SW15
Master Don Juan
- Joined
- May 31, 2020
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In 2021, The National Baseball Hall of Fame recognized Al Michaels' achievements as a baseball play-by-play announcer. Michaels has primarily done pro football announcing since the 1990s, but his primary sport from his 1966 college graduation until 1989 was baseball. He was the play by play announcer for numerous World Series broadcasts on ABC in the 1980s.
I have linked the video from the time Michaels talks about meeting his now wife in high school in the early 1960s, them being friends first, and it developing into a romantic relationship while both were in college. This sort of relationship would never happen with younger people today. Realize that Al Michaels is 77 right now, and was 76 when making this speech in Summer 2021.
Women of the last few decades wouldn't be as loyal in the early years of a man's career as Linda Michaels was. Although Al Michaels started announcing baseball soon after his 1966 graduation, he was not announcing pro baseball games until 1971. Most women wouldn't have waited around that long.
The speech is a little sappy and beta, but Michaels being a beta male wasn't the death sentence for a Silent Generation guy (Michaels was born in 1944 near the end of the Silents) or even a Baby Boomer.
Even though Michaels has been a high earner, a play by play sports broadcaster can't be an alpha male. The pro athletes on the field are the alphas. The analyst on the broadcast (usually a retired pro athlete) is more likely to have alpha male status.