Play by play is a really subjective thing…And what’s so interesting is that if you were to ask sports fans who their favorite announcers are they’d eventually get to “and ya know who i can’t stand?”…<\/p>\n
By and large you are inviting these people(the announcers) into your home and they understand that…But very often, you come to the game with an opinion already formed, about them and the team you’re watching or listening to…Sports talk radio (and all that “negativity”) has already shaped their thinking…”You have to be cognizant that an old school “homer” broadcast doesn’t fly anymore”,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Sean Grande<\/a> of the Celtics told our audience just recently at the Boston University Sports Journalism Seminar Series, “you sound outdated, you sound like you’re not connected to what’s really happening”<\/p>\n It doesn’t take much to “unconnect” yourself from the audience…Monday Night Football fans will remember Howard Cosell <\/a>who made a living annoying people…But one night in 1983 Cosell took his descriptions a little too far saying of Alvin Garrett of the Washington Redskins “that little monkey gets loose doesn’t he?”…Such was the outrage that the network phones lit up and Cosell took to the air later in the game to explain<\/a>…Play by play announcer Brian Davis of the Oklahoma City Thunder was suspended for one game after he said Russell Westbrook was “out of his cotton pickin mind” <\/a>referring to Westbrook’s performance that night compiling a triple double…It’s not easy as it sounds…<\/p>\n Kevin Harlan took a lot of heat earlier in this NBA season , game one in fact, for his call on Gordon Haywood’s injury<\/a>…Should Harlan have speculated on the extent of the injury?…Probably not but announcers are fans too and sometimes they react just like you do when you see something…<\/p>\n Tyler Murray joined Grande at our series…Like Grande, Murray is a Boston University graduate and remembers the early days, “That (first) job with the Daytona Cubs was unpaid, we only got money for cleaning up the stadium every night for fifty bucks, that’s how we paid rent.\u00a0 You go home smelling of garbage at one thirty (AM) and then you’re back at it at 9AM but it’s still one of the best summers I’ve had”…<\/p>\n Budding announcers often struggle with the mechanics of the job, all too often imitating national people they hear or grew up with…Developing your own style can be the key…”Do it over and over”, Grande told the group, “it’s not unlike your own personality,<\/em> you become your own person and you become your own announcer.”<\/p>\n Even Presidents have tried their hand at play by play…Before he became a actor and politician, Ronald Reagan worked on radio doing college football, major league baseball and track and field…His account of the day track great Jesse Owens competed at the Drake Relays is a classic…A United Press International report\u00a0is included here…<\/a><\/p>\n The same goes for college professors…My very first hockey game way back when found me perched at the old Lynn Arena doing Everett and Malden High Schools…I had done my homework, so I thought, but wasn’t quite ready when the Crimson’s first line took the ice…Mike Abbatinozzi, Pete Cittadini and Lou Uliano…Try keeping those straight on the rush up ice!<\/p>\n So what makes a good play by play call?…For Murray it’s the all about the “excitement but don’t overdo it.”<\/p>\n For the aforementioned Cosell, 1973 was an eventful year…Famous for his boxing play by play, Cosell’s three sharp words<\/a> during the Joe Frazier\/George Foreman title fight still resonate as a standard for any<\/em> sport…Al Michaels might want to challenge for the top spot on any list of calls….Michaels’ description of the final seconds of the 1980 United States hockey victory<\/a> over the Soviets was superb….As much for its language but as much for what Michaels did not<\/em> say …After uttering his famous “Do you believe in miracles, yes!” line Michaels does not talk for a full minute…He understood the moment perfectly…<\/p>\n