richiebee Wrote:
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> Instead of watching the races,
> you got the minimalist audio live call of Marshall
> Cassidy.


I was probably in the negligible minority who actually enjoyed Cassidy's calls. I guess that places me in the less is more school of announcing. So much of sports broadcasting now has way too much insertion of the talking head into the equation. Thanks to the mute button, I can watch sports the way that you used to be able to watch races at Keeneland. I think the high water mark in football announcing was hit by Ray Scott, calling the Packers' games. "Starr...Dowler...Touchdown."

The closest I ever heard Marshall come to editorializing was with the deliciously named, "Bodacious Tatas," particularly when she won, and he could punctuate the call with an emphatic "in front." Which brings me full circle to Richie's colorfully described passage of OTB parlors and painful round trips, which could easily provide the inspiration for an anthology of similar tales, called "The Long Ride Home." One of my most memorable came after watching the aforementioned "Tatas" race at Monmouth on a 4th of July weekend, and then stopping on the way home at an OTB in Binghamton, where I left Herr Von Kininchen (sp?) off an exacta part wheel that would have covered gas, lodging and Sea Bright bar bills. The drive home up Rt. 390 was more scenic than the Belt Parkway, but screw scenery.