Berman’s connection is heartfelt
The broadcaster has fun day with favorite team
SCOTTSDALE >> While serving as an honorary Giants manager on Sunday, Chris Berman made a brilliant numbers-driven decision before he even stepped out of the dugout.
The longtime ESPN broadcaster choose No. 83 as his jersey number. He did so in honor of his late wife, Kathy — they were married in ‘83.
“I thought that would be apropos,’’ Berman said Sunday before the spring training game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Kathy Berman, 67, was killed last May in a two-car crash. Chris Berman was at the Giants-Mets game in New York when he was notified by police. He said he remains forever grateful to Giants executive Brian Sabean and Manager Bruce Bochy for checking in on him several times over the past year.
Jeff Samardzija, the Giants’ start-
ing pitcher, said Berman spoke to the team about Kathy’s death during a team meeting Saturday.
“Obviously, his situation is a lot more serious than ours was last year. But he kind of equated it to down times and how you respond to them,’’ Samardzija said, alluding to the Giants’ 98loss season. “There’s always two ways you can go when things like that happen. Obviously, everybody wants to choose the correct path of going forward.”
It was a day full of reflection for Berman, who sounded like a kid again as he sat next to Felipe Alou in the Giants dugout during batting practice.
Alou hit a home run — off Roger Craig, no less — in the first Giants game Berman ever saw in person. That was May 4, 1963, when the Giants pounded the New York Mets, 17-4.
“My dad told me, ‘This guy, No. 24 in center field, is pretty good. You might want to keep an eye on him,’” Berman said. “And guess what? Dad was right.”
Berman was there as part of his eighth birthday party, when his father and uncle piled a bunch of boys in two station wagons and headed to the Polo Grounds.
Berman could not believe that five players from that game 55 years ago were also at Scottsdale Stadium: Alou, Willie Mays, Gaylord Perry, Willie McCovey and Joey Amalfitano.
“It’s unbelievable,’’ Berman said. “Like, that’s a joke.”
Berman, who grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, became a Giants fan a year earlier while watching them play the Yankees in the ‘62 World Series. So began a lifelong connection to the team.
“It’s great to have a guy like that,’’ Samardzija said. “He comes here and you see the kid come out in him.”
Bochy even let Berman make a pitching change during a 9-3 loss to the Dodgers, even if the technique needed work. The broadcaster strolled to the mound
in seventh inning to pull Jose Flores then held off an unusually long time before signaling for right-hander Dan Slania.
“It took a little long to call the pitcher, but we all have our own style,’’ Bochy said, slyly. “That’s his style. He sends the pitcher off, and then he waits for a while and then calls for the next one.”
That’s pretty deep on the roster. Did Berman even know who those pitchers were?
“Yeah,’’ he cracked. “Burkett and Swift.”
That would have been a good call in 1993, the year John Burkett and Bill Swift each won 20 games for the Giants.
Berman flashed some deeper Giants knowledge as he wrapped up a pre-game interview.
“I gotta go see my guys hit,’’ he said. “I have one chance to have a better winning percentage than John McGraw.”
McGraw’s lifetime winning percentage: .586.