Stockton, known for call on Fisk HR, retires
In announcing his retirement Thursday after 55 years in broadcasting, Fox Sports said that Dick Stockton had called 1,545 televised sporting events, a record for a U.S. sports broadcaster. But one of them stands out above the others:
Stockton’s call of Carlton Fisk’s home run in
Game 6 of the 1975 World Series long ago achieved iconic status, its 12 words — “There it goes! A long drive ... if it stays fair ... home run!” — followed by Stockton’s 36-second silence as the Fenway
Park crowd roared Fisk around the bases embedded in the collective memory. And to hear Stockton tell it, he was lucky to be behind the microphone.
Stockton was scheduled to do the play-by-play only for the first half of the game, as NBC wanted Joe Garagiola — who was on the verge of being promoted to the network’s top playby-play voice — on the call in case the Reds clinched the title.
When the game went to extra innings, NBC decided that Stockton and Garagiola would alternate innings going forward, Stockton starting with the 10th. Thus it was merely his turn behind the microphone when Fisk led off the bottom of the 12th, the Red Sox and Reds still tied.
“There is no way that arrangement would happen today,” Stockton wrote on his website in 2019. “The demands of the top voice of any network would result in one voice calling the rest of the game. That wouldn’t be me.”
ETC.
Obituary: Dr. Bobby
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Brown, the former majorleague player and Korean War doctor who became a practicing cardiologist in Fort Worth and later president of the Texas Rangers and the American League, has died in his Fort Worth home. He was 96.
MLB: Chicago White
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Sox left fielder Eloy Jimenez will be out five to six months with a ruptured left pectoral tendon. He will need surgery. Jimenez is one of the offensive stars of a team expected to contend for a division title . ... Fernando Tatis Jr. is feeling a lot better, a huge relief to the star San Diego shortstop and his team. A day after Tatis walked off the field during an exhibition game in discomfort, the Padres said the discomfort in his left shoulder had improved . ... Matt Harvey is back in the major leagues with the Baltimore
Orioles. Baltimore selected the contract of the 31-year-old right-hander, who gets a $1 million, one-year contract and the chance to earn performance bonuses.
NFL: The Arizona
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Cardinals have added cornerback Malcolm Butler on a one-year deal in an effort to bolster a thin secondary and also traded center Mason
Cole to the Minnesota Vikings for a sixth-round draft pick . ... The Patriots re-signed running back
James White, a Fort Lauderdale native who has been with New England since 2014.
Soccer: Sergino Dest ● scored his first international goal with a spectacular 25-yard shot, Sebastian Lletget added a pair of second-half goals and the United States beat Jamaica 4-1 in an exhibition at Wiener Neustadt, Austria . ... CBS Sports has acquired the U.S. rights to Italy’s Serie A. The threeyear agreement will begin in August when the 202122 season gets underway. The rights also include Coppa Italia matches as well as the Supercoppa Italiana match each year between the winners of Serie A and Coppa Italia.
College basketball:
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Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger, one of three coaches to take five different teams to the men’s NCAA Tournament, is retiring. Kruger, 68, has a 674-432 record over 35 seasons at six colleges, including Florida.
Figure skating: The
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faceoff between Yuzuru Hanyu and Nathan
Chen was no contest. Japan’s Hanyu, looking every bit the champion of the sport, won the short program at the World Figure Skating Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, distancing himself from Chen when the American fell on his opening quadruple lutz while Hanyu was sheer perfection. Hanyu has been the sport’s biggest attraction for two Olympic cycles