THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 14, 1995 TAG: 9503140415
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
It was 10 days before Christmas. Bob Rathbun and his wife, Mary Beth, had just come home from some holiday shopping. Life was good.
Several months earlier, the assistant general manager/marketing director of the Detroit Tigers had offered Rathbun the opportunity to add the job of lead play-by-play announcer on the Tigers' cable network to his duties as one of the team's radio announcers. After three years spent battling the legend of radio icon Ernie Harwell, who had been dumped by the club just before Rathbun's arrival, he figured he finally had earned acceptance.
So he didn't sense anything sinister about either of the two messages on his answering machine.
One was from broadcast partner Rick Rizzs, who told him, ``It's not good.'' Rizzs' father had been seriously ill.
The other was from the general manager at radio station WJR, the 50,000-watt flagship of the Tigers' 40-station network.
A third call, from the program director at WJR, came in while he was playing the messages. Could he take part in an impromptu conference call later that afternoon?
And that's how Rathbun, the former voice of Old Dominion basketball, Tides baseball and Admirals hockey, found out he was unemployed.
``They start the call by announcing that they have reached a five-year contract extension with the Tigers - and they want to change announcers,'' Rathbun said Monday, following lunch with the Norfolk Sports Club. ``And then they introduced the new lead announcer and concluded that, oh, by the way, Bob Rathbun and Rick Rizzs have been fired. And that's the first I heard about it.
``Some time later, someone from the Tigers called and said, `I understand you didn't get a call first,' then mumbled something else - not an apology - and hung up. I've never been told why. In three years of doing the games, not one person at WJR or with the Tigers ever even hinted they were upset with what we were doing.''
Rathbun still has a year to go on his contract with the Tigers. He will be paid by the club not to work. But that's not Rathbun's style. The 40-year-old native of Salisbury, N.C., just finished working his 10th ACC basketball tournament. He will broadcast ACC baseball this spring and, once the major league baseball strike is settled, will do regional games for both ABC and NBC.
While Rathbun waits for that to happen, he, his wife and 8-month-old son, Court, will mark time living in Newport News. He is proud of his work in Detroit - ``we brought their broadcasts into the 20th century with things they never thought to do before'' - and confident his return to major league baseball will happen soon.
``We went into a situation where we knew what we were getting into,'' Rathbun says, referring to the daunting task of replacing the beloved Harwell. ``But the one thing that changed the landscape for us was the sale of the club.''
That happened Aug. 26, 1992, when Tigers owner Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza, sold the club to Mike Ilitch, founder of Little Caesars Pizza.
Rathbun says everyone who was involved in his being hired by the Tigers was fired that day. He and Rizzs would linger for a couple of years, roasted regularly by the Detroit media, which held a fan-reaction poll following Rathbun's very first broadcast - an exhibition game. The results weren't good.
``A Detroit columnist asked me the next day what I thought of their poll and I told him I thought it was --------,'' Rathbun said. ``I asked if he thought it was fair to judge someone after his first two hours on the job and he said, `No, but that's the way the newspaper business is these days.' And then he slapped me on the back and walked away.''
Rathbun said the best part of the job was the friendships he made. Tigers manager Sparky Anderson was his next-door neighbor, and the two keep in touch regularly. Many fellow broadcasters have volunteered to help Rathbun find work.
Rather than be angry with the Tigers, Rathbun talks about the team as though he were still a part of it. The phrases ``our clubhouse'' and ``our guys'' crept frequently into his speech to the Sports Club.
He appears only slightly perturbed that the Tigers' new announcers have no baseball experience.
``I'm not bitter,'' Rathbun said. ``When I got fired, I promised myself I would not be. Somebody once told me, `You can be bitter, or you can get better.' I think it's good advice.
``I want to stay in the game. I will stay in the game. I'm excited about my next opportunity.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Mort Fryman, Staff
``You can be bitter or you can get better,'' says broadcaster Bob
Rathbun, who is in the market for a new major league mike.
by CNB