Bob Costas on His Performance Calling Last Year’s Playoffs: ‘I Was Off My Game’

Also in Traina Thoughts: NCAA tournament broadcast shakeup; Giannis records ridiculous triple-double; ‘Creed III’ is a big box-office success; and more.

1. Let me start by getting the most significant observation of Bob Costas’s appearance on Bill Maher’s podcast, Club Random, out of the way: I’m not sure you’ll find many people who look better at 70 than Costas. If you told me Costas was 50, I’d believe it.

During his interview with Maher, Costas addressed his much-panned performance for TBS in last year’s Major League Baseball playoffs. The veteran play-by-play man admitted the criticism he received in the first game was warranted.

“This past October I did the Yankees and the Guardians in the Division Series and I felt like I was off my game,” Costas said. “Sort of like a pitcher who still has good stuff, but somehow, as they say, he didn’t have command, that night. I could feel it. In the first five or six innings of the first game, it’s the same philosophy, same approach, but I wasn’t nailing it. It didn’t have the same flow and rhythm to it. There were a few awkward moments. I hadn’t worked that much with Ron Darling, only two or three games. Very smart guy. Guy I like.”

After Maher heaped praise on Costas for his style of broadcasting, Costas explained why he was bothered by his broadcast of the Yankees and Guardians.

“Now, I don’t place much stock in what two or three people say on Twitter, because on Twitter, there’s no misdemeanors. There’s only felonies. But when I knew myself that it just wasn’t what I’ve generally been able to do—and I wasn’t comparing myself to 1995 when I’m doing the World Series, I was comparing myself to August and September of last season when things were as they usually were. And somehow, I might have gotten a little better as the five games went along, but it wasn’t what I intended to do. Now, why do I care about that?

“I’m back if I wanna be back to do it. I’m only doing it as much as what I want to do. I did a dozen Olympics. It was time to leave that. Most of what I’ve done is in the past. But I only want to do a handful of things and one of the things I want to do is a little bit of baseball. Why? Because I’ve always liked it and because it’s gratifying to me when people say the sort of things you’ve said. ‘You do it differently,’ and I appreciate that. I don’t need a parade. I just like that. So I felt like I dropped the ball on that, and it made me feel bad about it for that reason.”

Costas added, “I had a few missteps. Just uncharacteristic.“

You never hear broadcasters admit to being off their game, so kudos to Costas for his honesty.

Among the other highlights of the podcast was Maher leaving Costas speechless when he revealed that he wasn’t a Vin Scully fan, Costas explaining how he had to go from the Red Sox locker room to the Mets locker room at the end of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series and Maher talking about why this is favorite Sports Illustrated cover.

2. Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reports that Reggie Miller will not call any NCAA tournament games for CBS/Turner this year, and that Stan Van Gundy is replacing Miller.

NEWSLETTER+: Stan Van Gundy replacing Reggie Miller on CBS/Turner NCAA Tournament games, The Post has learned.https://t.co/rpsW5ASlJk

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) March 6, 2023

3. Anyone who bet that Giannis would have a triple double in the Bucks’ game Sunday against the Wizards should send him a cut of their winnings after he pulled off this move.

Giannis Antetokounmpo intentionally missed a shot in the final seconds to get his 10th rebound and secure a triple-double 👀 pic.twitter.com/QFthHLlLcu

— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) March 6, 2023

4. This sketch from this past weekend's Saturday Night Live hosted by Travis Kelce did not make the live show.

5. Creed III, which opened this weekend, was a huge success at the box office.

BOX OFFICE: #CreedIII grabs #1 w/ $58.6M this weekend. That is..
- The biggest opening of all the #Creed & #Rocky movies
- The biggest opening ever for a sports movie
- The biggest opening ever for a Black director in their directorial debut
- The biggest opening ever for Amazon pic.twitter.com/cKzICLc7NT

— Erik Davis (@ErikDavis) March 5, 2023

Creed III also became the first sports movie to bring in more than $100 million globally in its opening weekend.

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with the WWE’s Paul Heyman. Topics covered include:

• The smash-hit story line involving Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn, why it’s worked so well and who should get credit for the creative

• Why The Rock wasn’t able to pull off a rumored match with Reigns at WrestleMania

• Selling fans on a Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns WrestleMania main event

• Vince McMahon’s return to the WWE

• When will he start a podcast

• An encounter with Michael Jordan

Following Heyman, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we share their thoughts on Major League Baseball implementing the pitch clock and read recent Apple reviews for the podcast. 

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: If you like the art of interviewing, this was so completely and totally satisfying.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.