3…2..1..We’re On the Air by Robert Steinfeld; Fort Worth, Texas: TCU Press; (c) 2024; ISBN 9780875-658803; 260 pages including appendices; $31.46 on Amazon.
SAN DIEGO — Robert Steinfeld grew up playing sports at his local Jewish Community Center and was a member of AEPi, a Jewish fraternity, at college. He was a super sports fan in his youth, and thanks to his gigs as the producer of many sports events, he has remained so, only up close. He lionizes star athletes and broadcasters and feels grateful when they praise his work or do him a favor.
Steinfeld sketches his interactions with basketball player David Robinson, baseball strong man Cal Ripken Jr., and broadcasters Robin Roberts, Bob Costas and Merle Harmon. He devotes an entire chapter to WNBA superstar and fellow Jewish community member Nancy Lieberman.
He provides some interesting anecdotes via San Diego’s late basketball star Bill Walton about John Wooden, the legendary coach Walton played for at UCLA before becoming professional. Some Wooden aphorisms: “Be quick but don’t hurry.” “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” “Never mistake activity for achievements.”
Walton and Wooden were rare West Coast personalities in this memoir. Most of Steinfeld’s career was spent in Texas as the television producer for a variety of Texas teams and tournaments. He once schmoozed with Tim Duncan, the star forward of the San Antonio Spurs, and after pro forma discussions about how each other was feeling, Steinfeld, an amateur athlete, volunteered: “I scored 20 points yesterday in the JBA, the Jewish Basketball Association of Dallas.”
Duncan replied, “You got to dominate where you can, man.” Steinfeld took that as a possible watchword. He is very serious when he produces an athletic event for television; there are many moving parts, often requiring split-second timing.
Besides basketball, Steinfeld played other sports in his off time. Once, while in Las Vegas to produce Saturday Night Fights for the Fox Sports Network, he had the opportunity to play golf. On a long hole, par 5, his drive was intercepted by a coyote pup who “picked it up in its mouth and raced off with his two siblings.”
A PGA marshal, who had seen such shenanigans before, explained there was a rule for that situation: “Put a new ball where you suspect your original one lay, with no penalty.”
Steinfeld’s trip down memory lane includes numerous anecdotes from a variety of sports. It’s worth slogging through the names of the many people he lists as having served with him on one production or another. These names that will mean little to a casual reader, but they reinforce the point that just like sports action on the field, the action in the production booth also is a team effort.
*
Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.
Walton is also a Helix High School alumni 🙂