Speaker 1: Welcome to another edition of the Dave Pash Podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: your host ESPN and Arizona Cardinals announcer Dave Pash. Speaking
Speaker 1: of announcers, today we have on the legend Al McCoy
Speaker 1: in his fiftieth year as the voice of the Phoenix Suns,
Speaker 1: the longest run with an NBA team. Marne comes up,
Speaker 1: put us tale to Kevin Johnson, de Barclay Barkley goes in,
Speaker 1: put a Wham Bam slam. Al previously has won the
Speaker 1: Kurt Goude Media Award from the Nasmith Memorial Basketball Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. The Media Center at the Sun's Arena is
Speaker 1: named after Al and Alice, also in the Arizona Sports
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. Today we talked a number of things,
Speaker 1: broadcasting his love for the NBA and the Suns. How
Speaker 1: he came up with his catchphrase Shazam, how he still
Speaker 1: has the energy and the passion to do this at
Speaker 1: age eighty eight, How Al keeps in shape, what has
Speaker 1: diet is like to do his job. Some of Al's
Speaker 1: favorite places to call games and favorite cities to go,
Speaker 1: and also some of his favorite moments over his fifty
Speaker 1: years of calling games. We are presented by ben MGM,
Speaker 1: the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and
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Speaker 1: He is the legend, Al McCoy. Al. I just worked
Speaker 1: with Hall of Famer Hube Brown this past Saturday. Hughbee
Speaker 1: is in his fiftieth year in the NBA like you,
Speaker 1: and I am amazed at his energy and how sharp
Speaker 1: he is. And when I listen to you, Al, I
Speaker 1: hear the same Al McCoy that I heard when I
Speaker 1: got here twenty years ago. And I've talked to people
Speaker 1: that have been here since you started calling games and
Speaker 1: they tell me the same thing. It's still the same,
Speaker 1: Al McCoy. So I'm curious, man, how do you do it?
Speaker 1: How do you have the same energy and stay so
Speaker 1: sharp doing it as long as you have Well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting yet Obviously a lot of people ask me
Speaker 1: the question, and I guess maybe Huby and I might
Speaker 1: have the same answer. We loved the basketball from the
Speaker 1: first time we picked up or saw a ball, or
Speaker 1: he coached it or played it, and I think we
Speaker 1: still have that compassion for the game. I know through
Speaker 1: the years, as we all might experience, some days are
Speaker 1: better than others. But you know that old saying, when
Speaker 1: you get to the ballpark, it's just the game that matters.
Speaker 1: And it seems as if, and I guess maybe I'm
Speaker 1: blessed in that area that when I get to the arena,
Speaker 1: the things that might have been a problem that day
Speaker 1: seem to disappear when the ball is thrown up in
Speaker 1: the game starts. So other than that, it's hard to say.
Speaker 1: Maybe a good bringing up in the Midwest and I'm
Speaker 1: raised on a farm, who knows, but I've been blessed,
Speaker 1: no question about that. Is there anything you do all
Speaker 1: to stay as healthy as you are at eighty eight?
Speaker 1: Do you? Is there anything you avoid? Do you have
Speaker 1: like a routine on game day or anything that you
Speaker 1: do specifically to stay as healthy as you are? Well?
Speaker 1: I've always felt this way that as a broadcaster and
Speaker 1: as an announcer, we have to take care of our
Speaker 1: health just as months as if we were playing out
Speaker 1: on the court, because we have to be ite and
Speaker 1: physically ready when the game starts. And I think I've
Speaker 1: always been concerned about my diet, about getting rest, and
Speaker 1: about being ready for the game. So I think my
Speaker 1: philosophy has always been that you have to prepare yourself
Speaker 1: just as if you were actually playing the game. I've
Speaker 1: always told young broadcasters if there were two of the
Speaker 1: most important phrases for me as a broadcaster, one would
Speaker 1: be preparation and the other would be concentration. You have
Speaker 1: to be prepared for the game, and you have to
Speaker 1: have that ability to concentrate on the game. Obviously, we
Speaker 1: can't be thinking about where we're gonna have dinner afterwards
Speaker 1: while we're doing the game, particularly in a game as
Speaker 1: fast paced as basketball is. So I've always said preparation
Speaker 1: and concentration very important, and the fact that you have
Speaker 1: to take care of yourself physically and mentally just as
Speaker 1: if you were a player, no question about it. Can
Speaker 1: you talk to my Cardinals broadcast partner Ron Wolfley about
Speaker 1: having a better diet, because wolf heats the worst of
Speaker 1: anybody I've ever worked with. Well, that's the wolf, and
Speaker 1: he can get by with anything. He's tremendous, no question
Speaker 1: about it. But and I think as I've gotten older
Speaker 1: that my food and diet requirements have chained. Obviously, I
Speaker 1: don't partake as much as I did when I was
Speaker 1: twenty one years of age, and I think that's a
Speaker 1: factor also, it is, at least for me. So people
Speaker 1: laugh at me and mock meek al because I won't
Speaker 1: have dairy and like, maybe I'll have dairy in the
Speaker 1: off season pizza cheese, yeah, but not not in season.
Speaker 1: Are you a dairy guy or he? Is that something
Speaker 1: you stay away from? No milk products for me? I
Speaker 1: mean I will have an occasional cheeseburger that doesn't seem
Speaker 1: to bother me, but no milk products. And I have
Speaker 1: to tell their little story. At one point in my career,
Speaker 1: I had a summer announcing job in Chicago and at
Speaker 1: the radio station. In those days, they used to have
Speaker 1: every week they would have announcer auditions. If announcers were
Speaker 1: coming in for a job, they could come in an audition.
Speaker 1: That certainly is years ago, and those of us that
Speaker 1: were working used to set out in the lobby area,
Speaker 1: and when an individual was coming in and we knew
Speaker 1: they were going to be auditioning, we'd say, oh, hey,
Speaker 1: how about a milkshaker? Do you want some ice cream
Speaker 1: or something here before you go in? Because I've always
Speaker 1: felt that milk products have no business being involved with
Speaker 1: an announcer, and so I have no milk products. I'm
Speaker 1: with you on that day. Yeah, there we go, all right,
Speaker 1: good to know him in Club McCoy. The other thing.
Speaker 1: The other thing al I stopped doing about ten years
Speaker 1: ago because I got scolded by the great Marv Albert.
Speaker 1: I don't have pop He used to eat popcorn. I
Speaker 1: come into his booth sometime to say hello, because Marv
Speaker 1: and I go back some twenty five years when when
Speaker 1: I was the Syracuse announcer. He scolded me for having
Speaker 1: popcorn because he said, you know what if a colonel
Speaker 1: gets stuck in your throat. So I'm curious, is that
Speaker 1: something you avoid as well? The popcorn or nuts, anything
Speaker 1: that can you know, possibly get stuck in your in
Speaker 1: your throat and mess up your vocal cords before you
Speaker 1: go on. Eric, Well, you probably know one broadcaster that
Speaker 1: eight more popcorn than any of US and he was
Speaker 1: the late great Bill King. Bill I had known going
Speaker 1: back to our Midwest days, and then he went to
Speaker 1: the Bay Area and became the most popular played by
Speaker 1: played broadcaster in the San Francisco area with his work
Speaker 1: on baseball, basketball, and football. Bill King and the son
Speaker 1: of a gun at popcorn during the whole game. I
Speaker 1: don't know how he did it. I certainly could never
Speaker 1: do it. But Bill King is the one and only
Speaker 1: that a popcorn during the entire game. I never knew
Speaker 1: how he got by with it. I remember doing a
Speaker 1: game once with Greg Anthony. I don't know if Greig
Speaker 1: still does this. Former nick U and LV guard he
Speaker 1: works for tnt S man. He sat there and eight
Speaker 1: an entire bucket of popcorn during the game. I had
Speaker 1: never seen anything like it. I don't know if he
Speaker 1: still does it. You know, I'm curious because I remember
Speaker 1: back when the Cardinals made the Super Bowl and they
Speaker 1: lost the Super Bowl. How long it took me to
Speaker 1: recover because as you know, you know, I'm doing a
Speaker 1: lot of ESPN games, and so the Cardinals they're my team.
Speaker 1: I mean, I worked for the team, and you know
Speaker 1: I'm unbiased when I call the games, but they're my team.
Speaker 1: I get to root for the team, and you kind
Speaker 1: of live and die with the good moments and the
Speaker 1: bad moments. And I remember how long it took me
Speaker 1: to recover after the Super Bowl loss. It hurt for
Speaker 1: a while. And I'm curious because I'm sure you didn't
Speaker 1: know when you'd get to call a Son's Finals again.
Speaker 1: You got there last year, you got so close. Haul
Speaker 1: hard was it for you after the Game six loss?
Speaker 1: And are you over it yet? Well? As as you know, David,
Speaker 1: was the third time in my fifty years with the
Speaker 1: Sons that I had the thrill of calling a final
Speaker 1: series the Suns that are initially against the Celtics, again
Speaker 1: against the Chicago Bulls, and then of course against Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: And I have to be very honest with you, I
Speaker 1: probably got over it quicker this time than I did
Speaker 1: the previous two occasions. And I'm gonna tell you why.
Speaker 1: In recent years, because of a lot of different things,
Speaker 1: as a broadcaster, you're just not as close to the
Speaker 1: players and to the team as we were back when
Speaker 1: the Suns were in the finals on those two previous occasions.
Speaker 1: A lot of reasons, one his age, the players mostly
Speaker 1: are most younger now, so we don't have that togetherness,
Speaker 1: and we just don't spend that much time together. For
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons. Most clubs have declared locker rooms
Speaker 1: clubhouses off limits for broadcasters. Sometimes you can't travel the
Speaker 1: same way with the team. You don't have that togetherness
Speaker 1: that we had years ago. And you know, when I
Speaker 1: came into the NBA with the Suns, you were with
Speaker 1: the players all the time. He traveled on the planes,
Speaker 1: the buses, you were in the locker rooms, he went
Speaker 1: out for hamburgers and beer after the games. But that
Speaker 1: started to change a number of years ago when we
Speaker 1: had nineteen and twenty year old players coming into the league.
Speaker 1: Plus the fact that going back fifty years ago, you
Speaker 1: had a lot of things to talk about. It's a
Speaker 1: little more more difficult now with today's players. I mean,
Speaker 1: how many Mercedes can you talk about? Or how many
Speaker 1: eight million dollar homes can you discuss? So it's it's
Speaker 1: a little different. So kind of a long answer to
Speaker 1: your question, I guess, Dave. But even though obviously I
Speaker 1: want to see the Sun's win, I'm pleased when they do.
Speaker 1: When they went to the finals, I was excited, but
Speaker 1: I got over it a little quicker this time than
Speaker 1: I had the previous two occasions. Yes, I want to
Speaker 1: go back to your answer or party of your answer
Speaker 1: about that you used to go out, you know, after
Speaker 1: games with players for burger or a beer. Who was
Speaker 1: the coolest guy or was there a particular player back
Speaker 1: in the day that you would go out with all
Speaker 1: the time after games? Well, we had so many, of course,
Speaker 1: Dick van Arsdale was the original son. I was very
Speaker 1: close with him, and then when he retired he worked
Speaker 1: with me on our broadcast television and radio for fifteen
Speaker 1: years and still is a very close friend. Dick van
Speaker 1: Arsdale cross Connie Hawkins, the first real Hall of Famer
Speaker 1: for the Suns. I was very close with so many
Speaker 1: players in that era of Walter Davis. I could just
Speaker 1: go right down the list. Neil walk and he just
Speaker 1: had a closure relationship because of the age and because
Speaker 1: they weren't making multimillions of dollars per year, and you
Speaker 1: weren't traveling on charters. You're on commercial planes, so you
Speaker 1: were staying over after games, where today after games the
Speaker 1: clubs just get on their private jets and leave, So
Speaker 1: you just don't have those opportunities to be that close,
Speaker 1: and I'll be very frank with you, that's the part
Speaker 1: of the business that I think I miss more than anything. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I still enjoy the games, I still joined the competition,
Speaker 1: but I do miss that closeness that we were able
Speaker 1: to have in those early days with players with coaches.
Speaker 1: As you know, Cotton Fitzsimmons was one of my closest friends.
Speaker 1: He coached us Sons twice. He worked with me on
Speaker 1: television and radio. Those days are gone, and those are
Speaker 1: the things that I probably missed the most. I know
Speaker 1: you're not doing a lot of road games. No one
Speaker 1: is right now with everything that's going on, But I
Speaker 1: know you specifically cut back on the travel when you
Speaker 1: were traveling regularly. Did you have a favorite place to
Speaker 1: call a game or a favorite stop when you would
Speaker 1: be in a particular city that you just had to go,
Speaker 1: either for breakfast or a postgame drink. Yes, Chicago. Chicago
Speaker 1: was always my favorite of the NBA cities. I had
Speaker 1: spent time there, I had worked there, I grew up,
Speaker 1: and I woke to the closeness. I knew all their
Speaker 1: teams from the Chicago Cubs on down, and they have
Speaker 1: some of the greatest restaurants in the world. So Chicago
Speaker 1: was always a place that I look forward to spending
Speaker 1: a few days during the season and having an off
Speaker 1: night Chicago. Do you miss traveling? Would you know? Would
Speaker 1: you like to? I gotta imagine it'd be very difficult
Speaker 1: to do that in forty one games a year. Is
Speaker 1: that something you miss? You know, being on the road
Speaker 1: and to travel, and you know how much longer out?
Speaker 1: Do you think you're going to do this? I like,
Speaker 1: I look at you, and I say, why not just
Speaker 1: keep going forever? Why stop? If I were you and
Speaker 1: you still sound great and you're in great health, well,
Speaker 1: you know it's interesting on the road games. I became
Speaker 1: concerned several years ago when the league allowed the arenas
Speaker 1: to move our broadcast locations to areas where we could
Speaker 1: not even see the full court. We couldn't see where
Speaker 1: the three point shots were coming from. We were way
Speaker 1: up high, and I started to get very concerned at
Speaker 1: that time as to what the league was allowing. They
Speaker 1: were giving up seats that they wanted the teams to
Speaker 1: be able to sell and make money, but they were
Speaker 1: also giving up our broadcast locations. So over the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, I had decided that I did want
Speaker 1: my career to end when the listeners or the viewers
Speaker 1: would say, what's wrong with McCoy. Doesn't he know who's
Speaker 1: shooting these three pointers or what's going on? So I
Speaker 1: became a little more disenchanted with doing road games. And then,
Speaker 1: of course, when this pandemic hit, the club became more
Speaker 1: concerned about who was going to travel, when they were
Speaker 1: going to travel, and of course the whole travel situation changed,
Speaker 1: where you could not be on the team bus, you
Speaker 1: could not be around players, you could not be around coaches,
Speaker 1: you could not do on the locker room, and almost
Speaker 1: came to the point of why travel. And so that's
Speaker 1: really the biggest reason that I became disenchanted with games
Speaker 1: on the road. It's just I have to tell you
Speaker 1: one story. You may be familiar with the name Joe Tate.
Speaker 1: Joe was the broadcaster in Cleveland for many, many years,
Speaker 1: unfortunately since his past, but when they started moving these
Speaker 1: broadcast locations, he was in an arena and one of
Speaker 1: the locations he was at the broadcast the game. You
Speaker 1: couldn't see the three point corners, and during the course
Speaker 1: of the game he's doing the play by play and
Speaker 1: he says, there goes the ball thrown into the corner.
Speaker 1: There's a shot from three point range. It's good a
Speaker 1: three pointers good by a player to be named later,
Speaker 1: A great line line. Yeah, I mean it. Look, it's
Speaker 1: I know people probably listening are is concerned about our comfort,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's it's hard. Some of the ball stadiums
Speaker 1: are like that where you're in the corner and you
Speaker 1: can't see. It's hard to see. You need binoculars just
Speaker 1: to see the players. But you just you get through
Speaker 1: it and you do the job. You know. When that happens,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes you're more prone to mistakes. And I
Speaker 1: think of you know, one of the biggest mistakes that
Speaker 1: I had in my career was in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: James Harrison has the interception of Kurt Warner runs it
Speaker 1: back for a touchdown and I couldn't really see and
Speaker 1: I saw a two, and I thought it was a
Speaker 1: twenty two instead of a ninety two. The problem was
Speaker 1: William Gay is who I thought it was, and he's
Speaker 1: about one hundred pounds lighter than James Harrison. Kurt Warner,
Speaker 1: who threw that interception, had some fun with me after that.
Speaker 1: He said how did you mistake James William Gay for
Speaker 1: James Harrison? And I said, well, how did you mistake
Speaker 1: him for ran Kwan Bolden? He was here trying to
Speaker 1: But anyway, do you do you have anything you look
Speaker 1: back as they're like a big mistake that you had
Speaker 1: that you look back on that you say, man, that's
Speaker 1: the worst thing I've ever set on radio or television. Well, fortunately,
Speaker 1: if I have, I was able to slide over it
Speaker 1: and keep going because I was told a long time
Speaker 1: ago by veteran broadcasters you never stop if you make
Speaker 1: a mistake. You just keep going because it will take
Speaker 1: the listener a long time to discover whether it was
Speaker 1: a mistake or not. I do want to mention one thing,
Speaker 1: and I think you might tend to agree with me,
Speaker 1: because we both have done radio and television. Right now,
Speaker 1: I'm doing radio, but I did the TV for many,
Speaker 1: many years. I think a lot of our leagues, and
Speaker 1: I include the NBA, the NFL and baseball for getting
Speaker 1: the power that radio has. And I have to tell
Speaker 1: you this past year I did twenty two playoff games
Speaker 1: in the NBA, including the finals. I can't even imagine
Speaker 1: that I would get the response that I got from
Speaker 1: our radio broadcasts all over the world world, Germany, Poland, Japan.
Speaker 1: I was getting texted emails from all over the world
Speaker 1: for people that were listening to our radio broadcasts. And
Speaker 1: I think our leagues forget the fact that radio is
Speaker 1: still the media that goes worldwide, and they still don't
Speaker 1: have TV in cars, and there's so much commuting and
Speaker 1: driving people depend on radio, and we forget that in
Speaker 1: some of these foreign countries, everyone does not have TV,
Speaker 1: they all have radio. And I have to tell you,
Speaker 1: the response I got the last year from our radio
Speaker 1: broadcasts was almost unbelievable, it really was, and that was
Speaker 1: really encouraging to me to try and make our radio
Speaker 1: coverage even better than it has been. I don't think
Speaker 1: there's any question I agree with you wholeheartedly, and it
Speaker 1: always touches me when you know, I hear from somebody
Speaker 1: that doesn't have a television, They don't have a way
Speaker 1: to be able to watch, so their only choice is
Speaker 1: radio wolf And I actually met somebody who is blind
Speaker 1: and the only way he can follow the Arizona Cardinals
Speaker 1: is to listen to our broadcast. So when I have
Speaker 1: heard they have not to interrupt you. I have heard
Speaker 1: from so many sightless people throughout my career that thank
Speaker 1: god it is responsible maybe for me keeping doing my
Speaker 1: broadcast shut ins, people in hospitals, veterans and sightless people.
Speaker 1: You know, it's that's a great feeling to realize that
Speaker 1: just maybe maybe we can make some of those folks
Speaker 1: that are suffering as they are have just a little
Speaker 1: bit more fun, maybe put a smile on their face
Speaker 1: with our broadcasts. And that's something that radio certainly can do. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Do you remember the last time you did football? And
Speaker 1: I'm curious, so is there a sport that you didn't
Speaker 1: do that you look back and say, man, I would
Speaker 1: have loved to have tried that. Well, I always thought
Speaker 1: baseball was going to be what I would do, and
Speaker 1: of course when I was growing up, I followed the
Speaker 1: Chicago Cubbs on baseball. Burt Wilson was there, played by
Speaker 1: play broadcaster. He was my idol, and of course later
Speaker 1: Jack brook House and Harry Carey and that whole crew,
Speaker 1: and I initially came to Phoenix to do Triple A baseball,
Speaker 1: and then through the years I was offered the San
Speaker 1: Francisco Giant job twice. And also of course I had
Speaker 1: the opportunity to do the Diamondbacks when they came into
Speaker 1: the league, and I always felt it would be baseball.
Speaker 1: But I loved basketball. I had been fortunate enough to
Speaker 1: play in high school, so I loved the game. And
Speaker 1: my real dream was that if I was able to
Speaker 1: get into this business and be involved and played by
Speaker 1: play broadcasting, I wanted to be associated with a team
Speaker 1: as Vince Gully was with the Dodgers. Soon as I'm
Speaker 1: into simony, the baseball players were, the baseball announcers were
Speaker 1: with their teams, and I always wanted to do that.
Speaker 1: And when I got the opportunity with the Sons, that
Speaker 1: was the pit of me and everything else kind of
Speaker 1: turned away. But initially I thought that baseball would be
Speaker 1: the sport I would be doing. It just turned out
Speaker 1: to be basketball, and it was the right, right decision.
Speaker 1: You mentioned some legendary names and broadcasting, and I think
Speaker 1: of some of the people that have taken me under
Speaker 1: their wing to help me along when I was getting
Speaker 1: started or even recently. I mean, I've still people in
Speaker 1: my life that are very involved in terms of feedback
Speaker 1: or encouragement. Mike Tarico, Sean McDonough, Bob Costas, those are
Speaker 1: three people that come to mind who invested in me
Speaker 1: when I was young and coming up. I'm curious, Jack Brickhouse,
Speaker 1: you mentioned a lot of people in Arizona probably don't
Speaker 1: know that name, that legendary Chicago broadcaster Harry Carey. Most
Speaker 1: people know Harry from the Cubs games and being on WGN,
Speaker 1: which would air games nationally for the most part on cable.
Speaker 1: Did those guys help you? Is there anybody else that
Speaker 1: you can think of al that mentored you or took
Speaker 1: you under his or her wing to kind of help
Speaker 1: you grow well? And not really, I'm going to tell
Speaker 1: you about cost the story in a minute. But as
Speaker 1: I said, Burt Wilson was the radio play by play
Speaker 1: for the Cubs when I was growing up in Iowa,
Speaker 1: and I listened every game. Harry Carey was in Saint Louis.
Speaker 1: Jack Brickhouse did everything in Chicago. He did the Bears
Speaker 1: and then he was the first to do the TV
Speaker 1: of the Cubs. So and Jack Brickhouse through the years
Speaker 1: tried to hire me many times to come back to
Speaker 1: Chicago after I had come to Phoenix. But just listening
Speaker 1: to them on a daily basis, I'm sure that I
Speaker 1: gained a lot from them, and I think Harry Carey
Speaker 1: used to have so many great lines, like we don't
Speaker 1: care who wins, just so it's the Cubs. And he
Speaker 1: would say, and we go to the bottom of the ninth,
Speaker 1: the Cubs are down by nine, but don't forget they
Speaker 1: need ten to win. Go Cubs. I think I probably
Speaker 1: captured some of that enthusiasm. And at one point they
Speaker 1: used to call it a Midwest school of announcing. I
Speaker 1: don't know if they ever did at Syracuse because of
Speaker 1: Burt Wilson and Earl Gillespie who was in Milwaukee, and
Speaker 1: Harry Carey in Saint Louis and brick House, because they
Speaker 1: were so involved in the games themselves. And I think
Speaker 1: I've picked up probably my enthusiasm from that. Now. One
Speaker 1: Bob Costs a story. Bob was a young guy working
Speaker 1: at Cambels in Saint Louis, and CBS had the rights
Speaker 1: for the NBA at that time, and they decided to
Speaker 1: do a few regional games, and Bob was selected to
Speaker 1: do some of the regional games, and one of his
Speaker 1: first was in Phoenix. And when I came into the
Speaker 1: arena that night to do the game for us Bob Costas,
Speaker 1: who I had never seen, came up to me, introduced himself,
Speaker 1: and he said, al McCoy, He said, I've listened to
Speaker 1: you for years, and he said, I'm so excited about
Speaker 1: getting a chance to meet you. He said, I've just
Speaker 1: picked up so much of listening to your broadcast. Now
Speaker 1: this is Bob Costas. So I said, well, gee, Bob,
Speaker 1: it's great to see you. So on and so forth. Well,
Speaker 1: in a matter of a few years, he was on
Speaker 1: with NBC and in New York. So every time that
Speaker 1: we would go into New York to play the Knicks,
Speaker 1: we would go to a little bar restaurant that was
Speaker 1: kind of a hangout for broadcasters and writers in New
Speaker 1: York City, and I would go in with whoever I
Speaker 1: was working with to have the lunch or dinner or whatever,
Speaker 1: and it was a hangout for Bob Costas. So whenever
Speaker 1: and I would go in and Bob was there, he
Speaker 1: would come up to him and say, Oh, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you remember me. I'm Bob Costas well, Sarah.
Speaker 1: I knew Bob Costas because by now he's with NBC,
Speaker 1: But it just got to be kind of a joke
Speaker 1: for me because every time I would see him, and
Speaker 1: it might be at the gardener or it might be
Speaker 1: at this restaurant, he would always come up to me
Speaker 1: with his hand the extent and say, oh, I'm Bob Costa.
Speaker 1: This is wanted to say hi. So many years later,
Speaker 1: the Arizona State University, you know, to give an annual award,
Speaker 1: the Cronk Eye Award to broadcasters, and I don't know,
Speaker 1: this is maybe nine ten years ago. Bob Costas got
Speaker 1: that award and I went to the luncheon and I
Speaker 1: had not stuck to him or seen him. But they
Speaker 1: had a little private room where you could go in
Speaker 1: if you were one of the heavy hitters and get
Speaker 1: an autograph from Bob. So I knew where the room was,
Speaker 1: so I went in. And when I went in, there
Speaker 1: was a line maybe of ten or twelve people waiting
Speaker 1: to get up and shake hands and get an autograph
Speaker 1: with Bob. Well, he spotted me. He saw me in
Speaker 1: the back of the line, and he waited for me
Speaker 1: to come on. And when I got up to the
Speaker 1: top of the line, I just reached my hand out.
Speaker 1: I said, excuse me, my aom McCoy, he says, line
Speaker 1: Bob Costas and they both just started to last. He
Speaker 1: is one of the most talented broadcasters ever in our
Speaker 1: business and just a great guy. Oh absolutely, no, Bob
Speaker 1: is incredible and a guy that really cares about the
Speaker 1: craft of broadcast any particular play by play. I feel
Speaker 1: like I've buried the lead. We're about twenty five minutes
Speaker 1: into this and I haven't asked you about any of
Speaker 1: your signature calls. Every Sun's fan knows what that is.
Speaker 1: I don't have one. I'm never really I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just when I got the Cardinals job, I always thought,
Speaker 1: you know, it's going to be four if I try
Speaker 1: to come up with one, or I could bounce it
Speaker 1: off somebody and see if it works, or try in
Speaker 1: the game and people like it, then stick with it.
Speaker 1: I guess my the one that people know is just
Speaker 1: the fact that I work with Bill Walton, so it's
Speaker 1: really about another person as opposed to my call. But
Speaker 1: everybody knows about Shazam, and we hear it multiple times
Speaker 1: a broadcast, and I believe that I've read it and
Speaker 1: seen you talk about that it came from reading comic
Speaker 1: books as a kid, So tell us that story out.
Speaker 1: But also I'm curious when when did you start using
Speaker 1: it on air? Did you try it out at first?
Speaker 1: Did it take you a while to finally employ that
Speaker 1: on the air? Was it right from from the get
Speaker 1: go when you got the Sun's job. Well, when I
Speaker 1: got the Sun's job, they didn't have the three point shot.
Speaker 1: When it went into effect as a broadcaster, I looked
Speaker 1: at it as like what would be a home run
Speaker 1: call in baseball? Because most baseball or broadcasters have a
Speaker 1: called it might be could be it is or it's
Speaker 1: going going gone or whatever, you know. So I looked
Speaker 1: at that point that the three point shot is not
Speaker 1: going to be a big factor and it'll be just
Speaker 1: kind of like maybe a home run that might call
Speaker 1: the game. So I did think, you know, what could
Speaker 1: I use? Because I guess I should come up with
Speaker 1: some type of a home run call that would fit
Speaker 1: a three point shot. So I went back when I
Speaker 1: was growing up on a farm in Iowa, I did
Speaker 1: read a comic book about Captain Marvel. Now, Captain Marvel
Speaker 1: was a Superman type character, but he turned into being
Speaker 1: Captain Marvel from a little guy named Billy Batson who
Speaker 1: was a radio reporter, and when he became Captain Marvel,
Speaker 1: he said show zam, and that was taken from the
Speaker 1: first letter of Socrates, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury.
Speaker 1: So I thought, you know, that might not be bad
Speaker 1: because in the comic book when he said shazam, it
Speaker 1: was all kinds of lightning and thunder and excitement. So
Speaker 1: I said, I think that might be what I should use,
Speaker 1: thinking that there might be one or two a game.
Speaker 1: And in fact, I like to tell the story because
Speaker 1: when the three point shot went in, one of the
Speaker 1: great shooters in that time or anytime for the sunss
Speaker 1: Walder Davis. He took one three point shot that first
Speaker 1: year at one and so anyway, that's where Shazam came from.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of stuck around a long time, although
Speaker 1: I do have to admit sometimes I might pass over
Speaker 1: because we do have a few Shazams, a few three
Speaker 1: pointers in every game. Now has become a big, big
Speaker 1: factor of NBA basketball, right. Imagine if you were the
Speaker 1: Warriors broadcaster, you'd say shazam. You just said it over
Speaker 1: three thousand times. Now for Steph Curry, do you follow that?
Speaker 1: I got a couple more, I'll let you go. Do
Speaker 1: you follow the Cardinals much. I mean, you were year
Speaker 1: and you know well into your career with the Sons.
Speaker 1: When the Cardinals moved to Arizona. Have you followed them
Speaker 1: the entire time? How much of a fan are you? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm a sports fan, period, all the sports.
Speaker 1: I love basketball, football, baseball. I'm a great hockey fan.
Speaker 1: You know. I did hockey for five years the old
Speaker 1: Phoenix Roadrunners of the Western Hockey League, and I loved,
Speaker 1: loved the sport. And certainly we're not going to go
Speaker 1: back and forth complimenting one another. But you know of
Speaker 1: the tremendous respect I have for you, Dave, and you
Speaker 1: can do any sport and do it so well and
Speaker 1: so professionally. But you know I love all the sports.
Speaker 1: I follow all of them on radio and on TV,
Speaker 1: whatever that possibility might be. I'm I'm just a fan.
Speaker 1: I guess the gentleman that I replaced when I got
Speaker 1: here in two thousand and two, the late Tom Dillon,
Speaker 1: who is so gracious and kind to me, coming in
Speaker 1: here as a guy at age twenty nine getting an
Speaker 1: NFL job, when Tom had been in this market for
Speaker 1: so long and had done the Cardinals for so long,
Speaker 1: How well did you know Tom and what was your
Speaker 1: relationship like with him? Oh? We were very good friends. Tom,
Speaker 1: you know, came from Texas into the arena, so to speak,
Speaker 1: here in Phoenix, and he was basically, first of all,
Speaker 1: did the sports on TV, and football was really his
Speaker 1: game he did, you know, like he did all the
Speaker 1: a as youth sports at one time. But his love
Speaker 1: and his best work, I always thought was on football.
Speaker 1: And he was an excellent broadcaster, a great guy, excellent broadcaster,
Speaker 1: and we were very good friends, all right. Last one,
Speaker 1: have you ever been yelled at by a player or
Speaker 1: a coach for something you said. I've had interactions with
Speaker 1: coaches or gms. I can think of one GM in
Speaker 1: particular in the NBA. Won't say his name, but he's
Speaker 1: still a GM that didn't like something that was said
Speaker 1: one time. And sometimes there are players who will say things.
Speaker 1: Occasionally they hear something, or they won't talk to anymore,
Speaker 1: or when they do talk to you, some are afraid
Speaker 1: to bring it up. Some will bring it up. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you had, if you had anything like
Speaker 1: that in your tenure doing the Suns. You know, I
Speaker 1: guess I probably have been fortunate because I've been around
Speaker 1: so long, and I think one of the reasons early
Speaker 1: for many many years, when the Suns would go to
Speaker 1: training camp, I would have a session with them when
Speaker 1: I would talk with all the players and the coaches
Speaker 1: and talk about their responsibilities to the media. Now that's
Speaker 1: gone by the wayside because the league takes that all over,
Speaker 1: and I would tell the players at that time, I said, now,
Speaker 1: there are going to be times during a game broadcast
Speaker 1: that I may be critical of the way you're playing
Speaker 1: that particular night, and I want you to be able
Speaker 1: to accept that, whether it's from me for somebody else.
Speaker 1: I will tell you I will never embarrass you personally
Speaker 1: or I will never refer to anything personally concerning you.
Speaker 1: But if it's concerning the way you're playing the game,
Speaker 1: then you can expect it to be analyzed perhaps, but
Speaker 1: I said, I would never say anything that would be
Speaker 1: something concerning you as a person, and I think I
Speaker 1: got respect from the players initially. In recent years, as
Speaker 1: I said, I just don't have the closeness with the
Speaker 1: players that month. There's probably only two players on the
Speaker 1: Suns team right now that I really feel close to.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker of course, would be number one because he's
Speaker 1: been here for five six years and we know each
Speaker 1: other and he's such a terrific young guy. And DeAndre Ayton.
Speaker 1: DeAndre Ayton knows me because he spent time into a
Speaker 1: and followed the Suns on our broadcasts. But I've been fortunate,
Speaker 1: and I think one of the reasons is coaches and
Speaker 1: players alike knew that I would always be fair, that
Speaker 1: they're not above criticism. They're they're having a bad game
Speaker 1: and their shots aren't going. I can't lie about that,
Speaker 1: but I never would attack them on a personal basis,
Speaker 1: and I think they respected me for that then, and
Speaker 1: that has been my approach. Al you are and always
Speaker 1: will be the greatest broadcaster in the history of the city.
Speaker 1: And I'm so thankful for you spending some time with
Speaker 1: me doing this podcast. I hope you do this for
Speaker 1: twenty more years. I would love to see it out.
Speaker 1: I'm amazed still, man. I mean this, every time I
Speaker 1: listen to you, how descriptive you are, how energetic you are,
Speaker 1: every game you treat the same, and I always feel
Speaker 1: like that's the mark of a great broadcaster. It can
Speaker 1: be the first game of the season, a playoff game,
Speaker 1: or game number fifty in the middle of a long
Speaker 1: NBA season, and you sound just as excited to be
Speaker 1: there as you ever have. Well, I can be honest, Dave,
Speaker 1: coming from you, that means a great deal to me.
Speaker 1: You're such a professional person and I admire everything you do.
Speaker 1: It's just I've been a very, very fortunate guy. And
Speaker 1: I'll just tell you one story in closing. As you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a piano player, and I played professionally for a
Speaker 1: number of years, and I love jazz, and my favorite
Speaker 1: piano player is Erl Garner. And a year ago, I
Speaker 1: was on my way to the arena and I was
Speaker 1: listening to a CD with ERL Garner in my car,
Speaker 1: and I started to think. I said, you know, it's
Speaker 1: kind of interesting here. I am. I'm going down to
Speaker 1: the arena. I'm going to broadcast a basketball game that
Speaker 1: I love and I love doing and I love communicating
Speaker 1: and talking all about the game, and I'm listening to
Speaker 1: my favorite piano player, ERL Garner. And I thought for
Speaker 1: a moment and I said, you know what, it's been
Speaker 1: a pretty good ride. And you know what, it's been
Speaker 1: a pretty good ride, dude. Well, hey, if this broadcast
Speaker 1: thing doesn't work out, for you. Maybe we'll hear smooth
Speaker 1: Jazz with Al McCoy on another radio station or something.
Speaker 1: But I appreciate it Al so much. Man, I look
Speaker 1: forward to seeing you here. I've got some Suns games
Speaker 1: in January and February to look forward to seeing you.
Speaker 1: Then sounds great. I'll look forward to a day. Always
Speaker 1: a pleasure to visit with you. Happy Holidays, you two.
Speaker 1: You're the best. Al. Thanks. Well, maybe you had heard
Speaker 1: that story before, but that's the first time I've heard
Speaker 1: Al go that in depth on how he came up
Speaker 1: with Shazam on a three pointer. It came from reading
Speaker 1: comic books as a kid. Going back to Captain Marvel,
Speaker 1: I had no idea that each letter stood for something
Speaker 1: at the acronym sha z am, and how he didn't
Speaker 1: have to use that moniker very often when he started
Speaker 1: doing games in the NBA because there wasn't a three
Speaker 1: point line. Now he's got to use it all the time.
Speaker 1: But it was great to catch up with out really
Speaker 1: appreciate his time. He was actually going to do a
Speaker 1: Sun's game and he spent some thirty minutes with us
Speaker 1: talking about his favorite moments. Broadcasting games for the Suns
Speaker 1: had a great story about Bob Costas talked about how
Speaker 1: we love Chicago. That's his favorite road trip. And it's
Speaker 1: interesting that in all his years of broadcasting, he can't
Speaker 1: remember a mistake that really got him. And that's saying
Speaker 1: something because we've all had some bad moments on the air.
Speaker 1: But I'm not surprised given how professional Al is. He
Speaker 1: is the consummate professional and incredible gentleman as well. We
Speaker 1: are presented by BETMGM, the official sports betting partner of
Speaker 1: the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Hotels and Casinos.
Speaker 1: We didn't talk a lot about the Cardinals. They're not
Speaker 1: playing too well right now, but still enough time to
Speaker 1: turn things around. We'll see if they can do it
Speaker 1: on Sunday in Dallas. We'll talk to you then. Thanks
Speaker 1: again for listening to The Day Pash Podcast three.