WHERE IN GOD’S NAME IS BOB LEY???
Thank God!
Praise the Lord!!
Hallelujah!!!
We finally have the skinny on Bob Ley after all these months. Problem is our greatest fear has now been confirmed.
He’s not comin’ back.
He’s not comin’ back.
Goddammit, he’s not comin’ back.
Well good for him; he has certainly earned the privilege of retirement. But a small part of me is going with him.
I was torn asunder when he announced in September that he was taking a leave of absence beginning October 1. It was thought that he might return April 1 but this leave was looking more like an indefinite sabbatical.
“I’ll catch you on the flip side,” he quipped at the time when signing off his last show.
April, May and most of June came and went…and no Bob.
Worse, no word of Bob.
Until yesterday June 26, 2019 when he announced his retirement effective June 30.
After a groundbreaking and stellar nearly 40-year career at ESPN as the network’s longest-tenured anchor, the multiple Emmy Award-winner is leaving the desk for good.
Bob Ley’s legacy is ESPN’s legacy.
He was ESPN’s “conscience” and “North Star,” according to comrades Chris Berman and Jay Bilas and was affectionately dubbed by all in Bristol, “The General.” Scott Van Pelt aptly described Ley as “the soul of our shop.”
His molded chair, fitting like a glove will be from here on, without him in it.
“Now it’s time to take the vinyl off the turntable (ask your folks), flip it over, and drop the needle on the B-side. There are always great cuts, and hidden gems on the B-side. Thank you for a great run.”
And disabusing any notion that the network might need him going forward, Ley, a history buff, quoted Charles de Gaulle who allegedly sallied, “The cemeteries are full of indispensable men.”
Characteristically, Ley found the line both “funny and profound at the same time.”
Certainly “a great run” it was.
Bob Ley joined ESPN as a SportsCenter anchor on September 9, 1979 — -just three days after its launch, hosting the network’s signature show thousands upon thousands of times beginning alongside the likes of George Grande and Tom Mees.
He was the studio host for six World Cups — soccer is his favorite — and since 1990, the host of (and the reason to watch) ESPN’s investigative newsmagazine show, “Outside the Lines.”
A forceful proponent of diversity he was, and also the first choice when it came to covering the hard news: Magic Johnson’s announcement that he was H.I.V. positive; Muhammad Ali’s death; the network’s first broadcasts from Cuba.
In 1998 when the Clinton White House approached ESPN about doing a town hall on sports and race, Ley of course was the moderator.
He could be playful on-air featuring a sharp wit and also a bit feisty when sharing his opinions, particularly in recent years.
Covering the FIFA presidential selection in 2015 he ripped up his paper agenda in front of the camera and angrily declared, “For those who say it is a base canard and unfair that FIFA makes it up as they go along, they are making it up as they go along, right in front of our face.”
Ley got his start in broadcasting as a sportscaster and program director at WSOU on the campus of Seton Hall University from which he graduated magna cum laude in 1976 with a BA in Communications.
He interned as a production staffer at WOR-AM in New York City and worked several minor broadcasting gigs including as PA announcer for the New York Cosmos before landing his first major position with ESPN.
He built his bursting-at-the-seams portfolio, one show at a time, one year at a time and one decade at a time. Ley covered everything from March Madness and the NFL Draft to the 9/11 attacks.
His was the voice of reason behind the scenes, the voice of the operation.
Concocting a mix of humility and humor with the hard truths — the facts — Ley was wont to amend Mark Twain’s motto of “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story,” to let’s have both, please.
Jimmy Pitaro, new ESPN president observed reverentially, “Ley’s unwavering commitment and unparalleled work ethic drove our journalistic ambitions. The best way we can thank Bob for what he meant to ESPN and to sports fans is to continue to uphold the journalistic integrity and principle he’s instilled in ESPN for nearly 40 years.”
Colleagues and compadres, Jeremy Schaap and Bob Ley have shared much together including a celebratory on-air toast with Stags’ Leap Winery’s Cabernet Sauvignon on the 26th in their last — and final — scheduled mutual appearance (with Ley as the guest).
Schaap calls Ley the mentor; Ley views Schaap as supremely talented and an equal.
In an inevitable near- canonization, Schaap cites a few of Ley’s distinguished broadcasting gems — interviews and seminal moments — which in and of themselves deify the venerable master.
His coverage of the 1989 Bay Area World Series when the earth shook.
Pete Rose’s lifetime ban from baseball and persistent denials of wrongdoing in the face of Ley asking tough questions while projecting gravitas.
The tragic 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
His superlative and peerless impactful reporting from Russia, Vietnam, South Africa, Cuba and Brazil.
Imbuing both “OTL” and “E:60” with his inimitable temperament and journalistic values while commenting incisively and unflappably.
His versatility and his unyielding demand to strive for and practice probity, integrity 24/7.
Schaap hit it on the button when he explained that there has never been an ESPN without Bob Ley, nor will it ever be the same.
Ley was part of the network’s fabric and essence, an inextricable link to its history and its being.
June 30 he will ride off into the sunset, gone for good.
Simply put, Bob Ley was the best.
A beacon to all who follow, not just in Bristol but wherever the pursuit of world-class journalism and its ethics matter.
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in June 2019.]
