You Can't Make This Up. Al Michaels.

 

You Can’t Make This Up.

Al Michaels.

Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television.

Would you believe that Al Michaels wrote a book about his illustrious career as a sports announcer?    Well, he did (although this is not recent) and the following is my review.   This is an older book, published late 2014, but finally decided to give it a try.    Not surprisingly it was worth the effort as Al Michaels put together a pretty good account of his esteemed career as a renown sports broadcaster ultimately reaching the highest levels of the sports broadcasting business.   The book is interesting, well written and contains many enjoyable stories and accounts of his lengthy career.

Michaels does not delve too much into his personal life, however, he does provide some background from his childhood growing up in Brooklyn and then moving to Southern California as a young teenager in the late 1950’s.   He explains how his parents came to be and how he met and eventually married his wife despite some early resistance from his father-in-law.    Beyond that the book content focuses on his work experiences although he does devote some time to his stint as investor and owner of racehorses.       

Some of the most enjoyable and intriguing topics of the book directly related to his working experiences and relationship with former colleague Howard Cosell.     His account of the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco, when about to announce the Word Series, exemplified his professionalism and versatility to discuss happenings beyond sports despite little preparation to address the entire experience.   Perhaps most riveting was his relationship with OJ Simpson and cursory involvement with the media in discussing his case in 1994 when Simpson emerged as a flight risk as the story broke nationally.  

Besides Cosell, Michaels also writes about the many colleagues that have worked with him throughout the years in the broadcast booth.  Along the way he covered baseball, football, and basketball games with many other luminaries such as Dan Dierdorf, Frank Gifford, Don Meredith, Dan Fouts, Chris Collinsworth and perhaps most notably John Madden.    Michaels seemed to get along with most of his co-workers but occasionally a few would rub him the wrong way including Cosell and Boomer Esiason.    Generally, when that happened those partnerships would not last. Michaels appears to have a good memory and he clearly did not forget the perceived slights that he witnessed and/or experienced during his career.    Another example came in chapter four when he was hired by the Los Angelos Lakers to be an analyst shortly after graduating from Arizona State.    The author reports that this was a short stint, though, as the organization appeared to have used Michaels to get another analyst to come aboard and subsequently let him go in the middle of the season.    Michael’s resentment of Laker’s owner Jack Kent Cooke was fairly evident.        

Despite his tremendous work calling Super Bowls, Word Series, championship boxing and Worldwide Sports events, Michaels may still be best known for his delivery of the 1980 Olympics hockey game featuring the United States upsetting the heavily favored Russians which propelled USA into the championship.    His coining of the question “Do you believe in Miracles” at the end of the event has forever been etched into the pantheon of greatest sports phrases in television history. Michaels relates how that victory fueled a greater sense of patriotism in the United States that season.    The author asserted how the U.S. was still somewhat entangled in a cold war with Russia.   In addition, American hostages were being held in Iran and the economy was mired in a recession forcing the rationing of gasoline at stations across the nation.  The unexpected victory was a needed pick-me-up for the nation’s sports fans and psyche in general.    

Despite the book being somewhat dated, the stories were still very intriguing and worthwhile.  Micheals has a direct writing prose and injects humor throughout the book.   Now, it would not be unreasonable to think Michaels has lived a charmed life especially since many famous names were dropped in the book.   He likely experienced a few lucky breaks along the way as well considering his beginnings in both Hawaii and then Cincinnati as a baseball broadcaster.   While there may be some truth to this, Michael’s track record seems to speak for himself (even without a book) and clearly his many talents and abilities engendered his occupational success.  The title of this opus is likely realistic in that most would have a hard time making up the stories and experiences he includes in this fascinating sports book.  For that reason alone, that makes this book a worthy investment of time and enjoyment.  What is more is that the reader does not even need to be a sports fan to appreciate the evocation and accounts of his professional life.                   

·         You might like to read this book if you are an Al Michaels fan.

·         You might like to read this book if you enjoy reading memoirs from members of sports media.

·         You might like to read this book if you enjoy reading stories about baseball, Olympics, horse racing, NFL football and other sports topics. 

·         You might like to read this book if you have an interest in pursuing a career in the broadcasting business.      

Read more about the author on X:    https://x.com/AlMichaelsOnThe