today: ``Al Michaels told me that every word and the color of my lipstick will be discussed. But I can't be afraid of having the best opportunity in live sports television, I just have to prepare and do the best job I can.''
Back to Gray, whom Denver's Rick Reilly says ``is part schnauzer, because when he gets hold of a trouser leg, he just doesn't let go.''
Gray left NBC because the network ran out of sports.
``My main reporting jobs were on the NFL and the NBA. So when the network was no longer involved with either league, there wasn't much for me to do,'' Gray said recently by telephone.
Gray covered the NBA Finals on ESPN and ABC and was involved last week in ESPN's draft reports when Jason Kidd of the New Jersey Nets told him one of his free-agent choices was the Denver Nuggets.
Gray also works on golf coverage and hosts some of ESPN's Sunday Conversations on SportsCenter.
In addition, he'll still report on radio's Monday Night Football and cover boxing for cable's Showtime.
A graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School and the University of Colorado, Gray did his TV sports reporting internship at 9News.
This is his second tour of duty at ESPN.
``I was one of their first reporters in the Stone Age days of the early '80s,'' Gray recalled.
``I'd tape an interview with Tommy Lasorda following a Dodgers game in Los Angeles on Thursday night, rush to the airport and put it on a plane for Hartford (Conn.). Someone would drive over from Bristol and pick it up.
``The tape would be processed and ready for SportsCenter on Friday.
``Times have really changed.''
So they have. That's why Lisa Guerrero, rather than a seasoned reporter like Jim Gray, will be on the sideline of Monday Night Football this fall.
