The Alberts

There have been many father and son sports broadcasting connections through the years.

In fact, no one will ever match the current string of the Caray family.

It started with Harry, the longtime voice of the Cardinals, Cubs and White Sox, his son Skip, the 31-year announcer for the Braves, Skip’s son Chip, also with the Braves, Cubs, and currently the Cardinals, and now Chip’s son Chris is beginning his first year as a play-by-play announcer for the Oakland A’s.

What an impressive lineup from one single family.

But this isn’t about the Carays.

It’s about the father-son combination I’ve known for a long time.

It’s about Marv Albert, and his son Kenny.

Marv as many know, was the longtime voice of the NBA New York Knicks, and lead network broadcaster for NBC Sports’ NBA coverage in the early 90’s.

Now retired as yours truly, Marv excelled in boxing on NBC, and during the time he worked radio for the Knicks, the New York Rangers of the NHL.

In fact, while he is celebrated for his basketball work, I always thought there was no better hockey announcer than Marv Albert.

We both were at Syracuse University at the same time. Marv was one year ahead of me, and as a sophomore did a rock and roll music show on station WOLF.

I was honored to be selected as the first sophomore Sports Director of the campus station, WAER. Going into my junior year, I applied for the same assignment. Marv also threw his hat in the ring. Why not?

Being Sports Director meant serving as the play-by-play announcer for the Orange home basketball games.

So Marv and I put our bid in.

Wouldn’t you think one of us would be a natural?

Well, neither one of us got the job.

It went to a friend named Barry Lewis, who was never on the air, but handled the ordering of lines for the actual broadcasts, and much of the technical chores. Lewis later became an executive for Katz Broadcasting.

At a recent affair in Boca Raton, FL, I hosted Jim Boeheim, the retired hoop coaching icon who is making the rounds talking about his career, and talking up his tremendous loyalty to the University over the years.

When the session ended, the son of Barry Lewis came up and introduced himself.

It was a pleasure speaking with him and telling him that his father had beaten out Marv Albert and Dick Stockton for the top sports job on the campus radio station.

Marv and I crossed paths at times during our tenure with Turner Broadcasting, the cable network which has aired NBA basketball for decades.

I’ll never forget, however, the first time I visited with Marv a few years after we departed SU.

I was home in New York City from my job at KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh.

Marv asked  me to sit with him when he broadcast a Knicks game on New Year’s Eve at Madison Square Garden.

He invited me to join him along with his wife in his apartment after the game, which I did.

He had a son, less than a year old who was present as well.

He also had a piano, which I gladly played.

I was relatively new to playing, which was evident when the infant began to cry.

I clearly did not get a good review from the child.

The little boy’s name was Kenny and it wasn’t the last time I would see him.

Kenny, of course, was Kenny Albert, who followed in his father’s footsteps and has become one of the best, most consistent radio and TV broadcasters in the business.

I finally got to talk with Kenny, when he was hired by Fox Sports to work NFL games, as I was, in their inaugural season, 1994.

Pat Summerall and John Madden came over from CBS, which lost the NFL contract to Fox.

That gave the “new” network instant credibility.

I was teamed with former linebacker and longtime expert-analyst Matt Millen as the Number 2 team.

The rest of the play-by-play lineup were made up mostly of young sons of proven on-air announcers or club executives.

Joe Buck, the son of Jack, a Cardinals voice for decades, and a network icon on several networks.

Kevin Harlan, the son of Bob Harlan, who was the Chairman of the Board of the Green Bay Packers.

Thom Brennaman, the son of Marty, the popular Cincinnati Reds voice who also worked with me on the 1975 World Series.

And, of course, Kenny Albert, the son of the legendary Marv.

Every one of the youngsters developed into outstanding representatives of our business, most of who are still working at the highest levels of sports broadcasting.

Albert, in particular, has impressed me, not only with his accuracy and consistency from game-to-game, but with his humility in not getting carried away in believing he is the reason why people listen and watch.

He has never wavered in becoming one of the most versatile voices, covering so many sports so well.

He is currently the only sportscaster who does play-by-play for all four major professional sports leagues in the U.S. and Canada.

His assignments range from NFL and Major League Baseball on Fox Sports, lead play-by-play of the NHL on TNT, fill-in for Knicks radio, and still the every game announcer for the Rangers.

Add to that four Winter Olympics working hockey, and other sports during several Summer Games.

At 56, he still has many years to  go in a career filled with constant travel and an amazing ability to do many games bunched together.

In 2014, Kenny Albert broadcast 12 NHL playoff games in 15 days on NBC, and there were never any consecutive games in the same time zone.

I’m exhausted writing about it.

Kenny recently had a book published, “A Mic For All Seasons”, and that accurately sums up what he is about professionally.

If you listen to today’s television play-by-play announcers, most of them fall into the category of talking too much, yelling too much, and even screaming too much.

They become fans behind the microphone, and while there may be some who think this is what they should be, keep in mind that they are the connection between the action and the listener.

The game itself provides the excitement, the voice has to be in control to deliver the needed fact. A voice should rise with the excitement, not lose control.

Kenny Albert has learned to deliver what is needed in accurate fashion, ride the wave of the big moments accordingly, but always maintain control and command.

It’s never about him.

I think we know where he learned that.

He also learned from his father, Marv, that preparation for an assignment never wanes, and like his dad, he is ready when the game begins.

I only wish he didn’t cry when I played the piano in his apartment back in 1969 when he was less than a year old.