Baseball, Basketball, Football, and Hockey clubs drew attention; Funny, the once dominant Yankees lost their edge

No New York sports fan will ever forget the Title game of 1970 and again in 1973, both over the Lakers. You can imagine, it continues to haunt them today. A drought of 51 years. This 2025 club looks and feels like it can win it all.

In 1969, Joe Namath produced a thriller, defeating Don Shula‘s Colts. It was Joe Willie, as play-by-player Merle Harmon comfortably called him. (The late Merle reminds me of Kevin Harlan.)

A young Marv Albert, still in his twenties, was doing hoops. Cable was hardly a factor then. Subscription fees were costly, so many then counted on Marv’s capturing calls. The city went wild! It was also the year that America landed a manned spaceship on the moon surface, and it was said, “If a man can walk on the
moon, the Mets can win the Series.” And a pint-sized hitter like Al Weis batted .455 against the Orioles!

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Lindsey Nelson was the Mets’ choice for television and radio. It was a natural. He had worked at NBC for years and its college football broadcasts were renowned throughout the land. Ralph Kiner got the radio assignment and alternated with the Orioles’ Bill O’Donnell. Jim Simpson would start a run of six straight World Series games on radio. by the network.  How about Bob Murphy not being assigned to do the 1969 World Series? 

Was Murph disappointed? Absolutely! Folks in the commissioner’s office wanted me but M. Donald Grant (the Mets’ top man in the front office) didn’t want me,” Murphy said, still harboring some anger three decades later.

Jim Simpson, always professional and invariably the consummate network broadcaster, was much like Chris Schenkel or to a lesser extent, Keith Jackson. Baseball wasn’t their passion. Simpson was a backup, second behind Curt Gowdy. If Curt had the number one football game on Sunday, Simpson did number two. If Curt Gowdy labeled “grand-daddy” Rose Bowl, Simpson did the lesser Orange Bowl. If Gowdy did the Series on TV, Simpson did it on radio.

Simpson was born in the Washington, D.C., and is a the ultimate jack-of-all-trades. He covered everything from the Olympics to parachute jumping. His love as a kid was the outdoors. As a young teenager,
he contributed a hunting and fishing column to a magazine, becoming the youngest member of the Outdoor Writers Association.

He was perfectly qualified to serve as Gowdy’s number #2 in Boston with the Red Sox. Gowdy also started on the American Sportsman.” The well-groomed Simpson also authored 10 straight radio All-Star Games, five with Sandy Koufax. “I used to think of myself as an athlete until I started working with Koufax on dolor,” the versatile broadcaster said.

As an active player, the Brooklyn-born pitcher pursued a broadcast career. “His name will always remind you of strikeouts,” Vin Scully would say. True. (Curt Gowdy, above)

Koufax certainly felt more comfortable throwing a fastball on the mound than a curveball on the air. By 1974 he would be replaced by Maury Wills, his former Dodgers teammate.