Alan Richard Michaels (born November 12, 1944)[1] is an American television play-by-play sportscaster for Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video and in an emeritus role for NBC Sports.
He worked as a sports writer for ASU's independent student newspaper, The State Press, and called Sun Devils football, basketball, and baseball games for the campus radio station.
His first sportscasting job came in 1967, when he was hired to do public relations for the Los Angeles Lakers and serve as a color commentator on the team's radio broadcasts alongside veteran play-by-play announcer Chick Hearn.
Over the next three decades, Michaels covered a wide variety of sports[8] for ABC, including Major League Baseball, college football (working alongside the likes of Frank Broyles, Lee Grosscup, and Ara Parseghian from 1977–1985 and later, his Monday Night Football colleagues Frank Gifford and Dan Dierdorf for the Sugar Bowl from 1989 to 1992), college basketball (normally teaming with Joe B.
Two of Michaels's more famous broadcasts were of the 1980 Winter Olympics ice hockey medal round match between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the attempted third game of the 1989 World Series.
The medal round match on February 22—which, contrary to popular belief, did not yet assure the team of the gold medal—was of particular interest, as it was played against a heavily favored professional squad from the Soviet Union, and was in front of an incredibly excited pro-American crowd in Lake Placid, New York.
In 1984 from Sarajevo, Mike Eruzione, who was the captain of the gold medal-winning United States ice hockey team from 1980, primarily worked with Don Chevrier.
He surrendered a game-tying home run to Johnny Bench before allowing back-to-back singles to Tony Pérez and Denis Menke before being relieved by Bob Moose, who almost worked out of the jam by recording two outs.One and two… The wind… And the pitch to Bench… Change hit in the air to deep right field, back goes Clemente…!
As previously mentioned, later that October, Michaels participated[19] in his first ever World Series as a broadcaster,[20] where he assisted NBC's Curt Gowdy for Games 1–2, 6, and 7 in Cincinnati.
As such, Games 3–5 of the 1972 World Series instead, featured Oakland Athletics broadcaster Monte Moore working for NBC alongside Curt Gowdy.
Unlike Jackson, whose forte was college football, Michaels as previously mentioned, had gigs with the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants before joining ABC in 1976.
In a February 2015 interview, Michaels alleged that the Minnesota Twins pumped artificial crowd noise into the Metrodome during the 1987 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Instead, he argued that "appreciation and respect" should be paid to players like Frank Viola, Gary Gaetti, Kent Hrbek, and Kirby Puckett, who, he said, "came out of nowhere to win a championship.
Soon after Michaels handed off to his broadcast partner, Tim McCarver, who started assessing the Giants' chances for victory in the game, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck (at approximately 5:04 p.m. local time).
[32][33] ABC then put up a green "World Series" telop graphic card on the screen for technical difficulties and restored audio via a telephone link 15 seconds later.
On the subject of Michaels returning to baseball for the first time since the Loma Prieta earthquake interrupted the World Series, Jim Palmer said, "Here Al is, having done five games since 1989, and steps right in.
So sit back, relax and enjoy the premiere of Baseball Night in America as we take you out to the ballgames.A player's strike in August 1994 would however, force the cancellation of that season's postseason, including the World Series.
Michaels would later write in his 2014 autobiography You Can't Make This Up: Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television[43] that the competition between the two networks could be so juvenile that neither ABC nor NBC wanted to promote each other's telecasts during the 1995 World Series.
Michaels's longest-running assignment was that of the lead play-by-play announcer on ABC's Monday Night Football telecasts, a position he held for 20 seasons beginning in 1986.
Memphis Grizzlies coach Hubie Brown, a broadcasting legend with CBS, TBS, and TNT, was forced into retirement for health reasons and was soon after hired to replace Doc Rivers.
Besides his inconsistent work, Michaels (despite being initially seen as adding credibility to ABC's NBA broadcasts in contrast to his predecessor, Brad Nessler) was criticized[48] for apparently lacking the kind of enthusiasm and confidence (for instance, Michaels initially reacted to Amar'e Stoudemire's block of Tim Duncan's shot during the 2005 playoffs by calling it a "great, great contested shot") expected of a No.
[49] In 2003, Michaels was quoted as saying, "ABC Sports has been my professional home for the last 26 years, and I am delighted that will continue to be for several more..." after signing a long-term contract extension.
It's Al's outstanding play-by-play coverage, coupled with his breadth of knowledge, experience and enthusiasm, that keep MNF fans invigorated, excited and coming back for more."
[...] Al is the consummate professional and makes everyone around him better" said then-ABC Sports President Howard Katz; however, in the weeks leading up to Super Bowl XL, it was widely speculated that Michaels was attempting to get out of his contract with ESPN to join Madden at NBC.
"[52] On February 8, 2006, ESPN announced that its Monday Night Football team would consist of Mike Tirico on play-by-play, with Theismann and Tony Kornheiser as analysts.
On July 8, 2011, Michaels teamed up with Bob Costas (with the two announcers alternating between play-by-play and color commentary) to call a game between the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants on MLB Network.
David Michaels has produced such programs as NBC's coverage of the Olympic Games, Triple Crown, and Fox Sports Net's Beyond the Glory series.
[83] In 2014, Michaels released his autobiography titled You Can't Make This Up: Memories and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television, which reached The New York Times Best Seller list for nonfiction.
[84] Michaels had an acting role in a 1970 episode of Hawaii Five-O, and has appeared as himself in the films Jerry Maguire and BASEketball, as well as on several TV shows including Coach and Spin City.
Michaels has also been lampooned on several occasions by noted impressionists, Frank Caliendo and Billy West as well as in the Family Guy episode "Mother Tucker".