Bob Costas is comfortable with his decision to retire from broadcasting baseball games
Bob Costas
Charles “Chuck” Aurandt had been a minor-league pitcher in the late 1940s, so he knew baseball talent when he saw it. He did not see it in Bob Costas.
When he made Costas the final cut from the high school team at Commack South in 1969, the coach noted he was not bad with the glove and had some speed.
But, Aurandt added, “I don’t think you can hit your weight, and I don’t think you weigh 130.”
More than a half-century later, Costas recalled the exchange that came next:
Aurandt: “Have you ever thought about broadcasting?”
Costas: “That’s pretty much all I think about.”
Aurandt: “Well, you know more about baseball than anybody on this team, and you’re always talking. I think you should try that!”
It turned out the coach and high school math teacher, who died in 1993, knew broadcasting talent, too.
Costas, now 73, went on to one of the most successful careers in sports media history, one that will be the subject of an appearance at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan on Sunday.
“Bob Costas: A Career Conversation with Howard Bryant,” will cover his career as well as observations on how sports have changed during his time in the business.
Not that Costas’ career is over.
He still has what he called an “emeritus” role on MLB Network, where he does shows and commentary with a historical focus but also contributes on current events. Just this week, he filled in as host of “MLB Now.”
But Costas did reach a career milestone last autumn when he announced that his days as a baseball play-by-play man were over.
He said the decision was made before last season that 2024 would be his last. It ended with Game 4 of the Royals-Yankees ALDS in Kansas City on TBS, a 3-1 Yankees victory that clinched the series.
Costas was hoping for a Royals victory to set up a deciding Game 5 back in New York. Still, it was a neat enough bookend for Costas, who grew up a Yankees fan. His first MLB play-by-play assignment was a Tigers-Yankees game in the Bronx on Oct. 4, 1980.
Why did he give up one of his greatest professional passions? Because he believed that he no longer could consistently meet his own standard.
“I don’t think a fair-minded and informed person lets the last couple of years determine how they feel about [a long career],” he said. “But still, if you care about your craft, you want to do the best you can possibly do each time out. You certainly don’t want the last inning, so to speak, to be significantly less than the preceding innings.”
Costas’ performance in the playoffs was the subject of some harsh social media criticism, but he said it was his own judgment that drove his decision.
“Even when people were tossing bouquets my way, I was always self-critical,” he said. “But I wouldn’t have done the couple of years on TBS if I hadn’t, fairly recently, been pretty much as good as I ever had been.”
He said it was only in the past couple of seasons that he noticed what he called a “fall-off.”
“It was more inconsistency,” he said. “If I could edit out 10 minutes of any of the games, then it would seem pretty much OK. But I was making little mistakes that I never used to make, and the overall kind of rhythm and flow, sometimes it was there and sometimes it wasn’t there.
“Could I still make observations like I used to make that people generally have appreciated? Could I still get off a decent line or have a good call? Yeah, but the overall mix wasn’t quite what it had been for most of my career. And I recognized that.”
When Costas sat down in November with MLB Network colleague Tom Verducci to discuss his decision, Verducci said, “Few have done it as well as you, have been as honored as you, have been as literate as you, calling this great game of baseball.”
Again, Costas is not going anywhere. He has been an eloquent witness to the lives of departed sports figures, such as he was when Willie Mays died last June.
He also keeps up with the current game, and he already has considered Aaron Judge’s emerging place in the history of the sport.
Costas has covered a vast array of sports during the past half-century, but baseball always was his first love.
His ties to the sport still go back to his Commack South days. Among the three high school friends with whom he remains in regular contact is Don DeMola, who pitched for the Expos for two seasons in the mid-1970s.
Costas said DeMola used to text him questions and observations while Costas was busy calling games. Now the two can communicate at their leisure.
“I’m comfortable with my decision,” Costas said. “I just wish the last few games had been closer to the body of work that preceded it. That’s the only part that bothers me. But that’s not enough reason to make a U-turn.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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