Bad taste lingers in Celtic announcers' mouths

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bad taste lingers in Celtic announcers' mouths


By Bill Griffith, Globe Staff, 3/11/2003

ike Gorman found himself calling Sunday night's Spurs-Celtics game on FSNE
with one eye on the court and the other looking over his shoulder, as he
worked with his back to the crowd.



This was the result of the incident in Friday night's game, when a mysterious
substance was released behind the Boston bench between the third and fourth
quarters and affected players, media, and fans.

Yesterday, Gorman was 95 percent convinced it was simply a prank involving
pepper spray or a mace-like substance, but 5 percent of him still wonders.

''They say all the evidence indicates that is the case, but it still means
people are guessing,'' he said.

''I knew right away I'd ingested a toxic substance. It was affecting my lungs
and sinuses. The best way I can explain it was it was like you'd inhaled live,
hot bugs.''

Gorman's partner, analyst Tommy Heinsohn, and WWZN radio play-by-play man Sean
Grande all were bothered by the mysterious gas. Radio analyst Cedric Maxwell
had picked a propitious time for a bathroom break and missed the worst of it.

''I was the first one affected,'' said Grande. ''I was choking and looked at
my stats man, Dave Powers, who started to say, `Are you OK?' just as it hit
him. Then I looked at Mike and he looked concerned.''

According to Grande, his first thought was, ''I'm about to die,'' but his
second was, ''I'm about to die, but we're on the air.''

Grande whispered to producer Howie Sylvester, ''I have to go,'' and ran down
the runway, where he found fresh air - and a cellphone on the returning
Maxwell. ''We went back on the air on Max's cellphone,'' said Grande.

''The whole experience was very disconcerting,'' said Gorman, ''and it felt
even worse than it sounded on the air. You'd have had to be an idiot not to be
scared. Fortunately, two things became obvious two minutes into it. One, each
breath was coming easier and, two, the radius was contained.''

FSNE was in a commercial break when the incapacitating substance rendered
Gorman unable to do more than gasp to producer Paul Lucey that something was
wrong. Still not knowing exactly what was happening, Gorman went back on the
air after the break with a towel covering his nose and mouth.

Meanwhile, the ESPN crew of John Saunders, Sean Elliott, and Michele Tafoya
picked up on the problem, but because they were on the opposite side of the
court, they didn't get the full effect.

''It pretty much had dissipated by the time Michele got across the court to
report on it,'' said Gorman.

One of the first things security personnel asked Gorman was whether he'd seen
any white powder.

''Our location is right next to the Celtics bench, where the players check in
before entering the game,'' said Gorman. ''There are several cans of resin
there, so our work area always is covered by a film of powder and there always
are traces of it over me.''

Add to all of this the fact that Gorman lives in New York City and went
through the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and you get a guy who was seriously
concerned.

''After the game, all I wanted to do was to get out of the building,'' he
said. But first there was a stop to see Celtics physician Arnold Scheller, who
also happens to be a colonel in the US Army Medical Corps. ''He's been part of
all sorts of deployments and is very much up to speed with chemical agents,''
said Gorman. But even Scheller could not allay all of Gorman's concerns.

Heinsohn left the FleetCenter with a four-Advil headache after the game.

''There was a potential for panic,'' he said. ''I told the FSNE people that if
anything like it ever happens again, I'm out of there.

''You know they make a major security push for the Super Bowl and World Series
games. Now what do we do about our games? The bad thing about something like
this, even if it was a prank, it can get someone else thinking.''

Which is why your hometown announcers are keeping an eye on more than the
game.

Dynamic duo

On Sunday's ''Red Sox This Week,'' Dan Roche had a nice feature on a nine-hole
golf match between Sox pitchers Derek Lowe and Tim Wakefield. Fresh angles are
hard to come by, and this was a good one, given the byplay between the two ...
Speaking of Channel 38's Sox coverage, the WBZ/Channel 38 crew did a nice job
with green graphics that distinguish the telecasts from NESN's ... The video
clip of Sox analyst Jerry Remy tumbling as his chair goes over backward in the
broadcast booth seems destined to be seen for years. Tomorrow, Remy begins a
weekly Wednesday gig on WEEI's ''Dennis and Callahan'' morning show ... Alan
Miller, executive producer of ''The Boston Globe: Sports Plus'' on NESN, wants
the show, which originates from The Place in Boston's financial district, to
have a live feel. Thus the handheld cameras and background noise. But he plans
to tone down both a bit for Thursday's show (NESN, 6 p.m.), which will feature
Jackie MacMullan and Kevin Paul Dupont. Updates on the Bruins' and Celtics'
playoff pushes are scheduled, including a one-on-one with Bruins general
manager Mike O'Connell. But with live TV, all that is subject to change.
Miller was elated that the inaugural show did a .9 rating. This week's show
leads into the Bruins pregame at 6:30 and then Devils-Bruins at 7 ... ESPN
hockey analyst Bill Clement cracked, ''That's cost-effective marketing,'' as
the Chicago crowd littered the United Center ice with the day's giveaway green
caps during the Blackhawks' 8-5 victory over the Bruins Sunday. But
play-by-play man Gary Thorne took drop-in promos to a new low in describing
Eric Daze's second goal: ''How many times have we seen a guy with a reach like
that, a Southwest Airlines kind of reach.''

Thanks,

Steve
sb@maine.rr.com

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