NEW YORK, NY — Book reading season in between the August baseball stretch of pennant races and looking at the standings, I would be first to admit it is time to play catch up. So here we go with two latest book releases of interest.
“A Funny Thing Happened On My Way to the Broadcast Booth” by Steve Albert and foreword by Bob Costas
I have to be partial here, of course I am with Steve Albert. He has been a friend and colleague over 40 years, the youngest brother of Marv and Al, well known in the sports broadcast industry with play-by-play calling of NBA, MLB, boxing and more. There is a nephew, Kenny (son of Marv) also a nationally acclaimed sports play-by-play announcer with Fox Sports and other outlets.
However, Steve after a long and storied half century of calling games, including 20 years of boxing for Showtime, put away the microphone and is enjoying retirement. His entertaining book of autobiographical essays shares many stories of unusual and the unpredictable in and out of a broadcast booth.
You can purchase and learn more about “A Funny Thing Happened On My Way to the Broadcast Booth” on Amazon – Image Credit: Aufrey Press
Personal note, I met Steve working in the field and honestly don’t recall where, but it had to be at the ballpark. Back then, Steve was part of the New York Mets’ broadcasting team with Hall of Famer Bob Murphy (Ford C. Frick Award, 1994) and Ralph Kiner in the radio and TV booth when the play-by-play team rotated from behind the camera to paint a picture via the transistor radio or car radio. Local broadcasting as sports anchor for various network affiliates in NYC, and with the Phoenix Suns (NBA), his last major venture, even took a crack at calling games for a defunct professional indoor soccer league.
He says, “So many goals were scored, I was suffering from whiplash.”
I recall hitching a ride with Steve to the Nassau Coliseum and watched him prep prior to a game in the new soccer league. He studied basics, did homework as always, a splendid broadcast about a sport that was new to his sports vocabulary. I remember, too, Steve saying to me “good night, Scoop,” my nickname. “Never allow me to drive through the streets of the Bronx again.”
The “Scoop” name lives with me and Steve, the streets of the Bronx were not for him, though Arthur Avenue and Little Italy would always welcome an Albert brother. But that is Steve. Kind, serious, good at his craft, and funny with a story or two.
He and his brother Al both called the last game ever in the ABA, game six of the 1976 Finals, Steve for the Nets of Dr. J, Al for the Nuggets and David Thompson.
Steve Albert, as well as his brother, Al, were both on the job for the last game ever in the ABA: Game Six of the 1976 ABA Finals – Image Credit: NBA
The stories are memorable, Steve recalls the moments as a Kent State University grad. His candid humor and recounting of getting stuck in a bathroom shortly before airtime, as he says, “Trying not to laugh when my broadcast partner accidentally set his chair on fire,” which begins the first chapter. A career of calling games in 13 leagues across 11 years with four teams in the NBA, primarily with the New Jersey Nets and won an Emmy broadcasting for the Suns.
And his love for boxing, a sport that lived during 20 years at Showtime as the voice. His brothers also called epic fights—Al, the longtime voice of Tuesday Night Fights on the USA Network. Steve gave Showtime longevity and worked with various broadcast partners, synonymous with the Fight Doctor Ferdie Pacheco, personal physician and cornerman for the late heavyweight champion and Hall of Famer Muhammad Ali. With Al Bernstein, the two analyzed and called fights that received worldwide acclaim.
Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, World Boxing Hall of Fame, and New York State Boxing Hall of Fame, Steve had to find words to describe as he says “Mike Tyson’s chomping off part of Evander Holyfield’s ear during the infamous Bite Fight.”
Steve writes about reuniting with Tyson at his International Boxing Hall of Fame induction, “I asked Mike if he had done that deliberately, with the intent to bite Holyfield. He said to me, “Nah, those dum-dums in my corner forgot to put it back in my mouth.”
That was an epic part of boxing history. As was one of more than 300 championship fights he called, May 7, 2005 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The late Diego “Chico” Corrales opposed Jose Luis Castillo to unify the World Boxing Organization and WBC Lightweight titles. It was as Steve recounted to be, “The most interesting and epic fight I called at Showtime.”
Diego “Chico” Corrales vs. Jose Luis Castillo in May of 2005 made for one of the most chaotic 10 rounds of boxing Steve Albert has ever seen – Image Credit: Matthew Minard/AP
“Ten rounds of sheer mayhem,” he says in segments of The Bite and Other Chunks of Boxing History. “Then came the tenth, the round that transformed the fight into an instant classic. I had never announced anything like that in my career.”
For those who don’t remember, Corrales had been knocked down to the mat more than once, spit out his mouthpiece that slowed the count, came back and stopped Castillo, to win his first major championship. The mouthpiece ploy became a controversy as Corrales appears to have deliberately spit it out of his mouth.
“To this day, I do not know how Diego Corrales summoned up the reserve, the will, the fortitude to win that fight,” Albert states. “He took, heart, determination, and drive to inconceivable heights. Okay there was some controversy , but has there not been controversy in boxing?”
Certainly no controversy as Steve Albert penned a winner.
“An Ode To Sheepshead Bay: Marbles On An Unpaved Road” by John Cirillo
John Cirillo is an award winning public relations executive based in New York for 40 years operating his company Cirillo World.
Cirillo knows public relations and sports, your friend to the media in need. Vice President of Public Relations for the New York Knicks and Madison Square Garden and Yonkers Raceway, also adjunct media professor at Fordham University, his alma mater.
You can purchase and learn more about “An Ode To Sheepshead Bay: Marbles On An Unpaved Road” on Amazon – Image Credit: John Cirillo
Another colleague of 40 years, Cirillo is also an author. This as he says, “as a baby-child and pre-teen, I vividly recall the vibrant hustle of Sheepshead Bay Road (Brooklyn) as it extended from the corner of Jerome Avenue, a long block to Voorhies Avenue. We’re going down the Bay we’d say.”
It’s nostalgic, and informative. Cirillo provides a picture of sitting in the front seat of his first grade class at St. Marks grammar school and the principal interrupting on a loudspeaker about President JFK being assassinated.
“You’re scared,” he says. “Thinking someone can come and shoot me too. Now I’m sitting in Nanny’s living room, watching Walter Cronkite’s coverage on CBS.”
Not much sports and escapades of a public relations executive, but a great and quick read, with a brief chapter about Gridiron Days and neighborhood tackle football.
And the pizza story along with Johnny Roast Beef. Good work from Cirillo known more for his excellence as king of sports public relations executives.
Rich Mancuso is a senior writer and columnist at LatinoSports.com – X: @Ring786, Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
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