Were Mel and Red ahead of their time?
NFL fires back
Good morning, all! It’s hump day!
As the New York Yankees memorialize iconic broadcaster John Sterling with a patch on the players’ uniform sleeve - Sterling died May 4 - it got me to thinking about legendary broadcasters Mel Allen and Red Barber. Were they ahead of their time?
Sterling wanted to become the next Allen, and to an extent he achieved that. He was also influenced by Barber. Remember, Allen and Barber were the first two inductees into the broadcasters wing of the baseball Hall of Fame. Sterling grew up in New York, when the city had three teams and three superb lead broadcasters. Allen called the action for the Yankees, Barber for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Russ Hodges for the New York Giants. After the 1953 season, Barber left the Dodgers in a contract dispute and was hired by the Yankees to join Allen in the booth. He stayed through the 1966 season, when the Yankees fired him.
So how were these two broadcasters ahead of their time?
In the 1950s and early 60s, the broadcast networks did not hire full time sportscasters. NBC had the contract to telecast the World Series, so it became tradition that the lead broadcasters from each participating club would serve as the World Series announcers. With the Yankees frequent World Series appearances between 1949 and 1964, that meant Allen’s voice was heard each fall and became synonymous with the Series. In the 50s, the sports director for NBC was Tom Galley, and behind the scenes he would verbally berate Allen anytime he started reciting statistics. Galley believed the viewing audience did not want to be barraged with numbers. In fact, he wanted to keep talking to a minimum. Rarely was their interaction between the two broadcasters.
Watching some of those telecasts today - and they are available on You Tube - Allen did not recite that many numbers, but the few he did during the course of a telecast, were enough to send Galley into a tirade.
Today on baseball telecasts, we are barraged with statistics from broadcasters and graphics. Allen was lambasted by Galley for giving a player’s batting average. He didn’t even tell us the number of home runs or runs batted in a player had, a common practice among broadcasters. Today we get inundated with with more than average, home runs and runs batted in. There is OPS, launch angle, pitch counts, spin rates, etc. With today’s technology and the wealth of metrics digested by ball clubs, the viewer is bombarded with numbers.
Then there is Barber, who had the good fortune to land the Yankees gig, when the club dominated MLB and the misfortune to broadcast their games, when the club fell off the cliff in 1965 and ‘66. Through good times and bad, Barber came to the mic prepared. Don’t believe me? Listen to those Yankees broadcasts on You Tube.
Barber would embellish his broadcasts with side notes that may not have been relevant to the actual game but were relevant to the area from where the game emanated. For example, if the Yankees were playing Baltimore, he might weave a little history of Baltimore into the broadcast. Apparently, during the Yankees decline, that didn’t sit well with Yankees president Dan Topping, who felt the broadcasters should deal with baseball-only topics.
Today, all broadcasters of local teams are not afraid to veer off topic and delve into other areas. It’s usually lighthearted conversation. The Mets television team of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling are adept at this, helping to enliven what at times might be a tedious broadcast. John Miller, the “Voice of the San Francisco Giants” and another member of the Hall of Fame’s broadcasters wing, is also good at this. Of course, the Yankees Phil Rizzuto might have been the best of all of them with his birthdays, cannolis and other non-baseball talk. And most of the audience loved this schtick.
The point is, what Allen and Barber were criticized for is today not only acceptable but in some quarters welcomed. Maybe they were ahead of their time.
Here are some other thoughts on this Wednesday before Memorial Day:
The NFL has concluded its spring meetings by telling critics of the league’s TV policy to take a hike, or words to that effect. The league is being criticized for spreading its television package thin, placing games on streaming outlets in addition to the networks. Despite government threats of investigating such a policy, the league says it is moving forward.
There is another war brewing among the Division I schools in college sports, with the Big 10 and SEC threatening to pull away from the NCAA and form a super conference. The issue, as always, is money. Officials from these schools claim they are being held back financially by the other conferences. Could a split be in the offing? Stay tuned!
Don Mattingly has really turned things around since taking over as interim manager of the Philadelphia Phillies on April 28, so much so that the team has made history. After Monday night’s win over Cincinnati, the Phils have become the first team since the 1951 New York Giants to go from 10 games under .500 to two games over .500 in the first 48 games of the season.
That is going to do it for today newsletter. Thank you for being a subscriber and have a wonderful Wednesday.
DAN