Joe Tait: It's Been a Real Ball: Stories from a Hall-of-Fame Sports Broadcasting Career

Terry Pluto · Joe Tait

May 2012 · Gray & Company, Publishers

About this ebook

Joe Tait is like a family friend to three generations of Cleveland sports fans. This book celebrates his Hall-of-Fame broadcasting career with stories from Joe and dozens of fans, media colleagues, and players. He was "the Voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers." But to fans, Joe was also "one of us." Cavs basketball, Indians baseball, or Mount Union football, he made the game come alive, and wasn't afraid to speak his mind¿even when it might get him in trouble with the coach or the owner. He inspired a generation of young broadcasters, and phrases he invented became part of the common language of Northeast Ohio sports.These stories will make you feel like you're sharing a personal play-by-play recap with one of the best announcers in all of sports.

About the author

Joe Tait was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010 after 40 years on the air as the radio voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was the play by play announcer from the team’s first year, 1970, until his retirement in 2011 (except for two seasons: 1980–81 and 1981–82). He also did play-by-play for the Cleveland Indians for 15 seasons—on radio from 1973 to 1979 and on television from 1980 to 1987. He broadcast games for the Cleveland Rockers (WNBA basketball), Cleveland Crusaders (WHL hockey), Mount Union College football, and other teams. His final Cavaliers broadcast was on April 13, 2011.

Terry Pluto is a sports columnist for The Plain Dealer. He has twice been honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors as the nation’s top sports columnist for medium-sized newspapers. He is a nine-time winner of the Ohio Sports Writer of the Year award and has received more than 50 state and local writing awards. In 2005 he was inducted into the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame. He is the author of 23 books, including The Curse of Rocky Colavito (selected by the New York Times as one of the five notable sports books of 1989), and Loose Balls, which was ranked number 13 on Sports Illustrated’s list of the top 100 sports books of all time. He was called “Perhaps the best American writer of sports books,” by the Chicago Tribune in 1997. He lives in Akron, Ohio.