Just create a controversy and you'll be able to fill volumes of newsprint or, in the case of radio/tv shows...hours of babble that will pass as sportstalk. "BULLSHEVIKI" That's not sports news it's pure and simple exploitation of the suedo, uninformed, so-called sportsfan. It's to a point where you don't have to know anything about sports to be a writer or sportstalk host. You only have to have been on your college debating team and know how to defend "both sides" of an argument. In other words, create a controversy then rationalize the heck out of it. You then get the attention of BOTH sides, double your calls, your ratings go up and you make more money!
In the late 90's Bob Lobel and Upton Bell hosted the very first internet sportstalk show EVER. It was called "Cybersports Live." I was the executive producer and, with the connections those guys had I was able to bring in the very cream of the crop of former Boston athletes and we talked ONLY about real sports, not who wanted more money, who was taking drugs or who was beating his wife.
Listeners/callers got to hear REAL sports talk right from the horse's mouth. Steve Grogan, Rico Petrocelli, Dick Radatz, Gino Cappelletti (who most definitely belongs in the NFL Hall of Fame), Steve Nelson, Will McDonough with some great untold sports stories. THIS was what sportstalk shows were supposed to be. Former Patriot's wide receiver Randy Vataha told a story concerning Upton Bell (when Bell was the Pats general manager) that was a riot. Bell wanted to hire Chuck Fairbanks as the Pats head coach but Billy Sullivan and the board said he was too expensive. The Pats were playing the superbowl champion Baltimore Colts and Bell said, "If we lose by more than 21 points will you let me hire Fairbanks. They all agreed and, as expected, the Colts were killing the Pats. With less than a minute to play they were up by 24 points when, from out of the blue, Jim Plunkett hits Randy Vataha for an 89 yard touchdown pass. After the game, in the lockerroom, Bell blasted Vataha (jokingly) telling him, "You just set us back 10 years. All you had to do was just drop the ball....."
Randy (and Upton) told the story on the show and everyone had a good laugh. Callers wanted to know why THEY never heard those stories, which they all would have loved. The answer is simple:---they don't generate the controversy that will translate into more calls, therefore more dollars.
Several years ago I asked Red Hoffman, the legendary executive sports editor of the Lynn Item, why those REAL sportstalk shows we listened too in the 50's, 60's into the early 70's were now all about the "social" side of sports.
Red said, simply, "The sports section (as well as sportstalk shows) had to find a way to attract more readers (and listeners) and decided to expand their base audience. They went after people, mainly the ladies, who didn't care that Joe D's record 56 game hitting streak and Teddy Ballgame's .406 season were both in 1941. OR, that Ty Cobb has the highest lifetime batting average in baseball history at .367. But they did care about who should be getting more money or who should be kicked out of sports for hitting his wife or girlfriend." They could relate to THOSE stories.
What they should be doing instead is helping pass on knowledge of the sports to the next generation and giving them an insight into how the games were, and should be, played. There's a young fella from Medford that calls all the shows and is affectionately referred to as "The Kid" because of his love of Ted Williams. HE still doesn't know what a "suicide squeeze" is or where the term "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain," came from or which outfielder has to have the strongest throwing arm. He DOES know how much money the Sox offered Roger Clemens and Mo Vaughn in their final contract talks. And he still believes Roger took steroids even though the U.S. Congress found that he was not lying when he said he never took steroids. Nevertheless the MEDIA convicted him and that's what people (and this kid) believe. Shame on them.
NOTE---Once "Boston sports stories" gets all the pieces in place you'll see our own HALL OF FAME
and guys like PETE ROSE, GINO CAPPELLETTI, DWIGHT EVANS, DOM DIMAGGIO RICK MIDDLETON and ROGER CLEMENS, who should be in their own respective Halls of fame WILL be in ours.
About 15 years ago I had a private, two hour, interview with Dom DiMaggio. He had just written a book about the 1941 baseball season that is, as he put it, "the greatest season in baseball history." It is titled, "Real Grass, Real Heroes." Dom is the ONLY man that could have properly written this book. His brother Joe was setting a record of hitting safely in 56 consecutive games AND his best friend, Ted Williams, was recording the last .400 season (.406) in baseball history. Set against the backdrop of the impending WWII this is an incredible story and is as much a part of AMERICAN history as of baseball history. This is a MUST READ for anybody with the slightest bit of curiousity of "who we are or where we came from."
I told Dom I thought it was a great title for a sports show as well as for his book. Dom, who was a childhood idol of mine, along with Teddy, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr, said, "I think you could do a great job in bringing those old days back into memory so, if you do a sportshow and want to use the title you have MY permission." WOW! Needless to say that made my day...no, my decade. Of course I did start the show, on Medford cablevision TV-3 and on internet TV. I've brought the spirit of the show right here to "Boston sports stories." I like to think it's a look at the golden age of pro sports when the game was played on REAL grass (instead of Astro-turf) and the heroes were REAL heroes, not junkies who could hit the ball 600 feet.
I've interviewed, on the show, some great sports people that have been either overlooked or just plain forgotten by the "drive-by" media. Rick Middleton, former undisputed world welterweight champ, Tony DeMarco, former Mass. state auditor Joe DeNucci who was a world ranked middleweight contender (and considered the un-crowned champion) Togo Palazzi, a member of the Celtics first world championship team and several other sports luminaries. One of my personal favorites is of the several phone interviews I did with GENE CONLEY. For you beginners in sports talk history Gene is THE ONLY MAN to win world championships in two different pro sports. He was a starting pitcher for the 1957 world champion Milwaukee Braves AND played a very significant part in three straight world championships with the Boston celtics, 1959, '60 and '61. That's right, he played both sports simultaneously. And what unforgettable stories he has of all the great hall-of-famers he played with. Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Warren Spahn and Lou Burdette just to name a few. I'm very proud of these shows and hope to bring the same stories to this site.....Stay tuned.....