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Bob Costas: ‘I Compare Myself to My Best Version’

“If someone tells me that citing that Game 1 on October 11 was 74 years to the day since Cleveland last won the World Series that that shouldn’t be mentioned that night, I can’t agree with that even one percent. That’s just foolish.”

Ricky Keeler

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Bob Costas was back in the broadcast booth for TBS this postseason as the play-by-play announcer for the entire Guardians-Yankees ALDS matchup. It brought some fans back to the days of Costas being the lead voice of playoff baseball games for NBC, but it also received some criticism. However, Costas was critical of himself, especially in one particular game.

Costas was a guest on The Michael Kay Show on Thursday with Don LaGreca and Peter Rosenberg as the show celebrates its 20th anniversary with 20 notable guests in 20 days. During the segment, Costas said he probably started the series leaning a little too much on the prep work he had done.

“I loved being around it and it was a good series. It went five games. I’m very self-critical even when I was in whatever was the prime of my career. If there was something even slightly off, it bothered me. I thought that in the first game, I was so well-prepared I probably leaned too heavily on that preparation in the first game. It was a little bit out of proportion. It wasn’t that anything that was said didn’t belong there, but I could have spread it out a little bit more. But, then games 2-5, I think it was fine.”

Even though fans might have complained about too much history being a part of the broadcast, Costas says that is relevant to a national broadcast even if the fans of the teams playing might know those historic facts already.

“Those who say that a history lesson is not relevant if you are 25 years old, when I was 25 years old, I wanted to hear about the history of baseball.

“If someone tells me that citing that Game 1 on October 11 was 74 years to the day since Cleveland last won the World Series that that shouldn’t be mentioned that night, I can’t agree with that even one percent. That’s just foolish. If someone says I watch the Yankees or Guardians all year long so I know some of that already, it’s a national broadcast. Someone in Tacoma or Sacramento doesn’t know all of that and you have to frame that. I don’t think that philosophically that’s ever the wrong thing to do. It’s the right thing to do.

“I think I’ve been able to weave those sorts of things pretty skillfully throughout my career and I think I only did maybe a B- job on it on the first game of the series, but after that, everything was fine.”

 Costas mentioned that he would never compare himself to any broadcaster, but he does measure his success against himself:

“You want to be as good as you are capable of being. I’ve never compared myself to another person in my entire life. But, I do compare myself to my best version of myself. Maybe you can’t get there all the time, but you’d like to get reasonably close to that every time.”

Kay did ask Costas about how does a national broadcaster combat criticism that he is only rooting for one team and not the other: 

“You reject it out of hand. You should always be open to reasonable perspectives or critiques, but there are some things that are just idiotic. Every national broadcaster will tell you exactly the same thing….There were people in Cleveland watching the same telecast, hearing exactly the same words spoken, who thought that I or Ron Darling was unfair to the Guardians, clearly rooting for the Yankees. Yankees fans, clearly he was disappointed when Judge hit a home run or he was so thrilled when the Guardians won Game 3 in the bottom of the ninth….As you know, you are supposed to reflect the atmosphere in the ballpark.

“People think oh gee, Bob Costas did Mickey Mantle’s eulogy and he grew up in New York and he rhapsodizes about his childhood memories about baseball. But, like you, I am also a professional. I know what my job is. I try to be objective and appreciative of both teams and reflect what’s going on in the series. That is a particular critique, it’s not even a critique, it’s an idiocy. It’s a standing joke among all network broadcasters.” 

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Doug Gottlieb Details Interviewing For College Basketball Head Coaching Vacancy

“I’ve told people that for the radio element to — for the right thing — I’d give it up. The (podcast), I’m not giving it up.”

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Fox Sports Radio host Doug Gottlieb recently interviewed for the vacant head coaching job at Wisconsin-Green Bay and detailed the experience on his podcast.

“I got a chance to talk to (Wisconsin-Green Bay AD) Josh Moon several times during the year after they had made their coaching job available and my approach to how I’ve done these things — and this is not the first time I’ve gone down this path, but this was a different path,” Gottlieb said on his All Ball podcast.

“This is a low-major, mid-major job, and there’s no connection there. I’ve told people that for the radio element to — for the right thing — I’d give it up. The (podcast), I’m not giving it up. I love doing it and I think there’s a very smart world where if I’m coaching I can still do this podcast and still do it with basketball people all over the country and the world, and it’s kind of like a cheat code.”

He continued by saying that seeing Shaka Smart be successful at Marquette has motivated him to continue to search for the right fit as a college basketball coach.

“That’s what I want to do. And last year when I was coaching in Israel, that also continued to invigorate me…this is something that I would really like to do. It has to be the right thing. It has to be the right AD who hits the right message.”

He continued by saying that a sticking point of negotiations was he wasn’t willing to give up his nationally syndicated radio program for the job. He was willing to take less money for his assistants pool, but also to continue doing his radio show.

Gottlieb did not get the position with the Phoenix, noting that he was a finalist but was never offered the job. The position ultimately went to Wyoming assistant coach Sundance Wicks. Wicks had previous head coaching experience and had worked with Green Bay athletic director Josh Moon at Division II Northern State. He admitted he wasn’t necessarily “all-in” on the job due to the current ages of his children and whether the timing was right to uproot his family to move to Northeastern Wisconsin.

The Fox Sports Radio host does have coaching experience. He has worked as a coach for the U.S. men’s basketball team at the Maccabiah Games, sometimes referred to as the Jewish Olympics.

Gottlieb’s father — Bob — was the head men’s basketball coach at Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 1975-1980, compiling a 97-91 record.

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Waddle & Silvy: Scott Hanson Told Us to Lose His Number

“We didn’t call him back, so he set out what he wanted to do.”

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Aaron Rodgers took immense pride in the fact that he told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter to “lose his number” while discussing his future earlier this week on The Pat McAfee Show. ESPN 1000’s Waddle & Silvy said they’ve experienced similar treatment from guests on their radio show.

While discussing the Rodgers interview with McAfee, the pair admitted that NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson once told their producer to stop trying to book him for interviews on the program.

“I believe the presentation was ‘Do me a favor: lose my number after this interview’,” Tom Waddle said. “So he tried to do it politely. Scott Hanson did. Get out of here. That concept is foreign to me. How about ‘Hey, next time you text me, my schedule is full. I can’t do it, but thanks for thinking of me’. ‘Lose my number?’ You ain’t the President, for Christ’s sake. I’m saying that to anyone who would say that. ‘Lose my number?’ We’re all in the communication business. I just don’t know — why be rude like that to people? What does that accomplish? You know what it accomplished? We didn’t call him back, so he set out what he wanted to do.”

Co-host Mark Silverman then mentioned that the show once tried to book Hansen and NFL Red Zone host Andrew Siciliano together in the same block, with the idea of doing a trivia game to see who the supreme Red Zone host was. Siciliano agreed, but Hansen declined.

The pair also confirmed that an NFL Network personality had told them to lose their number, but couldn’t remember if it was Rich Eisen or not.

Silverman later joked that maybe Hanson was getting a new phone with a new number, and was politely sharing with the producer that he could lose the current phone number because he would share his new number in short order.

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Seth Payne: Aaron Rodgers ‘Makes Gross Inaccuracies’ When Calling Out Media

“This is where Rodgers does this thing where he, in calling out reporters for their inaccuracies, makes gross inaccuracies in his accusations.”

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Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers is always mad at the media for the inaccurate things he says they report, but according to Sports Radio 610 morning man Seth Payne, no one is more inaccurate than the quarterback himself.

Friday morning, Payne and his partner Sean Pendergast played audio of Aaron Rodgers responding to a question about a list of players he provided to the Jets demanding they sign. Rodgers called the idea that he would make demands “so stupid” and chastised ESPN reporter Dianna Russini, who was the first to report it.

“Now to be clear, Dianna Russini didn’t say demands in her tweet. She said wishlist,” Pendergast clarified.

They also played a clip of Russini responding to Rodgers on NFL Live saying that she stands by her reporting and it is her job to reach out to confirm that it is true.

“This is where Rodgers does this thing where he, in calling out reporters for their inaccuracies, makes gross inaccuracies in his accusations,” Seth Payne said.

He added that if Rodgers is being serious, he is doing some serious nitpicking. He claims that he didn’t give the Jets a list, but that he spoke glowingly about former teammates and told the Jets executives that he met with who he enjoyed playing with during his career.

Payne joked that maybe he wrote down the names in a circle pattern so that it was not a list. Pendergast added that he could have had Fat Head stickers on his wall that he pointed to instead of writing anything at all.

In Payne’s mind, this is a case of Russini catching stray frustration. Neither in her initial tweet nor in any subsequent media appearance did she use the phrase “demands”.

“What he’s actually responding to in that instance is Pat McAfee is the one that described it as a list of demands,” Seth Payne said.

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