Friday, March 25, was my birthday.
Happy birthday to Howard, Lee — and me.
A birthday is an admission ticket to an exclusive fraternity of people who celebrate the same day they came into the world.
Legendary broadcaster Howard Cosell and former baseball player/manager Lee Mazzilli were also born on March 25. But we shared more than the same birthday. During the course of my career, I happened to meet both of these men.
Those should have been moments to remember. But for different reasons, I wish neither of them had ever taken place.
Cosell, who died nearly 16 years ago, was one of the most influential figures in American sports in my lifetime, a sports broadcaster who brought the perspective of his time to the arenas, ballparks and stadiums. As a young man growing up during that time, I admired Cosell and loved that we shared the same birthday. But I felt our connections went beyond that.
He grew up in the same Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood where I would grow up 36 years later. He attended the same elementary school that my father did at the same time, though my father didn’t remember any Howard Cohen, Cosell’s given name.
Cosell also grew up in an Eastern Parkway apartment house that I was very familiar with — where my grandmother lived and several of my childhood friends.
So when I had a chance to meet Cosell while working for a newspaper in Pennsylvania early in my career, I was excited because I felt we had this connection.
And when the moment came, I came up short of my expectations.
My editor assigned me to cover Cosell speaking at a local dinner in Allentown, and I spent some time interviewing him before his speech. I asked a few lame questions and never broached any of our shared background, and then wrote a weak story not worthy of a Howard Cosell appearance.
Twenty five years later, I would meet Mazzilli.
I grew up a New York Mets fan, and during the down years after the departure of Tom Seaver and arrival of Davey Johnson in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mazzilli was all you had as a Mets fan — an Italian kid from Brooklyn with good looks and the most talent on terrible teams.
When Mazzilli was hired to manage the Baltimore Orioles in 2004, I was excited. Not only did we share the same birthday — one year apart — we were born in the same hospital and grew up in the same Brooklyn neighborhood. And his grandparents were from the same town in Italy as mine were.
So when I had a chance to sit down and interview Mazzilli one-on-one, I shared all of this with him, figuring there would be at least some sort of connection.
I could have been born any day of the year in Ottumwa, Iowa, and my grandparents could have been from one of the moons of Jupiter for all Mazzilli cared. And, like his players, the more I saw of Mazzilli the more I regretted ever meeting him. He came up short of my expectations.
Still, happy birthday to Howard and Lee. We’ll always have March 25.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
