THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Monday, August 15, 2011

Ted Tevan, RIP

Ted Tevan was one of the voices of my childhood.  He was a late-night sports radio announcer, who had style and charm.  He was likeable, even when he was abrasive.  He was everything that was right about talk radio, and nothing that was wrong.  And I still haven’t found anyone that can fill his void.

I can’t do him justice, which is fine, because this lifestory from Earl Zuckerman is fantastic.  I’ll just quote some of the snippets:

The blunt, raspy-voiced open-line host was known for the expression “You’re gone!” while cutting off some callers, followed by an unmistakable ratta-tat-tat of a machine-gun.
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Tevan was considered by many to be a sports radio pioneer in Canada
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Tevan had the top-rated local radio program in English or French in its 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. time slot.
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In 2008, Clyde Henry Productions, in association with the National Film Board of Canada, announced they were producing a documentary on Tevan. The film is expected to be released within the next two years.
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Tevan moved to Montreal in 1965, and when the city acquired a major-league baseball team for the 1969 season, it was Tevan who created the French-language Expos baseball radio network.

Tevan coined many catchphrases, talked about “living the game of life”, going to “the school of hard knocks”, “walking on Savvy street” and the importance of being a “straight arrow”. He was credited with giving football star Johnny Rodgers the nickname “The Ordinary Superstar” and was the first to refer to baseball Hall of Famer Gary Carter as “The Kid”.

Tevan, who referred to Montreal as the “city of champions,”
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A preeminent expert on boxing, Tevan was a fixture at most major fights and was one of few to boldly predict Muhammad Ali’s stunning victory over George Foreman in 1974 for the world heavyweight championship in Zaire.
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Tevan also made national news that year when he organized a charity baseball game between prisoners from the Leclerc Institute – a medium-security penal institution – and a Montreal junior team at Jarry Park. The game was sanctioned by then Solicitor-General Warren Almond and Expos GM Jim Fanning, marking the first time in Canadian penal history that convicts had been let out of a prison to play a sporting event.

Tevan had a unique appeal and often drew more female listeners than men, unheard of for a sports phone-in show. In 1979, he spent a half-hour on air trying to appease a distraught caller whose cat had climbed atop a Hydro-Québec pole. In 1981, he took a late-night call from a man who said he had a .38 calibre gun in his hand and was threatening suicide. Tevan kept the caller talking for almost an hour past his traditional sign-off time before the police traced the call, located the man and disarmed him.

In 1986, he made national news again after spending almost an hour on the air talking to a suicidal woman who had slashed her wrists, but was eventually found and survived.

Tevan served as an inspiration to many young Montrealers who went into sports broadcasting careers, including Mitch Melnick, Elliott Price and Paul Graif.

“I have my own style,” he once told The Gazette’s Juan Rodriguez. “When you hear a Dick Irvin or a Danny Gallivan or a Howard Cosell, you know instantly who they are. I think that’s what I manage to do, although I don’t pretend to place myself among the greats.”

Tevan always ended his show by saying he had “run out of racetrack,” and would often say after announcing the death of a prominent sports figure: “God rest ye, merry gentleman.”