Jim O'Donnell: Adam Amin aiming to call more Aaron Judge history on Fox Thursday night
HISTORY CAN FREQUENTLY be in the prejudiced sports brain.
South of The Brat Stop, a Bears win in Green Bay is always big. A non-implosive decision by the current hierarchy of the Blackhawks would be mammoth.
Tonight, Adam Amin gets to call a potentially unassailable Major League Baseball moment.
The west suburban Addison native will be broadcasting to the nation with play-by-play of Aaron Judge's pursuit of NYY and steroid sluggers past.
That's because Fox network chieftains have decided to air the Yankees-Red Sox game in prime-time as Judge continues to shake up the echoes of Babe Ruth, Roger Maris and PED boys Bobby Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.
AMIN WILL BE WORKING alongside John Smoltz from Yankee Stadium with Ken Rosenthal handling peripheral Bronx-BoSox matters (6 p.m., FOX)
Judge hit home run No. 60 Tuesday night vs. the Pirates, tying Ruth's best on the single-season HR list.
The 61 of Maris - hit in 163 games during the American League expansion season of 1961 - has been the junior circuit's standard.
In the distant fog generated by MLB's "Cheatin' Era" are the soiled career bests of Bonds (71 in 2001), McGwire (70 in 1998) and Sosa (66 in 1998).
For good measure, the 6-7, 282-pound Yankees hulk is also chasing only the second batting Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.
THE PRODIGIOUSNESS of Judge and possibilities of Thursday night are not lost on young Amin.
"What he is doing, in a vacuum, is incredible," Amin told The Daily Herald. "A phenomenal power hitting display and then to step back and look at the totality of his feats. It almost requires a double take to confirm it all. Historic and improbable, yet he's doing it."
Amin, 35, got the call last Saturday that he'll be working the game. Friday morning, he'll hop a train from Gotham City to Washington, D.C., to air sizzling Jalen Hurts and the Eagles vs. the Commanders on Sunday.
All in a week's whirlwind for one of the top ascending sports broadcast talents in the land.
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MULTI-TASKING GEORGE MCCASKEY may want to enlist an angst-age lyricist to update the Bears' hallowed fight song:
"We'll never forget the way you stunned the betting nation.
"With your 'shotgun sneak' formation."
Luke Getsy's oddball naked knapsack carry by Justin Fields on fourth-and-goal in Green Bay Sunday night decided the game for both spread bettors (at 10 or 10½) and over/under speculators (42).
Green Bay won, 27-10.
Hasn't Getsy ever heard of "The Bush Push?"
EQUALLY DISAPPOINTING WERE an array of underperforming Chicago-based postgame shows.
On WGN, 720-AM, Ed O'Bradovich and Dan Hampton didn't go on until almost 45 minutes after the final gong. The show also derailed early with far too much soft-serve Glen Kozlowski out of the gate.
With Hub Arkush sidelined, "The Score" (WSCR, 670-AM) had Mike Mulligan and Patrick Mannelly plod on like earthbound balloonists in search of helium. (Although Mannelly is certainly one of the NFL's Top 100 career long snappers ever to wind up drawing a radio paycheck.)
For the punch-and-flee crowd, WMVP, 1000-AM was unlistenable and a quick dump.
Worst of breed may have been NBCSCH's inanimate TV entry. Poor Dave Wannstedt tried, but David "Chatty" Kaplan would be a drag on a victory parade in Ukraine. Lance Briggs and Alex Brown X-and-Oed to death while failing to tap into "context forward."
All in all, a miserable Sunday night for the most committed backers of the Chicago Bears.
STREET-BEATIN':
Northwestern loses at home to Nick Hill and a resolute band of FCS Southern Illinois Salukis and suddenly some kooks are saying Pat Fitzgerald is on a hot seat? Non-enchanted nonsense - Fitzgerald wants to coach his sons at NU and probably will. That will take him to approximately 2030, when he'll be all of 55 years old. ...
Erin Andrews is telling all who will listen that she avoided catastrophe on a ride from Chicago to Green Bay two weeks ago when her driver fell asleep at the wheel. Andrews was headed north to advance the Packers' opener at Minnesota. She was in the back seat, live on a conference call with Aaron Rodgers and Fox colleagues Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen. ...
Organic food magnate "Billagio" Bill Weiland was one of the first to hop on the improbable Kansas football express of coach Lance Leipold and upstarts. The Jayhawks - with a Vegas win over/under of 2½ this season - are already 3-0, including slapdowns of West Virginia and Houston. KU is -7½ over visiting Duke Saturday (11 a.m., FS1; Eric Collins and Devin Gardner) . ...
And Paulie Abbatacola, on why he may subscribe to Amazon's Prime Video in time for Thursday's Steelers-Browns game: "I don't want to miss the magic of a Mitch Trubisky-Jacoby Brissett matchup."
• Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears Sunday and Thursday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.