Al Michaels drops names, dishes stories in new autobiography
Al Michaels' autobiography "You Can't Make This Up" is full of stars and stories. Credit: Handout
Al Michaels' new autobiography, "You Can't Make This Up," is "a lot of laughs" -- to borrow a phrase the author uses frequently in the book -- an easy, enjoyable read that does not take itself too seriously.
Which is as it should be, because let's face it: The former Newsday paper boy, as good as he is at his job, is just a guy with a microphone chronicling the exploits of others, and thus, by definition, a mere observer.
So it is that while some of his insights are sharp -- notably in a chapter on the bitter, alcohol-addled, late-in-life Howard Cosell -- the bulk of the book is an anecdotal stroll through Michaels' charmed, Zelig-like life and career.
That includes the sort of name-dropping that is inevitable in memoirs by famous sports TV journalists. (The late, great Dick Schaap was known as the grandest master of that craft.)
In one five-page stretch late in the book, we get separate anecdotes about Michaels golfing with George W. Bush, Michael Jordan and both Peyton and Eli Manning.
Other luminaries who make appearances, some tangential and some substantive, in Michaels' life include Chuck Barris, Miss America of 1965 (Vonda Kay Van Dyke), Chick Hearn, George Clooney, O.J. Simpson...well, the list goes on.
Not bad for a kid from Brooklyn who made a brief stop in North Bellmore before moving to Southern California as a teenager.
To his credit, Michaels never forgets to express gratitude for his good fortune, both in his personal and professional lives.
"If there's such a thing as reincarnation," he writes in the preface, "and if you believe in the law of averages, in my next life I'll be working in a sulfur mine. In Mongolia. On the night shift."
Michaels also never forgets what Curt Gowdy told him after they worked together on the 1972 World Series: "Kid, you're gonna have a good career. Just do me a favor. Don't ever get jaded."
Being an avid, decades-long fan of the Los Angeles Kings helps him stay in touch with his sports-fan side. Anyone who saw or spoke to him during the 2012 or '14 Stanley Cup finals knows how knowledgeable and passionate he is.
Michaels, who wrote the book with Sports Illustrated's L. Jon Wertheim, mostly keeps the tone positive, but some figures come in for criticism, including Jack Kent Cooke, Chet Forte, Cosell and his long-ago "Monday Night Football" partner, Boomer Esiason. (The feelings about that last relationship are mutual.)
Vin Scully was his first sportscasting idol, naturally. But there were many others along with way, as well as close friendships with characters as disparate as Pete Rose, Bobby Murcer and his former tennis partner, O.J.
(Michaels has known the Kardashian girls since they were pre-adolescents, by the way.)
As with most autobiographies, especially ones written by self-confident fellows such as Michaels, the author is not above pointing out his prescience on assorted matters, along with a few mistakes.
Also: While there are things any avid sports fan can appreciate, the book doubtless will appeal more to those old enough to recall some mid-20th century members of the cast of characters, and to recall the original "Dating Game" and original "Hawaii Five-0." (Michaels appeared in a January, 1970, episode of the latter, which can be found on YouTube. He recalls in the book a strange interaction with star Jack Lord during the shoot.)
There are more stories where those came from, including his payment demands during filming of the famously awful 1998 movie "BASEketball," stealing what might or might not have been a historic phone used by Al Gore in 2000, attending Super Bowl I and, yes, of a certain hockey game in Lake Placid in 1980.
Jaded? Never.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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