Column: Throwback telecast ends in walk-off win for Chicago White Sox, CHSN and Bob Costas
· Yahoo Sports
Chicago Sports Network took a big, bold swing Tuesday night, turning over its White Sox game to Bob Costas and a “Remember the 80’s” theme.
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Nostalgia sells.
Whether CHSN hit a walk-off home run, as Sox rookie Braden Montgomery managed to do in his major league debut, or struck out looking is probably in the eye of the beholder.
Costas is a big name in broadcasting with a storied past and an encyclopedic memory of baseball history. But, like Sammy Sosa or Billy Martin, he’s a name that baseball fans tend to love or hate. I personally enjoy listening to Costas, so the idea of him and Steve Stone in the booth together, telling old stories, was intriguing.
But I also knew Sox fans would be tweeting that it was too much Costas and not enough about the game. The Sox are interesting these days, and who cares about the 1980s New York Yankees?
Ironically, the alleged criticism from Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf about the departed Jason Benetti was that Benetti and Stone spent too much time making each other laugh and not enough time on the game. Here we were with an older version of Benetti and the same old Stoney. What gives?
Naturally, as anyone could have predicted, the game turned into an instant classic thanks to the Sox’s comeback in a 6-5, 10-inning win over the Atlanta Braves, led by Mongtomery’s dramatic home run. The ending was telegraphed by an earlier replay of Tim Anderson’s walk-off home run in the “Field of Dreams” game in 2021, which also happened to be the apex of the Rick Hahn rebuild before it all came crashing down the following season.
The Montgomery game probably deserved a bit more attention, and Costas profusely apologized for just that after admitting on air he was not keeping score and didn’t notice that Randall Grichuk had replaced Tristan Peters. Stone laughed and told Costas that if the game was in 2024, when the Sox were on their way to a record 121 losses, it would’ve been a more appropriate time to ignore the action and talk about the ’80s.
For those who missed it, CHSN recently announced a “ one-of-a-kind broadcast” with Costas and Stone that would focus on the 1980s.
“We know he and Steve Stone will do a tremendous job entertaining fans while celebrating the White Sox and the game of baseball, along with all the great memories from that era,” CHSN president Mike McCarthy said in a statement.
With regular announcer John Schriffen off, I assumed Costas would do the play-by-play with Stone as analyst. They did one game together in 1987 on WGN when the Cubs used rotating announcers for an ailing Harry Caray, though it was not nearly as memorable as Bill Murray’s game during that stretch, which remains one of the funniest broadcasts in baseball history.
Before Tuesday’s game, Costas held a press conference in the sweltering Sox dugout and I asked him if he missed doing play-by-play.
“I’m not doing any play-by-play,” he replied.
What? I thought that was the whole idea — calling a game and talking about the “Winning Ugly” Sox team of 1983 — was to have Costas back at the mic?
Wrong again.
Costas explained that Connor McKnight, the usual sub, was doing the first few innings with Stone.
“Then I come in in the third inning and establish the premise that the whole broadcast is a throwback broadcast,” he said. “Steve will take note of what’s happening (in the game) and I will chime in. We’re hoping that the game is not so epic that we can’t lean into all the 80’s flashback stuff we’ve got.”
Costas then mentioned the 1983 All-Star Game at old Comiskey Park and the American League Championship Series that year between the Sox and Baltimore Orioles, both of which he called for NBC.
“If someone is pitching a no-hitter or something, we’ll have to pivot,” he said. “But that’s the general idea.”
Costas informed us they’d talk about “The Ryne Sandberg game” between the Cubs and Cardinals in 1984, which was perhaps his most famous call. I cringed, knowing many Sox fans were not going to like re-living one of the greatest moments in Cubs history during a Sox telecast.
Costas also said they’d show Tito Landrum’s game-winning home run off Sox pitcher Britt Burns in Game 4 of the 1983 ALCS, which made me cringe even more, knowing many Sox fans were not going to like re-living one of the worst moments in Sox history.
After hearing those two factoids, I suggested that Costas get security when leaving the ballpark.
Why not just go all the way and rub it in Sox fans’ faces by showing “Dybber’s gaffe” — the infamous baserunning mistake by shortstop Jerry Dybzinski that helped sink the Sox that October afternoon? Costas assured us they’d ignore Dybber’s gaffe, which was a relief to me and the Dybber.
By the time the game started, it was all about Montgomery’s debut, so I forgot about ‘80’s night until someone sitting next to me in the press box turned up his tiny TV to listen. For some reason, Costas became the play-by-play man with McKnight leaving the booth. But the game mostly seemed to dwell on the highlights from the 1980s more than the bunt fest taking place.
At some point, I could see on the monitor that the two were talking about Caray and Jimmy Piersall, the greatest announcing team in Sox history. Kudos to Reinsdorf for allowing that, since he disliked both announcers with a passion, having fired Piersall which caused Caray to leave for the Cubs and WGN, where he reached greater fame.
I never thought I’d see Caray and Piersall being celebrated on a White Sox broadcast, but there it was on my own tiny TV that a press box attendant and I had to duct tape during the game.
I don’t know whether Costas explained how — or why — Reinsdorf split up the Caray-Piersall duo. Hopefully there’s a 1970s-themed broadcast down the road to talk about “Disco Demolition Night” and the upper deck fire at an Aerosmith concert at Comiskey in 1976. I’m available to discuss both in detail, CHSN.
While I missed hearing most of the game, I was able to listen to the final few innings, where Costas told stories like the one about Keith Hernandez drinking in the clubhouse during the New York Mets’ legendary comeback against the Boston Red Sox in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, thinking the game was lost.
Costas told us Hernandez would’ve had to play “buzzed” if the game went into extra innings. I kept waiting for the story on Mark Buehrle actually pitching while buzzed during the Sox’s classic extra-inning win in Game 3 of the 2005 World Series.
Alas, no mention of buzzed Buehrle.
Whether Costas and Stone paid enough attention to the game is debatable, but they did have some fun interplay about the many White Sox bunt attempts that failed. Costas was also able to do a straight call of Montgomery’s walk-off home run without any mention of a similar homer from the Yankees in the 1980s. So that was a win.
It turned into an epic night for the Sox, and perhaps for CHSN, which can now replay the game hundreds of times next winter when David Haugh takes a vacation and there’s airtime to fill.
CHSN is planning a second 80s-themed broadcast on June 27 against the Kansas City Royals, where former Sox legends Carlton Fisk, Greg Luzinski, Ron Kittle and Harold Baines are among the announced guests. There was no mention of the Dybber, or Costas for that matter. I hope they can get both.
Give CHSN credit for doing something different, which is rare in a baseball telecast these days.
But now it’s time to return to the White Sox season, already in progress.