I first met Dick in 1969. I was a lowly sports intern at KMPC radio in Los Angeles and Dick was calling the Angels and Rams on that station. He treated everyone equally and with respect, even a wide-eyed punk kid like me. One year I got to intern for the home Rams games. I would stand in the back of the booth and watch a weekly masterful performance. Spotters and statisticians would hand him scraps of paper and he would seamlessly weave them into his broadcast, all the while describing the action and conveying the drama of the situation. Here was this exciting football game going on on the field and I couldn’t take my eyes away from the man calling it rather than watching it myself from the 50-yard line.
Before the game Dick was always gracious with his time, showing me how he prepared for a game and what to look for during a game.
I hadn’t seen him in quite a few years and when we reconnected in 2009 at Dodger Stadium when I was hosting Dodger Talk and he was in his first year doing television for the San Diego Padres he remembered my name. How amazing is that after almost 40 years? When I would see him at Petco Park he routinely would arrive at the ballpark around 1:00 for a 7:00 game just to do his preparation. And trust me when I say that many of those Padres games meant nothing. They were so bad they were often mathematically eliminated by the All-Star break. But he took pride in everything he did and had a passion for everything he did, and it really showed.
And man was he good. A few years ago at Dodger Stadium during a Dodgers-Padres game there was a weird triple play. On MLB.com you could watch all of the broadcasts. To be honest, Vin Scully blew the call. Whoever the ESPN announcer was that day also kicked it. Dick Enberg not only got it right, but called it effortlessly. This man was a PRO.
He once had to call a Superbowl when there was an audio problem and he was hearing an echo in his headphones. Imagine being on an open mic speaking to 80 million people and that maddening distraction was going on for three hours. When you listen to the broadcast itself you would never know there was a problem. His call, his concentration, his analysis was right on the money. Again, a pro’s PRO.
One of his other gifts was making his broadcast partner feel comfortable and thus getting the best performance possible out of him. Merlin Olsen, Billy Packer, Don Drysdale, Al McGuire, Mark Grant, and many others – all benefited greatly by having Dick Enberg by their side.
A few years ago he did NFL Thursday night games on national radio. It was a treat to hear him back on the radio, and at 77 or 78 he hadn't lost a step. You could picture the game better than if you were watching it. And I could picture him in the booth, gesturing to the engineer to bring the crowd noise up and down, reading scraps of paper, and taking the listener on a spellbinding ride. My oh my, I will miss him.
NOTE: Friday Questions will appear later Friday. But I wanted to share my thoughts on Dick Enberg.
31 comments :
RIP Dr. Dick (Ph.D. Indiana)
BTW no team has ever been closed to being eliminated by the All-Star break.
What a lovely tribute. Even those of us non-sportsians, (other than bleeding Dodger Blue), know of Dick Enberg. He was an LA icon for sure.
We in LA were so fortunate to have such an Olympic pantheon of announcers: Dick Enberg, Vin Scully, Chick Hearn, Bob Miller et al.
Enberg was truly the pro's pro. Made it all seem so effortless. He was probably the first announcer I ever knew by name, because of his affable hosting of "Sports Challenge," which was my favorite game show as a kid.
He will always be at the mike in our memories. Oh my.
And of course among his proteges was Dave Niehaus.
I came to know Dick Enberg not as a sportscaster, but as a game show host. I missed his first show, The Perfect Match, but was a big fan of Sports Challenge (a great show that featured many all time sports greats) and Baffle, a word game with celebrities. Then of course I saw him doing football and tennis and even baseball. Oh my! He’ll be missed.
Sadly ironic he retired the same year as Vin Scully.His retirement went virtually unnoticed by the mainstream media. Vin deserved every allocated he got, but Enberg was like the Stones to Vin being the Beatles, and deserved his share of attention.
ScarletNumber,
I believe that "close to being eliminated by the All-Star break" line was (to use a technical term) -- a joke.
Great tribute on a great broadcaster,he also help start the career of Mariner announcer Dave Niehaus.
By all accounts, he was a truly decent person. He was one of the best at what he did right up until the day he stopped doing it. I listened to some of those Thursday night football games he called and hearing him at work again was a real pleasure.
Beautiful. Thank you
I'm glad that Dick lived to enjoy his election to the baseball hall of fame in 2015. I heard him interviewed on the MLB network the day his induction was announced. He was so happy and so genuinely humbled at this great honor. It was well deserved, and on top of his his greatness as a broadcaster, he seemed like such a nice man.
What I loved about Dick Enberg is how you could hear the passion he had for whichever sport he was calling. He was having fun and it showed.
A beautiful tribute.
When I discovered The Vin in 1973, I began twirling the dial and came upon the Angels broadcast crew of Dick Enberg, Don Drysdale, and Dave Niehaus--two in the broadcasters' wing, one in Cooperstown for his playing and then a fine announcer in his own right. For 40 years, Dick Enberg was part of my life's soundtrack, and I cannot believe he's gone.
Lest we forget, he also produced "The Way It Was," a wonderful sports nostalgia show, and hosted game shows and talk shows. He could do it all, and did.
Regarding the joke about the Padres being mathematically eliminated by the All-Star break, for years David Letterman recycled the same joke: "Well, it's opening day for Major League Baseball, and you know what that means: The Mets have been mathematically eliminated."
I covered college basketball for the now-defunct Paterson News and Hudson Dispatch from 1979 to 1981, and Dick Enberg, then at NBC, broadcast several of the games I staffed alongside Al McGuire and Billy Packer. They rivaled the early years of ABC's "Monday Night Football" (Keith Jackson/Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, Don Meredith) as the best three-man crew in TV sports history. RIP to a superb broadcaster and true gentleman.
Well, the 1962 Mets were 43 GB at the all star break (26-76 v. LA's 71-35), so they would have had to go 55-5 just to hope the other 9 teams also wound up at 81-81 by season's end. I'd say that's pretty close to being mathematically eliminated by ASB.
My adolescence was enhanced by Enberg and Merlin Olsen calling the Rose Bowl, back when it was strictly Pac 10 versus Big 10.
I only met Mr. Enberg once, at a Michigan Assoc. of Broadcasters convention, where he was was the keynote speaker. (He was from Alpena, and there was the storied broadcast career, too )
The LA folks, you knew him first, but around the country, we first saw him on Sports Challenge. To this day, what a wonderful showcase of legendary athletes. (It's on YouTube. Enjoy) And Dick's sport coats,
He was a truly nice man. RIP.
You're right. This one does hurt. Growing up I listened to or watched Dick on everything you mentioned. BTW, I used to see him around the valley when he was still working in L.A. He was always great with his fans as well.
In the small rural town in which I grew up the only station that came in clearly was NBC so we watched a lot of NBC. As you mentioned, Enberg was synonymous with NBC for quite a while. I now live in Vegas. Our cable company shows Padres games (for more than two decades we were the home of the AAA Padres). It's been delightful having Enberg in the booth calling the games during the last several years.
Dick Enberg was the best. He knew how to perfectly capture a big moment. I still have my cherished VHS tape of him calling the 1991 AFC championship game between the Buffalo Bills and (then) LA Raiders. The Bills won 51-3 to advance to their first Super Bowl, and the 80,000 fans in attendance were going wild with joy. As the last seconds of the game ticked down, Enberg said "City of Buffalo, you've waited a long time for this, congratulations!" He then went silent, and just let the camera pan the fans celebrating in the stadium for a good minute or longer, with no talking at all. It was a brilliant move by Enberg, and it still gives me chills.
As an Orange County kid I had grown up listening to the Dodgers but after they lost consecutive World Series to the Yankees in 77 & 78 I was crushed and started listening to the Angels games in 1979. It turned out to be first time the Angels made the playoffs and Enberg and Drysdale (still the best broadcasting team they ever had) made the games riveting to listen to. I understood Drysdale moving to the Dodgers, but I never understood why the Angels let Enberg get away.
A few years ago I found myself standing behind Dick Enberg in line to use a restroom at the ESPY's and I asked him if he still followed the Angels. He said he did and we talked briefly about the state of the team. He couldn't have been nicer. There have been a handful of announcers over the years that may have been his equal, but there has never been a better sports announcer than Dick Enberg.
Loved Dick Enberg. Didn't know he'd passed until reading it here. I remember Merlin Olsen came into my store once and we just happened to be listening to this sports highlight tape, and on it was Merlin's last game. So we started playing it for Merlin who was all ears. Enberg was calling it and it was great. He says "OLSEN MAKES THE TACKLE!...NO, IT WASN'T OLSEN. I WANTED IT TO BE OLSEN!" We both laughed. RIP to one of the very best
Dick Enberg did a cameo on a movie, Heaven Can Wait. It was a small part in the locker room of the Los Angeles Rams after they won the Super Bowl.
Enberg's performance was pivotal to the ending of the film. It confirmed that the quarterback played by Warren Beatty - pulled out of his body decades too soon by an angel (Buck Henry) - was back on earth in a body. Enberg's questions proved the angel's mistake had been rectified.
Love Heaven Can Wait. And for those of you too young it was a remake of Her Comes Mr. Jordan.
The first time I met Dick Enberg was when, like Ken Levine, I was a sports assistant at KMPC Radio in Los Angeles in 1969. He was listening back to an Angels broadcast, taking notes on his calls, etc.
Three years later, he granted me a sit-down audio interview as part of my "Senior Project" at SDSU.
One thing that stands out in my recollection of that day (I have to pull it out and listen to it again) was the weekend he called FOUR (4) games in less than 72 hours:
Friday night at Pauley Pavilion for a UCLA basketball game; took a red-eye to Chicago to do a game for a syndicated college basketball network; back to West L.A. that Saturday night, to do another UCLA game; and FINALLY, down to Palm Springs to do an Angels exhibition baseball game Sunday afternoon. "I just wanted to see if I could do it." DO IT! - he did!
mdv59, he left the Angels because he was going full-time with NBC. Gene Autry had basically told him he had a lifetime contract, but with the network, he'd be doing too much to be able to do the Angels.
Between the NFL and NCAA, and then Wimbledon, he was even busier than The Vin, who did the NFL and PGA for CBS. Remember that during his final five years at CBS--1977-81--Vin was doing only about half of the Dodgers games. Enberg was supposed to get the Game of the Week on NBC when the network hired Vin, and Enberg came back and did about 40 Angels games in 1985. He didn't have to, but he said he missed it. Still, it was too much for his schedule.
He stepped out of network action to do the Padres. I thought that said a lot about him. He certainly didn't have to do that.
Proud to say Dick got his start at Indiana University in the late 1950's when they created the "IU " network.
He felt his most memoriable game was the Astrodome 1967 UCLA with Lew A. (Kareem) who lost to Elvin Hayes 50,000 + in attendance. Note Lew A. got revenge in the NCAA and embarassed The Big E. In the later game his bad eye was healed.
My favorite Dick Enberg moment was the last play of the 1996 AFC title game when the announcers all thought -- for a second -- that Aaron Bailey caught that Hail Mary pass in the end zone. Dick blurted out HE CAUGHT THE BALL?! before the refs quickly called it incomplete. He was so excited for a moment he couldnt help himself. Ohhh my!
I read in one of the many glowing tributes to him that he had the misfortune of retiring the same year as Vin Scully and having his career (granted it was second time and team he was calling games) overshadowed by the many earned accolades for Scully, who broadcast one team for over six decades.
He was "Oh MY" who begot "My Oh My"
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