About the Book
Award winning commentator Michael Schiavello examines the greatest sports commentators in history, the best calls ever heard, and offers stories from his own journey through the sports broadcasting world as 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of sports commentary.
The Commentators reviews of more than 60 of the best moments in sports history and examines some of the finest plays and commentary calls across 20 different sports including soccer, American football, golf, boxing, Formula One, horse racing, ice hockey, athletics, tennis, baseball, cricket, professional wrestling, darts, rugby, cycling and more. And the biggest sports events including Olympics (summer and winter), FIFA World Cup, Super Bowl, World Series, Rugby World Cup.
A powerful story unfolding during a sports event can inspire us about a sport we’ve never watched, an athlete we haven’t heard of, or a country we’ve never visited or even located on a map. Stories engross an audience and engage them on an emotional level. Once a commentator captures an audience’s emotions, they’re putty in their hands. The power of sports lies within those individuals and the ability of the commentator to tell those stories.
Table of Contents:
The Commentator; The Making of a Commentator; The Flow State; Ben Johnson and the Secret of Life; Feel, Don't Think; Cometh The Moment, Cometh The Commentator; The Perfect Game, The Perfect Commentary; Moving Like a Tremendous Machine; Maggie Thatcher, Can You Hear Me?; The Doctor's in The House; The Miracle; When Commentary Meets Current Affairs; King David; The Commentator Who Changed A Sport; The Football Commentators; Where It All Began; A Woman's World; The Great Pretenders; The Sound of Silence; The Pinnacle; Commentating During a Pandemic.
About the Author :
Michael Schiavello is a 27-year television and radio commentary veteran, sports writer, and best-selling author. Known as ‘The Voice’, Michael has called sports events in more than in 26 countries on networks including TNT, Spike, SyFy, AXN, NBC Sports, Fox Sports, CBS Sports, Sky, and AXS TV. An Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games commentator, Michael won the 2019 Asian Television Award in the category of ‘Best Sports Presenter/Commentator’. He is the only commentator in history to be nominated for the award three times.
Michael hosted The Voice Versus on US television network, AXS TV between 2010-2017. The prime time, CableFax Award nominated interview show included such guests as, Hulk Hogan, George Foreman, Steven Seagal, Sugar Ray Leonard, Dan Gable, Michael Jai White, Steve Austin, Joe Rogan, and Dana White. Michael’s work for One Championship, Asia’s largest global sports media property, sees him broadcast to more than 150 countries.
Review :
"The ultimate book for all sports fans!" -- Pat Miletich, UFC Hall of Famer, Commentator for SHOWTIME and ESPN.
"When a book is published about various sports and one aspect that ties them together, there will usually be some fantastic stories to go along with the topic at hand. It helps when the author is considered to be a good authority on the topic and for both of these, Michael Schiavello fits in this far-reaching book on the world of sports broadcasting. The book is far-reaching simply due to the sheer number of sports that Schivaello writes about, 20 in all from cricket to horse racing, from American football to football as the rest of the world plays it. Because his work is done in the United Kingdom, some of the longer and more detailed descriptions are for sports popular there such as football (soccer) and cricket, but he does a wonderful job of covering American sports as well. Good examples of his attention to the broadcasters of American sports are the excellent write-ups he provides on two legendary commentators in their respective games, Vin Scully (baseball) and Mike "Doc" Emrick (ice hockey). Even though he many not follow those sports closely, he does a nice job of writing about two of the best and their descriptions of the games. In particular, his writing of Scully's call of the perfect game pitched by Sandy Koufax in 1965 was a masterpiece. It would be hard to do justice in the printed word to Scully's wonderful call of that game, but the writing about Scully's call in the 9th inning is a must-read passage. Schiavello, himself no slouch when it comes to sports broadcasting and the variety of events he has covered (including oyster shucking), has written a book that any sports fan should read, even if they may not be interested in some of the games. It is also recommended to find the calls written in the book on YouTube so that the audio can be experienced as well if the reader has not heard the call previously. No matter one's sports interest, one is sure to find something to enjoy in this book." -- Lance Smith
