CHICK HEARN IS DEAD

CBS ^ | 07/05/2002 | SELF

[kellynla]

CHICK HEARN IS DEAD. GOD BLESS THE BEST BASKETBALL ANNOUNCER THAT EVER LIVED.

[socal_parrot]

You're not using that old I-meant-to-contact-the-FReeper-that-has-the-screename-almost-like-yours pick-up line again, are you?

[The Westerner]

"Well, Chick's game is in the refrigerator. The door's closed, the light's out, the eggs are cooling, the butter's getting hard, and the Jell-Ooooooooooooo's jiggling."

Goodbye to a great man.

[hole_n_one]

ROTFLMAO!

[SoCal Pubbie]

I just knew some idiot was going to bring up Johnny Most. Ughhhh!!!!!

[SoCal Pubbie]

I believe Chick took the Bowling for Dollars gig to keep his mind off the death of his son. He and Marge lost both their kids over the years.

[Euro-American Scum]

Weirder: Vin Scully hosting a game show - NBC's It Takes Two, 1969-71.

Weirder still -- Vin Scully doing NFL football. Late 70s I think. What's wrong with this picture?

[Euro-American Scum]

I never met you, but I sure do know you.

And that says it all. I'm sure all of us feel that way. A greater compliment could not be paid.

[Euro-American Scum]

I just knew some idiot was going to bring up Johnny Most. Ughhhh!!!!!

Chick Hearn to Johnny Most. From the sublime to the ridiculous. Don't know why anyone even mentions Most in the same breath as Chick.

[BluesDuke]

Weirder still -- Vin Scully doing NFL football. Late 70s I think. What's wrong with this picture?

Almost (underline that, gang) the same thing that was wrong when ABC imposed Howard Cosell on baseball (you have heard of fish out of water, no?), with one critical difference: even having a go at football, Vin Scully was class. Howard Cosell was merely crass.

Frankly, if I were to be named commissioner of baseball (yeah, riiiiiight!), my first fiat (after proclaiming that no man who was now or ever had been a baseball owner would ever be deemed eligible to serve as commissioner again in the future) would be that Vin Scully should broadcast the World Series until he dies, no matter which network gets the rights to the Series any year. Some things are just too damn good to lose.

[nickcarraway]

Married 64 years.

[BluesDuke]

I believe Chick took the Bowling for Dollars gig to keep his mind off the death of his son.

I notice a few of the sportscasting greats did certain things for similar reasons. Vin Scully (this may be forgotten about him after all these years) first tried to scale back his road broadcasts with the Dodgers in the early 1970s when his first wife died unexpectedly (an accidental overdose of medication she took for a bronchial condition; she was 38) and he found himself the single father of three young children. When he remarried a few years later and found himself the head of a larger household (his second and still wife had a few children of her own), only then did he begin considering lucrative network contracts to go in hand with his Dodgers work.

Today, since NBC doesn't have the World Series any longer and Scully hasn't been brought in to do a Series since (this, in my view, is a crime against nature), Scully scales back his Dodger work: he's on every televised home game and only on selected weekend road games. His first three innings on television are simulcast to radio, before the radio side is handed over to Russ Porter and Rick Monday.

ESPN's SportsCenter has shown a charming clip of Chick Hearn, on the occasion of his 3,000th Laker broadcast. Hearn nodded toward Jack Nicholson (when he dies, they'll probably retire his courtside seat in his honour) and said, "I apologise to Jack Nicholson...but it's as good as it gets!" (Nicholson's film As Good As It Gets had recently had its run in the theaters...)

[nickcarraway]

Jack Buck was the best at football. It was like watching it on TV, he gave you the all the info you needed. Listen to a football game on the radio today and you're lucky if they tell you the down and distance every five minutes. If I wanted to be a football announcer I'd listen to all the tapes of him I could get.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Boy, he certainly went out with his boots still on!

Still going at 85 is remarkable!

[Weimdog]

The game was in the early 90's against the Chicago Bulls. Chick commented that he needed to get a new fridge.

[Mr. Mojo]

Frankly, if I were to be named commissioner of baseball....

Hopefully, you'd:
A) scrap the DH in the AL.
B) scrap interleague play. (It's destroying both the World Series and the all-star game).
C) scrap the wild card, and go back to two divisions per league.
D) outlaw artificial turf.
E) institute a salary cap (I'm against revenue sharing).

[Mr. Mojo]

I must've missed that time, 'cause the game I was referring to was in the early 80's. Oh well, I guess Chick needed a new fridge every decade or so.

[Marathoner]

Aman to that! I am no laker fan but Chick was one of the greatest, the best one liner, the mustard is off the Hotdog.

My feelings exactly, and as a Midwestener and St Louis Cardinals baseball fan, this sad story brings back and amplifies the pain and loss many of us felt with the passing of Jack Buck a couple of months ago.

Interesting how everyone who met either gentleman talks about what genuinely nice people they were.

The sports world has truly lost a couple of irreplaceable broadcasting icons this summer

[StoneColdGOP]

Very sad news. He will be sorely missed.

[Biblebelter]

The thing that made Chick great was that he respected his audience. I am sure that he had an ego, but his priority was to make listening and watching the game an enjoyable and entertaining experience, not trying to prove how smart he was by being hypercritical of players, coaches, and officials. I never was a Laker fan, but I watched a lot of Laker games simply because Chick made the game so entertaining. He will be missed.

[Euro-American Scum]

Frankly, if I were to be named commissioner of baseball (yeah, riiiiiight!), my first fiat (after proclaiming that no man who was now or ever had been a baseball owner would ever be deemed eligible to serve as commissioner again in the future) would be that Vin Scully should broadcast the World Series until he dies, no matter which network gets the rights to the Series any year. Some things are just too damn good to lose.

Hallelujah! I've been saying that for years. Every fall, I search the radio for some station, any station with Vin doing the World Series. If you're going to have the best teams going at it, you need the best announcer.

Like Chick. . . None better.