In the years to come when the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic is behind our world and its history is written, the suspension/cancellation of all collegiate and professional sports leagues here in the U.S. will be just a foot not, especially in the light of the death toll that has been heartbreaking. Many historians though will find it difficult to put together the words to describe the loss that many casual and diehard fans of basketball, hockey, baseball and likely football across this nation, who for the first time ever are without any new games to attend in person or even watch on television, unless you are watching old games these days on ESPN, ABC, NBATV and FOX. What has also happened without sports is the four best voices who have provided the most exceptional play-by-play commentary of our time have been on mute, until their recent appearance on HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.”
Late last month, the 25-year host of “Real Sports” had a conversation via video chat with Mike Breen, the lead voice of the National Basketball Association (NBA) on ESPN/ABC, whose been the lead play-by-play man the last 14 NBA Finals, and the lead commentator for New York Knicks for Madison Square Garden Network (MSG). Joe Buck of FOX Sports, whose called Major League Baseball (MLB) games since 1991, whose called the last 20 World Series tilts, and is the lead commentator for NFL Football on FOX Sports. Jim Nantz is the lead play-by-play analyst for the NFL on CBS, while also calling the last 29 NCAA March Madness Finals for their network and has been the voice of “The Masters” Golf tournament since 1989.
For these three men, who have been sidelined as mentioned in calling sporting events because of the pandemic, they each said this moment was a nice escape and gave them a chance to be back to somewhat normal talking in some manner about sports.
Without any basketball games to announce, the 58-year-old Breen when ask by Gumbel what he has been up to said that he has gotten a lot of “exercise” and has been doing a lot of walking with his five-year-old Golden Retriever and spent a lot of time with his wife Rosanne and their three children, Michael, Nicole, and Matt.
Buck, the 51-year-old father of twin boys to his wife of six years and NFL reporter for ESPN Michelle Beisner-Buck said that he was “glad” to see some familiar faces in the sports world.
“I’m really hoping that this appearance in my return to HBO last about six or so hours. And if it doesn’t, please back me up and tell my wife that it did,” Buck said jokingly when asked by Gumbel what he has been up to during this pandemic, which has also included a lot of diaper changing.
Nantz, whose been the voice of CBS’s coverage of “The Masters” Golf tournament since 1989 called this interview with Gumbel and contemporaries in sports broadcasting the “highlight” of his week.
The 60-year-old during this time though been able to enjoy some quality time with his wife of soon to be eight years early next month Courtney, their six-year-old daughter and four-year-old son, and Nantz’s daughter Caroline from his previous marriage.
“I have all three of my children under one roof. So, living the life we all do, on the go, on the road, on the treadmill all the time of life, it’s been a time to pause, hit the pause button and really try to absorb and soak up all these wonderful opportunities to be huddled together,” Nantz said about being with his family during this time.
As good as it has been for these three leading play-by-play commentators they like all sports fans are eager and wondering if, when and how we will be able to see our sports teams either resume play with the NBA and NHL and if we will see MLB and Golf action soon and the NFL this fall.
Nantz said he just likes the idea of everyone getting back out and bringing some entertainment to the U.S. landscape that has been in the thrust of everything that has come with the COVID-19 Pandemic from the deaths to citizens as well as to our first responders and healthcare workers on the front lines.
He just hopes that we can do this with keeping the athletes and the support staffs of the teams safe.
“I just think America needs it, you know, when the time is right,” Nantz said. “And if it means that there are no fans that are a part of this, ‘Okay,’ you know? America can live with that. They want to see the games.”
Breen echoed the same sentiment saying if we have to go with no fans to attend NBA games for the remainder of this season and heading into the 2020-21 season that would be “fine.”
What the New York City native has not been a fan of is the definitive predictions of that no NFL action will be seen this fall.
We all do not know whether or not we will have any pro sports for the rest of spring, this summer, or this fall.
What we can feel good about as Breen said all these sports leagues have “really smart people” in their respective front offices as well as their teams and in the health field that are figuring out how the athletes can be safe.
If the dynamics do not permit the players, coaches, and support staff to handle their business on the hardwood, baseball diamond and on the gridiron, both collegiately and at the pro level, they will not risk putting anyone in harms way.
In terms of when the new MLB season will get underway, Buck who resides in St. Louis, MO said that he is troubled by the unknown for someone who owns one of the league’s franchise like one of the owners of the St. Louis Cardinals who lives very close to former announcer for the team’s games from 1991-2007.
While Buck said that he is “optimistic” that FOX Sports will get something for viewers to watch but doing an NFL or NBA game with no reaction when a big play takes place from the audience is “daunting” and “scary.”
Buck feels that when the NBA resumes and if the MLB and the NFL are able to start their respective seasons that the stadiums are going to put in place some sort of “crowd noise” or “past crowd” noise or laughter that has been put on past shows just as a way to give a little bit of support.
This idea has been practiced recently on longtime comedian Bill Maher’s show “Real Time with Bill Maher” Friday nights on HBO in recent weeks.
“Now that to me is way more preferable. Way more appetizing than having just than having just flat under your broadcast.”
If and when were are able to see sports resume like the NBA and Golf, or begin in terms of MLB and NFL, the question Gumbel posed can he envision the athletes performing in an arena, ballpark or stadium but the commentators saying “I don’t think so.”
Breen feels that if the NBA season does come back that initially the local broadcast squads of all 30 NBA teams will be doing so from a studio, including those that call games nationally for ESPN like the New York native, who does the big games for “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” with Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson.
While there is concern for all involved about being as safe as possible, Nantz said that if the “green light” is given for any sport to resume or begin, the decision will be made by a group of people who have dotted their “I’s” and cross all the “T’s” of this and that all the people on the front lines in whatever city the CBS and Viacom people travel that he will have “faith” that they will be and kept safe.
“I’ll just go where they tell me,” Buck said about going where MLB or NFL on FOX has him on the call for that respective event. “I feel like if their going to hold the event. If they’re going to insure the safety of the people involved, aka the players and the staff, and the people down on the field they’ll extend that up to usually the fifth level of one of these stadiums. I don’t know about the sixth. But the fifth level is usually the press box, and if they get up to five to clean it, I’m okay.”
What will make us seeing sports again an even more of a challenge is how to implement a term that has been introduced into our lives since the COVID-19 Pandemic began, social distancing.
It has a good chance of being implemented in golf and tennis because both are more of an individual sport, aside from when there are doubles matches with tennis. It is a totally different animal when it comes to the likes of basketball, baseball, football, and hockey, where there is contact, and plenty of it.
While Nantz said of the fact that the future of sports as part of the rest of the 2020 year being an all-or-nothing is uncertain. But if we can get back on track starting in September, we will have a stretch of golf major championships, grand slam tennis, baseball, basketball, and football all competing for the attention of fans.
In theory that sounds like a great idea, especially with what our nation has experienced these last 11 weeks and counting, it will be as Nantz called it the “Wild West” trying to find a place to broadcast a major sporting event on the calendar and fit it in around the networks of CBS, ABC, ESPN, NBC, FOX, and TNT, that already have programming already scheduled.
Buck posed the question asking, “You know, I think you start looking at the landscape and I wonder, you know, how long is too long for a layoff? And long with that layoff do you start bleeding into next season?”
“At some point, do they pull the ripcord on the NBA and NHL because its just been so long.”
For the NBA though, they have said that it is important to them that an NBA champion be crowned this season. But the elephant in the room is this long layoff and how they deal with it.
To suddenly come back and then have the respective Top 8 teams in the Eastern and Western Conference to go into the playoffs where the intensity and pressure of each game is seriously ratcheted up, there is the concern for injuries.
Breen said the league will not resume until all 30 teams have at least a three-to-four-week period of training camp, where they can get their conditioning and perhaps some exhibition games before they start back up again.
The reason Breen brings this point up is because of the fear of injuries, similar to what has taken place after the 1998-99, 2011-12 strike shorten seasons.
There has not been a professional game of significance to watch on television since Mar. 11 when the National Basketball Association (NBA) suspended its 2019-20 season. Since that night, the National Hockey League (NHL) has suspended its play and the Men’s and Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournaments were cancelled for the first time ever. The start of the 2020 Major League Baseball Season (MLB) and the Women’s National Basketball Association have been delayed.
The athletes of all the teams have been sidelined. The stadiums, arenas, and practice complexes of all the major sports teams have been closed.
There are big sporting events on the horizon if and when sports resumes like the NBA Finals, The Masters, The World Series, and the NFL season. Mike Breen, Joe Buck, and Jim Nantz as they have for between the last 10 and 30 years respectively have been at the mic bringing us the action of all those events.
When asked by Gumbel if they have entertained the possibility that they broadcast a game or event in their respective sports for the rest of the 2020 year?
Buck said he has, especially with how the landscape of our world because of the Coronavirus is “changing” the landscape of our world on a daily basis.
“I don’t know what to believe,” he said. “So, if you go to bed at night and it doesn’t cross your mind that you may not be calling a game in 2020, I don’t think you’re being realistic with what’s going on in the world.”
Breen feels the fact that we all are in “uncharted waters” in all aspects of life that we may be watching old games for a while saying that he watched the 1973 World Series between the Oakland Athletics and New York Mets, which he said jokingly is the first World Series Buck did when the Knicks play-by-play man said he was 12 years old. That series was broadcasted by his father Jack when his son Joe was four.
“So, I think we might be watching some of those old games for a while now,” Breen said about what sports fans will be viewing possibly for the rest of 2020.
Nantz said that by CBS re-broadcasting past major golf events like “The Masters” and the PGA Tour events, he still feels a part of the sport, even though it is just a way of “dressing up” broadcast from previous years.
The prospect of there being no new sporting events broadcasted is something he does not imagine and feels that in the next four to five months we will have some “answers” to how to tackle the Coronavirus.
“So, I’m riding right now 100 percent,” he said to Gumbel about sports being back in our lives before this year concludes. “I hope that we can have a gathering again, maybe right before this all gets started again. We reeve up the engines and we talk about how we’re gonna approach it because this country gonna figure it out Bryant. I really believe it.”
Information and quotations are courtesy of 4/28/2020 10 p.m. edition of “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel;” https://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/`973_WS.shtml; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Nantz#Personal_life; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Breen#Personal_life; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Buck; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Beisner-Buck#.
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