A story in honor of Sam Rosen.
One of the dumbest moves I ever committed in my hockey career was to criticize Sam Rosen and John Davidson when they teamed up to broadcast Rangers games for Madison Square Garden Networks in a previous century.
At the time, I was doing the Islanders games for Chuck Dolan's SportsChannel network.
In those early days of my tv career I was very passionate about the Islanders-Rangers
rivalry as well as the competition between the mammoth MSG Network and then the just-growing – and rather small – SportsChannel.
And since I viewed Sam and JD as our SC competition, one day I foolishly let them have it in print. Now, I don't even remember where my critique appeared or what I even wrote.
All I know is that my comments were not friendly and I have long since regretted the mad, impetuous move that I made as a young, inexperienced – yet devoted to SportsChannel – journalist.
As luck – and I do mean LUCK – would have it, Chuck Dolan eventually and miraculously, I might add – took over MSG and its tv network. In the process many of my SportsChannel colleagues wound up working for MSG Networks, of all things.
The Maven included and that meant that Sam and JD – of all people – had become broadcast partners and – in good time – buddies.
Naturally, I regretted my faux pas. To their credit neither Sam nor JD ever brought up my ill humor.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that I expect to attend the New York State Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremonies tomorrow in Troy, New York where Sam Rosen will be honored.
I will tell you what I'm going to tell the audience and that is, first and foremost, Sam is a mensch – that's Yiddish for super-duper nice guy.
Secondly, his run as Rangers play-by-play guy dating back to when Herb Brooks coached the Rangers and Barry Beck was captain is a testament to his artistry as a broadcaster.
The Rosen-John Davidson tandem has gone down in sports broadcasting history as one of the best airways duets in hockey annals.
Better still, at age 76, Sam hasn't lost a step; nor should I say, a pronoun, verb, adjective nor adverb.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUj32rXgNoE[/embed]
My pal, historian George Grimm, author of numerous Rangers books, has listened to Rosen since Sam took his place behind the Blueshirt microphone.
"Sam had a tough act to follow in Jim Gordon," Grimm remembers. "Gordon not only was one of the best hockey broadcasters but was a fan favorite for years; especially when he worked with Bill Chadwick. Rosen proved how well he followed Gordon's act by winning this impressive award."
People have asked Sam how much longer he plans doing the Rangers broadcasts and I could tell the answer just by Rosen's body language; he loves his gig and his team.
"I'm taking it year to year," is the way he puts it. So far, every year has been a super year for the honoree, Sam Rosen!
(P.S. Sam, sorry about my comments from another century. Never too late, as they say!)