Usually these things hit hardest when it’s a local broadcaster who either steps away from a microphone or has that microphone taken from him.
Within the space of a couple of years in the mid-1960s, the Yankees fired both Mel Allen and Red Barber, the former because a main sponsor, Ballantine, had grown weary of his big salary, the latter for dutifully and defiantly reporting that 413 fans were in attendance for a September make-up game between the Yanks and White Sox at Yankee Stadium.
Maybe it was a coincidence and maybe it wasn’t, but the Yankees soon experienced their most profound stretch of bad baseball in decades.
What is inarguable is this: fans were mad.
The Knicks fired Marv Albert twice.
The first was defendable (he’d just endured a very public and quite embarrassing scandal involving a former girlfriend), and one utterly indefensible: He refused to change his career-long habit of honestly reporting what he was seeing to Knicks viewers, and what he was seeing was some utterly grotesque basketball.
That still resonates, mostly because James Dolan has been petty enough not to mend fences with a genuine franchise icon.
Sometimes, it’s just time that recalibrated things.
Phil Rizzuto retired.
Bob Murphy retired.
Marty Glickman retired.
It doesn’t matter the circumstances.
We just get used to a comfortable voice describing what we’re seeing, or talking to us through our radio dial.
They become a part of our families.
That’s the beauty of local sports: They are every bit a part of our everyday lives as sleeping and eating and dinner-table conversation.
National guys?
Honestly, they come and go.
It was shocking when Brent Musburger was fired on the eve of the national championship basketball game in 1999, but Jim Nantz slid effortlessly into the chair and didn’t hand it over for 33 years, and he will just as easily be replaced by Ian Eagle next March.
Eventually, John Madden faded away.
Eventually, Tony Romo will.
(The one exception to this rule: let us all hope that Bill Raftery somehow has 50 or so more years in him calling hoops. Who would possibly say no to that?)
Which is why the reaction to the Jeff Van Gundy news hit so hard, and so oddly on Friday.
The idea of an important NBA game being played and Van Gundy not being there to offer his dry wit and wry observation is, honestly, sort of impossible to believe just yet, in the wake of his layoff from ESPN.
Maybe it hits harder around here because, even though it has now been almost 22 years since he coached a game for the Knicks, he remains a strong link to a glorious time in New York basketball.
Maybe it’s because his partners also have Knicks ties — Mike Breen a Hall of Fame voice of the Knicks for over 30 years, Mark Jackson a two-time Knick who was the team’s last Rookie of the Year, 35 years ago — and so even when that trio was broadcasting a game involving teams from Denver or Phoenix or Boston it somehow felt like a home broadcast.
More likely is this: Van Gundy is just that good.
He has profound respect for the sport and yet has an innate irreverence for it also, happily pointing out quirks and foibles.
He is self-deprecating.
He’s damned funny.
Sometimes Jackson can spend a few minutes each game floating in his own world, and that’s fine because that has always when Breen and Van Gundy engage in the kind of rapport that makes you realize that sometimes it really does matter who the announcers are.
Look, as Van Gundy himself would tell you, this doesn’t exactly reach the level of “tragedy.”
Nobody will need to hold a telethon on his behalf, and it’s hard to believe he won’t be working somewhere — another network, another team — awfully soon, assuming he wants to.
A lot of people lost their jobs at ESPN on Friday and no one story is any more or less sad than any other. TV is a wicked business sometimes.
I’m just going to miss that broadcast team. I’m going to miss Van Gundy talking about the most important games of the year. Someone else will someday step in and we will all move on.
Eagle replaces Nantz. Nantz replaced both Musburger and Pat Summerall — in two sports no less. Summerall replaced Ray Scott.
Life does indeed go on. But yeah, I’m going to miss him. And I don’t think I’m alone.
Vac’s Whacks
Maybe the best tribute to the great Alan Arkin, who passed this week, came from the wonderful Michael McKean who recalled on Twitter, when asked if he preferred being known as a comedic or dramatic actor, said: “ ‘Which kind is Alan Arkin?’ and that shut them up.”
Godspeed, Shel.
And keep running serpentine.
SlamBall is making its return after a 20 year absence, live from Las Vegas on ESPN starting July 21.
One of the game’s most sought-after stars?
Former Columbia defensive back Bryan Bell-Anderson, who will play for his father, Trevor, this season.
If you were slow to “The Bear,” as I was, please do yourself a favor and rectify that as quickly as possible.
It is my experience that Mets fans wake up in far better spirits for Bobby Bonilla Day and the resulting jokes when they are 18 games over .500 (as they were a year ago) as opposed to 10 under.
Whack Back at Vac
John Sardelis: It is clear now that what the Mets need is an exorcist. No other explanation makes sense.
Vac: Maybe get Keith Hernandez to come to their bedside and begin chanting, “THE POWER OF MEX COMPELS YOU!”
Joe Nicoletti: I’m a cranky old impatient Yankee fan who recently watched “Patton” for the 27th time. Not once did the great general contemplate resting anyone as they crossed the brutal terrains of western Europe. When one soldier wanted out because of a toe issue, the great Patton responded, “Hell no, use your other nine.”
Vac: Which reminds me of the great Vince Lombardi who, when a player told him, “Coach, I can’t play, I broke my leg,” replied, “Is it a weight-bearing bone?”
@TimOShea1: James Harden is the Russell Westbrook of Kyrie Irvings.
@MikeVacc: That, friends, is perfection.
Richard Siegelman: Who knew Isiah Kiner-Falefa could pitch a perfect 0.00-ERA inning, including a strikeout, and hit a two-run home run?! Who does IKF think he is — Shohei Ohtani?!
Vac: I’m sure Yankees fans will gladly enjoy IKF as a consolation prize if Ohtani stays on the West Coast.
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