A legend of broadcasting retired this week, calling his NL West team's final game on the road against a division rival.
He was admired throughout the game, had a career spanning over five decades, and will be sorely missed.
No it's not Vin Scully, who decided to hang up the mic on his own legendary career, and in doing so, has overshadowed (not that I'm blaming anyone) the retirement of another announcing legend, Dick Enberg.
While Vin Scully bled Dodger Blue, the nation at large knew of him thanks to his call of NBC's Game of the Week for so many years. So it was for Enberg, who was the lead announcer for the NFL on NBC for 18 years, from 1979 to 1997. If you are a child of the '80s or '90s and are a football fan, you unquestionably heard Enberg's comforting voice for many, many broadcasts. As the lead announcer, Enberg called eight Super Bowls. After NBC lost the rights to Sunday afternoon football, Enberg moved to CBS.
At CBS, Enberg became just as well-known for anchoring CBS's tennis coverage, particularly the U.S. Open. For most of the Williams Sisters' legendary U.S. Open victories, it was Enberg on the call.
But he called a lot more than tennis for CBS. He continued to do the NFL as either the No. 2 or No. 3 announcer for another decade, which essentially made him the voice of the AFC for 30 years.
But to simply highlight his football and tennis coverage is to do Enberg a disservice. Enberg called it all. Golf. The Olympics. College Football. College Basketball. The NBA. Horse Racing. Boxing. He even hosted game shows and did sports reporting on newscasts. NBC and CBS both put him everywhere they could, and I'm glad they did.
But baseball was probably Enberg's first love. He played it in high school and college, and his first top-level job was calling California Angels games in the late '60s. He was promised a lead announcer position on NBC's Saturday baseball in 1982, but NBC at the last moment pulled the rug out from under him and instead went with, you guessed it, Vin Scully.
You don't hear often of local markets pulling off great broadcasting coups, but the San Diego Padres did just that, hiring him for play-by-play for Padres games starting in 2010. While he never saw the Padres make the postseason, a love affair between Enberg and the city quickly developed. During the Padres last home series this year, the team mowed Enberg's trademark "Oh My!" into the Petco Park grass.
Speaking personally, now that Enberg is retired, there is exactly one sportscaster-of-my-youth still calling games today. That would be Cleveland Indians radio announcer Tom Hamilton, who took over play-by-play duties when I was 14. I'm 40 now. Hamilton is only 60, so hopefully he, like Enberg and Scully, will continue calling games into his 80s, so I can keep grasping at sands in the hourglass. Enberg made some of those grains of sand really special, and he will be missed.
Leave a Comment