Stocking Up

What a career he has had over the many years on network television and calling all the big sporting events NFL, NBA, stunt baseball, you name it. And he joins us now for a special conversation here and a video chat. This is not only available on the audio format, but also in the video format. Dick, welcome, I'm looking at you. You look good here, and how you holding up? How you've been having a life here over the pandemic. You know, I'm doing great, pen and I appreciate you're asking. Uh,

I'm doing the smart things. Uh. I haven't been. You know, I'm not hunkering down. I'm living life, but I'm doing the smart things. Uh. And you know what they are. I don't have to go through the whole. It's here. We all hear it every day. But I'm doing fine and we're just all trying to get through this, right. Yeah, what have you been doing? Is there anything special to pass the time? We had a lot of time these days.

Is there anything that you've found? Are you well, you know a lot of a lot of interest and uh, you know, and uh and so watching games isn't you know, isn't the only thing in the world for me? You know, I played tennis and I played golf, you know, following the rules. Uh, you know. I I work out in my pool. Uh. I played the piano. I actually I played the piano, saying once in a while, but before

very you people as little as possible. And I like to read a lot, you know, So you know, when you take everything the consideration, uh, you know, it's life and I just go through it, you know. So I enjoy what I do and I hope to get back to it and we hope that we have an NFL season. But you know, it's what I do. It's not who I am. And so life has been, you know what it is for everyone, but adjusting where it needs to be adjusted. Yeah. And and with that, I mean, are

you planning on calling the games this year? I know there's some some guys have said they're not gonna do it. Do you know what the plan is for the NFL? Are you going to be in a studio somewhere if you do do the games? Are you actually go on site? You know? You know? Then, to be honest, we we have no definitive word from Fox Sports. Um. You know, I'm under contract to do games, and I'm you know what I've planned to do the games. Uh, but we have not heard anything about how it's going to be done.

And uh. You know the great thing about Fox Sports, and it's been this way through is my twenty seventh year with them, is that they call you when they want you to know something and there are no rumors. Uh, there are no innuendows and none of those things happen. And when they tell you, that's what it is. And so when they make a decision, uh, and you know, they have to decide how they want to you know, broadcast these games and hopefully we'll have them, they'll let

me know. Yeah. And with that, just in general, I mean, you've been around the industry, uh forever, and you've seen seen so much here, Like, what is your gut instinct tell you on how this is gonna work out? I know there's a lot of doomsday people out there that this isn't gonna work. What what do you think can sports pull this come back off? You know, it's it's a It's a great question, Ben, because everyone has speculated. The amazing thing is when this thing started, they say,

what's going to happen to sports? And we've seen some movement in a lot of areas. You know, baseball teams starting to practice and then stop practicing, the NBA gathering in the bubble in the Orlando, the NHL planning. We don't know about college football. The NFL is going according to what their plan is. I know that, you know, the preseason schedule to this point has been knocked down from four to two. Uh So, I don't have a gut feeling, to be honest, I I don't know. I

can't predict. I don't think anyone can as to what it's really going to look like. There are so many reports coming out. I've read, you know, one today about the Ravens saying they're gonna allow fourteen thousand people in the stadium, the Chiefs will allow a number of people. I don't know. I really don't know, and so it's I'm fine with that. We all want to know. And when when the word comes down, that will be the word.

And until it does, we just wait and see. Dick, have you ever been in a position in your long career that that rivals something like this? I mean, obviously the climate is drastically different, but just the the lack of opportunity to actually be at a you to call a game and maybe have to do things from a remote studio. Has that ever happened to you, whether it's for for baseball and football, basketball all never. Never, I've never had to call a game from a studio. If

I had to, I would be prepared to do so. Obviously, they're going to be different things. I mean, you're not going to have all the people on site if you do that, um, and we could be on site if they separate your partner, you know, and uh, you know, the people up in the booth, I don't know. I mean I don't know any of them. Couldn't answers to whether they're going to piping crowd noise or whether they're going to have virtual fans in the stands. I have

no idea what they planned to do. I think they're having big discussions, But I have never been under that circumstance before. I've always been at the games that I have broadcasts, and I've never done it off of a monitor. But if I had to in a studio, that's what I do, like all the other all colleagues wouldn't have

to do the same thing. Yeah, And I was gonna ask you just a piggyback top of that, like during your long career and how you've performed, are there points in a broadcast who you actually use the crowd's emotion and how they've kind of gotten up or even down and use that as an extra tool for you, And how you actually sound while you're on Are you you feed into that emotion? That's a That's what I do. I actually, I mean I that is that is what I'm you know what I feel. And a lot of

broadcasters have been that way. Been Scully of course, has been that way. The great Dodger broadcaster. Uh, you know, Joe Buck is aware of that very much, and uh I even employed it. You know what I when I called called the fisks home run way back in the seventy five World Series between the Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds when Fisk get the home run, and I remained silent for nearly a minute while the crowd was going crazy and the cameras were showing the fans and

showing Fisk grounding the basis. And I think that's really what iportant part of a broadcast is. I personally feel that announcers talk too much, and that you know, they have so much information at hand that they want to give it out, but the fan at home doesn't want to be assaulted all the time. And you know, sometimes you know, the term too much information really fits when

you're doing a broadcast. So I believe in that there's nothing better than the reaction of the crowd and the different pictures that a director would show, you know, at a sporting event after a touchdown or a home run or any of those things. So you know, that's the important thing, and so that comes into play a little bit, you know, if we don't have fans at the game. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on

Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Yeah, and and just to follow that up, you've done radio and television. I know you was the TV guy, but you've done a lot of radio. We're radio guys mostly, so did you You're great at television, But did you compare and contrast? Do you like radio more when you started? Or is it you've always enjoyed television. Well, I grew I grew up, then I grew up on radio. I mean I grew up on radio. I think baseball is a radio sport. I think it's meant to be a

radio sport. The thing that I love about radio, and I've done, like you men in much more television than radio, is the fact that in radio you use your imagination.

You're sitting in front of the radio, you know, set or whether it would be a transistor radio when I was growing up or whatever you now, and you imagine things and the announcment describes what is going on, and you're now imagining the runner running, uh, you know, towards the sun part of the field, or towards the open end of the stadium into the you know, whatever the situation.

Situation may be in and a good broadcast to describe in football, especially the uniforms that the team was wearing, or in basketball before it starts, so you can imagine them in the colors that they're wearing. And so it's very important to do it. And you know, some of the best broadcasters on radio that I grew up with didn't talk uh end to end, They didn't fill every second of it. They'd let the crown come in there.

There was a great baseball announcertain and you may have remembered named Ernie Harwell, and he worked for the Detroit Tigers for I don't know forty years, fifty years, thirty ye or whatever it was. And and the great sound And think that all of the Michigan people late at night, you know, outside listening to just the sound of the crowd for the moment when Ernie was doing a game and just saying what needed to be said. Yeah, it's it's it's great. And you went you went to Syracuse.

But now when you went to Syracuse, now it's broadcasting you is it because of you? Dick the guys like yourself there. Because now if you want to be a broadcaster in sports, you've got to go to Syracuse. Well, I suggest that they changed the name to the Stockton School of Broadcasting instead of the new House School of Broadcasting. But he paid for all those buildings and all those great facilities that they have, And so I wasn't the first one. Um uh, you know, I was one of

the early ones. I think Marv Albert and I were, you know, synonymous. He was ahead, but I think I worked at the campus station before he did, W A. R. And uh. And all of them have come in since. And some of the great ones that we know have come from Syracuse University, and their facilities actually are as good as any networks facilities. That's that's how tremendous has become. Dick, is there anything professionally you you haven't done what you'd like to do? Well, you know, that's a that's a

good question. I have no regrets. I mean I've called a World Series. I've called six Super Bowls on you know, the world feed of the NFL that went overseas. I've done nine NBA final I've done n c A tournament games, have won the host of the championship game. I've done a couple of Olympics. I've also done a couple of

hockey games. And you know, the one thing that I wish, and it's not a regret, is that I had done more hockey because I really enjoyed hockey growing up in the suburb of New York City a Ranger fan and listening to a lot of the games, uh, you know, from out of town on the radio. And uh if I had an opportunity to two hockey games for Fox working with Mike Ruzione when Fox had the contract for NHL, and I would have enjoyed doing more hockey. That's the

only thing. But I wouldn't call it a regret. What about Philly Olympics. What events did you call for the Olympics? Well, I I was I was blessed to call one of the great Olympic events of all time in the Winter Olympics. I called Dan Jansen's gold medal and world record speed skating event and in a in a great story because as you know, Jansen had competed and uh come up short in previous Olympics for various reasons, and he did not win the five hundred. He slipped and that was

one of the problems he had falling. But his last event in the last chance to win a gold medal was the one thousand meter in Hammar in Norway, and uh Eric Heiden, the Great. Eric Heiden won five gold medals in the nineteen eighty Olympics in speed skating was my partner and he not only won the gold medal, he set the world record, so he finished on a

high militon so that was great. And in Valda Sare I called the men's alpine skiing events the there So those are the two Winter Olympics I broadcast and it was a great thrill to do that. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live. So I guess the question is obviously that you've called every type of sport imaginable. Which

one is the hardest? Which one there from a play by play standpoint? What is the one that is the most difficult to call, whether it be on television or radio. Well, that's another another good question. Now I never called horse racing. I think that would be, uh, you know, a difficult one to call, and I never got into that. But I think you know honestly, and people think you the sports that you have to fill are the hardest, and

I don't look at it that way. I mean, I've called a lot of baseball games, and baseball you just don't fill. You let the crowd and the ambiance take over. And when there's a big pitch in a big moment, you know, you call that and uh. And sometimes you just say they see it strike three and the picture walks off the mount and you really don't have to say anything. But I think, to me, the hardest is football.

And the reason why, man is because you have a segment of moment of time to call a play, and when you call that play, it has to be correct. It has to be accurate, it has to be either right call, it has to have the right emotion under the moment of the game, and then you have to get out and let your partner come in and then

you may play off your partner at the end. So I think that you have to make a short period count when you call a football game, and that's why I think that's the one that may be the most challenging. And I mean, what was it like in the early days, And I know what it's like now in the business. But when you were breaking in in the in the sixties and the early seventies and you were making your mark, what was how difficult was it? What was the process

like compared to what it is now? Well, you know, it's all about experience and all about reps. And I wrote the other day in my in my column that I do, uh you know, the Stockton dot com, which I do one every week, and I talked about a lot of factors of my career Stockton says. And it's a column I also write for a newspaper called The Thousand Island Son. And I was talking about preseason football.

And the first football game I ever called was a preseason game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the St. Louis Cardinals. And this was in before the Steelers became a powerful team. And I'll never forget I was calling the game and the game was going so fast for me that I felt like I wanted to put my arms out, stand up and say, can you just stop and slow down and let me catch up because I had to catch up to who ran the ball, who made the tackle, how many are to the game? What down is it?

And this was the hardest thing for me to get because it was going too fast. And now, to me, when I call a football game, it's in slow motion. I see the receivers going down field, I know who they are. It's all about reps. It's all about experience, and so I think when you're doing things in the early days, then it's all about just getting the experience down and you get better with age and with time. Dick, on that note, you started to where you're at now.

We see a lot of your content replayed over and over and over again, especially with the Lakers and Celtics and and obviously what not with the World Series. But you don't have a chapter. You have books of content. So when people obviously watch this material and now you see it on television some of the greatest games that you've ever witnessed and called, what does that mean to you? How do you feel when you watch those games just

to replay? Well, I'm just I just say, what a what a blessed career I've had, and uh, and I just watched it. I mean, if we all saw the last Dance, I think a lot of people did of the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls Championships and and uh, I guess my calls were featured sprinkled throughout it, and it was just fun to watch, and I would smile recalling those games. I remember calling Jordan the sixties three point game, the most points that he ever scored in a game,

and it was at Boston Garden. And so what I do when I hear a lot of that is that I remember being there at the time, and I remember walking into Boston Garden for you know, that second game of that that brief, you know series between the Bulls and the Celtics, and uh, and I remember the circumstances of it. When I see the Lakers and the Celtics, I remember sitting down the courtside no air conditioning at

Boston Garden, sweating through my clothes. And I know that the Lakers didn't have any air conditioning either, which is why they had to get I v s at halftime of their games against the Celtics in the those memorable, you know matches they had in the eighties. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven p m. Pacific. Well, to follow that up. I grew up watching every great memory I think of with Bird and Magic you were calling

the game. I remember you at the Boston Garden with Tommy Heinson and Pat O'Brien at the half and you know I remember is. I mean, you must hear this all the time, but you really when people see you, they it's like you flashed back to that wonderful time when you fell in love with sports. Uh. And you must hear that quite a bit when you're out and about talking to people. But are you known for that?

Do you think the Celtics, Lakers is or just in general, the NBA and the eighties is what you're known for. You've done so much do you think that's what you're calling card is? Well, you know, it's funny. I've I've done uh you know, twenties twenty seven years with Fox doing NFL and I've done NFL with CBS before, And you're absolutely right, I'm getting to that point. I've done a lot of division, um you know, playoffs with Turner when I did those games for them along with games

with Fox, and I did the Olympics. But I think that you know, people do uh you know tab me with the eighties because I called every Lakers Celtic Final in the eighties. So when you're doing them year in a year out, and uh, you know you art of course with the seventies Sixers and the Lakers, and you end up with the Detroit Pistons, the bad Boys winning their back to back finals. Uh, you know at the end of the eighties up in to the So I think people say, yeah, Lakers Celtics, and maybe more for

that than for anything else. Yeah, I think I agree with you there. Yeah. And and also you did NBA games you set up until a few years ago, and you know, the guys today there's always this bar room controversy that that guys have. You know, could Lebron and Kawhi Leonard and these guys play against Burden Magic and the guys before that you've called those games. You've seen all these different generations of NBA players. What do you say,

I don't. I don't get into that. You know then, And the reason why is that we're talking about different eras. I mean, you look at Jerry West and Oscar Robertson and Bill Russell and Will Chamberlain, and then you look at the athletes of today, the speed, the size, I mean, the centers were six nine at that time, the guards were six one. You're six one. You know, the chances are you're not gonna, you know, be able to see

much action because who are you going to defend? And then when Magic Johnson came along as a six ft nine inch point guard or power forward or center as he played the one game that Kareema build your bar was out and you remember that, I think it was uh. You know, the size and the speed of these players, especially in football. You look at football highlights from the fifties and you look at football highlights now. I mean offensive lineman can run faster than running backs did in

those days. So you know, time has made athletes bigger and faster, so to compare, you know, I think it's wrong. Uh. And and for the for the same token, I think it's wrong to forget about the era of Oscar Robertson and Jerry West. You know, an Elgin Baylor and if you were to say, and people saying, who who's he stick talking about? And then move into the sixties and you look at the chem Elijah Wan and Elvin Hayes

and people say who are they? And then you move on to other years and now it's Lebron and so I think what you have to do, guys, is to just accept the era that you're in and not compare. I think personally, there's too much comparison all around. I mean, somebody wins and the greatest team of all time, he's the greatest player of all time. Uh, is this the greatest moment of all time? Let's enjoy the moment and say it goes with all of the great volumes of

great sporting events that we've seen over the years. Look, I'll say, you know, Tom Brady, you know, is one of all those Super Bowls? You know has to be rated. You know, who would you say would be better? That? I couldn't find anyone better because of the number of championship Season one and the great success of the Patriots. But I don't think you can go down the line in many areas in many sports and say, you know,

the greatest of all time. Let's just let's just honor the ones that are doing it at the h Well, dick On, with that being said, do you think leagues have gotten away from what made them truly good or special? I mean, I can think about what the way Major League Baseball is now there's so much put into saber metrics, exit, velocity, launch angle, and those are things you know, when you were calling games and calling the world serious, you wouldn't think about it. Use seven, eight, nine guys of the

bullpen to record nine outs. Do you think certain leagues have gotten away from what made them truly special or do you feel like each league has progressed accordingly? Totally agree? I totally agree with you. I think sports are so different today and so many aspects. And you pinpointed launch angle. I mean, I remember seeing in the fifties, sixties and seventies teams would play in the World Series or played

big games, and the game of baseball has changed dramatically. Um, you know, you gotta look at the baseball diamond and the geometry of what it is, and and the great romance of baseball position playing and the strategy of hit and run stolen basis uh sacrifice moving men in the scoring position. A basic gets the run home. But now it's home run or no count, or it's home run and strike out. And to me, that's not baseball to me, to be honest, that's I know, it's what it is today.

I recognize it for what it is, but to me, it's home run or strikeout. And I think when they went to the you know, home run derby the day before the All Star Games and young kids and look, let's face it, young kids come up and they want that.

So I don't. I'm not saying they should return to those days, but I personally, having been around for many, many years, appreciated the art of baseball when it wasn't just a home run, when it wasn't just a picture throwing and a strikeout or a walk or a strikeout or a home run. There's more to baseball than that, in my opinion. I mean Greg Maddox. You don't find a guy like Greg Maddox a whole of thing, picture

and anymore who never have had a great fastball. But if you get you out with his ball placement, the way he would move pitches around, the way he would off speed pitches, the way he would change speeds, to me, that's the art. And in basketball, I have to say that it's now a three point or no count, and it's now who can hit the long shot. It's not about working the ball in it's not about power basketball.

If that's the case, So I think there are a lot of elements to those games that are different today. I'm not I'm not going to say they're no good anymore, and I won't say that because that's the way the games are. I just appreciate the way the games were in the other days, and I know that's a day. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. So when you were a kid, did you grow up in that cluster? I I have a lot of friends that

are New Yorkers too, but it's like cluster. It's usually if you're a Yankees fan, you're a Rangers fan, you're a Knicks fan, and and so on and so forth. Or if you're the way around, if you're a Mets fan and usually a Jets fan and you're an Islanders fan. Like, what kind of group were you usually affiliated with growing

up as a kid. Well, I was a New York Giant fan actually before they moved to San Francisco and baseball uh, And I saw William May's make a great catch in the nineteen fifty four World Series over his shoulder, and so I saw a lot of baseball games in the fifties. Unfortunately, my team left there for only about six years and by rooting for them, and they moved to San Francisco, and that's what happened. Then the Dodgers

moved as well. But I was a Giant fan, hated the Dodgers, and didn't pay any attention to the Yankees, who would win five streight World Series. I was a Nick fan, I was a Ranger fan, and I didn't live in the city. I lived in a suburb of the city. And now today, you know, it's interesting, it's uh, it's uh. You know the fantasy leagues. And an owner of an NFL team told me a few years ago, he says, you know, fans come to our game and they don't even remove for our kicker because they have

another kicker that's their fantasy player. I can't, I can. I find that hard to you know, fathom, but I know it exists and I recognize it. Yeah, and uh, what do you call the Red Sox games and A's games in your career in addition to the network stuff that you've done A sixty eight season. People have complained for years that baseball there's too many games in baseball. Well, this year they're only gonna get sixty. Do you think that there's a chance we will see a shortening of

the Major League Baseball season going forward? No? Oh no, you know, you know what this is all about, right, money, And it's all about opening up the gates. And it's not so much how great it would be to have a sixty or eighty game or a hundred game baseball season. Now open up those gates. Eighty one home games, eighty one road games, and that's what you do. And that's

why they wouldn't change that. And it's a matter of you know, they want to increase the NFL season, and they probably will at some point, and that's gonna work when they do that. I think, uh, there are a lot of you know, ways you can look at that, but I think that they're not going to make it short. And I think that what people should do this year and we hope we do have a season, is that just adopted and acknowledge it, don't criticize it, don't pick

it apart, don't nitpick everything that's going on. I know that, you know, when it comes to records, you know, someone may hit four or fifty by the end of the season. You know that doesn't mean they're Ted Williams who at four oh six and just except the year for what it is. I think the records aren't going to work, but everything else will and they're gonna play baseball and they're gonna have sports. Hopefully they do, and if they do, that'll be wonderful. That's great. And I can't talk to you,

Dick without bringing up. You were a guest on The Blitz that I used to host on Fox Sports Radio on the weekends, and you had a lot. I've actually

stolen it from you. It's one of the great lines. Uh. You were calling a game between a couple of teams in the NFL that we're not particularly good, and I asked you, I asked you a question, you know, because we had you on before the game and you were supposed to your job is to hype the game up and get people watch, and I I was like, giving all these numbers and statistics about how terrible these teams were,

and you had the greatest comeback. It's so good that I stole it and I added it to my repertoire. And you said, Ben Snats, tell you what has happened, but not what's going to happen, and that is that's one of the great lines. I gotta I gotta credit you because that was a wonderful comeback to put me in my place. Well, I didn't mean to do that, you know, I mean, I was just trying to talk

about people that go by what the past performances. And last week he gained a d eighty five yards, and I said, this week will probably game sixty because teams look at film during the week and they say, we got to stop this guy's got a hundred eighty five, and they do and somebody else goes crazy. Oh wide receiver catches swell passes. So I don't really rely on a lot of statistics that well, but you brought up another point, a good point about a game between two teams,

that a game doesn't mean anything. Now maybe nationally a game between two last place teams don't mean anything, But I remember growing up, you know, I wanted my team to win. They may have had a losing record, they may have been close to last place, but if they won that game, I felt good. And so what I do every week, and I don't get the top games. Now, you know, I've been around a long time and guys deserve their chance to move up, and they do. I'm glad to be doing games, but I don't get top

games anymore. And it doesn't bother me, and I don't care because I know that the fans in those cities want that team to win that day. And if they're four and eight and they win and go five and eight, they feel good all week and the and the food taste good all week and they're five and eight, and so they want to win that game. And just think the players are practicing all week long and they're going through their paces. Why because they want to win the

football game. So it has nothing to do with what does it mean nationally? Sure, they're out of the playoff phrase, but they want to get a victory. They want to get a win, And to me, that's the base of what sports competition is all about. It's a great way to say. And I gotta I read. I just was looking at your your blog here your column that you're right and you wrote about Muhammad Ali and you're a

relationship with Mohammad Ali. What Obviously it's a tough question because he's not around anymore, But what do you think he would how do you get react. Everything's been going on in the in the world here in and he was a big part of in his day movement with society and it's it's been wild what's going on here in. How do you think he would react to what's been going on? You know, I don't know exactly. I mean, I know that the Mohammad Alibi Ali was a man for pe okay. I mean he was a man who

talked about speech, speech piece. He wasn't a violent man. I know that. And uh, and I know that, you know, he stood up for his values and I know that whatever he said. I wish Muhammad Ali were here today because he could be a calming force. He could be a calming guy for society, because everyone loved Muhammad Ali. He had that smile, he had that magic. There was something about Ali that was tremendous. And so if Muhammad Ali could speak today, I wish he could. That's all

I would say. Uh, it's been a pleasure. Dick Stockton and again the blog, You've got a column. Everyone's gonna check it out. Watch you on the NFL on Fox. It's d Stockton dot com. Correct, Yes, it is the Stockton dot com. And when you get that's the website, and Stockton says, is where the columns are. And I talked about, uh, stories inside stories of my career. Uh, it's not just then I did this, and then I

did this. That's boring because people, you know, it's not a it's not a rundown of great games that I did. It's stories behind the scenes, things, interesting things of people that I've met along the way, and I think people would enjoy them very much. But I've enjoyed talking with you and David Ben and it's been great talking to you things a lot of fun. Thanks for joining us stick to the I appreciate it. Thank you.