From the Smith-Corona of our Wise Old Egg

Dolan Strikes Again

Mr Monopoly Fires Hard-Nosed Commentator
Who Wouldn’t Brown-Nose his Sad-Ass Knicks

James Dolan, the chairman of Madison Square Garden and the president of Cablevision who hates the Jets’ stadium because it threatens his monopoly, is probably a smart guy, but he sure came up short on smarts when he fired the bold and outspoken Marv Albert as the Knicks’ voice on television.

Mr. Dolan should be told that this is no longer 1963, when the guy he would have loved, the most partisan “homer” among sportscasters, the brilliant but neurotic Mel Allen (remember “How about that?”) who lived and died for the Yankees, died, professionally, when he became incoherent as Sandy Koufax was mowing them down as the Dodgers swept the Series in Game 4 and had to be taken off the air.

[Those who object to gossip can skip this bracketed paragraph about Mel. I worked with him, a man with a great, sunny on-air personality, when I was sports editor of Movietone News, the theatrical newsreel, and he was our sports voice. One makeup night, when the reel was being put to bed, I saw a film editor, unpleasantly drunk, go swaying up to Mel and yell at him for brushing him off at a game at Yankee Stadium. And there was Mel apologizing profusely to this clown, and you thought, Mel, you’re a superstar, what the hell are you doing groveling before a stupid drunk? The idol of sports fans was painfully insecure behind that jovial façade, and after that meltdown as he saw his beloved Yankees humiliated he never got a top network job again.]

Marv Albert, who made his mark with that “Yessss!” when a three-pointer swished through, is a much more today broadcaster. When the home team’s effort sucks, he kind of lets you know, as that erudite ex-catcher Tim McCarver did with the Mets, equally stupidly to be fired by an unappreciative management.

According to the Times, “Albert did not restrain himself from being honest about substandard play, and that rankled James L. Dolan. . . More and more last season, he was told to be less critical . . . of the Knicks.”

The Times went on to say “The departure of Albert means the loss of another identifiable asset at Madison Square Garden.”

An asset the Garden could do very well without is Mr. Foot-in-Mouth, James L. Dolan.

– TMcM