Born To The Booth

Kenny is only 24, but his résumé is already a hockey rink long. He was doing college and high school football games when he was at Schreiber High School in Port Washington, N.Y. Then, at NYU, while broadcasting games and playing on the club hockey team and doing stats for his dad, he subbed on New York Islander radio broadcasts. Says Uncle Al, "Kenny got Steve's voice, my wit and Marv's work ethic. If I'm doing a Nugget game in Landover, he still wants to do my stats."

Upon graduation from NYU, Kenny worked two seasons with the AHL's Baltimore Skipjacks, and last summer he was hired to do the Capitals. A few weeks ago Kenny broadcast something called the American Athletic Games One-On-One Contest from New York's Central Park for SportsChannel.

He did sound like Steve, trying to pump life into the rather lackluster final. He also sounded as if he and his partner had been doing it forever, even though his partner, former NBA referee Earl Strom, has some 40 years on him.

"That's nice exposure for Kenny," says Marv. "The funny thing is, I got one of my first national breaks doing ABC's NBA one-on-one tournament in the early '70s. I think Barry Clemens beat Geoff Petrie, so we didn't attract the cream of the crop. Anyway, like father, like son."

Like father, like son. A few years ago Kenny was subbing on a radio broadcast of an Islander game, and the clock stopped at 7:11. The 20-year-old play-by-play boy asked his color man, Bob Nystrom, "Does 7:11 mean anything to you, Bob?" Of course, it did. Nystrom scored the goal that gave the Islanders their first Stanley Cup, in 1980, at 7:11 of overtime.

The Bucks

Joe Buck, 23, says one of his earliest memories is of sitting in the second row of a broadcast booth. "I'm four years old, and suddenly I knock over a cup of soda, and it spills all over my dad, Mike Shannon and Bob Starr. I can still see the looks on their faces."

On the day he turned 18—April 25, 1987—Joe was again sitting in the second row of the booth. His father had taken him to New York as a birthday present, and in the fifth inning of a Met-Cardinal game, he gave Joe a surprise gift.

Says Joe, "Suddenly I heard my dad tell his listeners, 'And now for the play-by-play, Joe Buck.' Then he and Mike Shannon stood up and left the booth. I was terrified, but I had no choice. There was nobody else there to call the game. I was terrible."

"You did just fine," says Jack.