Red Sox
NESN seized the opportunity to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that Fall Classic between the Red Sox and Reds with a retro broadcast last Tuesday night.
More often than not in this space, we either stay in the moment or look ahead to what’s going on in sports media rather than revisiting something that already has happened.
Consider this an exception. Because NESN did such a clever job paying homage to a savored time in Red Sox history that it’s worthy of an appreciative acknowledgment after the fact.
With the Cincinnati Reds — the Red Sox’ opponent and eventual victor in the legendary 1975 World Series — at Fenway Park for a three-game set last Monday-Wednesday, NESN seized the opportunity to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that Fall Classic with a retro broadcast Tuesday night in the style of what baseball on television looked like during the age of bell-bottoms and big hair.
It was right in this 50-something’s wheelhouse, and according to Amy Johnson, NESN’s coordinating producer who oversaw the project, the feedback has been positive. “Especially from those that remember the ’75 team, that generation,’’ she said.
The inspired broadcast included a vintage score bug and simple-text graphics of the time. Play-by-play voice Dave O’Brien and analyst Lou Merloni dressed in gaudy jackets and ties that looked as if they were lifted straight from Gene Rayburn’s wardrobe on “Match Game.” (Look it up, kids.)
Reporter Jahmai Webster — wearing a shirt that looked as if it came from an exhibit on Studio 54 — voiced over some immersive flashbacks, including a look back at the epic Game 6 and a tribute to Luis Tiant, who should have been in Cooperstown long ago. Former Sox pitcher Rick Wise was an insightful guest in the booth. A graphic featuring wood paneling — ubiquitous in homes and on cars in the ‘70s — was a particularly nice touch.
The only disappointment was out of NESN’s and the Red Sox’ control. Rain, which coincidentally wreaked havoc with the schedule in the ’75 World Series, forced Tuesday’s game to be halted in the third inning, thereby interrupting the plan for the third and fourth innings of the broadcast to be fully retro.
I asked Johnson if there was more the NESN team wanted to add to the broadcast but didn’t quite get to — a perm for O’Brien, or something like that, perhaps.
“I think it was almost the opposite, where we added more as we went,” she said. “It started very basic and very simple and then as we talked about it more and thought about it more, we added more to it. This was so much fun to do because it was such a great team effort from everyone at NESN to everyone in our crew at Fenway. The buy-in is what made it a lot of fun and I think it came across on the air and with everyone involved.”
Johnson said the plans to go vintage for this series had been in the works since March, with the network’s sizable content-planning department involved from the get-go. Her own preparation included watching broadcasts of ‘70s baseball games on YouTube to be able to capture just the right groovy vibe.
“On the in-game graphics alone, we’ve been working for over a month trying to get those just right to make sure they were readable, accurate, and that we had enough different versions to accurately cover two whole innings of baseball — which we thought we’d have, before the rain arrived — without leaving people kind of wanting more information.
“There are very few questions unanswered on a screen in a baseball game these days, so we were trying to kind of find that middle ground. It’s been really nice to hear from people who said we got it right.”
NESN has more special Red Sox broadcasts planned, which are probably necessary given the underachievement of the team so far this summer. This coming week, NESN will pay tribute to the Green Monster, with Monday’s broadcast originating from the Monster Seats.
That’s worthwhile — it will give the broadcasters a chance to see the Sox from a different vantage point.
But should the Red Sox continue their mediocre ways for the next few months, who would mind another broadcast or two that takes a look back? In throwing it back to 1975, NESN proved it can do nostalgia just right.
Forsberg knows his stuff
A few years back, a Celtics executive gave me his impromptu scouting reports on the media members who cover the team on a regular basis. The word on NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg was one of respect for the effort he puts in to understand the financial aspect of the NBA. “He really has a great grasp on the salary cap,” the executive said. That’s always stuck in my mind, and it has been proven true time and again over the past few weeks as the Celtics have shed popular players because of the dreaded penalties for being over the second apron. Forsberg’s insight has been a welcome contrast on NBC Sports Boston to Michael Felger’s disingenuous, predictable, and misleading “the owners are being cheap” narrative.
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