Newhouse: A calm voice amid the noise
by By Dave Newhouse Oakland Tribune Columnist , Contra Costa Times
It's not only the Warriors who've lost all civility. It's now an epidemic spreading throughout professional sports, mostly in Basketball; and it has, sadly, crept into the college ranks.
That's why it's refreshing to listen to Dick Callahan. He's calm, controlled and believable. Though he's greatly outnumbered by the circus barkers who masquerade as PA announcers, they couldn't pass the entrance exam into his "old school" of professionalism.
"It's terrible," Callahan said. "(Teams) have reached a point in their game presentation where they feel they're a greater entertainment value in the arena than the team is on the floor."
So you have these Warriors cartoon characters hurling T-shirts into the crowd and running around like maniacs distributing free pizzas, giving fans no time to breathe during the entire game while the Warriors team usually self-destructs.
The PA man's screaming doesn't affect winning, either.
"I just do the game," Callahan said.
Not that Callahan, 68, can't make his deep, dulcet voice exciting. He can when it's called for, while the braying types at the mic lack all sense of tact or timing. Some ROOT openly for their teams, a definite no-no with Callahan.
"I feel you show a proportionate advantage to the home team without appearing to be a house man," Callahan said. "So my voice's inflection is a little higher for the home team."
UC Berkeley football fans are most fortunate to have Callahan, who winds up his ninth season at Memorial Stadium on Saturday when Cal plays Washington. "First down, Bears" is his signature call, but he's never schmaltzy.
Of course, his ultimate trademark call was his near-whisper "shooooot-ing two" in free-throw situations during his 19 years with the Warriors, a relationship that ended rather uncivilly.
He has also filled in with the A's the past five years whenever Roy Steele is unavailable. And this year Callahan has done baseball, football, Basketball (St. Mary's College men) and soccer (San Jose Earthquakes), though he didn't have a clue about soccer. He pulled it off anyway. How he got into mic work is a story in itself. He was, briefly, a candidate for the priesthood. But he also played Basketball until two bad ankles ended his unspectacular "I led the team in minutes sat" career at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
Waterloo's PA man didn't show up one night, and Callahan lied, saying he had gained mic experience while doing high school games in his hometown of Scranton, Pa. He was so good right away that the regular announcer was fired. Callahan was on his way. That evolved at age 23 into play-by-play radio work when he could fit it into his budding insurance career. Once again, he lied about having previous radio experience, but he caught on right away while doing minor-league and college sports. Then he lost out to Bob Costas in getting the American Basketball Association's St. Louis Spirits radio job.
The insurance business moved him around the country, finally to Moraga, his current home. He started doing St. Mary's sports in 1975, then became deeply involved with the college in setting up his scholarship for needy Latino students. He's also a member of the St. Mary's Board of Regents, but he's no longer the Basketball PA man.
On Tuesday, he discussed his abrupt departures from the Warriors and St. Mary's in an interview at Kosich & Callahan in Lafayette, where he's celebrating 45 years in insurance.
With the Warriors, a public-relations intern accidentally spilled water on Callahan by his mic. Callahan told him to get a towel and clean up the mess. The intern refused and later threatened Callahan, who then wanted the intern canned. Team President Robert Rowell sided with the intern, who said Callahan threatened him. So Callahan resigned. Two weeks later, Rowell learned from a security guard who witnessed the incident that Callahan was the one threatened.
"That was my dream job," he said of the Warriors. "But I think they wanted a screamer."
At St. Mary's, Callahan worked the mic gratis in exchange for four free tickets for his family, who would sit near him. When those four seats were sold to someone else, he resigned from that job, too.
"The one with St. Mary's isn't finished yet," he said. "I could be back doing the PA."
Callahan remains his own man. He told the A's that he'd prefer not to do Dot Racing, and they agreed. So Steele's recorded voice is used or there's no voice at all. And Dot Racing hasn't stopped the A's losing ways anyway.
Callahan had one last thing to say Tuesday. He wanted to acknowledge his Cal spotter, Joe Baratta, a Walnut Creek chiropractor, for his excellent work over the past nine years.
Callahan made that point softly.
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