People in the truck ask him what time his mom is coming by topick him up. If a game goes into extra innings, one of thebroadcasters might double check to make sure he's allowed to stay upthis late.
Brad Zager, the Doogie Howser of sports production in SouthernCalifornia and beyond, says he's used to it by now. He really has nochoice.
At 27, an age when some are still serving an apprenticeship thatdoesn't get much more glamorous than picking up an ex-NFL playerfrom the airport and taking them to a studio, Zager is probably theone the gophers are now picking up.
Zager is already in his second year as the lead producer of FoxSports Net West's Dodgers coverage and this year, he's shoulderinglive game production of the weekly FSN national Pacific-10conference football games, all of which makes for one potentiallyscatter-brained September.
What makes the fast-track education process even more impressiveis that it has come with one major detour that even little Doogiecouldn't avoid before getting his medical degree (albeit as a TVdoctor): Zager never went to college, except for taking a fewclasses out of high school at Santa Monica College when he was justtrying to figure out whether or not he even wanted to live in L.A.
'It started as a joke, but I tell everyone now that I went to FoxSports Net University,' said the Detroit native who moved out tolive with his mother in 1996 and ended up with an internship at then-Prime Sports as a production assistant on Lakers and Dodgers pre-game shows. 'If ever there was a story of all the pieces fallinginto place, it's this one.'
--Adapting fast: Coming onboard as an 18-year-old with a companythat was changing and expanding to what it eventually is known todayas Fox Sports Net West, Zager quickly realized that if he wasflexible and willing enough to find the open spots that needed to befilled, he'd not only survive but move up the ladder. During a six-year period, he absorbed all that he could as graphics coordinator,associate producer and director on almost everything the network ofregional channels had going - including Big 12 football, ACC collegebasketball and Formula One, regularly logging more than 100,000airline miles a year.
As a live game producer, he jumped on FSN West 2's signature HighSchool Game of the Week three years ago and eventually earned alocal Emmy award for coverage of the CIF Division II championshipgame between Hart and Mission Viejo.
Soon came USC and UCLA football assignments. He was put in chargeof the Pac-10 basketball tournament. He landed on the Dodgers'coverage. Then the Pac-10 football package, and ...
And so much for the idea that he might be moving back to Michiganand join his high school pals at a local college, looking intobecoming a sports agent.
'Somewhere along the way, this went from a job to a career, andit's really what I want to do,' said Zager, who often works with acrew that has cameramen, technicians or stage managers who have beenin the business as long as he has been alive. 'But someone once toldme that you never say no to an opportunity, that you figure outlater how to do it because you never know when the next opportunitywill come.'
--A retro assignment: Tonight, Zager doesn't have to prepare fora Pac-10 football telecast (it's an off week) or the Dodgers-Pirates game from Dodger Stadium. To celebrate the 100th telecast ofthe high school football game of the week, FSN has asked Zager toproduce the Westlake-Hart game from College of the Canyons (7 p.m.,on FSN West, with a pregame show starting at 6:30 p.m.). Part of thespecial presentation tonight will be a look back at the top 10 gamesthat the series has produced since 1997 (it started with Alemany-Notre Dame).
'That's where so many people here learned about live gameproduction, and now we're going back to our roots,' said Zager, whowill be joined by former play-by-play man Jim Watson (now the Pac-10 football sideline reporter, who will host tonight's game) alongwith broadcasters John Jackson, D'Marco Farr and Christian Steckel.
FSN reporter Lindsay Soto, who started as an intern at thenetwork about a year before Zager arrived, said she knew by the facthe sometimes stayed up all night editing a show or feature that hehad the dedication - even if she and others wondered if he even hadan apartment to go to since he slept at the office so often.
Soto was his sideline reporter on many high school games and saidhe 'treated them like it was a Super Bowl. He knew it meant a lot tothe players and viewers, and he owed it to them to make the showspecial. He approaches every game the same way. He has a commitmentthat's hard to find.'
John Heffner, FSN West's coordinating producer and an essentialpart of the network for the past 15 years, said he could tell Zagerwould become a top producer because of all the never- endingquestions he would pester people with early on in his career.
'He really gets it,' said Heffner, who Zager says he relies on tokeep him in line. 'It doesn't surprise me at all how quickly he'sprogressed. He's very creative, and, with a lot of changes in theequipment we use, he learns it and figures out what we can or can'tuse. He might have come along fast, but he's definitely earned it.'
SOUND BYTES
WHAT SMOKES
-- 'Viva Baseball,' a documentary on the achievements of Latinosin Major League Baseball, airs on Spike TV tonight (9 to 11 p.m.)available in SAP. Dan Klores, who directed the documentary 'Ring ofFire: The Emile Griffith Story,' is both co-producer and director onthis project that involved more than 100 hours of interviews withdozens of present and former Latino players, many of whom supportthe idea that Roberto Clemente's No. 21 be retired throughoutbaseball like Jackie Robinson' No. 42.
-- Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, who a couple of weeksago complained to the media that 'I can't trust you guys anymore ...it's no fun ... I don't like you guys anymore,' seemed to try toclarify that after his weekly press gathering. 'At lot of you guys,I think, took my remarks about not being around you ... I feel badabout that. I know what kind of job you guys got. It's a tough job.I got a tough job. And once in a while, you write things that Ithink you're jerks, and once in a while I say things and you thinkI'm a jerk. OK? But that's the way it works out.' Apology accepted.We think.
WHAT CHOKES
-- You're not looking live at neither Brent Musburger nor ABCcommenting on reports that the veteran sportscaster was cited byLincoln, Neb., police for having an open beer container while in acar near Memorial Stadium leaving Saturday's Nebraska-Pittsburghbroadcast. (Maybe he was heading to a party at Tommy Lee's dorm?)According to several news sources, Musburger faces a $144 fine forthe violation. Whether or not Musburger knows it, he's becomelegendary to college football TV fans who've created severalversions a drinking game based on his array of cliches. According tothe rules posted recently on Fanblogs.com (www.fanblogs.com/ncaa/005660.php), drinks are to be taken when Musburger says things like'pardner,' 'folks,' 'there's that man again!', 'our ol' buddy JackArute,' or if he calls a touchdown before the player actuallyscores. It comes with a warning: 'It's conceivable your whole partywill be passed out with eight minutes remaining in the firstquarter.'
--If the rest of ESPN's reality show that throws Dick Butkus outon an extreme makeover of a struggling high school football team insuburb of Pittsburgh is anything like Tuesday's debut, it could be along season for viewers as well as the players. In the tantalizinglynamed 'Bound For Glory,' the objective seems to be how an inspiredgroup of kids at Montour High can frustrate the 62-year-old Hall ofFame linebacker, who ends up hiring former star defensive back RayCrockett as an assistant and, in the upcoming episode, brings inSteelers quarterback Ben Roethlisburger to help. The danger istwofold: When all the cameras go away, and Butkus goes back towhatever he does these days - it isn't coaching - and the team goesback to (or continues) its losing ways, how much of a bad taste willit leave in all their mouth that ESPN used them to for what won'teven amount to 15 seconds of fame? Or, if by some dumb luck, Butkusdoes have success with this school, what happens when he just walksaway from it because, well, that's the contract?
