Playing Ball with the Boys. Betsy Ross
during my time there. One was Pedro Martinez when he was still with Montreal and had just won the Cy Young award. Despite his success, he knew he had become too pricey for the Expos to keep him, and he knew he would be leaving Montreal—but he didn’t know where. He was thrilled for the honor, but very apprehensive about his future and unsure what would happen next.
Another one I remember was a satellite interview with Lance Armstrong after one of his early Tour de France wins. Just a bit of background: When these athletes do satellite interviews, they sit in one studio and the production crew around them dials up different anchors in different cities. But the satellite feed usually stays live, while the new anchor is being dialed up for the next interview.
So, the Lance Armstrong feed comes up, he’s live on our monitors as he’s getting ready to do our interview. In the background I hear one of the producers say, “Next interview is with ESPN and Betsy Ross.”
“Betsy Ross,” Lance says. And I’m thinking, oh boy, here it comes, some lame comment about my name. “Made the flag, right?” he added. And then, to no one in particular, said, “Boy, there is nothing like riding those final miles at the Tour, and everyone has their American flags out, and they’re waving them as you go by. Just seeing those flags makes you so proud to be an American and know that those people support you. That’s the prettiest sight around, to see that flag.”
I immediately became a Lance Armstrong fan.
One interview we did on set for ESPNews almost didn’t happen. It was when former Reds reliever and “Nasty Boy” Rob Dibble had just started with ESPN, and he, on occasion, would come on ESPNews to talk baseball. Now, at the Worldwide Leader, the analysts, especially ex-players and coaches, often would cut their teeth on ESPNews and then when they got good, they’d move over to ESPN.
Rob had done his time on the News side and now was working for Baseball Tonight, but we had some extra time on ESPNews and asked the Baseball Tonight producer if Rob could come on the set and give us a baseball preview.
“No, he doesn’t have time,” the producer said, blowing us off. “He can’t do it, I won’t even ask him.”
Well, okay, we thought, we’ll find something to fill the time.
About an hour later, Rob came over to our desks. “So what time do you want me on your show?” he asked the producer and me.
We thought you didn’t have time to do an interview, we explained.
“Nope, you guys gave me my start here at ESPN before they’d take me on Baseball Tonight, so I’ll always make time for you. Now, when do you want me in the studio?”
And I immediately became a Rob Dibble fan.
Speaking of fans, there’s always a bit of the starstruck factor around ESPN, mainly because of those famous “This is SportsCenter” promotions that are shot on the ESPN campus three or four times a year. It wasn’t unusual, when the production crew was on campus, to run into Pete Sampras in the cafeteria or Tiger Woods’ former caddy, Fluff, in the stairwell (I’ve done both). Or, to find yourself in a Bon Jovi video when the band was set up in the newsroom, shooting an “It’s My Life” video for the SportsCenter promos. I didn’t know the words to the song when we started. But after six hours of shooting, I knew it backward and forward.
But my closest brush with fame came when I was working the early morning shift to do SportsCenter updates on the 2002 Summer Olympics in Sydney. My day started around three but ended around ten. So when the shift was done this particular day, I headed to the cafeteria to get a cup of coffee. I walked in to see that tables and chairs had been moved to make way for a billiards table, and who would be standing next to it but Jeanette Lee, the “Black Widow.”
A bit of history here: If you are one of these people who watches any ESPN network any hour of the day, you’re familiar with Jeanette Lee, who became a billiards star on ESPN2 when the young network was filling its programming schedule with lots of made-for-television events, like billiards competitions (usually aired between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.). I used to watch Jeanette Lee any chance I could, because I was fascinated with how she could run a pool table. I had just purchased her book, and it was on my desk when I saw her in the cafeteria.
Maybe I can get the book and have her sign it, I thought, so I dashed across campus, grabbed the book, and went back to the caf, only to see that they had started shooting their promo. Bummer.
A couple of hours later, the field producer for the production company came into our cubicle area (I shared space with Trey Wingo) and asked if it was OK to move some chairs around, since they were going to be shooting a spot with Trey. He happened to glance and see my Jeanette Lee book on my desk.
“Hey, do you know that she’s here on campus? We just finished shooting a promo with her.”
“Yes, I ran over to the cafeteria, but you guys were already shooting, so I didn’t want to bother her,” I said.
“No bother, but I think she might be gone now,” he said. “Anyway, I’ll be back in a couple of hours to set up the shoot.”
No problem, I said, and went back to my computer.
Ten minutes later, the producer came back. “Hey, Betsy, I want you to meet someone.”
And into my little humble cubicle walked Jeanette Lee.
“Hi, how are you?” she said, offering a handshake.
I couldn’t think of a thing to say. She saw her book on my desk and autographed it, gave me her business card, even gave me a gummi bear out of her candy bag. She could not have been nicer. She, and that producer, absolutely made my day.
During my five years at ESPN I anchored NBA 2night, NHL 2night, weekend SportsCenters, Olympic coverage during the 2002 games and, of course, ESPNews. But my most memorable day on the desk was one that none of us will forget, September 11, 2001. I was working the morning-early afternoon shift that day, so I came in around eight in the morning. I was scheduled to fly back to Cincinnati that afternoon, so I was anxious to get the day done and get home for a long mid-week break. I was happy to see that the weather was sunny and clear in Connecticut—good flying weather.
I was in the newsroom, sitting at a desk watching The Today Show on our monitors, when the initial report came that a small plane had hit one of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center on the tip of Manhattan.
While the first reports of the size of the plane varied, we still just thought of it as a tragic accident, a news story for the New York area—until the second plane hit. And then we knew it was much more than an accident.
As the minutes ticked by and we realized this was a story that would reach across all broadcast spectrums, the news editors and producers started to huddle around our desks. The reports continued—all flights grounded—as many as 10,000 body bags ordered for Lower Manhattan—the news became more dire as the morning went on.
That’s when we decided that, even though it was not a sports story, ESPN needed to acknowledge that we knew what was happening and we would have updates throughout the day. I went into our ESPNews studio and, broadcasting across all the ESPN networks, including international outlets, went back to my news anchor roots and reported what was happening. I stayed on the anchor desk until four that afternoon, when the next anchor came in.
It was one of the most surreal days I’ve ever had in broadcasting. I remember being shaken when I had to report the death of Jackie O, being emotional when I had to report that the Major League Baseball season was being cancelled. But this was just beyond anyone’s comprehension. As the morning went on, the news kept getting more grim: a third plane crashing into the Pentagon; the search for the fourth plane that eventually crashed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Every half hour, I’d broadcast live (since the ESPN networks were all in taped programming), updating the situation, encouraging viewers to turn to their local ABC affiliates, promising responses and statements regarding how this would affect the night’s sports