B1 THE TELEGRAM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2016
sports
Robin
Short
Sports
Scene
Tucked away in one of my
desk drawers is a photocopy of
a magazine article from a long
time ago, maybe 20 or 25 years.
It’s an interview with Red
Smith, the great American
sportswriter, and his “Final In-
nings.” Smith, who died in 1982,
came from a time when sports-
writers hung out at the track or
the ballpark or the rink, drank
straight up, smoked and gener-
ally spun yarns that made writ-
ing a handicraft.
It wasn’t about clicks, Tweets
and hits.
In the article, Smith speaks of
putting the reader at the game,
about trying to capture the col-
our, flavour and electricity of
the event.
“I remember one time,”
Smith recalls, “I was covering a
World Series game and I said to
my editor, Stanley Woodward,
‘Look, we have someone writ-
ing the lead, a guy for each club-
house, someone doing crowd
reaction and someone covering
the feature angle. What’s left for
me?
“And Stanley said, ‘You’ve got
to try and get the smell of the
cabbage cooking in the corri-
dors. Put me at the ball park.’”
It’s words I’ve tried to live
by, though I confess I’ve failed,
I think, more times than I care
to think.
I was reminded of Smith
reading Bob Cole’s new book,
‘Now I’m Catching On: My Life
On and Off the Air’ released this
week.
The Hockey Night in Can-
ada Hall of Fame broadcaster
speaks of painting a picture
for the listeners and viewers,
reminding the audience the
Canadiens are in the red jer-
seys skating from left to right,
the Leafs dressed in white.
It’s the stuff he learned from
the great Foster Hewitt.
“Flow, that’s the word,” Cole
writes. “Foster said, ‘Feel and
flow.’ I use that now when I talk
to guys about broadcasting.
“You’ve got to smell it. You’ve
got to feel the game.”
Perhaps it’s entirely coinci-
dental, but the brilliant Vin
Scully called it a career last
weekend after 67 years talking
Los Angeles Dodgers baseball.
Four days later, Cole — who will
enter his 48th winter behind
the mike doing NHL games —
has the book release.
Using that parameter to draw
a comparison between the two
is perhaps a stretch, so instead
we’ll get down to brass tacks:
like Scully, who called the sum-
mer pastime like no one else,
Cole is the best play-by-play
man hockey has ever seen.
Cole’s memoir out today
Hockey Hall of Fame play-by-play broadcaster
and St. John’s native Bob Cole’s memoir “Now I’m
Catching On” goes on sale this week, and a book
launch for the autobiography, which Cole wrote
with Stephen Brunt, will be held today. It begins
with Cole and fellow Hockey Night in Canada
veteran Ron MacLean, who wrote the foreword,
Detroit Red Wings forward Danny Cleary poses with fellow Newfound-
lander and NHL hockey Night In Canada play-by-play broadcaster Bob Cole
after a game during the 2008 Stanley Cup final. Robin Short writes that
Cole, whose memoir is being launched today, is the best play-by-play man
hockey has ever seen.
Better than Hewitt. Better
than Danny Gallivan.
Now, perhaps I say this while
leaning heavily on my heart, my
objectivity swayed by the fact
I’ve known the man close on 25
or 30 years.
“Flow, that’s the word.
Foster (Hewitt) said,
‘Feel and flow.’ I use that
now when I talk to guys
about broadcasting. You’ve
got to smell it. You’ve got
to feel the game.”
Bob Cole in his autobiography,
“Now I’m Catching On”
But I don’t think so.
Cole’s book, in collaboration
with the multi-talented Stephen
Brunt — a part-time resident of
Newfoundland (he’ll boast he’s
a member of the Legion out on
the west coast) — is a nice read,
taking us through his days call-
ing senior hockey in St. John’s
to working umpteen Stanley
Cup finals and Olympic Games.
He touches a little bit on his
notorious drive and passion,
which undoubtedly helped
launch a career that places him
at the top of the list of New-
foundland’s best-known cit-
izens.
Some who’ve heard the tape
■ COLUMN
Bob
Cole,
artist
Hall of Fame broadcaster
paints pictures of hockey
games with his words
Bob Cole has been calling National Hockey League
games since 1969, but long before he reached the
NHL, Cole was honing his craft while broadcasting
games in Newfoundland.
appearing at Chapters on Kenmount Road for a
book signing and “in conversation with …” ses-
sion between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Then, between
7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., the two will be at Bridie
Molloy’s on George Street in downtown St. John’s
for a by-invitation get-together to celebrate the
launch.
TELEGRAM FILE PHOTO/ROBIN SHORT
insist his work on VOCM dur-
ing the great St. Pat’s-St. Bon’s
1960 Boyle Trophy final from
the catwalk inside Memorial
Stadium is as good as the calls
millions have come to hear
every Saturday night.
“They’re gonna go. They’re
goin’ home. They’re goin’ home.
Yeah! They’re goin’ home.”
Forty years ago, Cole was
leaning over the broadcast
booth above the ice at the old
Philadelphia Spectrum. Below,
in front of a full house, the
Soviet Red Army was playing
the NHL’s Flyers — in all their
Broad Street Bullies glory —
in one of a series of exhibition
games with NHL teams.
The Flyers were pummelling
their opponents, and an Ed Van
Impe hit on Valeri Kharlamov
was the straw that broke the
camel’s back.
“In ’72, in Moscow, we stayed
and we took it all,” Cole de-
clared, no one in the booth or
in the truck daring to inter-
rupt him. “And in ’74. And now,
the Philadelphia Flyers goon
around a little bit and they’re
goin’ home!”
Years later, former Hockey
Night in Canada producer
Ralph Mellanby declared, “The
best two minutes of broad-
casting I’ve ever been involved
with.”
To suggest Cole is fiery is to
thetelegram.com
SUBMITTED PHOTO/SPORTSNET
figure Pavarotti played banjo.
Not even close.
Cole brings fervor to a new
level, which is part of his DNA.
Everybody associated with
Hockey Night knows by now
not to go near him when the
warm-ups start ... don’t touch
him, don’t talk to him. Don’t
look at him if you don’t have to.
As the drop of the puck nears,
he’ll loosen his belt, place the
headset over one ear and cup
his hand over the other, just like
the broadcasters did it years
ago.
He’s in the zone.
“That’s just me,” Cole told
me years ago, during the Stan-
ley Cup final in Detroit. “Lots
of people might say I’m too in-
tense. But I’ve always been that
way. Playing hockey, baseball
or whatever I did, I was always
that way. And I can’t help that.
“I remember walking into the
Montreal Forum, and you’re
walking over a catwalk to get
to the booth and the building
is quiet. Already you’re getting
worked up. The ice is brand
new and gorgeous and the next
thing the Canadiens are coming
out and Detroit is coming out.
You hear the siren to start the
game.
“And here you go, ‘Five, four,
three, two, one ... you’re on.’ You
kidding me? You can’t help but
get worked up and into it.
“Even to this day, yes sir. If
the time ever comes I can stroll
up there chewing a stick of gum
and whistling, I might as well
quit.”
Even at 83, Cole still gets
jacked up to call games, no mat-
ter if it’s in Montreal, Toronto,
New York, Chicago or L.A.
The fact he’s been doing it
going on 48 years is — like
Scully — remarkable in itself.
Few can continue on doing the
same thing, at a high level, year
after year for that long, regard-
less of the profession.
Few except for Cole and
Scully.
He often tells the story of one
cold winter morning at Bishop
Feild, when the school’s head-
master caught Cole hamming
it up, doing his best Hewitt
impersonation into a hockey
stick.
The youngster apologized
and headed to his seat. But the
headmaster encouraged Cole to
keep it up.
We’re glad he did. He caught
on pretty good.
Robin Short is The Telegram’s
Sports Editor. He can be reached
by email at rshort@thetelegram.com
inside
All-NL matchups
today in national
senior soccer
Host C.B.S. Kirby United/
Pleasantville Legion sees
its first action today at the
Jubilee Trophy Canadian
women’s soccer champion-
ship in metro St. John’s as
it takes on 2016 provincial
champion Holy Cross Avalon
Ford 4:30 p.m. at the Topsail
Turf Complex in Conception
Bay South.
Holy Cross played its first
game on Wednesday, the
opening day of the tourna-
ment, dropping a 1-0 deci-
sion to Scarborough, Ont.
There will be another all-
Newfoundland matchup
today at the national Chal-
lenge Cup men’s tourney,
also being played in the
metro region. At 7 p.m. at
King George V Park in St.
John’s, the provincial cham-
pion St. Lawrence Lauren-
tians square off against the
host Mount Pearl First Choice
Haircutters.
It will be the first game in the
tourney for the Laurentians,
and a second for Mount Pearl,
which lost 1-0 to Saska-
toon, Sask., Wednesday B2
night at KGV.
IN THE
news
Adam gets tryout
with AHL’s Heat
It turns out Luke Adam is not
finished with the Calgary
Flames’ organization after all.
The 26-year-old forward from
Kilbride was released from an
NHL tryout
contract with
Calgary over
the weekend,
but has been
invited to
the training
camp of the
Stockton
Adam
Heat, the
American Hockey League af-
filiate of the Flames.
Adam, who played in the AHL
last season with the Hartford
Wolf Pack, the farm team
of the New York Rangers,
became an unrestricted free
agent in the off-season.
Adam won’t be the only
Newfoundlander it Stockton’s
camp, which began Monday.
Defenceman Alex Wall of
Mount Pearl is also attending
on an invitation. Wall, who
finished up a five-year AUS
collegiate career this spring,
is signed to an ECHL contract
with the Adirondack Thunder,
which is affiliated with the
Heat and Flames.
DID YOU
know?
Bulldogs have ruled
the senior kennel
When the Kelly’s Pub Molson
Bulldogs defeated The Bigs
6-3 Tuesday night to win the
2016 Molson St. John’s sen-
ior fastpitch championship,
it marked a fourth straight
crown for the Bulldogs, their
fifth in seven years and sixth
in eight with the Kelly’s Pub/
Molson sponsorship.
During the Bulldogs’ four-
year-championship run,
pitcher Sean Cleary has been
the playoff MVP each time.
Besides Cleary, members of
the 2016 champions include
Shane Boland, Liam Costello,
Daniel Dalton, Stephen Dob-
bin, Blair Ezekiel, Jon Kelly, DJ
Lake, Mark Lewis, Liam Myers,
Scott Myers, Stephen Strapp,
Andrew Wade, Joel Whelan
and coach Jim Dunphy.
St. John’s senior fastpitch
champions over the last
dozen seasons:
2016, Kelly’s Pub Molson Bull-
dog
2015, Kelly’s Pub Molson Bull-
dog
2014, Kelly’s Pub Molson Bull-
dog
2013, Kelly’s Pub Molson Bull-
dog
2012, Bull & Finch Bar & Grill
2011, Bull & Finch Bar & Grill
2010, Kelly’s Pub Molson Bull-
dogs
2009, Kelly’s Pub Molson Can-
adians
2008, C.B.C. Senior Canadians
2007, Kelly’s Pub Junior Can-
adians
2006, North Atlantic Marine
2005, Roebothan McKay Mar-
shall