A Star-Spangled Fourth
Messer's most famous call may have been his description on WABC of the final out of Dave Righetti’s no-hitter at Yankee Stadium against the Red Sox, on July 4, 1983: As Righetti got Wade Boggs to swing at strike three, Messer intoned:
The kick, and the pitch...he STRUCK HIM OUT! Righetti has pitched a no-hitter! Dave Righetti has pitched a no-hitter! He strikes out Boggs for the final out of the ball game, and the Yankees POUR onto the field to congratulate Dave Righetti!According to the book Sports on New York Radio by Westwood One media executive and former sportscaster David J. Halberstam, the call should have been made by partner White, who was to call that half-inning as part of the in-game rotation of announcers between radio and SportsChannel TV (now Fox Sports Net New York). While White did the whole game bouncing between WABC and SportsChannel, Messer and Rizzuto rotated between TV, radio and the Fan Appreciation Day giveaways on the field between innings.
But according to Messer, after White saw him return to the WABC radio booth (he helped White call the last half of the eighth inning), White insisted that Messer, the senior of the two, should call the ninth.
"It was a class act", Messer said of White's gesture.
Read more about this topic: Frank Messer
Famous quotes containing the word fourth:
“What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: A day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.”
—Frederick Douglass (c.1817–1895)