When Kenny Albert was growing up, family gatherings sounded a lot like a dispatch from the first all-sports radio station. There was his father, Marv, whose voice shaped the sound of modern basketball, and there too were his uncles Al and Steve--a trio of professional play-by-play men with a listenership that spanned the country. It was only a matter of time before Kenny, armed with a toy tape recorder, yearned to follow in their footsteps. Some 3,000 broadcasts later, Kenny Albert has amassed countless stories from the world of sports and media. A Mic for All Seasons is his chronicle of a charmed yet unlikely journey, from a youth spent calling games in his bedroom for a fictitious audience to ten-hour bus rides with a minor-league hockey team, plus the time he worked five different sports in one chaotic, 19-day stretch. The only play-by-play broadcaster who currently calls all four major sports in North America, Albert details the stand-out moments from his three-decade career, including the 1994 Stanley Cup Final, Jose Bautista's bat flip in the 2015 ALCS, and the U.S. women's hockey Olympic gold-medal winning shootout in Pyeongchang in 2018. Part memoir, part behind-the-scenes look at the world of broadcast media, A Mic for All Seasons also features stories about life in the booth, game preparation, travel hijinks, marquee events, meetings with star athletes and coaches, and much more.
When Kenny Albert was growing up, family gatherings sounded a lot like a dispatch from the first all-sports radio station. There was his father, Marv, whose voice shaped the sound of modern basketball, and there too were his uncles Al and Steve--a trio of professional play-by-play men with a listenership that spanned the country. It was only a matter of time before Kenny, armed with a toy tape recorder, yearned to follow in their footsteps. Some 3,000 broadcasts later, Kenny Albert has amassed countless stories from the world of sports and media. A Mic for All Seasons is his chronicle of a charmed yet unlikely journey, from a youth spent calling games in his bedroom for a fictitious audience to ten-hour bus rides with a minor-league hockey team, plus the time he worked five different sports in one chaotic, 19-day stretch. The only play-by-play broadcaster who currently calls all four major sports in North America, Albert details the stand-out moments from his three-decade career, including the 1994 Stanley Cup Final, Jose Bautista's bat flip in the 2015 ALCS, and the U.S. women's hockey Olympic gold-medal winning shootout in Pyeongchang in 2018. Part memoir, part behind-the-scenes look at the world of broadcast media, A Mic for All Seasons also features stories about life in the booth, game preparation, travel hijinks, marquee events, meetings with star athletes and coaches, and much more.
