Tigers Take Tokyo

Welcome back to the Korner! Hope you are having a good summer and getting a little break from all the stuff going on around the place.

So far, I haven’t. It’s a little concerning but things are happening and things keep moving along.

I do know this coming Friday, the computer and TV will be going with the opening ceremonies of the delayed 2020 Summer Olympic Games from Tokyo.

It is going to be strange with no fans in the stands but we’ve kind of gotten used to that these days.

What will be different is that NBC will show it live at something like six in the morning and will then come back with a prime time showing later on.

So far, I haven’t. It’s a little concerning but things are happening and things keep moving along.

I do know this the computer and TV will be going with the opening ceremonies of the delayed 2020 Summer Olympic Games from Tokyo.

It is going to be strange with no fans in the stands but we’ve kind of gotten used to that these days.

What will be different is that NBC will show it live at something like six in the morning and will then come back with a prime time showing later on.

I can remember in 2018 for the Winter Games we were scanning possible streaming sites that you were able to find a way into to see any of the ceremony live that America wouldn’t be able to see until that night in prime time.

I still enjoy the prime time shows because (I’ll show my age), that’s the way I grew up watching the Olympics.

It wasn’t NBC that always had the Olympic games in my youth but ABC, and much like Bob Costas and Mike Tirico now, one man led the coverage and was your nightly tour guide up the mountain to the ski slopes and to the arena for hockey and figure skating and out to the track and the gymnastics and swimming venues.

You may not remember the name but to me, Jim McKay was a broadcaster who was the perfect one to be an Olympic host. His writing ability and amazing scene setting abilities made the prime time shows of his day in the 60s, 70s, and 80s something special.

Those shows were amazing in their ability to give you as much as possible about what happened earlier in the day, especially when the events were hours earlier overseas. There was no internet or social media and people like me would do all they could to avoid hearing the results during the day. After the local news, the Olympic coverage would begin as people wondered what was to happen.

It was ABC that began the storytelling Olympic shows and at that time, they were the way we not only got the results but got to know the Olympians that were not under 24-hour exposure like they are now.

How good was Jim McKay? Near the end of his career, Bob Costas and NBC invited McKay to be on the nightly shows in Salt Lake City (2002), and the two of them would share the set for a few minutes each night as McKay could still tell the stories he became famous for.

McKay was the one that in 1972 told us live, “They’re all gone,” after an excruciatingly long day and night when terrorists invaded the Olympic Village in Munich and held several Israelis hostage until a horrible shootout at the airport.

But it was McKay who put perspective on the USA’s upset of Russia in hockey at Lake Placid. A funny thing about that match was that it started before ABC would come on the air. The network tried to get the Olympic Committee to move the game to American prime time but the Russians refused to approve the move.

So that famed hockey game was on a tape delay. The story goes a Baton Rouge sportscaster on WBRZ came in to do a sports promo in a break between the second and third period and said, “We beat the Russians … Details at 10!” Needless to say, that didn’t go too well down here.

Now the Olympics are different and pretty much available at whatever time you want to watch. I’ll be keeping an eye on things during the day, but like I have since I was a kid, I’ll be in front of the TV set getting ready for the prime-time show. The stories woven in with the events that we have known for years are what make the Olympic Games.

LSU has 24 representatives who will take part in the games, some in sports that have been a part of the Games since the early 1900s. Some are newer Olympic sports that have given so many more the chance to take part and represent their countries.

Good luck to all and I’ll meet you by the TV for another Olympic spectacle where storylines and real life combine for the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

See you soon in The Korner!