I’ve been fortunate since the middle of January to be working with the Penguins through an internship, which has lead to a part-time position, I haven’t shared that before through any posts, but I figured to set the scene for this one, that I would. Aside from being at Hockey’s center stage of the Stanley Cup Finals, which is incredible in it’s own right to be apart of, it’s the little things you run into from time-to-time that you really carry with you.
Prior to game 3 in Pittsburgh, during my normal routine of running production formats around the arena, I stopped off at my last stop on press row to drop off my papers at John Barbaro’s spot (the Public Address Announcer), as I am walking past the typical FSN Pittsburgh broadcast booth, the transformation not only includes the words NBC all over it, but the 62 year old Emmy Award winning sportscaster, Mike Emrick. It just seems like it’s another day for the man, as I have seen him before, on numerous NBC Game of the Week broadcasts, strolling through making sure to swing everyone a smile and a firm “hello,” just to let you know he sees you. Most people seem to either ignore him, or let him be, most likely out of respect and the partial “hey, that’s Mike Emrick” syndrome. Wednesday left a mark, on me at least. Game time is 8:22 for the face-off, currently it’s about 4:15 (if my memory serves me correct), as I turn to walk past the Coca-cola cooler which is routinly being filled by the Pens staffer (who is no older than me and apparently never speaks, according to his co-workers), I see the same Floor Manager, who is working freelance, wearing his production headset listening to production cues, bent over the railing behind the NBC booth, reading a book, pretty typical on his part, completely unaware, nor interested, in pregame routine of Mike Emrick, who with extreme focus is working on his opening line to bring Game 3 to the American public.
As I drop off my papers, turn to my left and see another camera added to press row to be the EXTREMELY high camera, this time for TSN and I look down in hopes that maybe this time I won’t loose my seat on press row (which I did, o well, I have to stand, just being there makes up for it) and I go to leave but I hesitate, for I hear Emrick in a quiet and muffled voice, “Sure, I would like to do a run through if you are ready…”. Wow, I’m going to get to hear him practice, that’s pretty cool. So, as I stand, pretending to be doing something so it doesn’t look so awkward, no one can see me since there is no one around, Emrick starts in a bolstering, emphatic and pronounced power, delivering his heart and every ounce of energy into his opening line, “Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins return home down two games to the Detroit Redwings in this Stanley Cup Final, the Penguin Captain is not shaken or deterred from the challenge that lies ahead…”
He continues on further, my memory escapes me as to what he exactly says, but he stops. Goes quiet for a moment and says, “Yea, let’s do that again, I don’t like how I fell into the “C” in captain, in that line.” The “C” in captain? Yea, I heard it, it was a slight, really it was an ever-so slight drag on the “C” in captain, cccaptain is what it sounded like. I doubt anyone really noticed, or would have noticed, but the man with the Doctorate from Bowling Green University noticed it. WOW, how did he notice that anyhow? Anyone listening could probably have noticed it, if you were paying attention to him, you could have caught it. It is amazing to me to see how he can “hear” himself speak as he is warming up. 25 years of practice and the Doctorate have everything to do with that, you don’t really understand it until you see it for yourself. If anyone ever needed to see motivation to keep trying, to continue working, look no further than Saturday’s Game 4 NBC telecast.
Sometimes when you go to the search bar, you find different things that are always a good read. In my efforts to search “college hockey,” in the TimesOnline website, I came across this recent article written about Mike “Doc” Emrick, which in turn brought up the idea of writing about what I had experience.
Read the article here: Beaver County Times Online
