Why I like Dick Vitale
Posted: November 20th, 2008 | Filed under: Baseball, Media, Other Sports | 61 Comments »
You can say what you want about Dick Vitale … but I was talking with him today for a Sunday column I’m writing* when the conversation took a rather unexpected turn.
*Vitale and Billy Packer are being inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame here in Kansas City this Sunday. More on this Hall of Fame in a later post, maybe.
Dick was talking about Bob Knight or something like that when all of a sudden he said this:
“Oh and hey, by the way, out there in Kansas City, I think they got a great deal with Coco Crisp. They traded that reliever, Ramirez, and he’s pretty good, but I think Coco Crisp really helps that Kansas City. And then, you know, getting Mike Jacobs earlier from Florida, he gives the Royals some power, I think that was a big addition too, I think the Royals could be knocking on the door up there, I saw it with Tampa, I can see it in Kansas City, with Jacobs hitting some home runs, and Crisp running down fly balls in centerfield …â€
He said this in the Dick Vitale voice, of course, which only made it better.
Now, again, I’ve written before that I really like Dick Vitale because he is the same guy whenever you see him, the same, enthusiastic, emotional guy who needs to be in the center of the room. But this is something else … a college basketball announcer in the middle of his season (he was on his way to Madison Square Garden for a game) who keeps up with baseball enough to not only know that the Kansas City Royals traded for Coco Crisp and Mike Jacobs, but can actually name the RELIEVER the Royals traded away — well, let’s just say that I respect the heck out of that.
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It’s not Bob Knight. It’s Robert Montgomery Knight. The General, Babeeeee.
i have to say, it didn’t feel like basketball season when he was out with throat surgery. the only thing that would have made his quote better would be some signature Dickie V catchphrases.
Coco Crisp is awesome baby, with a capital A! I love Mike Jacobs, he’s a PTP’er!
Here’s the thing: How would you feel about a baseball announcer calling a Royals game who spent an entire half inning talking about the North Carolina basketball team while completely ignoring the action on the baseball field?
As great a person that Dickie V. is, he is the only bright spot to come from coast bias. A couple of years ago, he did the Florida-Kansas game, the freshman year for Arthur. I was excited because he is never anywhere close to calling a game with the ‘Hawks, and I suspect he called the game because national champ Florida was playing. While watching the game, I almost turned off the sound on the TV. It was a stark change in national coverage, because Fran Fraschilla does the color for ESPN in the Big 12. It was so hard listening to him.
Also, if you watch Vitale’s weekly appearance on Mike & Mike, he is quite knowledgeable with a lot of sports, along with all of his motivational speaking and charity work. Quite the man.
Can I say what I want about Dick Vitale here, in the comments? How about, can I call my wife, tell her I love her?
You know what’s fun? Catching an early-’80s college basketball game on ESPN Classic. You hear this really low-key commentary from the color guy, and the voice sounds familiar but you can’t quite place it, and then it hits you: Dickie V. wasn’t always like this. He used to be like that.
He was talking about that on the radio this morning too. I’m not the biggest fan of Vitale’s style of calling a game, but I respect the heck out of him. He brings a lot of personal knowledge about the players and their families that others can’t (or don’t) bring to the table. And yes, he seems like he’s that way all the time. He’s got one of the best jobs in the country, and he seems to know it and appreciate it. Good for him.
He is the anti-Billy Packer IMO.
I use to like Dick Vitale a lot, then Roy left for UNC, and all of the sudden I don’t like him as much!
Oh golly, I sure hope he’s right.
I’ve my doubts though of course.
While I’m glad he’s a nice guy and an all around sports fan…as far as his chosen profession, I can’t stand the guy. I’ll mute a game rather than listen to him blabber on. Even reading the commenters above me doing their best Dicky V in print imitations is making me cringe.
Also, his Hooters commercials kinda creep me out.
Joe, I usually don’t take issue with you but on this post I will argue back a little bit.
Dick is in sales and marketing. That is what he does. He sells ESPN. He sells College Basketball. He sells Duke and the ACC. Hell, he even sells Hooters.
So, do you not think that he did a little homework before talking to you? All good salesmen do their homework in order to be educated on their clients and to be up to date with any news that could impact their “sell”. So, what are the odds that Dick doesn’t know Coco from Damon, Mike Jacobs from Marc Jacobs? He probably picked up the Star or read on of the Royals’ blogs for 30 seconds before talking to you….
Sell Baby, Sell!!!!
Editor’s note: I would not disagree with this premise — the conversation certainly had plenty of selling in there, as would be expected — but to be fair to Dick, he did not know he was going to be talking to me until I called. And he was in the car, so I suspect he wasn’t on a computer able to do a little KC research. It’s not impossible but … I think his baseball knowledge is on the level.
The casual fan may be impressed by Dicky V, but if you listen to him call a lot of games he says the same thing over and over and acts like he just came up with it. He’ll watch a coach call for a time out and before it’s granted, he’ll start screaming “Gotta get a TO Baby!” Then when it’s granted 5 seconds later, he looks brilliant.
I listened to Dick Vitale on the radio in the mid to late 1970s when he was the University of Detroit basketball coach and a regular guest on a Detroit radio station. He had a distinctive, nearly maniacal voice then. Lots of enthusiasm and could converse about all of the local sports scene.
If it’s an act, he’s been doing it a very long time. I think that’s just who he is.
i can’t stand vitale’s style, really grates on me… but i do admit the guy has a lot of knowledge and if you can dig through all the catchphrasecrap he spouts, he’s a smart guy. and i lived in detroit for a while (much after the vitale era, mind you) but lots of folks there who knew/met/listened to him would talk about how knowledgeable he was (about a lot of things, not just basketball) and that he was a nice guy.
and i do think that the enthusiasm (while it bothers me to listen to when i’m trying to watch a freakin’ game) seems to be genuine. so i have to respect that.
it’s kind of like peaches. i know lots of people that like peaches. they are supposedly delicious. me, i can’t even stand the smell of them, makes me nauseous. i don’t know why, and i can see why people like them, in an abstract sense. but in my day-to-day life, i try to avoid any contact. i’m kind of like that with dickie v.
Did anyone hear him on 610 sports this morning? He spoke about his parents encouraging him to be enthusiastic and go to school, how his Dad worked two jobs to give him a chance in life… and he broke down crying in the middle of it, when he was talking about the greatness of America… (I’ll admit it, I had tears in my eyes, too). Quite Honestly that one interview changed my opinion about Dickie V, I used to think he was just tooooo much, but now I respect his enthusiasm and believe it is genuine.
Sorry, Joe. Dick V. might be great to (try) to have a conversation with. Just DO NOT make me listen to him adding commentary to a college basketball game. It just isn’t even worth arguing about…
My comment above (#3) is a little off. I skimmed the first part of the post; thought this was something he said on TV, not in a phone conversation.
Anyway, the point stands: He thinks people tune in to hear his thoughts about the world instead of tuning into to watch a basketball game.
He should get his own talk show. He’d actually be fairly interesting compared to most sports talk guys.
The post was 3 paragraphs long and you skimmed it?
I love Dickie V. That is all.
I will agree that Dick Vitale is very knowledgable about sports in general and is doing what he loves. Talking about basketball and sports in general. Look at many of the sports fans in KC and they can rattle off good players that are overshadowed on other teams that most would not know in many of the main sports, not just one.
If one is truly a sports nut, and its obvious that Dick is that, its not hard to keep up with all the buzz and news. His job is about sports and he does what he loves to do and he’s lucky that he’s able to do that. Not many of us can say that we work and do what we love and have a strong passion for. I’d like to see him in a white collar business and giving a meeting about TPS reports and sounding that enthusiastic.
That said, his announcing style grates my nerves to the bone. It’s a dipsy doo dunk a roo! The catchphrases and inflection in his voice when he goes nuts drives me crazy. I have to mute him, or I can’t stand watching the game. I’ve seen his biases while watching other teams play and he goes on and on about Duke and the ACC. Here’s a not so big secret Dick, we don’t care about the ACC or Duke here. When announcing a game, focus on the game that you are announcing, not commenting about how great Duke is and how the ACC is the best basketball conference. So please, tone it down a notch and focus on the game at hand, even though that’s not your style. Its a mute-adoo-can’t-hear-Dick-Arooo!
There are two sides to Dick Vitale: the “I love college basketball more than anything in life” Dickie V and then there’s the “I love Duke and Carolina basketball (and the ACC as a whole) more than anything in life.”
I prefer the latter to the former.
Fudge is getting inducted into the Hall of Fame? Dickie V deserves it, but Fudge? That’s sad.
Wait, doesn’t it matter that Dickie V. is totally wrong?
Coco Crisp was the worst defensive centerfielder in baseball last year. Last in ZR, second to last in RF. He was a butcher! And he can’t hit either!
Red Sox hosed the Royals. How can the Royals trade FOR a veteran, highly paid, below average player?
And you wonder why they are in the cellar.
Though they are pretty much polar opposites, the two most annoying sports personalities on television are Dick Vitale and Billy Packer. I absolutely refuse to watch a game that either of those two men are working, which means that I don’t much follow college basketball. The sport has lost me and those two guys are a big part of the reason.
The Lone Ranger, radio version, with Brace Beemer and Fred Foy. “Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. . .”
Kenny — I had the same thought. I don’t like those two Royals acquisitions, so I’m not sure how I would have reacted to Vitale’s comments. Yes, it’s gratifying to hear someone on the national level be that interested in little old KC. But at the same time, I would have wanted to call BS on him. I also agree with Vitale’s ACC preference. He was anti-KU until KU won in ‘88. Now we get a fair shake at best. Part of Vitale’s respect for KU got transferred to UNC with Roy, IMO. KU has way too many banners in the rafters for Vitale to not come to Lawrence often and pay some serious respect.
I suspect his knowledge is genuine and not the result of “research”.
He does own Tampa Bay season tickets, so I’d suspect he is very knowledgeable about baseball – especially American League baseball
His knowledge was impressive, but I think the end result of these trades will be closer to Rob Neyer’s pessimistic view.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3715654&name=Neyer_Rob
By the way, do any of you brilliant readers know where I can find the Dick Vitale ESPN commercials from the 90s? I’m talking about the ones where he had an 80’s-style sitcom where his family lived next door to George Gervin and had an alien muppet named O’Hoolix.
That childhood show poll is wacked. It’s as if Joe completely skipped the generation that watched “G.I. Joe”, “He-Man”, “Thundercats”, “Transformers”, “Muppet Babies”, “DuckTales”, etc. Also, how about “Wacky Races”, “Looney Tunes”, “Tom & Jerry”, “Fraggle Rock”, etc. But he has “Bob the Builder” and “Dora the Explorer”? Are you kidding me!?
Also, for current small kids shows, “Thomas & Friends” and “Blue’s Clues” >> “Dora the Explorer” and “Bob the Builder”. So maintain my two little boys.
Billy Packer isn’t coming back, is he?
He isn’t? Good.
Vitale is Springsteen-y, I suspect.
He like doing what he does because he likes how it feels.
I think he likes the challenge a collegiate coach faces when his $1 or 2 or 5 million dollar salary depends on a bunch of 18 & and 19-year-olds. I think he likes the hopes and dreams of kids and their ability to sometime achieve their goals.
I suspect he enjoys showing up in godforsaken Kansas in the middle of a cold blustery winter’s night and see nearly 20,000 people create “The Phog” because their parents and grandparents did the same thing and everybody in the room expects excellence. Or doing a game at Duke and witnessing firsthand just how crazy really intelligent people can be, given the proper motivation.
What I don’t like about Vitale is what I don’t like about most sports reporting. For some reason people talking about sports think they have to shout it out. It’s play-by-play, it’s ESPN, it’s local television covering a high school football game.
Does anyone know the origin of the coach’s lament, that to succeed “…you have to be smart enough to figure it out and dumb enough to think it’s important”? I always thought of that quotation as the “Marv Levy Curse.” And I’m almost certain whomever said it first didn’t shout it.
I was once in the broadcast booth with a relatively prominent regional play-by-play guy who, during a commercial break, grumbled that he hadn’t had a chance to use his “…signature ‘WOW!’ yet in the broadcast.” He thought “WOW! was his signature.
He thought that’s why people tuned into the game; to hear him say “WOW!”
Wow.
No Duck Tales or Transformers on the poll? For shame. The only shows I watched (that weren’t reruns) were TMNT and Smurfs, with a little GI Joe and Fraggle Rock mixed in. I feel under-represented.
Others you missed:
Animaniacs, Tiny Toons, anything from Disney Afternoons (Darkwing Duck, Tale Spin, Rescue Rangers, Gummy Bears…bouncing here and there and everywhere)
Thanks, Joe!
Did anyone else ever notice that no one really died on G.I. Joe despite all the gun fire? They had worse aim than StormTroopers.
gummy bears!!
what about captain planet?
I watched the De La Hoya – Mayweather fight with Dicky V at his house in Sarasota a couple years ago in his movie theater. Absolutely surreal. He was commentating on the fight (expertly) and in his patented voice. As a Maryland guy and Duke hater I was skeptical to hang out with him, but he is fantastic.
Transformers.
duck tales.
Gargoyles.
Batman Animated Series
X-Men
Ren and Stimpy
So after I’ve entered all those shows I loved as a kid (Superfriends MUST be sans the Wonder Twins, and Six Million Dollar Man MUST be sans Lee Majors’ singing “Jamieeeee, ooh, Jamieeee…”) I don’t get some sort of psychological insight on its significance to my life? I’m sure there must be some crappy questionnaire out there that psychoanalyzes us based on these criteria. I’ll go find out and get back to ya.
I agree my generation (born 1981) was skipped over. The Smurfs were omnipresent and I guess I watched them, but I had no passion for them. For me it was Ducktales, G.I. Joe and to a lesser extent Transformers and Gummi Bears. By the time TMNT were coming along I was too old to really feel it.
Thanks for listening, Joe. G.I. Joe, Transformers and He-Man were added to the poll. These were my holy trinity in terms of toys (along with my older brother’s Star Wars figures). We’ve got some work to do, twenty-somethings!
Dickie V may be a great guy, but to me he is the worst sort of announcer. It’s bad enough when the announcer is just an idiot, but Vitale is REALLY knowledgeable, and all his shtick does is get in the way of his conveying that knowledge. What a shame. I am, I admit, biased, in that I grew up listening to Marv Albert broadcast both the Knicks and Rangers, at various times on both TV and radio. Marv is a terrific hockey announcer and the greatest hoops play-by-play guy ever. He has signature calls (Yessss!) but they serve to further describe the action and energy of the game, and never get in the way of describing it for the viewer/listener.
The reason I love the comments on this blog is that no one made a gay joke about this comment:
RPA said “it’s kind of like peaches. i know lots of people that like peaches. they are supposedly delicious. me, i can’t even stand the smell of them, makes me nauseous. i don’t know why, and i can see why people like them, in an abstract sense. but in my day-to-day life, i try to avoid any contact.”
that is a quite a stretch for a gay joke
Dick is extremely knowledgable about baseball, and has held season tickets at Tropicana Field for ten years. He’s also so gracious about autographs that stadium security has to set up shop in the aisle that leads to his seat because he’ll happily sign so many autographs that a line would block the view of everyone in the adjoining section.
He’s a great guy, a great Rays fan, and yes, it’s a blast to hear him talk baseball in the Dickie V voice. I understand why some people dislike him, but I cannot fathom for the life of me why anyone could hate him.
Joe, your poll is missing a few things!
Speed Racer
Starblazers
Battle of the Planets
I used to run to fainting to get home from school in time to watch these things on the old independent Channel 5, New York City.
here’s another 1981 feeling like some things were missed. i was going to vote for TMNT because i was a fan, but i saw that the show didn’t start running until i was 7. i had a good run with them for a few years. its kind of tough to remember what i was watching up to age 6, would be interesting to see a similar poll for ages 6-12.
Robotech!
Crisp is an excellent CF. His defensive stats were down a bit this year because he dropped a couple more balls than he did in his amazing 2007. But he still has fantastic range and will make the pitching better in KC.
In 2007, he had far more opportunity to make amazing catches, because of where the balls were hit. In 2008, he had fewer opportunities to get hits in the alleys, IMO.
There is a randomness to where a ball is hit and how hard and how high that can’t be measured even by UZR or the other top ranked defensive stats. In 2007, there were a bunch of balls hit that were just barely close enough and low enough and slow enough for Crisp to flag them down even when other CFs wouldn’t have. A lot of the ones in the gaps this year were just a little farther or higher or hit harder, and no one would’ve caught them. So he was less productive defensively this year, but his basic defensive ability is still top rate.
He was ungodly in CF in 2007, and just very good in 2008, but his actual defensive ability is somewhere in between.
Where’s the love for The Muppet Show? And the only shows (that have a snowball’s chance of getting listed here) that I remember liking as a kid were Rocky and Bullwinkle, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, classic Star Trek, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. There were lots of other shows that I *watched* but those are the ones liked.
Road Runner almost killed me. Well, it felt that way. My appendix ruptured about 4:00 a.m. Friday morning when I was 11. I next awoke at about 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning, insisting I needed to get to school for a meteorology test, never mind the gangrene in my innards or that the test had happened Friday while I was still out. That also continued a long family tradition of having a hospitalized kid wake up about an hour after parents, exhausted from more than 24 hours sitting by the bedside, finally were persuaded to go get some sleep (my bad being a doctor helped there). And the kid’s ward was full, so I was in a grown up room… with a television. The other patients (the guy in the middle had the only remote) let us watch Roadrunner. I nearly busted my stitches laughing, and each laugh hurt.
Also, Joe, how can you enter the Shazam/Isis Hour but forget Wonder Woman, worth watching just to see Lynda Carter running…
I love Dickie V, plain and simple. I love the fact that he actually knows who the assorted players on the court are, unlike a certain prominent baseball announcer.
And yeah, Vitale has a definate ACC bias. But he has twice stood and given standing O’s to players during games…do you know who they were? Shaquille O’Neal at LSU and Nick Collison at KU. Don’t tell me this guy isn’t passionate about the game.
What I love about Dickie V is the passion he has. Every one had the passion he oozes everyday than the world would be a lot different…a place without Dick Vitale is a place I don’t want to be…
Ok – Vitale can be annoying at times, but over all he’s a plus rather than a minus to the broadcast. In general, announcers are too bland or too homerish and he’s neither.
The trade may are may not work out for the Royals, but calling Coco the worst defensive centerfielder in baseball last year is flat out wrong. The year before he should have won a gold glove. He gets to everything and makes the catch look easy.
Listening to some of you talking about your childhood shows makes me (and Probably Joe as well) feel old.
I like Dickie V, he’s awesome, baby, especially when he’s talking about diaper dandies!
College BB Hall of fame? I wouldn’t have voted for him…
My folks got cable in the late 80’s and Dick Vitale is probably single-handedly responsible for developing my interest in college basketball. His passionate delivery sucked me in and the catch phrases were a part of every neighborhood pick up game (although I had to modify some for my level of ability – “Dipsy-doo, jump-shoteroo!”).
As a ‘grown up’, I don’t have cable so Vitale hasn’t had the opportunity to wear on my nerves but it seems unlikely that I wouldn’t be as entertained as I was 20 years ago.
“By the way, do any of you brilliant readers know where I can find the Dick Vitale ESPN commercials from the 90s? I’m talking about the ones where he had an 80’s-style sitcom where his family lived next door to George Gervin and had an alien muppet named O’Hoolix”
“Hoops Malone”, right? I remember the theme song… “There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’, but there’s definitely a ‘you’!”
Strangely enough, those commercials also pop into my head somewhat regularly, but I’ve never found them anywhere Googling when they have. If you have better luck, let me know… it’s an itch I need to scratch
I cannot stand Dick Vitale’s style. He talks about everything except the game he is supposed to be analyzing. He goes on and on about where the kid went to high school and his parents. Then it’s the coach and how he stacks up against another coach. Then he talks about how everyone is chasing North Carolina.
He goes on like this and never once and I mean never, mentions the words zone defense or trap or anything that has to do with the strategy of the game being played. He just goes off on a tangent and gets tunnel vision and forgets or ignores the game in progress.
Where is the analysis, where are the Xs and Os. When he does break down a play with the telestrator, it is almost like someone said in his ear is saying, “Dick we have this expensive gadget and you need to use it once and a while. You can tell he just hates to use it. I don’t get why people love this guy.
Dick Vitale knows basketball. And marketing. At Univ of Detroit, he constantly called out U of Michigan for not scheduling his team. At the time UofM was fantastic. UofD had 4 future NBA stars on its roster, former Harlem Globetrotters star Smokey Gains as his assistant and unbelievable funky music that blasted during pregame warmups. (What was that music… who was the artist, it was tremendous!) To gain support for UofD at games, Vitale gave away free tickets to anybody that called and asked for them, allowed fans to go into the locker room like reporters and talk to players and he filled Memorial Field house. This was 35 years ago! He is the same vibrant enthusiastic believer in college basketball and the promoter of the game as a way for players to improve their lot in life while bringing entertainment to us all.