78 CARDINALS MAGAZINE @CardsMagazine
Rangers and the Cardinals, the David Freese
game. That was her Christmas present.
What’s your relationship with the game’s
burgeoning analytics component?
COSTAS: I think they’re important.
Every team should be aware of them. What
I try to do when I get the statistics before
broadcasting a game is to pare them down
to what makes an interesting point. Raw
numbers are not interesting. They’re not
entertaining, but if they illustrate a larger
point and if they’re used sparingly, then
I think they can be useful. Of course, if it’s
late in the game and you’re talking strategy
with knowledgeable baseball fans, you want
them to know that so-and-so in the bullpen
has a very high groundball rate, but this guy
lurking as a pinch-hitter is 6-for-11 against
him lifetime. Those things, used sparingly,
used judiciously, are worthwhile.
But if we reduce the whole game to
analytics, the way some people do, you take
the heartbeat out of it. I didn’t need the
exit velocity of a ball that Mickey Mantle
hit over the monuments in Yankee Stadium
to know he hit it pretty hard. I didn’t need
Statcast to tell me when Willie Mays ran one
down in the gap, that he was the only guy
who could do it.Are you looking forward to doing a game on
Facebook one of these days?
COSTAS: I think they have other people
to do that. I think my frame of reference is
different. I think I’m more of a Vin Scully/
Jack Buck kind of guy than a Facebook guy.Can you reflect a little bit on the two
eulogies you gave for Mantle and for Stan?
COSTAS: In each case, the families
asked me to do it. Stan had been at Mickey’s
funeral, and I’m told that Stan had actually
mentioned to his family, late in his life, that
he would like me to be one of his eulogists,
which was extremely touching. Mickey’s
family asked me to do it because of the
various interviews I had done with him. The
difference is that Mickey’s life had a tragic
element to it because he was only 63 when he
died. He was beloved, but there were regrets;
whereas Stan lived into his 90s and was aboutas happy a person as you’d ever encounter in
sports, and he made other people so happy.
They were each beloved, but I think that
Stan’s was more a celebration of his life, and
Mickey’s was a little bit more difficult needle
to thread. I hope I did justice to both.
What you’re trying to do is to capture
what they meant to people. And in the case
of Musial, a good portion of it was what
he meant to St. Louis. He was the Hall of
Famer, the immortal who came to play in
St. Louis and stayed. DiMaggio didn’t live
in New York. Ted Williams didn’t live in
Boston. That’s not a knock on them, but
Musial came and stayed. Musial was like
your next-door neighbor. People saw him
around town. That was part of what made
him unique. He was Stan Musial, but he
was also just such a regular guy that people
didn’t feel awkward about approaching him
or slapping him on the back and saying
hello. He was just a wonderful man who led
a happy and fulfilling life.Last but not least, the Cardinals are holding
a theme night in your honor at the ballpark,
and you also did the voice-over for their video
presentation on Opening Night. So, obviously,
there’s still a special relationship there.
COSTAS: The theme night and the
bobblehead were both the Cardinals’ idea,
and I was thrilled. I was so touched by it.
They just called out of the blue during
the offseason after the Hall of Fame
announcement was made. They said,
“Would you be willing?” I said, “Why
wouldn’t I be?” My gosh, that’s so kind.
The Cardinals also asked me to voice-over
the video for Opening Night, and I was
really happy to do that. It turned out that it
was also an MLB Network game that
I called. And then they took a shot of me –
I did not expect it – in the booth. After all
the Hall of Famers had come out in their red
jackets, the Cardinals announced me as if
I was one of their own, said that I was going
into the Hall of Fame, and a shot of me was
up on the high-def scoreboard. The reception
was so warm. People were applauding, and it
really gave me goose bumps.As St. Louisans mourned the loss of their beloved Musial, Costas gave the grieving city
another lasting memory when he eulogized a legend who was “like a next-door neighbor.”
NATIONAL VOICE, ADOPTED SON