Al Michaels has covered incredible sporting events since the 1970’s. Michaels was the play-by-play commentator of eight World Series, nine Super Bowl and ample Olympic events, including the 1980 Miracle On Ice. On Wednesday, Michaels went on ProFootbalTalk Live with Mike Florio and discussed the recent revelations that the Atlanta Falcons are pumping artificial crowd noise into the Georgia Dome.
During that topic, Michaels reminisced about the 1987 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Minnesota Twins, per the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The sportscasting icon then made an accusation that the Twins did the same thing during Game 7, which they won.
“I’ll never forget, Scott Ostler was writing for the L.A. Times, and he described the crowd as 54,223 Scandinavian James Browns,” Michaels said. “It was the perfect line.”
On Thursday, Twins president Dave St. Peter called Michaels’ comments “comical” and took on the long-standing notion that Minnesota pumped air through the vents at the Metrodome to help balls carry.
“At the end of the day, it continues to demonstrate a lack of appreciation and respect for Tom Kelly, Frank Viola, Gary Gaetti, Kent Hrbek and Kirby Puckett, who came out of nowhere to win a championship,” he said.
“I don’t think they needed any of the conspiracy theories out there to win that championship.”
Michaels didn’t stop at one mere comment. He went on to say that ABC brought a noise meter to the Metrodome during the World Series and it broke due to the excessive noise.
“The decibel level had gotten higher than a runway at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport,” Michaels said.
Again, St. Peter knocked the comments down, giving all the credit to the more than 50,000 patrons at the contest.
“Those players had a magical journey that resulted in a very special bond with the fans, perhaps the most incredible bond a team and a fan base has enjoyed in this part of the country,” the Twins president said. “It resulted in some magical moments, including, in my view, a record decibel level in the Dome in 1987.”
The Metrodome was famous for its noise during both baseball and football games throughout its use. The NFL’s Minnesota Vikings were always viewed suspiciously in terms of fake crowd noise, something that was never proven.
Michaels didn’t seem to be throwing cold water on Minnesota or its 1987 championship, but was merely pointing out the Falcons are not the first team to pump in crowd noise. There is really no reason for Michaels to maliciously attack the Twins and their fans, not to mention the game took place 28 years ago.
