What a ‘Cheers’ writer learned from calling MLB games

When Ken Levine was in his 30s, he had already written for "M*A*S*H," and he was in the midst of writing for "Cheers," but instead of just riding that huge Hollywood wave forever, he decided to rehearse for a more personal future.

Levine had a lifelong dream to announce baseball games, not even necessarily major league games, he just loved the game and wanted to travel with teams and observe the soap opera.

So did he use his connections to get a job one day?

Nope.

He practiced his broadcasting chops where no one of import could hear him make such rookie mistakes as bad calls and not understanding team strategies.

"So for two years, I went to the upper deck of Dodger Stadium, and sat in the general admission section with all the drunks, and crazies, and guys with the pinwheel hats, and I announced baseball games into a tape recorder," he says. "Just to learn how to do it."

In all, Levine gave up three summers of extravagant Los Angeles living in the 1980s, so he could travel America, calling games, often in empty stadiums, surrounded by bugs.

"I would write 'Cheers' scripts on the road, send them in, and when the baseball season was over, I would go back to Los Angeles to work on the show."

Eventually, he got a job calling minor league, then major league, games.

"I wrote a book about my time in Baltimore, and I called it, 'It's Gone, No Wait a Minute," which unfortunately was my home run call all too often," he says.

The reason I'm telling you this is because Levine will give a talk on reinventing yourself, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, at a fundraiser for Doberman Rescue of Nevada (http://www.drnv.org), in the Lowden Theater of Las Vegas Academy of the Arts. (The charity is looking for $30 per person to help save Doberman lives. For a $50 donation, you can chat with Levine early, at 6 p.m.)

Levine's message is it's important for people to be flexible and proactive in today's uncertain job market.

"What happens if one day your comfortable position goes away?" he says. "Don't wait until you're out of work and say, 'Oh gee, now what do I do?' "

I asked him how realistic it is for people to create dream scenarios the way he has for himself.

He says people are fatalistic and say, "I'm not going to make it, why try?"

"The answer is, 'You're right, if you don't try, you're not going to make it. The only way you're going to have a shot is to go for it.'"

Levine, 65, wasn't finished with TV after "Cheers." He wrote or consulted on "Frasier," "Wings," "Becker" and scripted a couple episodes for "The Simpsons" and even "The Jeffersons." He became a director, too. And he writes a terrific blog (Kenlevine.blogspot.com).

It all started with "M*A*S*H," the all-time sitcom champ which was watched by half of America, and suffered only minimal interference from CBS executives.

"We knew these were the good old days while we were living them," Levine says of "M*A*S*H."

By the way, when I was a little boy, I was a latchkey kid of a single mom who sometimes had three jobs, so I was always looking for surrogate TV parents, and I settled on good guys, especially "M*A*S*H's" sweet-strident Hawkeye character (played by Alan Alda), "Three's Company's" silly-kind Jack (John Ritter), "Happy Days'" calm-cool-collected Fonz (Henry Winkler), and "Star Trek's" commanding-courageous Capt. Kirk (William Shatner).

So I told Levine that, and this: "I just want to tell you I'm very appreciative for you and everybody else helping raise me as a latchkey kid. So far I've been able to say this to William Shatner, and you, and Henry Winkler."

"That's great to hear," Levine said. "I will say we realized the responsibility we had in doing that show. We tried to really portray characters who were truthful, and believable, and acted in an upstanding way."

"There were," I said, "definite moments where I would think, 'How would Hawkeye approach this situation?' Or Captain Kirk? Or Bob Newhart? I

know that sounds absurd."

"No, it's not. I would much rather kids have Hawkeye as a role model than one of the Kardashian girls," Levine said. "You've made my day with that."