Bob Costas at National Press Club, Part II

A very fun, informative and enjoyable evening listen to Marvin Kalb interviewing Bob Costas. Costas has just an amazing recall of baseball. In fact they discussed baseball for the first half of the interview. The second half was devoted to the Olympics.

The baseball discussion touched on steroids and how that has tainted many of the records that were broken during, for lack of a better phrase, the steroid era.

The Olympics touched on the amount of money NBC paid for the Olympics. Its attempts to control access to the coverage and the coverage about the political situation in China.

It was very informative.


















After the formal show, the audience got to ask questions. One of them was especially amusing. The guy said he was a die hard Cubs fan which is the reason he was able to make to the program (the Cubs lost in three straight to the Dodgers). The guy asked Costas about Sam Zell, the owner of the Cubs. Rumors have it that Zell might sell the naming rights to Wrigley Field. Costas said Zell would have hell to pay if did that. Part of the mystique of the Cubs or the Red Sox is the stadiums in which they play. So there is all the history going against the renaming of Wrigley.























He made a great statement about baseball which he admits is his favorite sport. He talked about the seventh game of the World Series which he broadcast several years back. He said it all comes down to the guy on the pitcher's mound and the guy behind home plate. In that way baseball is a much more timeless sport than most others. Costas said if Rip Vanwinkle woke up he could still understand what was going on in the game.



















































Costas also commented on public funded stadiums. He thought the fans and tax payers should have more say on the pricing of tickets so that average people could actually go to games. He added that many long time season ticket holders were being priced out of tickets.








































One of the questions he was asked was who he'd vote for to get into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He said he couldn't vote because you have to be an actual baseball writer to be part of the Hall. Costas did say he would probably not vote for guys like Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa. There use of performance enhancing drugs did indeed help them. He added that he would probably vote for Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds because they were above and beyond just about everyone before they were using steroids.



















Here is Costas surrounded by people all wanting a picture or autograph. He said he to one of the assistants for the show he'd stay until everyone was done. Very classy indeed.