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Aikman considered baseball career before enrolling at OU

  Before he decided to play football at the University of Oklahoma in 1984, Troy Aikman almost decided to play baseball instead.  A three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback with the Dallas Cowboys, Aikman told Bryant Gumbel in a segment airing on the next edition of HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” that the New York Mets made a pitch for him to play baseball. The program premieres at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Aikman will team with Joe Buck to call Super Bowl XLV on Feb. 6 on Fox.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

AIKMAN: “I got a call from the New York Mets and they said, ‘We need to know what it’s gonna take to get you to forgo college.’”

GUMBEL: “Did you pitch?”

AIKMAN: “I was a pitcher and a shortstop. And so when they said what’s it gonna take.’ I said, ‘I don’t know, $200,000.’ They said, ‘$200,000? Darryl Strawberry is not even making that much money.’

And I said, ‘Well if you want me, that’s what it’s gonna take.’ And they said, ‘You have a nice football career at Oklahoma.’ “

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Texas Rangers fans deserve better TV voice than John Rhadigan

 

The Texas Rangers are close to hiring Fox Sports Southwest studio analyst John Rhadigan as the team’s new play-by-play voice, according to a report Friday in The Dallas Morning News.

The Rangers can do better than Rhadigan, a solid studio analyst, but he has no play-by-play experience. It shows how much Rangers ownership despised former play-by-play announcer Josh Lewin, an enthusiastic announcer with network experience. They dumped him to bring in someone who hasn’t broadcast any MLB games.

Gold-throated radio voice Eric Nadel would be the best choice to work with analyst Tom Grieve, but he likely prefers to stay on radio. The Morning News reported Scott Franzke, who worked Rangers pre- and postgame radio before becoming the Philadelphia Phillies play-by-play announcer, was among the early candidates.

Rhadigan joined Fox Sports Southwest in June 2001 and has handled Rangers pre- and postgame shows.

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Augusta National goes to the gamers

I haven’t been big on video games — at least in the past 10-12 years or so. (I was unbeatable on NHL95 on Sega Genesis).

But our family recently stepped into the 21st century of video gaming and got an XBOX360. We got it for the Kinect, because we thought our 4-year old would have fun playing some of the games, which he has.

But now — probably much to the disliking of my wife — comes this: “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters“.

They’ve added Augusta National to the list of courses on the wildly successful Tiger Woods video game franchise. The game will feature the voices of David Feherty and Jim Nantz. You’ll be able to choose from more than 20 pro golfers and play 16 courses (Augusta, Royal Melbourne, St. Andrews, Pebble Beach, etc.).

It comes out March 29, 2011. I may put the controller down sometime on MAY 29.

– Assistant Sports Editor Ryan Sharp (rsharp@opubco.com)

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