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The other Freddie Freeman grand slam calls; Tom Brady’s Bills story: Media Circus

You remember the television call. That’s the era we live in. When a transcendent moment happens in sports — such as the first grand slam ever to end a World Series game, courtesy of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman on Friday — the call that goes viral is inevitably the one made by broadcasters from the television outlet and not those who called the game on audio/radio. (There are, of course, some exceptions.)

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Fox broadcaster Joe Davis deserves plaudits for paying homage to the legendary Vin Scully with his call of Freeman’s shot (“She is gone! … Gibby, meet Freddie!”), and I recommend Noah Furtado’s piece featuring Davis’ reflections on the call.

But watching Davis’ call, I thought about the national radio call of the moment. How did that broadcaster feel about his or her call?  That person would be Jon Sciambi, who is on play-by-play for ESPN Radio.

Here was Sciambi’s call:

Sciambi is a longtime ESPN television and radio game-caller — and the current television voice of the Chicago Cubs. He made his national radio World Series play-by-play debut last year following Jon Miller and Dan Shulman as ESPN’s radio voices for the World Series. Like most people who have reached the national level, he analyzes (and perhaps agonizes) over such moments.

“I definitely think about (the call) differently on radio than on TV,” Sciambi said on Sunday. “On radio, I am focused on broadcasting for an audience that can’t see the game. So description and timing are what I’m focused on the most. What I was happy with as far as my call was setting the runners describing that (Nestor) Cortez is out of the set. And then the timing of saying, ‘Here’s the pitch,’ and there’s a little space. You hear the ball hit the bat. And I say, ‘Swing and a drive.’ And then my voice kind of mirrors what the crowd is doing in terms of timing. So I was happy that I was on time.

“I thought my voice got a little growly. I didn’t love that. But I got excited and there’s nothing you can really do about it. You want to be on time and you want to describe. That’s kind of what you’re trying to do in that spot. I loved Joe’s call. I thought it was beautiful. Kind of an homage to Vin, which ‘She is gone’ was the part that I really loved.”

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Davis’ call is going to be the one people see and hear for years afterward if the Dodgers win the World Series. It has the callback to Scully, and whether you read that as slightly performative or pre-planned, it plays great for multiple generations. But Sciambi’s call was tremendous as well. Sciambi said he liked the calls from Dave Flemming, who has the international broadcast, and Steven Nelson, who had it for Dodgers radio and also cited Kirk Gibson.

One thing about Flemming’s call which is really great: He lays out very quickly so the international audience can hear Randy Newman’s famed “I Love L.A.” as Freeman is rounding the bases.

Shoutout to this YouTube account for housing all of the calls, including the Spanish-language calls.

Watching Fox’s coverage of the Buffalo Bills–Seattle Seahawks game on Sunday, you can see how much more comfortable Tom Brady is sharing personal anecdotes than he was earlier in the season. This is something that can separate him from other analysts because, quite simply, he is Tom Brady.

Here’s an example of what he told partner Kevin Burkhardt deep into the fourth quarter of the Buffalo rout.

“Gotta love Bills Mafia,” said Brady. And, listen, I didn’t always love them because when I would drive into the stadium, there were Tom Brady dolls hanging from a noose, coming off the side of the car. But I’ll tell you what I did love about playing in Buffalo. (Bills’ Hall of Famer) Jim Kelly would always see me when I would go to Buffalo, and at the end of the game he would bring me a bottle of booze. It was great for the flight home.”

One of the networks airing NFL games should ask the league for permission to do something like this for viewers following a dramatic end-of-the game win. It’s a very cool POV.

• The World Series is averaging 14.55 million viewers across all platforms (which includes Fox, Fox Deportes, streaming, and a Game 1 simulcast on Univision). That’s the best two-game stretch of the World Series since 2017, and it shows you how the Series has struggled. None of the last four World Series have averaged more than 12 million viewers, and last year crawled to an average of 9.1 million viewers. Of note: Game 1 drew 1.3 million viewers on Fox Deportes and Univision, the most-watched for a Spanish-language World Series game telecast.

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• ESPN put out a viewership release on its entire WNBA game coverage.

• WBD said its NBA opening night on TNT averaged three million viewers, up six percent versus Opening Night on TNT in 2023. New York Knicks at Boston Celtics averaged 3 million viewers while Minnesota Timberwolves at Los Angeles Lakers averaged 2.9 million viewers.

Enjoyed the tease for last night’s Dallas Cowboys vs. San Francisco 49ers “Sunday Night Football” game produced by NBC Sports producer Justin Masse. It featured the legendary sports photographer Walter Iooss discussing his famed photo of “The Catch” from 1982. That photo was used for this iconic Sports Illustrated cover.

Monday night, Game 3 of the World Series will air at the same time as the “Monday Night Football” game between the New York Giants and the Pittsburgh Steelers. It makes Monday night in the Bronx the rare shot for the World Series to top the National Football League in viewership for one night. I wrote about it here.

I haven’t seen a screener for the film (which debuts Nov. 29), but I really liked this trailer for “September 5,” which is set during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich and focuses on the ABC control booth as Israeli athletes are taken hostage during those Games. It’s not a documentary; it’s a feature film with actors playing people such as ABC producer Roone Arledge (played by Peter Sarsgaard). Actual footage of anchor Jim McKay is used throughout the film.

For those who love baseball: Episode 442 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci, who are serving as dugout reporters for Fox Sports for the World Series. Both Verducci and Rosenthal have long careers as accomplished writers; Verducci works for Sports Illustrated while Rosenthal writes for The Athletic. (I have worked with both.) In this podcast, Rosenthal and Verducci discuss why this World Series feels so big; how they prepare for their Fox TV work versus writing; the potential viewership of this World Series; why we sometimes see on social media fans not happy with in-game interviews; how they approach the post-game interview; the impact on Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Juan Soto when it comes to legacy and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.

Here are some things I read over the last couple of weeks that were interesting to me. (Note there are some paywalls here.)

• Inside the Company Helping America’s Biggest Health Insurers Deny Coverage for Care. By T. Christian Miller, ProPublica; Patrick Rucker, The Capitol Forum; and David Armstrong, ProPublica.

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• Jim Donovan, 68, longtime Cleveland Browns broadcaster, dies after cancer battle. By Zac Jackson and Jason Lloyd of The Athletic.

• The U.S. Spies Who Sound the Alarm About Election Interference. By David D. Kirkpatrick of the New Yorker.

• On anticipatory obedience and the media. By Ian Bassin and Maximillian Potter of CJR.

• Nazi-looted Monet artwork returned to family generations later. By Jack Brook of the Associated Press.

• Walking the DMZ. By Stephen Snyder of The World.

• How a conspiracy-fueled group got a foothold in this hurricane-battered town. By Brianna Sacks, Scott Dance, Will Oremus, Samuel Oakford and Jeremy B. Merrill of The Washington Post.

• How Roger Goodell Became the NFL’s $20 Billion Man. By Ken Belson of The New York Times.

• The ‘Black Insurrectionist’ was actually white. The deception did not stop there. By Brian Slodysko of the Associated Press.

• A Controversial Rare-Book Dealer Tries to Rewrite His Own Ending. By Tad Friend of the New Yorker.

• Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam lifts Dodgers past Yankees in Game 1 of World Series. By Andy McCullough of The Athletic.

• In Senegal, the bastion of the region’s Francophonie, French is giving way to local languages. By Monica Pronczuk of the Associated Press.

• ‘Pulp Fiction’ Turns 30: How Quentin Tarantino’s Masterpiece Saved Careers, Conquered Film Festivals and Changed Cinema Forever. By Todd Gilchrest of Variety.

(Photo of Freddie Freeman rounding the bases while the Dodgers celebrate his walk-off grand slam in Friday’s Game 1 of the World Series: Michael Owens / MLB Photos via Getty Images)

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