European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 3, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Celebrity but they recognize you because they App re Date what you do. I done to know Why i remember this but t read this thing once Quot recognition is not that important but appreciation is my ego is directed at being appreciated by people who pay attention and who Are responding to what they perceive to be the work and what they perceive about the person As opposed to the position. I done to think its automatically a great thing to be the Host of a television show. Some hosts of television shows deserve More or less respect or appreciation. Its what you do with the position. I have no kinship with people who Are professional celebrities. I want recognition for the work and i Hope people like me because of that for something in be done. In Jon to understand when someone says. A would Yogi be in a celebrity Booth or Quot would you come to this event and just be a celebrity a a just stand around. Sometimes you wind up doing it if its for a Charity or something. But in a not comfortable with it. In a not comfortable with attention that a unrelated to something i actually did to earn it. At Home we be never made a big Deal out of what i do. I want my kids to be proud of me because i care about what t do and i try to do a Good Job at it and that s a Good attitude. But i want them to under stand that their cousins Datis a doctor and what he does is More important than what i do but is less celebrated. And i try not to put them in too Many situations where a confusing amount of attention is directed toward me. They know in Mon television but we done to make that big of a Deal out of it. And we never let them a if someone does a Story about me we done to do photographs of Randy and the kids. Done to do it. Its just a matter of keeping your life your own. A amps to i King about what you do a of the air it seems that one of the pleasures you get out of this Job is the pleasure of being articulate a. A Costas yes. A a a is amps a and you be spoken in the past of sitting in your fathers car Stening to red Barber do the Brooklyn dodgers games. Did you get that from bar bar Costas in a not sure where. I try to read beyond sports and almost All the television i watch is sports or news or talk show stuff. Radio too a i try to pick up stuff that deals with discussion. I guess in be done a lot of listening to people who Are Good at expressing themselves. Whether its Vin Scully expressing himself very eloquently while broadcasting a Ball game or George will whether you agree with him or not expressing himself precisely and effectively on this week with David Brinkley i like to listen to people who Are effective communicators. So i think a lot of that has just seeped in. A Good sportscaster is a dramatist a Large portion of the time and i mean that in the Best sense. Vin Scully is a great dramatist. He will Call a ballgame with Complete accuracy a he does no to hype or e exaggerate what a happening a but he has a Way of framing the drama of it and focusing on the subplots and the personalities in a Way that makes you see that this is a drama without a script. You done to want a. Completely straight Forward recitation of the facts from a sportscaster a that a too Bland. You want some Energy some excitement and some drama but some in a truthful Way. Not done in a Way that stretches facts or deals in hype. A amps which is something you seem to take very seriously a maintaining your enthusiasm without falling into hype. Costas in a somebody who has a very hard time faking enthusiasm. In be said this before i Hope and i believe i have a broadcasting style but i know i done to have an act or a shtick. I have a very hard time hyping events. If i done to believe that something is worthwhile or that it engage my interest i have a very hard time cranking up the Type of profs. Signal performance that people have come to expect of me. That s part of the reason Why in addition. To spending More time at Home a that a the reason i quit the football show. Id done it for nine years. There was such a sameness to it that except for when we went on the Road in the of layoffs where you feel the excitement of the Arena and the dramatic clarity of it coming Down to one game a you know it s not just week 11, and Indianapolis is at Seattle Abc Bob Costas on his former Lafe set. And who knows what this Means it was getting to a Point a i could feel the Point fast approaching a where i would have to fake it fake interest in it and that just Isnit right. You owe the audience More than that. You owe yourself More than that. And even though i done to like football As much As i like baseball , i Feci you owe the game More than that. A. A is amps the n you talk about hype or a shtick i think of Howard Cosell. Costas right. A Guy actually possessed of brilliance in has Best moments a very very Bright Guy but with no sense of proportion no governor on amps where do you get your sense of proper fion is that from your family growing up from where ?. Costas if anything professionally it would be from just objectively observing so much television and specifically so Nuich sports broadcasting and seeing what struck me As the most pleasing the most credible and what wears Best. You know who lasts a the longest who wears out their Welcome quickest whose Points actually matter As opposed to a Well there he goes who has occasional genuine passion and who a just Ahvay on a Harangue i think you want to be in the former category. Is amps like Jim Mckay who did the olympics All those years. 1. A Costas of wonderful a wonderful 1 think its. Important in All there be humanity in it but i think even More so in sports broadcasting. Because sports broadcasting even though it should have elements of journalism its never 100 percent. Journalism. Its about emotions the mind and the heart. You have to be Able to be a reporter have command of the facts and at the same Lime in away that rings True bring an element of humanity into it. Mckay was As Good As anyone a Ever been on National television doing amps a sort of command on the air. Docs that come automatically for you or have you developed techniques. A Costas in be developed Comfort. I done to think i could have hosted he olympics 10 years ago. But All the things i did a hosting sports doing later filling in on the today show the radio show Bob Gostas coast to coast on sunday rights a All those things a its sort of one from column a one from column a and you get to where you feel at Case. You re not mortally afraid you re going to screw is different from being so cocky you think you can to screw up. You should never get to that Point. But when your first feeling Isnit a ooh my god i might so few up a then right away you re at ease and your. Head is clearer and you can respond to stuff. A Custas grew up in Comack it. A a a in the suburbs of Long Island a no quite Levittown a a he recalls a but on that order. A a his father an electrical Engineer. Had been an athlete As a Young Man and watched a lot of sports on television. When Costas was 5, the Brooklyn dodgers and new York giants moved to California caving father. And son with Only the Yankees to Root for. There were Many trips to Yankee stadium during those r glory years of the late 1950s, and to this Day Costas carries a Mickey Mantle card with Lum All the Lime a habit so Wolf publicized he a asked a a thousand times a year a to show it off. A when there a a concentrated group of baseball fans a like at the Ballpark a i migh t As Well Wear it around my neck. Costas father died when Bob was 17, a sentor in High school. Costas is noticeably reticent in Dis cussing his family. Whereas he will talk at length on other topics he volunteers very Little to questions about his childhood or his parents. In a studio dressing room during game 6 of the be w York kicks Indiana pacers series he spoke. A about growing up. At the same time., he kept monitoring a to set mounted High in a Corner of the room. _ is amps is there something you Aren t you Good at that you wish you were Costas its almost to the Point where its so bad i done to care anymore. So its not a big yearning but i have no mechanical aptitude whatsoever. If in a driving and i get a Flat tire i have to Call triple a. Its like a standing joke around my House. In a the a worst. Even my kids know it. They re Little kids but since my son was 4 its been a standing joke with him a wait till mom gets Home Shell do a amps but your dad was an Engineer. Costas yes. And my dad could literally if he had the time and the wherewithal have built the a. House he lived in himself. He could build a car from scratch. He was close to a Genius with that kind of stuff at me As a total Klutz. And since 1 guess you realty expect that someone would become a successful sports announcer he honestly _ feared i would be some reasonably Bright Neer do. Well. He thought that i would be like a Guy like a. Perpetual student somebody who can to do anything. That a of any practical use and is working on his third . And sitting around at a Coffee shop at some University pontificating about something or other _ and he died when i was a senior in High school so he never got to see How it turned out. So in a utterly inept. Its interesting though because in a not uncoordinated. I was always reasonably decent in sports. I Wasny to big but i was a pretty. Good ballplayer. In High school he played every infield position settling at second base but lacked Power and was not an effective hitter i done to think Many Days went by from the time that 1 was 6 years old until 1 was 16, 17, Many Days a continued on Page 6 uly 3, 1994 sunday % Page 5
