Here’s happy noise for our tiring ears:
Comcast Charter Sports. Me, personally, I miss Jefferson Pilot Sports and the old CBS start up to SEC games, but that’s just me. I’m too old and too tired to think back too far to better days before that, but JP Sports (also part of the reason for my pen name) was great for watching the “second tier” SEC football games of the days gone by, from long ago. To me, there were no second tier games when Georgia was involved, but what do I know?
Anyway, for today’s Roundtable, what TV sports do you miss the most? Is it the Braves on TBS? Cubs on WGN?
I can also remember a time in the 80s when you could sync up the TV with the stereo and watch Ken Cook in Atlanta introduce the songs and watch music videos while you heard them in quadraphonics (tip of the hat to Steve Martin…googlephonics (NSFW, in 80s terms)).
Anyway, what’s your most missed childhood sports memory…or any memory, if you still have one?
Chat away, scamps, this should be fun.
The TBS Braves games with Skip, Pete, and Don are definitely it for me. Their chemistry and the inside jokes they had were incredible. Hands down the best group to ever call the Braves.
I also miss Ron Franklin on ESPN night games and the days when ESPN was great with Dan Patrick and that group. Hell in college we loved watching Baseball Tonight with Peter Gammons. It just wasn’t Sports Center we tuned into.
Franklin was great. Gottfried and him synced very well.
He never got the spotlight like a lot of the TV announcers, but I thought Bob Neal was terrific. He lived in Dunwoody near a friend of mine.
I used to play youth sports at P.R.U.M.C. as a kid in the late seventies and real eighties. Bob Neal was the MC at our awards banquet each year to give out all the participation trophies.
Believe it or not, as much as he dragged everything out, I always (well mostly), enjoyed Howard Cosell. “Frazier has the ball, he couldddd goooo alllll theee wayyyyyy” !!
I always tuned in on Saturdays to ABC’s “Wide World of Sports”. The intro famously synched a ski jumper crashing out with the line “agony of defeat”. Sometimes they would show demolition derby or something weird like cliff diving. I loved it as a kid.
Me too. When you had 2 channels, its always nice when something unexpected happened. I always hoped Evil Knievel would be on.
NFL films highlights show Sunday mornings. May have been part of The NFL Today show on CBS with Musberger, Irv Cross, Phylis George and Jimmy the Greek Snyder. Great voiceover, drama and hits.
I still can hear that dramatic music. They could make taking out the trash sound like climbing Mt. Everest. Great selection!
The indelible sound of John Facenda’s narrations.
NWA rasslin’ and the Braves on TBS.
Def 2hours of Sat night NWA. Whoever owns those rights is sitting on a goldmine. Id pay to rewatch!!!!
I can’t remember the channels, but I used to like it when they showed wrestling on Sunday Mornings. I’m sure it was reruns, but as a little boy, I loved it. This would be in the 70s.
I miss the TBS news with Bill Tush.
ABC ‘s Wide World of Sports the agony of defeat shot was a great opener. You never knew what you might see from standard sports to car racing or giant marlin fishing.
Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom watching Merlin Perkins explain what’s happening while Jim Flower was fighting an anaconda trying to eat him. I was always waiting for Jim to say why don’t you get your ass in here.
Jefferson Pilot football coverage was more enjoyable than any network today. Just the game no filler nor endless commercials.
This Week in Baseball… specifically the plays of the week segment!
« How about that! »
Braves on TBS. My brother and I would do a set of pushups every time a Brave homered. I nearly abandoned the sport altogether when it stopped.
This Week in Baseball was a go to show growing up and I would watch with the box scores from The Sporting News (part of my compensation for my household chores) to match up highlights with the game. I literally (and by literally not figuratively) had an entire notebook devoted to Rickey Henderson’s 1982 Stolen Base campaign. I wasn’t even an A’s fan, I just thought it was cool.
In the world before color TV, I loved Home Run Derby, A batting practice pitcher serving up fat ones to the best of the 50’s, mano on mano to see who could hit the most out of a bandbox stadium (IIRC Griffith Stadium in Los Aneles). The announcer would interview each player during the show. I still remember seeing a baby faced Hank Aaron.
Leonard’s losers and the Dixie Crystals Sugar scoreboard show on WRFC.
Damn! Y’all listed some great memories! The two Daves (or was it three?) on JP were fun. I really miss Leonard’s Losers and am surprised you can’t find the old ones somewhere on the interweb.
TWIB was great because not everything was televised and you could catch up with this week in baseball.
Wide World of Sports was great. The variety was awesome.
I miss the old Olympic broadcasts when it was every four years and it was an event, not a just a figure skating marathon with a few personal profiles intermingled. They would show ALL the weird sports that I loved.
And I miss the old ESPN when they actually showed sports and then sports highlights, followed by more sports. I thought Australian Rules Football was great.
TBS was awesome. I remember watching a game with the Braves at LA. Some woman was walking down the aisle in a bikini and the camera was following her. When she turned to go down the row to her seat, it was evident she was wearing a thong, back when not many did (early 80’s). You could almost hear the producer screaming in Chip’s ear not to say anything and after a moment he said “that reminds me of the butcher that backed into the grinder and got a little behind in his work”. LOL!
My earliest sports memories are watch the NFL with Ray Scott (I knew it was a big game if he called it), and the baseball Game of the Week. I’d watch with my glove on in case a ball came through the TV screen.
https://youtu.be/214LN55D9xg?si=M8_G1r4Zqevk-gdk
Funny story: I was talking to an elderly gentleman from Australia about North American Football and “Aussie Ball” as he called it. I told him about old school ESPN broadcasts and he asked me my favorite side and I said I’m from Georgia so the it’s the Western Bulldogs for me. He reached out to shake my hand because he had ridden the bench for them one season. He promised to follow UGA when he came to the states and I taught him “The Hell With Georgia Tech.”
That’s awesome! I wonder if he had a nephew named Bret that could kick a ball?
I think you hit the nail on the head with the Superstation era Braves and Jefferson Pilot.
It is interesting that while we live in a time where you can watch virtually any sport and practically any event on some type of live broadcast, we are longing for the time when not everything was available to us.
Crazy, right? I think Munson is so beloved because the 1980 title team was on TV? Three times? SoCar, Florida and the sUGAr Bowl, right? Georgia games were rare so it was Saturdays by the radio AND, by the way, the rare Georgia games I got to see live before being a student weren’t point and click online ticket sales. I think my parents planned, ordered and waited for months for tickets to show up in the mail. Additionally, with I-75 being 55 mph, the drive from Tifton to Athens was significantly longer than my days in Athens. Braves games? Maybe the occasional Business Man’s Special or Day game to facilitate driving back home. Really crazy if you think about it…
Sunday morning with the Vince Dooley Show. We used to see Vince sometimes eating breakfast at the Waffle House at 5 Points early on Sunday morning. Of course we were finishing our evenings while he was just starting his day.
…it just meant more 😉
Just adding my echo, but for me it was the 80’s TBS Braves. I was a kid and remember when I realized they weren’t just replaying yesterdays game. Like, they play EVERY night???
For me it was 70’s era Braves. Perhaps bleeding into the very early eighties. The Braves were putrid. Normally the team was literally mathematically eliminated before the All Star Break. But we still watched for the commentary. Skip was still drinking and he was comedy gold. One night Skip said ‘if you promise to buy all our sponsor’s products you have my permission to change the channel.’ To quote Roseann Rosanna Danna , I thought I was gonna die!
I forgot to include Super Dave Osborne and of course his assistant Fugi.
Still one of my favorite days was the first year l was able to get season tickets (1975). I opened them up and put them spread out on dining room table. I would look at every one , over and over! I miss those days. Ain’t nothing about online tickets l like. Glad l have got a better half that can handle them. Oh well!!
we’d always (my Dad and me) would always Hogan’s Heroes right before the Braves on the Superstation. Miss him and those good and simple times.