Tales of Broadcasts Past: In 1982, the Players Announced Their Own Starting Lineups

From the archives:

Saturday, May 29, 1982 – NBC broadcasts their Games-of-the-week.

This particular Saturday features the Cincinnati Reds travelling to Montreal to play the Expos.

A superb pitching match-up as Hall-of-Famer Tom Seaver takes the mound for Cincinnati vs Expos ace Steve Rogers.

One of the features of this broadcast consists of players from each team announcing their team’s starting-lineup, with an opposing player chiming in and providing a little color-commentary along the way.

In this scene, we have Hall-of-Famers Johnny Bench (announcing the lineup for the Reds) and Gary Carter (announcing the lineup for the Expos).

This is an awkward and hilarious idea.

Although you can tell neither player wants to say anything negative about anybody aside from some self-deprecating humor, it’s an interesting insight as to how the players viewed the capabilities of their own teams.

Here is Johnny Bench going through the Reds’ lineup:

And Gary Carter doing likewise for the Expos: