A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Broadcast Booth

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Broadcast Booth is a seriously funny book by Hall of Fame sportscaster Steve Albert. For forty-five years, calling games and fights was Steve Albert's life. It was also the life of Steve's brothers Marv Albert and Al Albert. Steve likes to say that they became the "first family of sportscasting"-because it sounds better than being the "second family." Many funny things happened to Steve during his decades in sports. After years of being crammed into broadcast booths, sitting courtside for basketball games, or ringside for boxing, he wanted to share with readers the wacky and bizarre things that happened to him on his way to and in the broadcast booth. He recalls the great, and not so great, moments in sports, from trying to find those elusive words to explain Mike Tyson biting off part of Evander Holyfield's ear during the infamous "Bite Fight" to trying to keep up with the action on the court when LeBron James fired an errant pass at his head, that dazed him and knocked both his headset and glasses sideways. In this collection of humorous and autobiographical essays, Steve recounts getting stuck in a bathroom shortly before air time, driving through a snowstorm in a rattling jalopy to announce a hockey game, being at the mic when arena riots break out, and having a burly heavyweight get knocked through the ropes and onto his lap. Steve also shares what life was like growing up as one of three future sportscasters in one household. From the moment he stepped into a small radio booth in Cleveland, Ohio to call hockey, to hanging up his mic almost a half-century later announcing for his final team, Steve found that living the life of a sportscaster involved more than finding creative ways to do play-by-play or traveling around the country and the world. In and out of the broadcast booth, he learned that being a sportscaster also involved experiencing humanity through the oddball events and interesting people he encountered.