Broadcaster Chris Berman’s memorable nicknames are still alive today because of Royals vice president of baseball operations George Brett.
The media personality, who has been a sportscaster for “SportsCenter” on ESPN since 1979, recently revealed in a Sports Illustrated Media Podcast with Jimmy Traina the story of how his famous nicknames almost were shut down by ESPN — and then singlehandedly saved by then-Royals third baseman Brett.
“It was late in the season in ’85 and [an unnamed executive producer said], ‘No, you can’t do those anymore,’” said Berman, who also hosted “Sunday NFL Countdown” from 1985 to 2016. “First of all, it’s like September 10, so if you’re smart, you wouldn’t eliminate them until like November, and then no one would notice. And each reason he gave didn’t make sense, but again, I’m just a young kid, I’m only 30. But people loved them, the players loved them. None of them were derogatory, they may not all have been genius, but then again, what is? But ‘You can’t do it,’ and the only thing I said to him was ‘I don’t think you understand what the people feel about this. We are a people-serving business.’”
Berman explained how he didn’t recall exactly why the producer requested that he stop using nicknames, suggesting that maybe it was because he was getting too much notoriety. He said that he did it because he wanted to entertain. At the time, ESPN was not as central to the sports world as it is now, forcing Berman to be creative for viewers.
Brett, who was eventually inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999, had been a fan and good friend of Berman’s given their closeness in age. Brett was outraged when Berman let him know that he couldn’t use nicknames anymore, Berman recalled, and took it upon himself to address another ESPN member on the matter.
“They were going to the postseason,” Berman said. “And I called him to wish him luck with a week to go or whatever it was: ‘Good luck, I’ll be rooting for you, I don’t know if I’ll get to the World Series or whatever it was, I don’t cover that, oh, by the way, I can’t do the nicknames anymore.’ And he exploded over the phone. I said ‘Well, don’t worry about it,’ you know, whatever.”
“George Grande went up to him [at the American League Championship series], one of the great people in our early anchors, one of our baseball guys, the baseball guy along with Lou Palmer then, and he said ‘George, can I get you?’” Berman added. “And [Brett] said ‘Wait a minute, hold on.’ And he unloads, not at George Grande personally, but ‘What is your management doing?! I’m not going to watch ESPN anymore, they’ve told my guy he can’t do nicknames!’”
After people witnessed the confrontation, it appeared in several different media publications the following day. Berman said that ESPN was “showered” with letters in 1985 protesting the fact that he couldn’t use nicknames. Next season, the instructing producer was gone.
“That wasn’t my call,” Berman said. “The nicknames were just sort of a microcosm of my enthusiasm and something to have fun with, and most of the players loved them, and the viewers seemed to love them.”