It wasn’t pretty, but he made us look good on TV. ![]() He got us highlights, edited our talking points, kept track of segment timing. He was like an octopus, hands flailing in multiple directions at all times. He was our producer but also the cameraman, lighting director and audio. “Barry and I did the talking, and Tony did absolutely everything else. “For the years we didn’t have NHL broadcast rights, we still traveled and covered the Stanley Cup Final, and it was me, Barry Melrose and Tony, and that’s it,” Levy said. ![]() I reached out to Levy to ask what Florkowski meant to him, and I received an email back shortly after I sent it. It is an amazing place filled with knowledgeable and creative people that have pushed me every day to be better.” I joined ESPN in September of 2001, and it has been my home ever since. Honestly, I am embarrassed but truly honored by the praise. To have that assignment for such a long time with Steve Levy and Barry Melrose was special. Beyond the physical toll the players take to achieve the feat, to witness when the players stream onto the ice, the extreme happiness, emotional tears, and Lord Stanley itself, all of it is an incredible sight. But I think the most memorable assignment would be covering any Stanley Cup Final. Nancy (Kerrigan), the Olympic Park bombing, Joe Paterno’s statue being taken down, and great Super Bowl moments. “The Bill Buckner error, multiple Michael Jordan and Tom Brady championships, big news events such as Tonya (Harding) vs. “This is a hard question to answer, which is a sign of how lucky I have been,” Florkowski said. “He made us look good on TV,” ESPN’s Steve Levy (left) says of Tony Florkowski (center), seen here with hockey analyst Barry Melrose (right). I asked him what he considered his most memorable event. Florkowski is the opposite of a self-promoter, so it took a little coaxing to get him to respond to an email. His main focus at ESPN was the NFL, where he worked on “Monday Night Football” game coverage and multiple NFL studio shows. His last 22 years were spent at ESPN as a bureau producer, and as Levy described in the quote below, a one-man production band when it came to the Stanley Cup Final.įlorkowski’s career includes covering Super Bowls, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals, the World Series, major golf tournaments, major boxing events and Olympic Games. 1981 as an entry-level production staffer and moved to CNN Sports in 1983. Florkowski started at CNN Headline News in Dec. He retired last week from his job as a sports producer after 41 years at CNN and ESPN. I was struck last week by many on-air social media tributes for Florkowski ( as well as one that aired on ESPN), so I wanted to find out a little more about his journey. But Florkowski is a great example of a behind-the-scenes person who makes places such as ESPN excel and makes people such as Young, Kolber, Melrose and Levy perform their job at a high level. ![]() These are names familiar to readers of this column. Tony Florkowski is likely not. Steve Young, Suzy Kolber, Barry Melrose and Steve Levy. Rosenthal: Remembering Tim McCarver, the ideal teammate in broadcasting and baseball The ball flailed over New York shortstop Derek Jeter to end the Series.” ![]() On the next pitch, Diamondbacks outfielder Luis Gonzalez broke his bat on an inside pitch from Rivera. With Diamondbacks on every base and the Yankees’ infield playing in, McCarver told the audience that Yankees closer Mariano Rivera’s cut fastball ran inside to left-handed hitters, often resulting in broken bat hits to the shallow outfield. “The most famous example came in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 2001 World Series. As I wrote for Sports Illustrated in 2013: Even his critics - and he had many of them for his tendency to over-talk in a broadcast - would concede few were better at first-guessing as a baseball analyst. He teamed with Joe Buck for 18 years as the Fox network’s lead national baseball broadcast team after previously working with Joe’s father, Hall of Famer Jack Buck, for two World Series on CBS. He called 29 consecutive MLB postseasons on network television from 1984 to 2013, and his 24 years as a World Series television analyst is a mark unlikely to be topped. Tim McCarver played in four different decades (1959-80) in the major leagues as a heady and strong-hitting catcher and found a second American act as one of the most influential baseball broadcasters.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |