OOPS!

 I meant to say I saw AFC games when I saw THE NFL TODAY live on 5th Avenue. Sorry!

PUT IT IN THE BOOKS! Club: YOU ARE LOOKING LIVE! How THE NFL TODAY Revolutionized Sports Broadcasting, by Rich Podolsky, Foreword by Jim Nantz,Lyons Press, Guitford,CTord, CT,2021, Now on Sale at Amazon,

 (The following is a special sneak preview of a review which will be read by Yours Truly at the first Zoom meeting of the Talking Sports Gather Group on November 9.)

During the early part of the New Millennium, my ritual on the last Football Sunday of September, October, November and December was to volunteer at Temple Emanu-El's Sunday Lunch Program and package meals for the homeless before heading over to the former General Motors Building( then changed to Trump International Plaza, now promoted as its building address, 767 Fifth Avenue) and seeing CBS Sports' pioneering pre-game show, THE NFL TODAY, broadcasting live coast-to-coast before every national telecast of the NFL  National Football Conference. When the show made its outdoor debut in 2001 on the set usually reserved for  THE EARLY SHOW (later CBS THIS MORNING ,currently CBS MORNINGS ,subject to change if the Great Gods of Nielsen frown upon it), Jim Nantz, who hosted the show from 1998 when CBS acquired the rights to the American Football Conference from NBC, to 2003 when Greg Gumbel took the reins, presided over an announce team comprised of former New York Jet Boomer Esiason, former Miami Dolphin Dan Marino, former Chicago Bears head coach Mike Ditka, and the multitalented Deion "Primetime" Sanders. I laughed, I cried, I got autographs (from football star Ronde Barber, Dean "Superman" Cain, Heidi Klum, and Dr. Phil, many of whom came by to promote their upcoming CBS programs), I watched out-of-market CBS games as well as the game for the New York market and games from a certain network I will not name, but which acquired, I believe STOLE is a better word, the NFC package...I froze my butt off in late November and December, but above all, I saw the greats of the gridiron and hung with some of the nicest people to either cover or play football or work behind the scenes of a television broadcast. That is what has made THE NFL TODAY work since Bob Wussler took a boring 15-minute pre-taped preview of only one NFL game on CBS, added Brent Musburger, Phyllis George, Irv Cross, Jimmy "The Greek", an exciting, modern look, and 45 additional minutes, and that's what makes YOU ARE LOOKING LIVE! by a guy who was there from the start, Rich Podolsky, the best book on sports and sports TV of the year. Until I read this book, I didn't fully appreciate Phyllis and her dedication to player interviews (Her malapropisms like "He kicked a touchdown!" and "intersession" instead of "interception" drove me crazy, and don't get me started about the time she interviewed a woman and the man she falsely accused of rape and said, "How about a hug?"!) but now I truly understand her, albeit a little too late for reasons you'll find out in this titanic tome about touchdowns and TV. You'll also find out about the real story behind the friendship between Brent and The Greek and how The Greek almost didn't make it on over-the-air broadcast TV, and how Irv blazed new trails as the first African-American on a sports TV program.

Others may try to put on a better show, but whatever they did, THE NFL TODAY did it first, and there's no other team like the team behind it, in the control room or on the field. Whether you read it before, after, or instead of the game, YOU ARE LOOKING LIVE! is worth looking at, and to borrow from another great of the game, it does! Go! All! The! Way! On a scale of Strike Out to Home Run, I rate YOU ARE LOOKING LIVE! a Home Run!

(This is for the benefit of those who can't make it to the Zoom meetings to my Gather Fan Group. It may or may not, be subject to a lot of tweaking, but I believe the Group might like it and weigh in with their own opinions. WATCH THIS SPACE!)

Sports Book Loving Steve

BREAKING NEWS: At Ease, General

 HAPPENING NOW, 8:08 AM Eastern Time, Monday, October 18,2021

General Colin Powell, leader of Operation Desert Storm, has passed away due to COVID complications,despite being fully vaccinated, at the age of 84. He served both Presidents Bush as well as Presidents Clinton and Reagan. He was the first African-American leader of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State as well as an author and a contender for the Presidency until his wife objected. Born in New York City on April 5, 1937, he was proof positive that if you can make it here, well, you know the rest, well-decorated as a result of his leadership by example. A staunch Republican for most of his adult life, he went against party line by endorsing Barack Obama in 2008 and rejecting Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. The voice of reason, he realized he made a mistake when he led a search for  non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction, and averted an even larger mistake by turning his back on the Tea Party politics of the Republicans.

Now he belongs to the ages and joins Washington, McArthur, and other important military leaders who served their country and will protect Heaven as well as they did America.

AND SPEAKING OF LEADERS: (Although not as important as Colin Powell) Guess who's the new leader of Temple Emanu-El of the City of New York's Sports Fan Gather Group? I know, it's inappropriate, but, hey, I gotta lighten the mood SOME way, right? Anywho, if you're a member of Emanu-El who loves New York Sports, give me a holler at steveneisenpreis@gmail.com and type "Talking Sports" in the subject line so I can fill you in!

Steve out!

Insert Sad Laughing Trombone

 The actual location of that bank at 1 WTC was the 89th Floor. Hats off to Dear Old Mom, Bettijane L. Eisenpreis for pointing out that monumental goof. ( I would have sent you a diamond studded No-Prize, but we have rules about members of our immediate families.) SORRY!

Let's Get Serious

 Next week marks the twentieth anniversary of the bombing of the original World Trade Center.

For one terrible day, the resolve of the United States of America,nay, of all freedom-loving countries was tested by a bloodthirsty madman who sicced his goons on two of the buildings that define us as a nation and was almost about to destroy a third, but fortunately, was bested in the third attempt by the very people he wanted to obliterate.

I remember..because I. WAS. THERE.

September 11,2001. Just another late summer day in New York City.

The top story was Michael Jordan, of SPACE JAM and baseball fame, and oh, yeah, he used to play basketball for the Chicago Bulls,trying to play for the team he owned, the Washington Wizards, with President George Walker Bush's publicity efforts in support of his education program coming in a close second. I was working at a messenger company, whose name I'll withhold for privacy reasons,located on the 33rd Street side of 11 Penn Plaza, the base of operations for certain divisions of Macy's, and MuchMusic America, or, Fuse, as it had been rebranded, as well as American Movie Classics and its sister, the Independent Film Channel, and since everybody was coming back from vacation, my then-boss wanted everybody to give a million percent, ESPECIALLY me (Just thought I'd sneak in a little tribute to the Mary Tyler Moore show in memory of Mare's TV boss, the incredible Ed Asner.) Since the largest of my packages was all the way downtown, 14 Wall Street, to be exact, I decided to throw the playbook out the window, save the locals for later , (I didn't have a specific deadline, so what was the harm?) and focus on the other two downtowns, 375 Greenwich in Tribeca, and the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank at One World Trade Center, a building that I had long regarded as a second home. Being a huge fan of this new channel called CNN, I took advantage of every possible opportunity to swing by its 1 WTC studios (before its move to 5 Penn )and say hi to the talent, many of whom wound up at local stations, the major broadcast networks, and a certain competitor who I will not name (AT LEAST FOR NOW.), and I also had the pleasure to intern as a traffic spotter for what was then called Shadow Traffic and is now Metro Networks. During my various visits to the WTC, I had the pleasure to meet Christopher Reeve ( a REAL superman to the end), sports artist LeRoy Neiman, Henny Youngman, Johnny Bench,and the legendary Lauren Bacall reading "The Night Before Christmas" as only she could, and speaking of which, the Trade Center's many retail outlets, from Thirteen/WNET to Warner Bros. Studio Store, afforded me many opportunities to play Santa and Hannukah Harry for my loved ones.

On what had started as a beautiful late summer day and what was supposed to be a day that was going to so busy I wouldn't even have time to stop and wave at my beloved New York Rangers as they hosted a "Welcome Home" rally at Penn Station, I entered the lobby of 1 WTC, smiling as if to say, "Hello, old friend, walked up to the security desk, showed my ID, passed inspection, took the elevator to the 25th floor, changed for the 44th, walked to Dai-Ichi, gave the receptionist her package, got her signature, bowed appreciatively and said, "Domo Arigrato," and proceded down to the Port Authority Trans Hudson commuter terminal for a personal hygiene break, and entered the Chambers Street 7th Avenue IRT station getting ready to take the #1 train to Franklin Street. The train was taking its own sweet time, so I decided to read a book (This was in those paleolithic days before you either read or heard books on the phone, as long as your Wi-Fi held out.) Just as I was starting to get into the book, if I may quote the afore-referenced masterpiece that Betty Bacall read so beautifully,out on the street there arose such a clatter, my fellow straphangers thought something MUST be the matter. Just then, a man in an FBI golf shirt ordered everybody to evacuate the station. Sure enough, something WAS the matter. We arrived at the surface to see 1 WTC, the building I had just visited, on fire. I thought it was either a small airplane flown by a novice, or an airborne version of the Exxon Valdez fiasco. (Captain got too drunk to keep driving, so he handed the controls over to the third mate.) I just decided to keep walking, like your typical jaded "Been-there-done-that" Noo Yawker, but then, without warning,another plane flew into 2 WTC, where the Observation Deck was located, boom boxes started picking up bulletins about a similar attack on the Pentagon,and it became abundantly clear: This was NO accident. (As I started running to my next stop in Tribeca, FOX News Channel, the network to which I alluded earlier where CNNers Stuart Varney and Lou Dobbs had defected, "killed" the sports scores scrolling on the bottom of the screen and started running bulletins about the unfolding developments. CNN, other networks, and local stations,soon followed suit, and many still do to this day, except FOX, which runs news tickers on FOX Business Network and News NOW From FOX, but not on the main network, except for the occasional FOX News Alert, but this is not the place for possible reasons why.)

Things really started to fall apart when it was reported that a plane crash landed in a field in the Pittsburgh suburb of Shanksville, PA. The world found out this was the mad scheme of Osama bin Laden, leader of the alQaeda terrorist movement. The planes were hijacked by his stooges who believed that by destroying the planes they would drift to Heaven and be seduced by virgins.

I had three more jobs to do after I dropped off the uptowns, but when I made Times Square,they paled in importance compared to the destruction of the World Trade Center I could only witness in horror. I only delivered one package and had to quickly return the other to its pick-up point at Madison Square Garden, the cathedral of basketball. Today, the gods were definitely not smiling.

If there was one positive takeaway, it had to be that if I had gone downtown later, you wouldn't be reading this.

September 11, 2001. 9/11. Attack On America. More like Attack On Civilization. It was the end of the world as I knew it, and I couldn't feel any less fine.

This may seem like typical shameless Steve self-promotion, but, if you're within the sound of my "voice," there's a smartphone, desktop, laptop, or smart TV near you,and on September 11 on 10:30 AM Eastern, make sure it's locked on http://www.emanuelnyc.org or Congregation Emanu-El's Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn platforms or subscribe to the Temple Emanu-El YouTube channel, because Your Obedient Servant, who survived the worst terrorist attack in the history of the United States, will be reading the Torah blessings during the second of two special 9/11 weekend Sabbath Services. (Extra credit if you tune in the night before as Thomas VanEssen, FDNY commissioner on that fateful day, will be a special guest.) Trust me, even if you're not Jewish, you'll be glad you did.

Much love to my fellow hurricane survivors in the Tri-State, Boston, and Philly. have a safe and happy Labor Day weekend, and God Bless America and the First Responders who protect her.

Steve out.

Music To Your Eyes

Yours truly is now officially a full-fledged, bonafide, card-carrying (Vaccine card) member of WPIX-TV, or as we've called it in New York for more than 50 years, PIX 11's Documentary Club, a/k/a Watch With Dan, for its moderator, Daniel Mannanino, who also anchors the 7,8,9, and 10 AM hours of the PIX 11 Morning News. (Watch it on pix11.com, the PIX 11 News app, or, in the New York-New Jersey area on Hulu or YouTube TV.) I don't know how long it's going to last, because many are starting to return to work, but it's a fairly simple idea: Watch one (or both) of two documentary films chosen by Dan and his producer Katie Meyers, follow the special Zoom link, and get ready to talk about the pros and cons of the docs you have seen. I know what you're thinking, "It's one of those glorified contests,right?!?" Friends, the biggest prizes you can win from this club are knowledge of topics of which you may, or may not, have been aware, the courage to defend your beliefs before a group of friends, and, quite possibly, friendships that will last long after the world gets all the way back to normal. 

The first two documentaries chosen by PIX 11 that I have seen are SUMMER OF SOUL OR, HOW THE REVOLUTION NEARLY WASN'T TELEVISED (Hulu) and WOODSTOCK 99: PEACE, LOVE AND RAGE (HBO Max). SUMMER OF SOUL is about an event I never heard about until I saw the first trailer, the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969. Like many kids of the era, I got my Top 40 music and the top stories about the artist in those pre-MTV days, from mainstream AM radio stations like 77 WABC, 57 WMCA, or the pre-Imus iteration (Google the I Man!) of 66 WNBC (now WFAN) , and neither the jocks nor the newsmen at the top and bottom of the hour said anything about the Harlem Cultural Festival which occurred the same weekend in 1969 as the original Woodstock Music Fair. Both mainstream artists such as the Fifth Dimension (who felt they had to do this festival to convince their African American brothers and sisters they weren't white), Stevie Wonder, and Nina Simone and countercultural figures such as Gil Scott-Heron were represented, and the festival secured a corporate sponsorship from Maxwell House Coffee, but none of the local television stations in the New York market , the largest and most demanding in the country, would carry it, and the original film had been stuck in a basement for 50 years, until it was unearthed by Amir (Questlove) Thompson, better known as the bandleader for THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON, who assembled a very entertaining, enriching, portrait of a unique time in American cultural history. Get ready to enjoy this beautiful film, but also know there are a lot of similarities between Black America of 1969 and the Black America of today, such as the glaring inequality, unemployment, and prejudice. Of the two docs, SUMMER OF SOUL is the most musical and, well, most soulful.

By contrast, WOODSTOCK 99 is more reminiscent of a good magazine article, examining developments both positive and negative without fear or favor. The original Woodstock 99 music festival, held on an Air Force base in Rome, NY, was intended to replicate the magic and joie de vivre of its pioneering namesake thirty years prior, but it drowned in a sea of violence, vandalism, sexism, misogyny, and all-around poor planning and production. Who are the villains of this piece, the promoters of the original 69 festival and its 94 follow-up, the kids who stole money from the ATMs, took Limp Biskit leader Fred Durst's call to "Break Stuff" literally and thought it was OK to use the N-word because rapper DMX had, or MTV, once the iconoclastic pioneering music television network, now a shameless promoter, using every opportunity to milk this train wreck, which, in the eyes of this reviewer, laid the cornerstone for the insurrection of January 6th? (The viewer may note graffiti that dropped the F-bomb on MTV and one of the concertgoers who also dropped it on one of the cameras that just HAPPENED to be there. He should have read the legally-required sign giving MTV the right to use voices and likenesses of concert attendants during live concerts as well as for promotional purposes.) I leave it for the reader to decide, but I WILL say that Jewel, Alanis Morrisette, the Backstreet Boys, and Rage Against The Machine also turn in memorable performances. Of note is Latina comic Rosie Perez responding to a bunch of male chauvinist pigs, and that's all I'm gonna say about THAT.

Some people may opine that the documentary died with David L. Wolper and Edward R. Murrow, but if these excellent productions, and the interest that has sprung up since the pandemic, the genre is very much alive and well, and these two are definitely worth a look, and listen. (Also of note, and on HBO Max, SMALLTOWN NEWS, the real-life story of an actual TV station, but still, it's great for fans of WKRP, MARY TYLER MOORE, NEWSRADIO, and even WAYNE'S WORLD.)

Steve out!

Viva Vivo!

 VIVO (PG for Language and Certain Thematic Elements) With the Talents Of Lin-Manuel Miranda,Ynairly Simo, Zoe Saldana, Juan de Marcos Gonzalez,Brian Tyree Henry, Gloria Estefan,Michael Rooker,Nicole Byer,Katie Lowes,Olivia Trujillo,Lidya Jewett,Christian Ochos,Gloria Calderon Kellett,Leslie David Baker,Paloma Morales,Danny Pino,Alex Lacamoire,Aaron LaPlante, and David Baida. Directed by Kirk DeMicco, Co-Director Brandon Jefferds. Screenplay by Kirk DeKicco and Quiara Alegria Hudes, Story by Quiara Alegria Hudes and Peter Barsocchini., Co-Producers, Daniel Chuba and John Clinton, Executive Producers Louis Koo Tin Lok , Laurence Mark and Lin-Manuel Miranda,Produced by Rich Moore,Lisa Stewart, and Michelle L.M. Wong, Original Music by Alex Lacamoire and Lin-Manuel Miranda, A Sony Pictures Animation Production for Netflix, Distributed by Columbia Pictures

A few blogs ago, I reported on the Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, usually staged at the chain's founding outlet at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in historic Coney Island (Brooklyn,NY) but, this year, held due to unprecedented demand at Maimonidies Park in the same area,and I mentioned that not only was it named for a trailblazing hospital (that sent a lot of real life super heroes off to battle the original strains of COVID-19, but it was also named (whether they knew it or not) for the father of modern Torah study.

Last Sunday, this reporter returned to the Park (or, as he likes to call it, Rambam Park) to see the home-standing Cyclones score a brilliant upset victory against the visiting Hudson Valley Renegade (Good luck wearing a mask at all times, guys!) on Jewish Heratige Day, but he was pleasantly surprised to see an ad on the Jumbotron for VIVO, a beautifully animated, illustrated, and written love letter to pre-Castro Cuban culture from the mind of Lin-Manuel (HAMILTON, IN THE HEIGHTS, MOANA, HIS DARK MATERIALS) Miranda, who plays the title character, a kinkajou who belongs to Andres, (Juan deMarcos of the group Buena Vista Social Club) a percussionist who played in Miami in those glory days alongside Maria (an old-school cabaret queen played by the multi-talented Gloria Estefan), but never told her his true feelings. He writes her one last song, and tries flying to Miami to get it to her before it's too late, but, unfortunately for him, it is, and Vivo, who used to pass the hat to pay for Andres' living expenses, meets his niece Rosa (Zoe Saldana) and great niece Gabi (promising newcomer Ynairaly Simo) after sneaking into Gabi's backpack and following them to their home in Key West, FL. We find out that Gabi hates her girl scout troop but she loves music, rapping, and being that one in a million, which is also an appropriate term for VIVO. Without giving too much of the movie away, VIVO jumps off the screen (big and small) with a combination of CGI and hand-drawn animation, smart, contemporary humor, a chase scene equal, to, if not surpassing, the greatest live-action chases in movie history, and, of course, Lin-Manuel Miranda's lyrical gymnastics, tongue-in-cheek humor, an ability to segue from traditional Cuban music, and other manifestations of Latin music to hip-hop, and even "Love Picks You Up," a ballad seemingly intended for (and definitely intended to mock) lite FM stations.

Although I'm determined to get outside and go back to living life to the fullest, today's triple-digit real feel temperatures made it difficult, if not impossible. VIVO is the best lemonade you can make from the lemons today's world can hand you, and, no previous knowledge of Spanish is required. (Gracias, subtitulos, or, to put it another way, thank you,subtitles!) Since I found out about VIVO at a ballgame, I can safely say this is one movie that hits a home run!

Arriba!

Esteban