The Cleveland Guardians are slated to face the New York Yankees in the American League Divisional Series, which will be broadcast on TBS. Yesterday, the network announced Bob Costas will serve as the play-by-play announcer for the entire series, and 92.3 The Fan morning hosts Ken Carman and Anthony Lima remembered the reaction Costas garnered from Cleveland baseball fans in the mid-1990s during their two World Series runs.
“When did he become part of the 1A crew for Turner? Has he done a game all year?”, co-host Anthony Lima asked.
“I started getting the texts yesterday. ‘Oh God, Bob Costas’. Now, these are the older fans,” Lima continued. “The young fans have no idea about — was it ’95? Or ’97? Or was it both? — but how you feel about Joe Buck in 2016 is how people felt about Bob Costas. Bob Costas is somebody who is going to romanticize about whoever wins. That’s what he was doing.”
“See, I’m a radio guy, I like doing play-by-play, so I revere anybody,” Carman said. “The only time I get upset — like, I’ll make fun of Joe Buck because I think Joe Buck can take a joke. The Kyle Schwarber stuff was a bit much. I will admit that.”
“All the announcers are on social media, and they all show that they’re looking to be martyrs or whatever,” Lima added. “They’re all like ‘Hey, every fanbase hates us and thinks we’re out to get ’em’. Bob Costas was the original. In terms of Cleveland, I’ll never forget after that World Series, all our fans thought all the media was against Cleveland. Rooting for us to lose all the games. And then it popped back up during Joe Buck.”
The pair then agreed that Bob Costas “isn’t pulling” for either the Yankees or Guardians as much as he is pulling for a good story. Adding that due to Costas’ history of having strong opinions, he may actually be rooting for the Guardians after changing their name from Indians.
