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On Halloween, Bob Costas confirmed what a few people already knew – this past season would be his last calling baseball play-by-play after more than 40 years broadcasting games. Costas said he had made the decision more than a year ago and knew it was the right time. While Costas confirmed the news, he didn’t elaborate until the right time and place which took place Monday night on MLB Network.
Costas sat down with Tom Verducci and talked about his career and his decision. After telling a story about how Sandy Koufax had retired, Verducci asked Costas, “When did it occur to you that this might be your last year calling baseball?”
“Not might, I knew for more than a year that this would be the end of it,” Costas replied. “You and I discussed it about a year and a half ago. And I felt that I couldn’t consistently reach my past standard. There might have been individual games or stretches within games or moments in games that were just the same as if it was the 1990s or the early 21st century. But I couldn’t string enough of them together.
“And I have too much regard for the game, for the craft, and for whatever my own standard has been to hit beneath my lifetime batting average, which is why I’m grateful to the MLB Network for replaying the Sounds of Baseball. Because players have this advantage over people in almost any other profession. My guy Mickey Mantle hit well below his lifetime average his last few years.
But even a kid who never saw him play can go to Baseball Reference and see what the career was like. And I just felt like in the last couple of years I couldn’t quite reach that. And what I hope for this year, the people I worked for knew it, and a few other people knew it. I just hope to end on a grace note.”
Verducci added, “Greatness is the mark of your career going back to the beginning. Can we talk about the beginning, the very beginning, calling baseball? 1980. You’re 28 years old. You get to call a Yankees-Tigers game, a good game, Tigers won 7-6. Did you know at that moment, Bob, that you were in the perfect place for you? That’s where you belonged.”
“Yes,” Costas quickly replied. “For all the things that I’ve been lucky enough to do, and I’ve appreciated all of them, the Olympics, the NBA, other things, baseball was always closest to my heart. And what I’m about to say in response to your question may seem corny. In the mid-1980s, I’m doing the Game of the Week with Tony Kubik, who I owe so much to. And Tony said on Friday…sit behind the plate with the scouts. You’ll get a lot of stuff from the scouts, who mattered more pre-analytics.
“And there was a beloved legendary scout named Huey Alexander, who had lost his left hand in a farm accident or an oil rig accident of some kind, which derailed his promising baseball career. I’m sitting behind the plate with him, and we’re talking. And at one point, he says, “Damn, Bobby, you’re a baseball man.” That meant everything to me.”
Costas famously has told stories of listening to baseball games through his dad’s car radio, “so I could track my dad’s bets” and listen to the likes of Ernie Harwell, Bob Prince, Harry Caray and Jack Buck. “I dreamed of in some way being involved in baseball,” Costas continued. “And to have been involved as long as I have, and to have the appreciation that I had within the game for most of that time, I didn’t want to diminish that. So, it’s time not to stop the other stuff, but it’s time to stop calling the games.”
Costas was also asked about his various partners over the years, including his time with legendary baseball analyst and former player Tony Kubek. Costas and Kubek were partners with NBC for Major League Baseball games from 1983 to 1989.
“I learned on the job, but having Tony at my side was really important,” Costas said about working with Kubek. “And then after that, in the 90s, Bob Uecker and Joe Morgan, and then when I landed at the MLB Network from the start in 2009, Jim Kaat and John Smoltz and yourself and Ron Darling, last broadcast with him on TBS, Mark DeRosa for a few games, Dan Plesac, grateful to all of them, but Kubek was probably the most important for me.”
