Somehow, King Will Keep Busy : Play-by-play: After 27 years, he won’t be back with Raiders, but there is still sailing--and the A’s.

Is there life after the Raiders?

There is for play-by-play announcer Bill King--the life he never had time for.

It will be, he says, a life of sailing and painting and reading.

Oh yes, and at least 162 baseball games to do for the Oakland Athletics, just to make sure he doesn’t get bored.

King learned this week that his career as the Raiders’ play-by-play man is over after 27 years.

And the first person he thought of upon hearing the news?

Not a Raider, but A’s outfielder Dave Henderson.

After a season of suffering through leg injuries, Henderson was once asked by a sympathetic reporter how he was faring.

“Man,” replied Henderson, “it ain’t terminal.”

“Man, it ain’t terminal,” King repeated of the end of an era with the Raiders. “That’s the way I feel.”

He then went down to the marina near his Northern California home and soaked in the beauty of surrounding wildflowers.

“And I can honestly say, the Raiders were not anywhere in my consciousness,” King said.

He insists there are no hard feelings for the organization and no bad memories from more than a quarter century with the Raiders in Oakland and Los Angeles.

“There is not anything quite similar to that charge I received for three hours every Sunday,” King said.

King’s relationship with the Raiders ended when the team’s radio rights were sold to Nederlander Sports Marketing. King says Nederlander officials asked him to take a pay cut of 47%, which would have dropped his annual salary to $50,000.

“It was ludicrous,” King said. “The only thing I can think of is maybe they felt they were in Des Moines.

“They know the salaries. I don’t. If they feel they can get the same quality announcer at that price, that is their prerogative.”

Although he hasn’t talked to Raider owner Al Davis, who is preparing for Sunday’s draft, King expects to in the near future.

“Al Davis supported me for 27 years,” said King, who wouldn’t give his age. “When he made a business decision to sell those rights, they (Nederlander) gained the right to do whatever they like, whether Al Davis likes it or not. He did what he feels is best for the Raiders. Whether it’s best for me is not important. But Al Davis gave me a boost 27 years ago, and it’s been quite a ride.”

King began his ride in the Bay Area as third announcer for the San Francisco Giants from 1959 to 1962.

By the start of the ‘80s, he was Mr. Bay Area, doing the Raiders, Athletics and Golden State Warriors.

“It was sort of insanity,” King said. “If I took a day off, I didn’t dare enjoy it because I knew I was falling behind on something.”

King finally dropped the Warriors after doing their games for 21 years. He is in his 13th season with the A’s.

Looking back on his years with the Raiders, King had no trouble picking his favorite game. It was a 1974 AFC playoff game against the Miami Dolphins.

It began with Miami’s Nat Moore running back the opening kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown and ended with the Raiders’ Ken Stabler throwing the game-winning touchdown pass to Clarence Davis with 24 seconds to play, Oakland winning, 28-26.

Close behind, in King’s estimation, is a 1977 playoff game against the then-Baltimore Colts, also won on a Stabler touchdown pass. That one went to Dave Casper for 10 yards to give the Raiders a 37-31 victory in double overtime.

As for his future, King says, Nederlander or no Nederlander, he had decided to cut his ties with the Raiders once the NFL makes its anticipated change to a later season, one that would cut deep into January and perhaps February. That would have cut out most of King’s normal free time before spring training, a sacrifice he wasn’t willing to make.

Although he says he won’t be asked, King has a definite idea whom his successor should be--his color commentator, Rich Marotta.

“He’s a great professional,” King said of Marotta. “He always has the right information at the right time.”

Before he signed off for the last time, King mentioned one of his favorite Raiders, Stabler, in a favorite moment.

On the winning drive in that double-overtime game, Stabler came over to the sideline.

While Coach John Madden barked out strategy, Stabler looked around and said: “Dang, John, we gave these folks a hell of a show.”

The same could be said of Bill King.