Celtics Broadcasts Will Have A Little Less Awesomeness This Season
Saturday, September 22, 2007
(posted by OMDQ)
For years now, the best part of watching Celtics games on television has been color commentator Tommy Heinsohn. A former player and coach for the team, Heinsohn is without a doubt the biggest homer I have ever heard call a game. His specialty is complaining about discrepancies in the officiating - in his eyes, no Celtic has ever committed a foul, and any referee who suggests otherwise obviously needs an eye exam. And the passion with which he calls the games, even at 73 years old...just once, I want him paired up with Gus Johnson for a tightly contested NBA Finals game involving the Celtics. Just once. The world would never be the same.
In other words, Tommy Heinsohn is gloriously awesome. He's my favorite announcer ever, in any sport (Joe Castiglione is a very close second).
Unfortunately, we are nearing the beginning of the end of the Heinsohn Era on Celtics television broadcasts. It was announced on Friday that due to his wife's health, Heinsohn will only do short road trips, an arrangement that will rob Celtics fans of his presence for at least 13 games in the 2007-08 season. He will be replaced by Donny Marshall.
My absolute favorite quote in that abovce link came from Mike Gorman, Heinsohn's longtime broadcast partner:
"Tommy likes to talk about the whys of, as the analyst, and I like to talk about the whats...It's very rare that I would step on his bailiwick, and vice versa."Well, thank goodness for that. I'd hate for anyone to sustain a serious bailiwick injury. You don't just bounce back from those.
(For the record, "bailiwick" is "a person's specific area of interest, skill, or authority." Obviously, Mike Gorman is smart and uses big, scary words to demonstrate that fact.)
Hopefully all is well with Mrs. Heinsohn and Tommy can continue to impart his wisdom ("THEY'RE GONNA CALL THAT A HARD FOUL?!") through studio appearances on the pre- and post-game shows.
Photo: Boston.com
Tommy Heinsohn Makes Me Smile
Saturday, April 14, 2007
No idea how this weekend is gonna go – The Postmen are already lamenting the reality that 
there isn’t a whole heckuva lot going on – so why not start things off with a quote from my favorite announcer, Boston Celtics Hall of Famer Tommy Heinsohn.
At some point this season, the Celtics decided to throw a party on April 13 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the team’s first NBA championship. (Nothing sums up the fall of the Boston Celtics like this little tidbit: on the day they lauded the beginning of a dynasty, the 2007 C’s clinched the second-worst record in the league.) Surviving players from the team were invited to the Garden (it might be sacrilege to refer to the Arena Formerly Known As The FleetCenter as “the Garden”, but I don’t remember the current name) and honored throughout the telecast.
I flipped to the game as Heinsohn and Mike Gorman were 
interviewing NBA Hall of Famer Arnie Risen, who enjoyed his best seasons with Rochester but spent the tail end of his career in Boston, including the 1956-57 championship season. They were watching a highlight film of Risen’s Celtics days and talking about the memories it brought up when a shot of Risen running the floor came on the screen, prompting Heinsohn to note, “Pretty good runnin’ for a guy with a broken arm.”
Now, I know what he meant. You can’t really run with a broken arm because the impact will jar the busted bone and cause a lot of pain. Okay. But the way he said it – like everything that comes out of Tommy Heinsohn’s mouth, it was uttered with great conviction – I half expected to look up at the television and see Risen charging down the floor on his hands.
