At The Top of Their Game

By Richard Zoglin

PLAY BY PLAY: A History of Sports Television; HBO

Sportscasters are an odd breed. They try to impress us with their expertise and calm authority, yet they are remembered best for the moments when they totally lose it. Some of those moments are famous, like the time Al Michaels hit the roof as the U.S. hockey team beat the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympics ("Do you believe in miracles?!"). In fact, every ecstatic "holy cow!" and "oh my!" is a reminder of the sheer childlike emotion that sports at its best can evoke.

That emotion is what makes Play by Play: A History of Sports Television, a two-part HBO special, the most exhilarating documentary of the year. The old clips are irresistible and surprisingly fresh. In the very first sports telecast, a 1939 college baseball game between Columbia and Princeton, viewers couldn't even see the ball. Later came technical advances like the portable camera and the instant replay, and visionaries like ABC's Roone Arledge, who discovered that the thrill of victory could be the stuff of great drama. The program is packed with memorable highlights (Hank Aaron's 715th homer; Nadia Comaneci's perfect 10 at the 1976 Olympics), but it doesn't ignore the lowlights, from the rise of trash sports to NBC's nutty 1980 experiment with an announcerless football game.

Announcers, of course, were always the key. Play by Play, a rare multinetwork collaboration, brings together an all-star team of hosts (Jim McKay, Pat Summerall, Bob Costas, Curt Gowdy, Brent Musburger and Jim Lampley) and a Hall of Fame lineup of booth pioneers (Red Barber, Mel Allen, Lindsey Nelson) in clips and interviews. These men are full of anecdotes, good humor and the reverent glow of people who have witnessed incredible events. They seem like the happiest guys on earth.