Sportscaster Greg Gumbel doesn’t have much patience for the Barry Bonds/steroids drama.
“I think baseball leads the way in being stupid,” he said by phone from his home in Orlando, Fla. He’ll be in town Wednesday for a Warren Village fundraiser.
“Baseball should have taken the lead 10 years ago. I think given half a chance, major-league baseball always shoots itself in the foot. It took a book to bring an investigation. However major-league baseball handles it will be inadequate.
“To be fair, Bonds hasn’t been proven guilty of anything.”
Gumbel, a three-time Emmy Award winner who has been broadcasting since 1973 and is best known as host of CBS’s “The NFL Today,” takes life lessons from sports. He’ll impart them, and a few humorous tales, at the Warren Village All-Star Breakfast at the Grand Hyatt. “It’s about motivational stories, to make people laugh, I hope. Sports is great for deriving life lessons.”
Ticket info on Gumbel’s appearance at the Warren Village event is at 303-320-5052.
Draft and Mel come back
I’ve always wondered about those guys who show up in person to watch the NFL draft of college players and cheer or boo lustily when a pick is announced. What I wonder is, do their mothers drop them off and pick them up?
The annual selection process has become a social highlight of the spring season, and the best-known host is Mel Kiper Jr.
Full of opinion, Kiper’s been giving his take on who’s a desirable pick and who’s overrated for 23 years.
He’ll be on ESPN and ESPN2, which are offering 17 hours of coverage when the draft unreels April 29 and 30 from a new venue, Radio City Music Hall in New York City. He said in a teleconference call this week, “This shapes up as one of the more exciting drafts. At every position you pretty much have star value.”
His take on former CU football star and skier Jeremy Bloom: “He’s probably an early second-
day guy. He has good hands. He’s applied skiing to his punt-return ability.”
Around the dial
The Colorado Avalanche open the NHL playoffs against Dallas on Saturday (1 p.m., KUSA-Channel 9). … Last Saturday’s University of Colorado football scrimmage is shrunk down to an hour with Howard Griffith doing play-by-play in the absence of Drew Goodman, busy with baseball (7:30 tonight, FSN Rocky Mountain). … Chris Byrd and Wladimir Klitschko tangle for the WBC heavyweight title in
Mannheim, Germany (3 p.m. Saturday, HBO). … Quotable: “I have my own opinions. I don’t care what (listeners) think, and I don’t care what hosts think.” Greg Gumbel on why he doesn’t listen to sports talk radio.
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-820-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
