Bob Costas is most widely known for his record run as the prime-time host on U.S. television for 11 Olympics, on NBC. But that’s only part of his unparalleled resume.
He also excelled in play-by-play and studio roles for the network’s NBA coverage, had a longtime high-profile run as its NFL host and also has anchored topical talk/commentary programs that could venture outside sports. He even has appeared in movies as well as on mainstream television and news shows.
It certainly has been a wide, varied and unmatched standout career. In fact, he’s the only person to have won Emmy Awards in sports, news and entertainment.
But baseball is his first love in athletics and in broadcasting. Now, at 71 and in semiretirement, it’s the only sport he continues to call. So it’s fitting that MLB Network, for which Costas works part time, features him in the latest installment of its “The Sounds of Baseball†series. The episodes focus on legendary voices of the game and have included former Cardinals broadcasters Jack Buck, Harry Caray and Joe Garagiola. The episode about Costas, the 2018 Ford Frick Award winner that landed him in the broadcasters section of the Baseball Hall of Fame, is set to make its debut at 7 p.m. Thursday.
People are also reading…
Tom Verducci, who co-hosts the show with Matt Vasgersian, compares Costas’ baseball broadcasting to a hurler “with four really good pitches.â€
He explains:
“First of all, precision. You have to be precise with your calls. It’s like commanding your fastball. You need to be a storyteller. He said it himself. Baseball is a sport designed for the great storytellers. He does that as well as anybody. You gotta be funny sometimes too, right? Wit, wisdom. He’s got that, and sometimes you have to be serious. It calls for some journalistic bones. He’s got all four like very few ever have had in the history of broadcasting baseball.â€
Costas began his career in ºüÀêÊÓƵ and lived in the area for decades, but it wasn’t the favorite sport in this baseball-crazed city that lured him to town. He was hired in 1974 by demanding KMOX (1120 AM) boss Robert Hyland to do play-by-play of the American Basketball Association’s Spirts of ºüÀêÊÓƵ. That team was short-lived, lasting only two seasons, but Costas’ roots were taking hold at one of the nation’s legendary radio stations — one on which even though he wasn’t broadcasting baseball he could talk about it on other shows and also interact with elite sportscasters, including Buck.
Costas was hired by NBC first to work on its football coverage but soon found his way to the baseball broadcast booth as its No. 2 play-by-play announcer despite being inexperienced at calling the sport. This was in an era in which NBC had MLB’s big events, including the World Series, and Costas eventually ascended to the lead chair.
Verducci says Costas “was born to be a baseball broadcaster, and Bob would tell you himself, he would’ve gladly paid his dues. But no one made him. He was good right out of the gate.â€
Of course the show has a segment on the “Sandberg Game†that Costas called alongside analyst Tony Kubek four decades ago, when NBC showed a “Game of the Week†on Saturday afternoons throughout the season. It was an iconic slice of television Americana, before the current saturation of sports being shown around the clock arose. For many people, it was the only time all week they’d watch a ballgame.
NBC produced two telecasts, one of which went to most of the nation and the other to the regions of the teams that were playing. This allowed the network to have a game to show to the entire country if the primary contest was rained out. That was the case on June 23, 1984, when the Cardinals-Cubs matchup at Wrigley Field in Chicago was elevated from backup to full-national status.
It was an epic back-and-forth battle in which the Cards’ Willie McGee hit for the cycle and his team led 7-1 after two innings and 9-8 with two out in the bottom of the ninth. But Sandberg homered off closer extraordinaire Bruce Sutter to tie the game.
Back in the classic came the Redbirds, who scored twice in the top of the 10th — with McGee doubling in a run for his sixth RBI of the day.
As a clip of that segment is shown, Costas captures the drama: “If you’re a fan of whatever team winds up losing this game, it might be difficult to accept this point of view, but if you are just a fan of the game itself and no particular rooting interest for either club, you leave a ballpark like Wrigley Field after a game like this glowing.â€
There was more to glow about awaiting baseball fans in general but not Redbirds rooters specifically. In the bottom of the inning, Sandberg came to the plate with a runner on base and two out, again facing Sutter. And again homering.
“Tying run at the plate now in the 10th,†Costas says on the air to set the scene. “Oh, ... deep left-center. Look out. Look out! Do you believe it? It’s gone!â€
So Sandberg not only twice had hit game-tying homers on what could have been the Cubs’ last at-bat but both came off a pitcher who would end up in the Hall of Fame.
After the Redbirds failed to score in the top of the 11th, the Cubs mustered a run in the bottom of the inning for an epic 12-11 victory. Costas still says it is the best regular-season game he ever has done.
The program showcases many other calls throughout his baseball broadcasting career, interspersed with anecdotes — including Verducci talking about the time Costas left a $3.31 tip at Stan Musial’s restaurant in ºüÀêÊÓƵ. Musial’s career batting average? 3.31.
In addition, the documentary hits on Costas not being afraid to discuss controversial topics. Included is a clip of him on the 2000 All-Star Game telecast, firmly in the steroids era, discussing how players then routinely were accomplishing major feats rarely attained in baseball history.
“The ball may be juiced — and some of the players may be juiced,†he said.
The show concludes with a segment from his Frick Award acceptance speech in Cooperstown, New York.
“Good broadcasters know how to tell a story,†Costas said. “No game has more good stories to tell than baseball. I’ve had a very fortunate career filled with vivid experiences. The Olympics, the NBA, HBO, you name it. I’ve enjoyed and appreciated them all. But for me, baseball has always come first. And so this day and this honor will always come first, too.
“Thank you all very much.â€