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Notes By George Stahl NEW YORK (AQB)--Charley Steiner had a simple answer when asked why he was picked to host the network's SportsCenter of the Decade, 1960s at 7:30 p.m. ET Friday. "I guess I'm the only one old enough to have lived through it." Lived through it, he did. In a recent Armchair on the Air interview, which you can hear by clicking here, Steiner described how he sold an underground newspaper in Haight-Ashbury after graduating high school in 1967; spent time in 1968 with Chicago 7 members such as Abbie Hoffman and Bobby Seale while attending Bradley University in Peoria, Ill.; and was at Woodstock in 1969. "I hit the trifecta," he said. "So I figured, and they did, that I was probably best-suited to handle the '60s with Boomer [Chris Berman]." Earlier this week, on ESPN's Up Close, Berman and Gary Miller joked that Steiner still lives in the '60s. Steiner said he didn't see that as insult. "In many ways, I take that as a complement because a lot of things that we did in the '60s we were right about. We were right about the war in Vietnam, and how wrong it was. We were right about civil rights. We were right about women's rights. We were right about questioning authority. "I think the only thing that we were wrong about was probably drugs." Friday's show [click here to get a complete rundown of the show] starts with Bill Mazerowski's home run to win the 1960 World Series and ends with Joe Namath and the Jets in Super Bowl III. "I can tell you exactly where I was the moment Bill Mazerowski hit his home run. I was taking what turned out to be the last piano lesson of my life." Steiner said his piano teacher wouldn't let him out of the lesson, despite his pleas about game seven of the World Series. "She looked at me and, in fairly broken English, said 'What's the World Series?'" To add to that, because of the home run, Steiner lost a bet with a friend and had to pay him a month's allowance - $1. "Not only did I lose a month's worth of allowance, [but] my piano career came to an end. So Mazerowski hits the home run, and I'm playing On Top of Old Smokey." For Steiner, sports in the '60s reflected the culture at large. "I think very much like the '60s themselves, it was a bridge to the rest of the century. For the first time in the '60s, not only were athletes on the field questioning their coaches and their authority, all of the young people in the '60s were. "There was a great change in attitude, but there was still a purity about the sport. People weren't being overpaid at that point, and their athletic achievements often transcended what it was that they were doing based on the force of their personality." And the greatest sports personality of the '60s was The Greatest. "The one guy who just epitomized that generation, and arguably the entire century in sports, was Muhammad Ali. Almost everything he did was interesting," Steiner said. "He is the one constant thread throughout the '60s, and we really come to see that in this program." Another thing we'll see throughout the two-hour program is Steiner and Berman changing looks to match the time period. "For the show, they gave me hair extensions. And for Boomer, they gave him hair," Steiner said. "You know what we looked like? We looked like the old Turtles." Steiner and the '60s, so happy together. Click here to hear more of the AQB's interview with Charley Steiner, during which he also discusses his interview with Sandy Koufax, doing baseball on ESPN and ESPN Radio, and his baseball broadcasting partner, Rick Sutcliffe. More SportsCentury Shows This is actually a big weekend for ESPN's SportsCentury project as it will broadcast three two-hour programs, along with its weekly half-hour show on the greatest athletes of the century (this week, No. 35 Secretariat). Besides SportsCenter of the Decade, 1960s on ESPN Friday night, SportsCentury makes the move up to network television with The Greatest Coaches of the Century at 2 p.m. Saturday and The Most Influential People In Sports at 2 p.m. Sunday, both of which are on ABC. The Greatest Coaches show, also hosted by Chris Berman, features more than 80 great coaches from this century, including the following magnificent seven in alphabetical order:
At the end of the show, a top 10 will be announced, including the coach voted "the greatest coach of the century." On Sunday, Bob Ley hosts The Most Influential People In Sports, which focuses on the 10 most influential people off the field "The [SportsCentury] panel of 48 was instructed you can't vote for athletes, which immediately takes off the board people such as Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali," Ley said during a recent Armchair on the Air, which you can hear by clicking here. While some of the people featured may have athletic backgrounds, the voting was based solely on off-the-field accomplishments. That leaves the following 10 people (listed in alphabetical order), who will be counted down during the show:
The show includes interviews with more than 150 people, and will highlight more than 35 other people, including a segment on the growth of the acceptance of women in sports, focusing on the work of Billie Jean King. Ley said that while the SportsCentury project is impressive now, its importance is only going to grow. "I think in the decades to come there will be a lot of historians and our grandchildren thanking the people in the SportsCentury project," he said. "I think its importance will really grow through the decades of the next century." "It will be a living, breathing history of the sports in this century." ABC also will show future SportsCentury programs on the Greatest Games and the Greatest Dynasties of the century. For more details and a complete list of televised sporting events this weekend, check out ArmchairQB.com's Today's Lineup. |
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