Everyone reading this article can identify with Pittsburgh broadcaster and former Pirates pitcher Bob Walk.
You’re in your office chair, or your chair at school, or at the kitchen table. You take a leisurely lean back. It feels good, so you keep going, pushing your chair right to the edge, relying on your innate athleticism and sense of balance to keep you upright. And then, disaster:
Of course, when this happened to you, you likely weren’t doing a live radio broadcast, while being tracked by a live television camera. (Though if it was the kitchen chair, your mom likely yelled at you, which may have been worse.)
Credit to Walk, who took it in stride by immediately giving the thumbs-up, despite staying down on the floor for a bit. The TV guys jumped all over him, which you’d expect, though the immediacy of their reaction is worth applauding. As is the quick head-whip double-take of play-by-play man Greg Brown.
There’s a lot of airtime to fill during a 162-game season. But, as the old saying goes: sometimes you win games, sometimes you lose them, and sometimes you tip over backwards in your chair on television.
