A Fun Guy, No Kidding

Bob Costas almost has it under control. The argyle sweaters and socks and the pleated corduroy trousers are neatly coordinated. The hair is nicely combed. The amazingly retentive memory is primed for each broadcast, and on the air, the words roll off the tongue, convincingly, in precisely the right order, with never a pause. Everything is in readiness for Costas to excel.

But for the near-perfect world of Bob Costas to become perfect, five things would have to happen:

?All artificial turf in the baseball stadiums of America would be summarily torn up and removed, and those responsible for laying it would be executed.

?One television station in every city would air reruns of The Honeymooners every night of the week.

?The immortal Drifters would sing There Goes My Baby as Bob and Randy Costas's first child is born (any day now). The immortal Chubby Checker sang The Twist at Bob and Randy's wedding in 1983.

?Any station delaying Late Night with David Letterman in favor of reruns of The Dating Game (as actually happened April 10 in Kansas City) would be put off the air.

? Costas would receive a lifetime supply of bratwurst with red sauce from Milwaukee's County Stadium.

The above wish list provides some clues as to where the 34-year-old Costas is coming from. It's easy to see where he is. From September until January he's the host of NBC's NFL pregame and wraparound show, which has made him—with his mix of reportage, iconoclastic wit and boyish charm—into a kind of Johnny Carson of autumn weekend afternoons. From April to October, he moves over to baseball as NBC's second-team play-by-play announcer on its Game of the Week. On occasion, he even pops up to call bizarre sports events—elevator races, for example—on the Letterman show.

Costas is obviously having fun being a success, but he is very sensitive about the image he conveys. He's a fascinating blend of the straight and the off-the-wall. In him, excess and exactitude are able to coexist. "I don't see anything wrong," he says, "with calling elevator races on the Letterman show and the next time out of the box calling a classic game at Wrigley Field or doing a serious, issue-oriented interview with Pete Rozelle, Peter Ueberroth or John Thompson."

Whether or not viewers fully understand Costas, it is now clear that he is the hot new sportscaster. Last month he became the youngest person ever to be honored as sportscaster of the year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, beating out such veterans and former winners as Vin Scully, Dick Enberg and Al Michaels.