“Anyway, what did you want to talk to me about?” the familiar voice beamed from the iPhone speaker. “All I’ve been doing is rambling for 20 daggone minutes here.”
This was Tuesday morning, after legendary hockey broadcaster Doc Emrick had shared stories about attending opening day at Crosley Field in the late 1960s, about witnessing Neil Walker’s walkoff homer on Opening Day six years ago while eating a salad at TGI Friday’s inside Pittsburgh International Airport and about Walker surreptitiously playing pickup hockey at PPG Paints Arena, where the former Pirate would often skate in the afternoon with Penguins staffers.
“He was not an ordinary player,” Emrick said of Walker. “You kind of felt like Phil Bourque could very easily have been ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson yelling out at ‘Moonlight’ Graham, ‘Hey rookie, you were good.’ ”
Emrick, who you may have heard loves the Pirates, typically spends opening day in Pittsburgh, taking the first flight out — he lives in St. Clair, Mich., about an hour northeast of Detroit’s airport — and the last one back and spending the afternoon at PNC Park seated next to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Ron Cook in the press box.
That trip won’t happen this year, obviously, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, so I figured the least I could do was bring Doc to Pittsburgh over the phone. It also never hurts, in these tenuous times, to talk to someone who could make changing wiper blades or scooping horse manure sound uplifting. But more on that shortly.
My conversation with Emrick went to several places, which is typical when you talk to the Hall of Famer and six-time national Emmy Award winner. (One example: The first time we chatted, I wound up answering questions about how I met my wife, which I’ve always thought was a microcosm of what makes Doc great. He has the gift of storytelling mixed with unbridled enthusiasm and the curious brain of a kid. It’s incredible.)
“Then he brought over Josh Bell, who I had seen in the clubhouse before in uniform. He was wearing an [Evgeni] Malkin jersey,” Emrick said, starting into a story from the night of Pirates manager Derek Shelton’s introductory press conference, when he popped up at a Penguins game with his first baseman in tow.
“My goodness, he is enormous, that guy,” Emrick continued on Bell. “I didn’t realize until he’s in a black Malkin jersey how big he was. You see a guy in a baseball uniform, and you realize, yeah, this is a big person. But when you see him in the offseason in a Malkin jersey, and at 5-foot-7 you’re standing next to this guy and you realize, my goodness, if he ever got a hold of one, it’s understandable that the Allegheny [River] would be wearing it soon.”
Is there a more Doc Emrick way of saying Josh Bell is big and strong and hits mammoth home runs? Heck no.
Our conversation also involved Shelton, who should be managing his first game at PNC Park on Thursday but instead will have to wait because of COVID-19. Although Emrick did not make it down to Bradenton, Fla. this year for his typical spring training trip, he’s been encouraged by what he’s heard about the Pirates’ new manager.
“We’re all looking for something,” Emrick said. “I love my team. It’s similar, in my case, to religious faith. You don’t abandon it in difficult times. It helps you get through difficult times. ... [Shelton] seemed like a great guy. I got the idea that this was going to be a change, fresh air, and all of that might have been necessary.”
I first texted Doc after watching him narrate his longtime mechanic changing his wiper blades, a video NHL on NBC posted on Twitter about a week ago. (The clip now has more than 5,400 likes.)
The Doc Emrick windshield wiper play-by-play we didn’t know we needed!
— NHL on NBC (@NHLonNBCSports) March 23, 2020
AMAZING. 😂 pic.twitter.com/FRvuDwkliJ
Turns out that NBC is encouraging its people to post short vignettes, updating fans on what they’re doing. Emrick doesn’t have Twitter, so he sends them off and somebody else does the work. One has Emrick in a barn, wondering how oats and hay get so heavy when they come out the other end.
Another is much more serious, with the same account on Sunday posting a video of Emrick praising and thanking first responders and grocery store employees and others, as a church bell tolled in the background.
“Anything that crosses our minds, we send to them and if they decide it’s worthy of posting, they post it,” Emrick said. “They don’t assign us anything, but they encourage us to share whatever comes across our mind with them.”
Plenty has gone through Emrick’s mind of late. The 73-year-old has been going for daily walks with his wife, Joyce. Together, they’re delivering food to families in their neighborhood who can’t get out. Doc has also watched “Miracle,” “Major League” (a couple times) and “A League of Their Own” while also taking in some veterinary shows with Joyce. He started to clean out boxes in his own office, a process he’s found to be “like discovering Christmas gifts.” One of the them included test papers from 1969-70, when Emrick taught at Geneva College.
But the biggest gift has been getting some additional time at home with Joyce, when he would normally be on the road constantly for the end of the NHL regular season and the start of playoffs.
“We’re enjoying the time together,” Emrick said. “We also realize we’re all just trying to take care of each other and make sure that we stay safe. That’s what we keep being encouraged to do every day by the TV news, to take care of each other and stay safe by being in as much as we can.”
Emrick also just finishing a book he’s been working on with Hall of Fame hockey writer Kevin Allen titled “The Puck Doctor,” where Emrick and Allen write about the amiable broadcaster’s life. Emrick said there’s an entire chapter devoted to the Pirates, where he talks about Bob Costas inviting him to broadcast baseball in July 2016.
“I’ve never done a book other than a checkbook,” Emrick said. “But when you’re working with someone like Kevin, he makes it really easy.”
The time down has also allowed Emrick to reflect — on what sports mean to all of us, the state of our country and the realization that the real heroes right now are taking care of others or keeping society safe or making it possible for us to buy food.
“I think we realize, during this stretch of time, the role that sports has is not nearly as important as the roles of health care workers, first responders, the Postal Service and grocery store workers have in our lives,” Emrick said. “But there’s another role that it sports has that is really important and will be welcomed when it comes back. And that is the role of taking us from things that do make us downcast and lifting us up.”
Emrick doesn’t know when he’ll go back to work. He trusts the NHL has a plan … and several subsequent ones, too. He also can’t wait to see the Pirates take the field and start playing baseball again.
But for the time being, he’s not about to overthink his responsibilities.
“The only thing that we can do to contribute — as broadcasters, athletes or every-day people — is to stay safe at home,” Emrick said. “Our role right now is nothing. We hope that our role as fans or broadcasters or as players will get back to where it was at one time. But right now, the most important thing we can do is stay inside and stay safe. It seems like nothing, but it is something.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG
First Published: April 1, 2020, 6:20 p.m.
