Social media blew up toward the end of ESPN’s broadcast of the home run derby Monday. Long time broadcaster Chris Berman inserted an awkward-at-best reference about Muhammad Ali as Todd Frazier was being eliminated in the final round. The comment, with time running out on Frazier’s bid to repeat as the long-ball champ, went like this, “in the year we lost The Champ, Muhammad Ali, I have to say it, down goes Frazier.” When it first happened, I was not quite positive I heard what he said. So to be sure, I did what anyone would do … I hit Twitter. Unfortunately, I heard it right. Ok, so there are several things wrong with that: • It’s the home run derby for crying out loud. It’s fun! It’s exciting! It’s baseball! It’s not boxing. After more than two hours of watching guys launch baseballs deep into the Southern California night, Berman’s reference to Ali made us feel bad. It brought up a recent event that, as it turned out, became the beginning of a series of sad events that included the death of “Mr. Hockey” Gordy Howe, the questionable fatal police shootings of men in Louisiana and Minnesota and the ambush-style murders of five police officers in Dallas. At best, Berman’s comment was awkward. In reality, it was out-of-place and out-of-bounds. The goal of sports is to give a place to go to get away from what’s happening in the real world. Berman’s comments ruined the moment. • The schtick made him do it. Berman’s gimmick is to take people’s names and turn them into puns. For example: former big league outfielder Kevin “Large Mouth” Bass, Eddie “Eat, Drink and Be” Murray and Ozzie “Like A” Virgil. Years ago, football and baseball players were hoping they would do something to get Berman to assign them a new middle name. The reference here to boxing is because of Todd Frazier being in the derby. If Berman would have screamed out “Frazier is out … down goes Frazier” it would totally have worked. But it became part of an unusual tribute to the great boxing champ that came out of the clear blue sky, which buried the humor under a pile of somber. It wasn’t even Ali who knocked Joe Frazier down that led to Howard Cosell’s famous exclamation, it was George Foreman. With everyone in Petco Park and around the country celebrating the crowning of a new home run champ, Berman took on the role of the guy who warned everyone at the picnic that rain was coming and chased everyone inside – but the rain never came. • Becoming a prisoner of ‘preparation’ in any business, preparation is key. The goal of any successful professional is to have some sort of plan for as many scenarios as possible. Sports broadcasting, however, by its very nature, is unscripted. You can learn people’s names and stories, you can know their backgrounds and histories, but unless you have ESP even the best sports announcer can only follow the action as it happens and relate it to their audience. More and more we see and hear announcers describe some of the bigger moments in sports with verbiage that is clearly thought out ahead of time. Jim Nance of CBS is notorious for this. He gave us “And that’s what love is all about!” as a putt by Davis Love III disappeared into the hole to clinch a tournament title on the 72nd hole. Very corny, and not fitting of the moment. Berman clearly had made up his mind that he was going to work the Muhammad Ali reference into the broadcast in association with Frazier losing in the derby. He was losing his chance to use it, so he stuck it into what was supposed to be the happiest moment of the night. I script very little of what I say during a game broadcast, especially once the actual game begins. • Know when “it’s time.” Berman is one of the original ESPN on-air personalities and a pioneer in the business. But his time has passed. His schtick is old because most of his references are for people 50 and older, younger people don’t get them. The problem is, no one at the network has the courage to stand up and say “Thanks Chris, we appreciate your contribution to our network and to the business, but it’s time for us both to move on.” They should celebrate him and honor him in every way, and then take away his lapel mic and never let him have it back. In our business, if you are in it long enough, you will have “a moment” you wish you could have back. There is the name that doesn’t come out quite right (it was me, and the name was Futterkneckt), the quarterback who dropped back to pass, but you say he did something very different than that, and you announce the game is going to overtime, when the scoreboard says the game is over (that was me too). You apologize and try to laugh it off as best you can. But what Berman did Monday night makes even his biggest fans cringe. When you think about it, Berman’s broadcasting career should probably be “back, back, back, back, back…GONE!”
