I’ve got an idea for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Put Al Eschbach on the radio broadcast team.
I’m serious. When Clay Bennett announced Wednesday that his team’s broadcasts would be heard on the Animal, I immediately thought of Eschbach.
A generation or two of Oklahomans know Eschbach only as the Jersey-accented Animal talk-show host, but in a previous life, 1976-85, Eschbach teamed with John Brooks on OU basketball broadcasts and was very entertaining and informative. Eschbach left the Sooner broadcasts when he changed radio stations; KTOK, his former station and the holder of the OU rights, understandably didn’t want a competitor on its Sooner broadcasts.
Eschbach would need to get up to speed on the NBA, but that can be done. I know, because I did it when the Hornets were here. And frankly, Eschbach needs a new challenge. He’s good on the radio but has been coasting for awhile. He needs something besides OU football and basketball to charge his batteries.
Eschbach would bring personality and a great history of the NBA. He grew up in Jersey City and would take the train to Knickerbocker games in the early ’60s. Who else in OKC was watching live NBA games 45 years ago?
Full disclosure: I do a 40-minute radio segment with Eschbach. We’re friends — known each other more than a quarter century — but we’re not close friends. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a meal with Eschbach. So this isn’t some kind of buddy campaign. No one asked me to do this. In fact, I hit Eschbach with this idea 15 minutes after Bennett’s Animal announcement Wednesday. He seemed intrigued by the idea.
The Sonics last season didn’t use a color man on its radio broadcasts. Matt Pinto went solo on the broadcasts. Bennett said Pinto would be part of the OKC broadcast, but it’s not determined whether Pinto will do radio or TV. Bennett also said he thought adding a color man, even if Pinto returns to the radio side, is a good idea.
Al Eschbach could be that man.
July 31st, 2008 at 9:49 am
Well, if Al is the man then I won’t be listening!!! I long ago tired of his attempts to be cute by demeaning others. I am tired of every woman in sports is a lesbian. (That is only a slight exaggeration. I will bet you that at least two-thirds of the time that a woman in sports is mentioned, Al asked if they are a lesbian.) I am tired of his railings. I no longer listen to his show and often turn off the Animal at four if he is off on one of his vents.
Certainly, he will bring some to the broadcast who might not have come otherwise. The question is: Will he bring more in than he looses? Al needs to be the center of attention. Color men should not be that.
I fervently hope it does NOT happen!
Nancy
July 31st, 2008 at 10:23 am
Good to see that Barry is still on the crack. Seriously Eschbach?
July 31st, 2008 at 10:23 am
Sorry Berry
July 31st, 2008 at 10:35 am
Sorry, Berry.
I tired of Al Eschbach long, long ago. His schtick with Jim Traber in the afternoon is absolutely intolerable, and that’s why I listen to other stations.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:17 pm
No, no, no, no, no, a thousand times no. I enjoyed Matt Pinto when I lived in southeastern Oklahoma and listened to him doing Dallas Maverick broadcasts.
Al is best doing what he’s been doing. Nobody currently on the SportsAnimal has any business being near an NBA broadcast. To use one of the in-house people to do color alongside Matt would be almost as bad as Bob Barry, Sr. and Merv Johnson.
Of course we could solve both problems by getting Chuck Cooperstein to do color for the NBA and play-by-play for the Sooners.
August 1st, 2008 at 12:23 am
Please tell my you aren’t serious. Eschbach is why I never listen to the Sports Animal…other than the fact that it’s all Sooners…all the time…
I tuned in the other day to hear what Clay Bennett had to say and was embarrassed for Al. The best thing for him is that you couldn’t understand what tripe he was spewing most of the time.
Wasn’t he in Kansas City at one point? And got ran out of town and whimpered back into OKC with his tail between his legs?
One way to insure that I would never listen to a game broadcast would be to put him on it…..He is a joke as a broadcaster…And I’m in broadcasting!
August 2nd, 2008 at 4:18 am
Eschbach certainly has a face for radio.
August 2nd, 2008 at 8:19 am
Al certainly brings out the haters. I for one won’t listento the broadcasts no matter who does them. NBA to me isn’t interesting until the playoffs, and the Not the Sonics won.t be in the playoffs for years. Good luck to the franchise, but they will have to do it without me.