βItβs even worse than it appears.
But itβs alright. β¦
I will get by
I will surviveβ¦
We will get by
We will surviveβ
β Grateful Deadβs βTouch of Grey.β
On the day he told ESPN2 viewers from his San Diego home that he would βforever be able to say I was hereβ in Corvallis when Oregon State knocked off USC earlier this week, analyst Bill Walton woke up to his Pandora music shuffle.
Popping up first, fittingly, was Grateful Deadβs βTouch of Grey,β the hit 1987 single that has been interpreted as something of a pick-me-up in the face of adversity.
βWe will get by. We will survive,β Walton said, quoting his favorite bandβs song. βAnd we are alive. I knew it was going to be a great day.β
So, probably, will be Thursday. Thatβs when Walton will step into his home office again to call Arizonaβs game at ASU along with partner Dave Pasch, who also wonβt leave his home β¦ even though he lives in Phoenix and the game will be in Tempe.
βYou know, itβs a virtual world,β Walton says. βWeβre trying our best. I try to live by the mantra that things work out best for those who make the best of the way things work out.β
So Walton has continued his enthusiastic, tangent-prone ways throughout another college basketball season, telling viewers not only about how nice it was to βbeβ in Corvallis but also talking to Maui Invitational viewers as if he were in Lahaina despite the fact that neither he nor the players were anywhere near the islands, with the event having been moved to North Carolina.
Same goes for Pasch, the Arizona Cardinals broadcaster who has also worked NFL, college football, NBA and college basketball games mostly from home with some exceptions for actual on-site appearances since the pandemic began.
In a different way, Pasch has also tried to roll along with it as best as possible. Heβs even tweeted about how odd it was to call a Cardinals game from his State Farm Stadium booth last month β while the Cardinals were elsewhere and the San Francisco 49ers were actually in front of him playing in a different game.
On Halloween, Pasch also posted a photo to Twitter a sign pleading with trick-or-treaters to let him get his job done while he called a Notre Dame-Georgia Tech football game from his home office.
βI am on television right now. Please donβt ring the doorbell,β Pasch wrote. βTake as MUCH CANDY AS YOU WANT!β
Pasch said he was βjust trying to have fun with the situationβ because, well, what else could he do?
Like so many other things about COVID-19 era, what else can anyone do?
βYou just try to keep it as normal as possible,β Pasch said. βThat sounds weird when you take your headset off and itβs completely quiet in your office as opposed to taking your headset off at a game and thereβs fans everywhere and itβs loud. Itβs awkward but you try to make it as feel as normal as you possibly can.β
For Pasch, who normally plays the straight man to Waltonβs sometimes over-the-top antics, there are advantages to this sort of thing.
Because while Walton may be virtually next to Pasch, heβs not actually next to Pasch.
In this case, thatβs a big difference.
βIβm not as sore from getting boxed out,β Pasch says, chuckling. βI donβt have to worry about him giving me a present, like last year for (UA forward) Stone Gettings, he gave me a big stone to carry around. But occasionally the gifts are pretty good, like a Mick Fleetwood-signed album, which is certainly better than a rock or a saguaro cactus that he got from somewhere β or dirt from Temecula.β
Pasch also doesnβt have to worry about Walton wagging a finger full of peanut butter at him, dusting off his head with feathers, eating a cupcake with a lit candle or any other tangible aspect of Waltonβs shtick.
As much as Walton might like the chance to do any of those things.
βI would prefer to be right next to him so I could elbow him,β Walton said. βDump the popcorn on him. Rub the Temecula dirt on him. Present him with Saguaro cactus carcasses. But right now we canβt do that.β
Walton has a more serious way to express his frustration, too.
βChemistry without proximity is a difficult challenge,β he said. βBut weβre not afraid of challenges. Weβre not afraid of hard work.β
Technology, with the help of ESPN staffers whom both Pasch and Walton rave about, makes it much easier.
Both Pasch and Walton have big monitors in their home offices that bring the exact picture that viewers see, while their computers are hooked up to a Zoom conference, with boxes that feature another feed of the game and a view of each other.
Walton says his main ESPN feed is streamed on a gigantic Sony 4K TV, while he also has a MacBook Pro sitting in front of him with a split screen.
βThe top half of that screen is the game and at the bottom is Dave. I think thatβs Dave,β Walton says. βHe goes by a lot of names. β¦ I think thatβs his name. I donβt know. He looks different every time.β
Of course, Waltonβs βforgetfulnessβ of Paschβs name is another back-and-forth aspect of their odd-couple relationship that both of them try to recreate despite the challenges of remote technology.
If it is difficult to change Waltonβs train of thought in real time, in real space, imagine how it is virtually. Thatβs one of Paschβs special skills, yet it is being challenged, too.
βUsually, Iβll have Bill on a separate small window, and Iβll kind of look back and forth so that I can try to get a feel for when heβs done talking,β Pasch said. βItβs hard enough when youβre next to each other not to step on one another. Itβs even harder when youβre in two different places and I think thereβs a minor audio delay. So youβre just trying to navigate all that, and it just takes some getting used to.β
Pasch didnβt have to worry quite as much about that while doing college football games with Mike Golic, who worked from Bristol, Connecticut, while Pasch was in Phoenix. But Pasch said football is more challenging in general to call off a monitor.
βYouβre so used to being at the stadium and being able to see things that are going on behind the play β like a flag from the back judge thatβs harder to spot on TV,β Pasch says.
βBasketball is a little bit easier but you still donβt catch everything you do when youβre in person and you donβt have access to the officials like we normally do when weβre on the court.
βA lot of times if thereβs a controversial call, the officials will run over to the table and tell us βHey, this is what weβre calling, this is what we saw, this is what weβre reviewing.β Weβre not getting that. So that thatβs been challenging, but you adapt. You just wait until itβs announced.β
You will survive. They will survive. College basketball will survive.
Waltonβs heard that one somewhere.
βIn life, you always want better and more,β Walton said. βBut because of the circumstances today, weβre not right to come out and make excuses.
βWe have to come out do the best job we can, just like when youβre a player, just like when youβre a coach. Just like if there was no pandemic.β
