Page 273 - 1975 BoSox

266 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
up!” said Dick. “He makes the catch, the Yankees have won the division, beating the Red Sox, 5 to 4, in a game that will go down in history as one of the most heroically hard-fought games ever.”Yaz’s y had ended the 1975 Series. His pop now ended the playo with the tying run on third and winning run on rst. In the clubhouse Yaz wept. at month Stockton joined CBS-TV, having tutored Harrelson and learned base- ball’s “patter.”
“Stockton leaves for CBS and $825,000,” the Boston Globe headlined. Jack Craig’s column had a lovely Nixonian twist: “We won’t have Dick Stockton to kick around much longer.” Stockton’s four-year con- tract would reprise his role as host of Saturday’s Sports Spectacular, interviewing big names, updating events and scores, and winging it on the y — akin to his 1974 period at CBS. “Stockton made an impression that lingered at CBS,” wrote Craig. An o cial there praised Dick’s skill “for nishing on the precise second [for commercial].” Having recently bought a home in Boca Raton, Florida, near Yastrzemski’s, Stockton seemed a natural. Some spoke of his becoming CBS’s Jim McKay — his network’s in-studio star. Instead, Dick bloomed at 1978-93 pro football and 1981-90 pro hoops, leaving Boston at a confusing time to be a Red Sox fan.
Released from a nal year of Reds TV, Ken Coleman retook the Logan shuttle in 1979 to his boyhood park in the Fens, many expecting him to again man Sox video, replacing Stockton, who had replaced Ken in Boston after 1974. Instead, Martin, who hated the kinetic tube, succeeded Stockton, who didn’t. Surprisingly, Coleman assumed Ned’s roost on radio. In 1983 Stockton married Globe writer Lesley Visser, whom he had met at the 1975 Series. eir marriage lasted into 2011. Visser became the rst woman in- ducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Dick and baseball also drifted apart. “You tend not to follow a sport you don’t cover,” he said. Ultimately, coming full cycle, Stockton rejoined the sport that in October 1975 had galvanized his career.
In 1990 CBS bought Game of the Week. Unlike weekly on-the-air predecessor NBC, CBS aired 16 Games in
a 26-week season. rough 1992 Dick and Jim Kaat forged its No. 2 team. In 1994-95, Stockton was spared the junky e Baseball Network. Instead, he did bas- ketball, including the NBA on TNT for more than a decade, getting a play-by-play Cable ACE nomination and joining the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1985 he voiced Villanova hoops’upset of Georgetown; 1991, won the Curt Gowdy Electronic Media award from the Basketball Hall of Fame; 2001, joined the Hall. Football: After 38 years as an NFL carrier, CBS lost rights to Fox in 1994. at year Stockton joined Fox’s rookie coverage with analysts like Matt Millen and later Troy Aikman. One year Dick did hockey; another, the Pan American Games in Caracas, Edmonton, or San Juan; another, the world swimming and diving and world gure-skating championships; in 1992, the France Winter Olympics, including alpine skiing; in 1994, the Norway Games, featuring speed skating gold medalists Dan Janssen and Bonnie Blair — for Dick, the complete package.
Still, he missed baseball. In 1993-95, Stockton did Oakland A’s TV. en, in 1996, Fox bought big-league exclusivity — like CBS, airing it on the cheap: 16 Saturdays in 26 weeks. Coverage began near Memorial Day, stopped after Labor Day, and virtually vanished during a pennant race. is let Fox’s No. 1 baseball Voice Joe Buck at least keep his football schedule. In 2003 Dick became lead announcer of Fox’s backup team. In 2007 baseball’s sole network nally kept Commissioner Bud Selig’s decade-long vow to air Game each Saturday. “I think I’m destined [only] for 10 more years in baseball,” said Buck, in some years missing almost as many Games as he worked. Feeling that you should show up to earn a salary, Dick was received far better than before Fisk swung, “a ne broadcaster not elicit[ing] many opinions one way or the other,” said the Los Angeles Times’s Larry Stewart. “He just quietly goes about his business without drawing much attention to himself.”
From 2007 to 2013, Dick also anchored Fox’s postsea- son Division Series. en, in 2014, the network’s new contract took e ect. Fox cut its coverage to 12 Saturday games, renamed them Baseball Night in America, and