In The Sulky Forum
General Category => General Harness Racing Discussion => Topic started by: careless hal on January 29, 2015, 05:16:21 AM
-
A lot like me!
At 70, he’s still on top of his game
Michaels, once snubbed by Sox, set to call 9th Super Bowl
Ed Sherman
Now this is a good what-might-have-been story.
Al Michaels, preparing to call his ninth Super Bowl on Sunday, was in line to become the voice of the White Sox in 1971. In fact, if the Sox had hired him, there’s a good chance Harry Caray never would have come to Chicago. Talk about altering the history of sports in this town.
Michaels’ first significant play-by-play job had a Sox connection. In 1968, he broke in calling games for their Triple-A affiliate in Hawaii.
“Say hello to Bill Melton for me if you see him,” said Michaels, who covered the future Sox star.
When the Angels took over the Hawaii affiliate in 1969, Michaels became close with their farm director, Roland Hemond, and Islanders manager Chuck Tanner. After Hemond was named Sox general manager in August 1970, bringing Tanner along as manager, he wanted Michaels to join them in the broadcast booth for the ’71 season.
“Roland kept telling me he was very confident that it was going to happen,” Michaels said. “I’m 26 and I’m going to the big leagues. I can’t wait.”
Then Hemond called one day, and Michaels could tell by the tone of his voice it wasn’t good news.
“Roland said, ‘Chuck and I really battled for you, but (Sox owner John Allyn) said he couldn’t bring in a guy that young and make him the No. 1 announcer,’ ” Michaels said. “I was crushed.”
Instead, the Sox opted for Caray, who went on to become an icon in Chicago.
More than four decades later, Michaels wonders how his career would have been different had he gotten the Sox job.
“I might still be in Chicago,” Michaels said. “I love Chicago.”
Given his talent, Michaels still likely would have ended up in NBC’s booth for Sunday’s big game. He details his remarkable career in his new book, “You Can’t Make This Up.”
Nobody in television has had more prime-time exposure in the last 30 years than Michaels, who became the voice of ABC’s “Monday Night Football” in 1986 before moving over to NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” in 2006. Yet he laughs that he always will be remembered for something other than football.
“Right,” Michaels said. “I’ll always be known for a hockey game, an earthquake and a Bronco chase.”
Michaels has an uncanny knack for being on hand for transcendent moments. Despite calling only one hockey game before the 1980 Olympics, his signature line of “Do you believe in miracles?” will be linked forever to the U.S. team’s stunning upset of the Soviet Union.
In 1989, he went from play-by-play man to reporter when a huge earthquake struck San Francisco before Game 3 of the World Series. On the night in 1994 his good friend O.J. Simpson took a ride on Los Angeles freeways in the famous white Bronco, Michaels helped fill in the gaps for ABC’s coverage. So Michaels won’t get flustered if the unexpected happens Sunday.
“There’s no curveball I haven’t seen before,” he said. “I’ll know how to react.”
Michaels just turned 70, but don’t talk to him about retirement.
“At this point in my life, I’m not doing the math anymore,” he said.
After all these years, the essence of Michaels’ success dates to advice he got from Curt Gowdy early in his career: “Don’t ever get jaded.”
“When someone like Curt Gowdy says that to you, you never forget it, and I haven’t,” Michaels said. “I have the greatest job ever invented. I never take these games for granted.”
Michaels recalled how Caray also helped him as a young announcer. After getting spurned by the White Sox, he landed a play-by-play job with the Reds in 1971. His first broadcast was a Reds-White Sox exhibition game in Sarasota, Fla.
The game was supposed to begin at 1:34 p.m., but the umpires were ready to go at 1:31. Already jittery, he panicked thinking he was going to miss the first pitch because he just threw the broadcast to commercial.
“Fortunately, Harry had the same format (for the Sox broadcast),” Michaels said. “He puts his head out the window, and in that unmistakable voice, calls down to the umps, ‘Hey, you gotta hold up the game for us.’ They did. Classic Harry.”
Special contributor Ed Sherman writes about sports media at shermanreport.com . Follow him @Sherman_Report.
Michaels