Jim O'Donnell: Bob Costas says Bob Costas ain't done yet
THERE CAN BE NO ARGUMENT that memories have made Bob Costas a wealthy soul.
Few sportscasters-plus of the past half century can come near the man for excellence, versatility and once upon a time, imbuing so many events and programming hours with a new sort of fresh energy.
But his recent announcement that he was forever ditching Major League Baseball play-by-play is just another reminder that Father Time remains undefeated.
HE WORKED HIS FINAL GAME for Turner in a booth with Ron Darling during the Yankees-Royals ALDS last month. Social media was not kind.
“The full truth is that I was no longer meeting my own standards as far as baseball play-by-play,” Costas told the Daily Herald. “At its highest level, it's a craft filled with nuance and the demand for very precise timing and judgement.
“Plus, I am very comfortable with the emeritus status I've reached in terms of American sportscasting. I have no plans to curl up in a corner and watch the wheels flow. I still have a full enough plate with shows like 'Studio 42' and 'Sounds of Baseball' on MLB Network.
“I am not an unhappy man. I am a grateful one.”
AUDIENCES HAVE BEEN GRATEFUL for the presence of Costas over more than four decades. He's won 29 Emmys. His range has extended from Michael Jordan's prime-time NBA to Super Bowls to numerous Olympics hosting assignments even on down to the roses of Kentucky Derbies.
A hint of the man's intellectual nimbleness came during the remarkable NBC run of “Later with Bob Costas” (1988-94). It was a wee-hours one-on-one in which he interviewed people outside of the sportscape ranging from Steve Allen to Bob Seger to Mort Sahl.
In its time, “Later” was a markedly impressive showcase.
CHICAGO HAS CERTAINLY known Costas. As a comparative unknown at age 27, he worked 20 Bulls road games during the 1979-80 season on WGN-Channel 9 alongside Johnny Kerr. (“The team,” Costas says, “was not good. The experience was great.”)
Four summers later, on a June Saturday in 1984, he and Tony Kubek augmented the theatricality of “The Sandberg Game,” arguably the most dramatic victory in the history of the Cubs.
In 1998, he called play-by-play next to Doug Collins and Isiah Thomas on NBC as Jordan stuck what was his farewell-to-Bull 17-footer over Bryon Russell and Utah for an era-ending sixth championship.
WHAT'S LEFT IN his Hall of All tank?
“Would I like to identify the one appropriate new project that fits me now as a broadcaster and a historian?” the 72-year-old asked. “Who wouldn't? I have energy and health.
“So many aspects of my life have been a dream. It'd be nice to think that run isn't going to stop now.”
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RUTH LUNDSTEDT OF ARLINGTON HEIGHTS — matriarch of one of the most memorable sports families ever in the Mid-Suburban League— died Wednesday, two weeks before her 99th birthday.
Her life was happy and fulfilled. The late Bob Frisk — the revered engine behind the sports department of the Daily Herald for 50 years (1958-2008)— long said, “The Lundstedts were just one of those families that epitomized so many things that being a family is supposed to be about. They were always an absolute pleasure to cover and to be around.”
Bob Lundstedt Sr. — once a star center for the Iowa basketball Hawkeyes — and his wife raised four sons: Tom, Dave, Bobby and Paul. Dave was an All-Big Ten shortstop at Illinois. Bobby was the only one to sniff the journalistic fringe. Paul sustained the family sports tradition at Prospect High.
TOM LUNDSTEDT WENT ON TO the greatest renown. Along with Dave Kingman, he formed a historic basketball-baseball duo at PHS. For their varsity years (1964-67), “Lundstedt and Kingman” were high on the regional marquee.
Mrs. Lundstedt was an extreme loyalist toward Kingman, a complex only child from Mount Prospect. That support never wavered, even as his MLB career kept swerving between the edge of superstardom and petulant missteps.
Tom was a catcher with the Cubs (1973-74) and the Twins (1975). He retired — at age 26— when Minnesota owner Cal Griffith sent him a low-ball contract for the 1976 season.
A FEW YEARS LATER, when Kingman was in the midst of his stormy term at Wrigley Field, Tom and wife Charlie were driving back to their home in Door County, Wisconsin after a local visit.
“We had WGN radio on,” Tom recalled. “They were talking baseball and the host and callers — and I mean all of them — were just ripping Dave silly. Suddenly there was a woman caller who was defending him with passion and a whole lot of reasons why.
“I looked at Charlie and we both laughed. It was my mother.”
THAT WAS RUTH LUNDSTEDT, in a rare instance of Iowa-bred outspokenness.
She and her husband let coaches coach and teachers teach despite the clear gifts of their sons. Those are now restrained parenting arts too often lost.
A memorial service is being planned for after Thanksgiving.
• Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.