Stop Talking, Start Writing!

“Hi everybody, this is Steve Albert.” Wow, I haven’t said that in ages. I used to say it all the time when I was opening up live TV broadcasts as a play-by-play announcer. That’s what I used to do for a living.  

Now I do other things.  I walk my dog, I watch sports on TV,  not from courtside, and I’m now writing blog posts.  Oh, I also wrote a book.

So how did I come to write a book? People kept saying to me, “Steve, you have so many great stories, you should write a book.” I kept telling them, “Write a book!” Maybe I should try reading one first.” It got so annoying, I wrote a book just to shut everybody up.

To be honest, I kind of missed talking about sports for a living. You see, I worked in the “family business” for 45 years before retiring. I spent my days regaling anyone who would listen (my dog mainly) with stories of my life as a sportscaster. 

One day, I can’t swear to this, but after repeating a story one too many times, my dog barked, “Stop talking and start writing!”

So, I started writing. Stories came pouring out from my years of experiences. Many of those experiences were bizarre and off-the-wall, like the time LeBron James fired a bullet pass that ricocheted off my head, the day Mickey Mantle did his best to distract me during an interview,  or the morning I had to smash through a stuck bathroom door to get to my radio job on time.

I’m hoping that you, my human readers, are more entertained than my dog was with my life as a sportscaster.

While most of my adventures and misadventures are meant to be funny, the book at times does take some dramatic and historical turns. Not only that, but I take you on a nostalgic journey back to my beloved Brooklyn. The book is written in autobiographical essay form, so feel free to jump around to any chapter you like.

All that said, my goal is to make you smile or maybe even laugh. But there’s no need to bark. I get enough of that from you know who. My toughest critic.