LOOK FOR ASTROS` announcer DeWayne Staats to be named successor to Milo Hamilton in the Cubs` radio booth. Staats and WGN officials ironed out final details of their deal in Chicago over the weekend, and then Staats returned to Houston Sunday to inform Astro officials of his move. After the details are taken care of, WGN will officially announce its decision.
ANSWERED PRAYERS: What did the DeBartolo family do before and during Sunday`s championship game? ”Pray,” says Denise DeBartolo, sister of 49ers` owner Eddie. ”It`s too nerve wracking to do anything else. My mother has her rosaries in her hand from the minute she gets on the plane (in Youngstown, Ohio) until the end of the game.”
SUPER TRIVIA: Here is your first dribble of information about Super Bowl XIX, a mega-event that`s certain to generate in the next fortnight more printed verbiage than anything this side of a presidential election: The game will not be played in Palo Alto on Jan. 20. It actually will take place outside that city–in Stanford–a quaint collection of 650 academic buildings and 800 homes for faculty and staff located on 8,200 acres of unincorporated land in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. Stanford has its own post office and zip code. . . . The pregame festivities will not go on in either Palo Alto or Stanford. One team will stay in beautiful downtown Oakland, another will stay in equally beautiful downtown Burlingame, and most of the high rollers will stay in San Francisco and commute to the game on buses. Exact change will not be necessary. . . . Speaking of high rollers: The typical Super Bowl attendee is a white male between age 40 and 44. He is affluent, likely to stay three days in the Bay Area and also likely to spend $114 on liquor while arguing the merits of his favorite team.
But Stanford University does receive a Super Bowl bonus–a whopping $2.3 million facelift to its 62-year-old stadium, courtesy of the NFL, private donations and the San Francisco Bay Area Super Bowl Task Force. . . . Some of the stadium improvements are temporary, however. The lights outside and inside the stadium, the stereo sound system and two Diamond Vision scoreboards will be reclaimed at the game`s end. . . . The plastic people from the Silicon Valley like football, too. Apple Computers has donated 85,000 souvenir seat cushions for the Big Game that will be attached by volunteers to the stadium`s wooden benches with Velcro straps. . . . Why does Apple like the Super Bowl so much? Well, the surrealistic ad entitled ”1984” that the company ran during the telecast of Super Bowl XVIII generated more than $100 million in sales the following 10 days. Apple claims it`s not yet sure whether it will try to top that memorable commercial this year, but it has already bought time on this year`s game.
ET CETERA: The directors and producers of NFL Films, who between them saw every game, will cause some arguments with their All-Pro team. Yes, they did pick Walter Payton and Dan Hampton and–as their ”designated pass rusher”– Richard Dent. But, comma, they ignored Mike Singletary in favor of the Cards` E.J. Junior and the Steelers` Robin Cole, and–as their ”designated blitzing linebacker”–they chose the Pats` Andre Tippett over the marauder, Otis Wilson. . . . Wheeling`s Al Bernstein will be one of the announcers on the telecast of the April 15 showdown between Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns. Bernstein is ESPN`s resident boxing expert. . . . Powerboat racer Betty Cook, who is 60, is touting the joys of boating before Wednesday`s opening of the Chicago Boat, Sports and RV Show at McCormick Place. ”If I can do it, anybody can,” said Cook, a grandmother. ”I`d like to do away with the notion that boating is expensive or only for the macho types.”
. . . Elizabeth Arden has chosen the sports network–ESPN–for its first national TV advertising buy. The beauty firm is cosponsoring a Ladies Professional Golf Association event in February that ESPN will air.
And finally: A reader suggests we nickname the Bears ”The Grizzly Detail.” He says, ”They`d never emBEARrass the city.”
