Eric Mirlis - I Was There!: Joe Buck, Bob Costas, Jim Nantz, and Others Relive the Most Exciting Sporting Events of Their Lives

Copyright 2016, 2018 by Eric Mirlis
First paperback edition 2018

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Cover design by Tom Lau
Cover photos: AP Images

ISBN: 978-1-68358-211-3
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-68358-212-0

Printed in the United States of America

To Keri and David

You make it all worth it

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A project like this warrants many thank-yous, but none of them are more important than the ones I must say to all of the people who are featured in the following pages. In some cases, it started with a blind email, in others it was a connection through a friend or coworker. In all cases, it ended with me being a royal pain in the behind, so my deepest and most sincere thank-you to each and every one of you.

This book was a labor of love for me, and, frankly, wouldnt have happened without the continued support and encouragement from my friend Kenny Albert, who has been bugging me to do this for the last few years. Not only did he push me to get rolling on this, but his assistance throughout the process, from enlisting people to participate to listening to all of my hairbrained ideas along the way, was invaluable.

They say the hardest thing in the world when writing is proofreading your own work. I can attest to that and owe Todd Behrendt a huge debt of gratitude for all of his hard work handling the fact-checking, proofreading, and mistake-saving.

Of course, it goes without saying that there were a lot of people involved in helping me line up all of the participants. Many favors were called in, and for those, I say thank you to Rich Ackerman, Chris Antonacci, Kent Camera, Stosh Cienki, Jennifer Cingari, Steve Craddock, Andrew Crawford, Bill Dallman, Jennifer Davis, Mark Feinsand, Lorraine Fisher, David Fried, Dave Goren and the National Sports Media Association, Matt Gould, Dan Higgins, Tom Hoffarth, Mike Hughes, Rick Jaffe, Dan Kaufman, Matt Ketaineck, Rick Leonard, Melissa Miller, David Neal, Lou Oppenheim, Jeff Pearlman, Dan Quinn, Alex Riethmiller, Alex Rozis, Dan Sabreen, Alan Sanders, Matt Schnider, David Scott, Eric Spitz, Jacob Ullman, Brad Zager, and Adam Zucker.

When I set out on this project, there were going to be 100 people in the book. I would be remiss if I didnt acknowledge those people whom I interviewed but whom I needed to place to the side for book length considerations: Hal Bodley, Cindy Brunson, Jim Caple, Heather Cox, Howard David, Colleen Dominguez, Amin Elhassan, Neil Everett, Travis Haney, Benjamin Hochman, Tom Hoffarth, Michael Kim, David Lloyd, Alex Marvez, Tony Massarotti, Ryan McGee, Scott Miller, Beth Mowins, Rob Neyer, Steve Physioc, Bill Pidto, Pete Prisco, Bill Reiter, Peter Schrager, Dave Sims, Susan Slusser, Lyle Spencer, Bob Wischusen, Van Earl Wright, and Adam Zucker. I wish I had the room to run them all. Thank you all for your time and understanding.

Most important, a thank-you filled with love to my wife, Keri, and son, David. There were quite a few ups and downs while I was writing this book, and some spots along the way where I lost my focus. If it weren't for their love and understanding, though, Im not sure I would have gotten it back on the rails. They are the ultimate definition of I couldnt have done it without you.

FOREWORD

By Marv Albert

S ports broadcasters and writers see so many events that it is easy for us to take it all for granted. We know we are the conduit between the games and the fans, so it is our responsibility to relay the importance of the big events or moments when we see them. At the same time, we often forget why we are all in this business to begin with. We are all fans, too, and we are all fans because of those great moments.

Whenever we get a chance to step back and reflect on the moments that stand out the most to us, the memories come flooding back, and the stories start rolling off our tongues. At heart, we are all storytellers we just usually tell those stories as they are unfolding, not as recollections. That is what makes it so much fun to put together a list for this book. It gives all of us a chance to look back at everything we have seen and done and tell stories about the moments in our careers that have meant the most to us. Maybe they had personal meaning, maybe it was something historic. Regardless of why it stands out, though, each story resonates in some way.

As you read each of the stories in the book, try and remember where you were for those moments you saw that are being shared by myself and my peers. Compare your memories to ours. In most cases, youll realize that they dont differ very much, with the exception that some of us were lucky enough to be there to provide the soundtrack for you to hear or postgame story for you to read. And that is all it is we were simply lucky enough to be there to see all of these wonderful moments.

Marv Albert, a recipient of the Basketball Hall of Fames Curt Gowdy Award, is currently a broadcaster for Turner Sports.

INTRODUCTION

H ow do you define the top sports moments you have ever seen? Basically, it can be summed up in two words:

You cant.

What were the top five sports moments you have seen in person? was the question posed to the people interviewed in the following pages. All of them answered in different ways. Each story is presented in that persons own words, and each list is in chronological order, so that no one had to rank one event over another. The cutoff for all lists was Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, when Malcolm Butler of the New England Patriots provided a moment that more than one person mentioned on their list, and all of the interviews were completed before the end of that calendar year.

Of course, there are a number of common threads throughout the answers.

The most obvious theme, and the one that immediately comes to mind when thinking about Top Sports Moments, is exactly what you would think the seminal moments in sports. The events mentioned the most wont surprise anyone. Vince Youngs touchdown to win the 2006 Rose Bowl. The ball going through Bill Buckners legs in Game Six of the 1986 World Series. David Tyrees catch against his helmet in Super Bowl XLII. Michael Jordans final shot with the Chicago Bulls in the 1998 NBA Finals. The entirety of the 2001 World Series. These are the games and moments where you know where you were when you saw them. You felt the excitement through your television. Youll never forget exactly what happened and how it happened. They are the moments you wish you were there to see in person.

What is cool about many of these moments, which provides a neat theme throughout the following pages, is how different people describe the same event. Everyone has a slightly different (or, in some cases, very different) perspective on what happened. It might have been because of where they were sitting or standing. It might have been because they were there as a fan, rather than a working member of the media. It might have been who they were with. But each individual story is different, and that is something to keep in mind as you compare the stories.