Baseball Announcers
Elwood P Dowd
SHOULD THEY TELL IT LIKE IT IS, OR ISN'T?
Broadcasters feeling the heat from owners to accentuate positive
and
ignore negative, as Albert can attest
BY STEVE ZIPAY
STAFF WRITER
June 27, 2004
As radio voice of the Washington Senators in 1969, Shelby
Whitfield
understood pressure.
The club's owner, Bob Short, demanded that his broadcasters
shill
for the club and mislead fans. (This is still true in 2004)
According to Whitfield, he had standing orders from Short to
report
favorable weather forecasts for upcoming games "even if the
floodwaters were lapping the sides of RFK Stadium" and to
announce
that people "are still filing into the stands" up until the
fourth
inning - whether or not they actually were.
"He was an intimidating, domineering person with a hard-sell
philosophy," Whitfield recalled in his 1973 book, "Kiss It
Goodbye,"
which he wrote after being fired. "[We operated] under constant
efforts of suppression."
His account of such distortions led the Federal Communications
Commission to investigate and later mandate that game telecasts
include a statement describing the relationship between
announcers
and teams. For example, that the play-by-play man was paid by
the
station - and approved by the club - and that the color
commentator
was receiving a paycheck directly from the team.
Although no major-league team owners demand such outright
subservience from announcers today, the delicate alliance
between
sports broadcasters, the teams they cover and the television and
radio stations that carry the games continues to be tested.
'Theater of the absurd'
Less than two weeks ago, Marv Albert, the beloved, longtime
voice of
the New York Knicks and Rangers who had bristled at the
insistence
of Cablevision's James Dolan that he tone down his criticism of
the
Knicks, left a job that dated to 1963, when he filled in for
Marty
Glickman on a Knicks broadcast. The bitter departure, which
Garden
executives say also involved their reluctance to pay Albert more
than $2 million a year to call 50 games, startled fans and
rekindled
a debate in the media industry.
Dolan's push for Albert to become more of a cheerleader turned
MSG
Network "into a theater of the absurd," Albert said at the time.
"We
were being told not to deal with certain things that were
negative."
As more professional sports teams become corporately owned and
the
money at stake is millions of dollars, the balancing act of
maintaining objectivity against the pressure to be "a homer" has
never been more precarious, those familiar with the issue say.
"Knowing guys that do games for local teams, in the NBA
especially,
it is very hard to put on your business card 'local play-
by-play
sportscaster and journalist,'" said Mike Tirico, who calls NBA,
college football and college basketball play-by- play for ESPN
and
ABC.
"It's also become harder at the network level to be a true
journalist because relationships are so sensitive, and it is
troubling in general that the business we all got into 10 or 15
years ago has changed," Tirico said in an interview on ESPN
Radio.
"It would be great to stand there in the wind and say, 'Be
damned
all this, I'm going to speak my mind ... But when you have
mouths to
feed and kids to put through school, you can't help but preserve
your job when these are the rules of engagement. It's very
unfortunate, it's distressing, but it's the reality."
With payrolls soaring, ticket prices at record levels and the
need
to sell merchandise and raise ratings becoming increasingly
important, teams with losing records sometimes ask broadcasters
to
stress the positives rather than the negatives.
"It's so costly now to put a team on the field or on the ice or
on
the hardwood that the pressure to generate revenues and not lose
a
lot of money is intense," said Bob Gutkowski, a former president
of
Madison Square Garden. "One of the benefits is having their
announcers saying good things that may make the team appear
better
than the record represents."
Broadcasters and media executives resist such efforts, they say,
but
in an era when talk-radio hosts and callers, 24-hour cable
networks
and online chat rooms swing away at management, coaches and
players
with abandon, some owners prefer their home-team guys to support
the
team - and not to pile on.
"It happens when you have insecure owners who can't handle the
truth, in the words of Jack Nicholson," said Ross Greenburg,
president of HBO Sports. "The tone is set from the top. They
take it
as a personal attack on their abilities as executives. And
there's
so many ways now for viewers to complain. With this media frenzy
of
bashing the home team, if you have an insecure CEO and owners
who
are very sensitive and can't take it from the writers and talk
radio, there's only certain people that you can try to muzzle."
With the advent of multiple TV replays, reams of detailed
statistics
available for fans and all games being televised somewhere,
local
broadcasters simply have to be more critical today, said David
J.
Halberstam, author of "Sports on New York Radio: A Play-by-Play
History." "You've got to be able to dissect things."
Broadcasters, according to HBO's Greenburg, "are the messengers
and
to kill them, an organization does injustice to the viewer."
Teams' point of view
Team officials are reluctant to discuss the issue publicly, but
television and radio executives say that when a broadcaster
crosses
a sensitive line or hammers a topic relentlessly, the team calls
to
vent.
"There are so many evaluations in the media before you even go
on
the air, you want to have a little impact," said one team
official
who believes that the team's point of view must be represented
by
broadcasters.
Television and radio executives say they understand the problem,
and
strive to keep both broadcasters and teams on an even keel.
"There are degrees, just like in any relationship," said one
veteran
television executive who has worked for both networks and local
stations. "Everybody wants to say they're a journalist, but if
you
sit there when there's 5,000 people in the stands and talk about
the
50,000 who aren't, talk about the -- product on the field, say
they
have no future, they spent money on the farm system and it
hasn't
developed, they don't want to spend on free agents, whoa. What
is
the reason exactly for anybody to watch this? On one hand, you
want
to be objective, but on the other, you absolutely have a
responsibility to serve the product. Anybody who suggests
otherwise
just isn't telling you the truth."
For decades, baseball officials, executives and managers have
cringed at the more outspoken announcers and analysts, and the
ensuing disputes have driven many away.
Ted Husing criticized umpires during the World Series in 1934
and
was banned from future Series by commissioner Kenesaw Mountain
Landis.
In 1966, Red Barber - who spent 28 years in Brooklyn and the
Bronx -
was fired by owner Mike Burke of the last-place Yankees after
demanding that cameras show sections of empty seats at Yankee
Stadium during a meaningless September game against the White
Sox
that 413 people attended. Barber had been feuding with
management
and colleagues Joe Garagiola, Phil Rizzuto and Jerry Coleman,
"but
that was the straw that broke the camel's back," Halberstam
said.
"It's still the classic case of dissing the team and losing your
job."
In September 1994, commentator Tony Kubek walked away from the
MSG
Network with two years left on his contract, saying "it's time
to
retire," but he had grown weary of Yankees owner George
Steinbrenner's tactics. On the air, Kubek, a former player
representative, often tore into The Boss, calling him "a
negative
influence" on the team and baseball.
"I think it all depends on how enlightened the ownership is,"
said
play-by-play man Jon Miller of ESPN, who left the Orioles after
14
years in 1996 when he was told that owner Peter Angelos thought
he
was too negative. "When I first went to Baltimore, then- owner
Edward Bennett Williams was my biggest booster. He liked to
needle
me and told me his idea of a perfect announcer was Rizzuto and
he
meant it. I was different, but he understood that my style had
value
to the club and establishing credibility was the most important
thing to me."
Bad-team syndrome
In 1999, the Mets axed Tim McCarver after 16 years, mostly
because
his first- and second- guessing rankled managers Davey Johnson
and
Bobby Valentine.
"When this becomes a cause celebre, as with Marv or in my case
with
the Mets," McCarver said, "it almost never happens when a team
is
winning. Read into that what you like. When a team is winning,
local
broadcasters seem to be able to say whatever they want. When a
team
is losing, a team has a tendency to look for something other
than
the team's performance and the skin is thinner. I said the same
things in 1986 that I said in 1996, but the team went from being
a
team that won 108 games to a team that lost a lot in '96."
As the Mets were collapsing last season, broadcasters were
called in
to a meeting with Mets executives and told to go easy on the
team,
to try to concentrate on the kids and the farm system and not to
dwell on the negative, two media executives said. "One guy stood
up
and said, 'We can't, we'll get laughed out of here, it's putting
us
in a really bad way,'" said one executive, who added that such
direction from management is not uncommon.
Joe Buck, the Cardinals' announcer and Fox's No. 1 baseball
play-by-play voice, has drawn paychecks from Anheuser-Busch,
when it
owned the team, the current ownership when he called games on
KMOX
Radio and currently, Fox Sports Net Midwest.
"At no point have I ever worried about who's paying me and had
it
curtail what I might say during the course of the game," Buck
said.
His father, Jack Buck, the longtime voice of the Cardinals, "was
always a loyal company guy for Gussie Busch, but that did not
ever
transcend his being a balanced broadcaster."
Said Buck: "I'm sure it's harder when you're losing and you're
doing
a local team in New York. I couldn't imagine working for George
Steinbrenner."
Of course, there are unabashed homers here and across the
country.
Some are play-by-play voices who don't hide their rooting
interest.
After a Tampa Bay Lightning goal during this season's Stanley
Cup
Finals, WDAE-AM play-by-play voice Dave Mishkin openly taunted
the
Calgary Flames' goaltender. "How does that feel, Kiprusoff!"
Mishkin
shouted. A former Devils announcer, Larry Hirsch, danced on the
broadcast table and high-fived fans after a win.
Reward for loyalty
Some analysts are former players whom ownership has rewarded for
their loyalty to the team and connection with the fans. Rizzuto,
the
Mets' Fran Healy, NESN Celtics analyst Tommy Heinsohn, Nashville
Predators analyst Terry Crisp and New York Giants analyst Dick
Lynch
are among the names frequently cited.
"For some, it's 'We need to convert on third down, we need a
three-pointer, we need a three- run homer,'" McCarver said.
"Rarely
do they say, 'We are as deplorable as what you're seeing on the
field, we are just rotten right now.' I don't understand how
guys
can say that with a clear conscience."
Many fans relish the hometown bias, however.
At the beginning of last season, renowned Atlanta Braves "homer"
Skip Caray, who once described 6,000 fans in the ballpark as "a
partial sellout," was banished from telecasts on TBS to regional
games on Turner South to provide "a more national feel" on
telecasts, TBS executives said.
That lasted until the All-Star break. A deluge of letters, phone
calls and e-mails from fans prompted TBS to bring back Caray,
the
son of Harry Caray.
In New York, fans loved Rizzuto's quirky charm. Although critics
trash him for his over-the-top approach, numerous listeners
enjoy
John Sterling, the radio voice of the Yankees, who can be a
shameless rooter no matter how the team fares.
In Albert's case, Garden insiders contended he didn't report the
positives after Isiah Thomas was hired as club president and the
Knicks righted the ship and made the playoffs this season. Yet
noting that Albert's signature "Yessss" call occurred only after
Knicks hoops, McCarver said, "Nobody can ever convince me that
Marv
Albert was a negative broadcaster."
The situation seems exacerbated, some say, because New York
announcers at one time seemed to exist above the fray.
"We grew up with a kind of honesty, from Barber to Marty
Glickman to
Marv, as well as with certain guys you never took too
seriously,"
Gutkowski said.
Cablevision, which owns the Garden and MSG Network, pays the
salaries of the Knicks and Rangers television announcers - as
well
as the Mets broadcasters - with the approval of the clubs.
Although
the Knicks and Rangers radiocasts will be carried on ESPN/1050
AM
and not WFAN starting next season, the salaries will continue to
be
paid by MSG.
'Walking on eggshells'
Garden announcers and hosts are more cautious than ever.
"They're
walking on eggshells," said a former Garden staffer who remains
in
contact with his former colleagues. During one pregame show last
season, Rangers announcers John Davidson, Sam Rosen and Al
Trautwig
were ordered to wear Rangers alternate "Liberty" jerseys. "They
did
it, but kicking and screaming," one executive said.
Asked about the tricky combination of being an influential
sports
talk station and also the flagship station of the Mets, Giants
and
Devils - and Nets next season - Lee Davis, WFAN's general
manager,
explained his church-and-state philosophy.
Mets announcers Gary Cohen and Howie Rose and Giants announcers
Bob
Papa, Lynch and Dave Jennings are paid by WFAN, as are the daily
hosts who whack away or praise teams at will.
"Our play-by-play and game announcers are mostly there to report
on
the game," Davis said. "My talk-show hosts are specifically
there to
give strong opinions. We never curtail what our game announcers
say
as long as it's fair and done in an honest way. I also don't
think
fans want to hear a guy knock his team all the time."
Striking the right chord is getting tougher but can be
accomplished,
said McCarver, who also worked Yankees and Giants games. "Gary
Cohen
is the most straightforward, polished, honest deliverer of a
team's
games as anybody I've ever heard," he said.
ESPN Radio host Chris Moore, who called Devils games from
1988-93,
said: "There is a way to make the best of it ... when your
audience
knows you, to say something without saying it, to convey a
thought
without being in a position where if you're quoted, you're going
to
make the league look bad. You do have to do some tap dancing."
QUOTES
'When a team is winning, local broadcasters seem to be able to
say
whatever they want. When a team is losing...the skin is
thinner.'
-Tim McCarver
'We grew up with a kind of honesty, from Barber to Marty
Glickman to
Marv, as well as with certain guys you never took too
seriously.'-
Bob Gutkowski
'Iwas different, but [the owner] understood that my style had
value
to the club and establishing credibility was the most important
thing to me.'- Jon Miller
'At no point have I ever worried about who's paying me and had
it
curtail what Imight say during the course of the game.'- Joe
Buck
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc. | Article licensing and reprint
options