Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [157]
JEAN McCORMICK:
Shortly before the 1992 presidential election, Outside the Lines aired a special on presidents and sports. There were all sorts of interesting stories: Gerald Ford was a major college football star; JFK was actually a better golfer than Eisenhower but hid it for fear of backlash; Nixon came up with a play for the Redskins. We submitted requests to the Clinton and Bush [senior] camps for interviews. Clinton had recognized the power of cable and its ability to reach highly targeted demographics. He had already played the saxophone on MTV. His camp agreed immediately and we shot the interview and promoted the show through the clips. The Bush camp initially turned it down because—well, because he was a sitting president of the United States, and sports cable did not seem fitting. To his tremendous credit, Bob Ley kept going back to them. And they kept saying no.
About two weeks before the election, when Bush was way behind in the polls, they started to see the Clinton ads. And someone in their camp realized that ESPN was an incredible conduit to a very sweet demographic for them, men eighteen to forty-nine. Bob Ley received a call on a Wednesday or Thursday from the White House, which basically stated, “You are doing this interview”—technically we had to because of equal access—and “it will have to be on Air Force One on Sunday,” as they had no other time on the schedule. And so ESPN interviewed the president on Air Force One. While President Bush was extraordinarily gracious, a college baseball star, and an avid fan who had actually met Babe Ruth at Yale, the last-minute nature of the interview posed challenges. They had forgotten to schedule a makeup person; the harsh light was unforgiving. The Blue Jays had won the World Series the night before. They kept trying to set up a call between the president and Cito Gaston, the manager; the call kept failing while we kept shooting. Still, it was an amazing moment not just for ESPN but also for cable, as it recognized the ability of various channels to deliver targeted demographics. Today we live in a world where the sitting POTUS fills his brackets out on ESPN; then it did seem a bit extraordinary that they let our cameras on Air Force One.
MATT SANDULLI:
I was basically just a kid, been in the business for only three or four years. Having grown up a Mets fan, I was the guy who was given the assignment to produce Tom Seaver’s Hall of Fame piece. So here I am, sitting in Tom Seaver’s backyard in Greenwich, Connecticut.
I knew of his reputation, that he’d big-time the shit out of you and just throw you off in a heartbeat, so I wanted to make sure everything went perfectly. There were a bunch of different interviews scheduled, and we were the last one of the day. He was not particularly thrilled to keep going, but when we sat down, he said, “I got twenty minutes, guys, okay?” Well, okay. So I’m sitting there asking him questions and, long story short, we go like forty-five minutes. I’ve had the time of my life. And by the time we were done, the big-time edge had gone away and he was genuinely reminiscing about his career. Then it turned into the most bizarre thing, because the camera man started talking to him about his garden, and all of a sudden, we’re in his garden playing with the squash that he was growing. Then Nancy Seaver asks, “You guys want some lemonade or something?” It was just surreal.
Within a month and a half’s time after that, I get Pete Rose at a boat show, George Brett in Kansas City, and Frank Thomas who, at the time, was a young stud. All half-hour, forty-five-minute interviews. Talking baseball with Pete Rose, Tom Seaver, George Brett, and Frank Thomas. Are you kidding me? I was in heaven. It was why I got into this business. It was the greatest