Costas, Robert (Quinlan) 1952–

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COSTAS, Robert (Quinlan) 1952–

(Bob Costas)

PERSONAL: Born March 22, 1952, in New York, NY; son of John George (an electrical engineer) and Jayne (Quinlan) Costas; married Carol Randall Krummenacher, June 24, 1983 (separated, 2001); children: Keith Michael, Taylor. Education: Attended Syracuse University.

ADDRESSES: Home—St. Louis, MO. Office—NBC Sports, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112. Agent—Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, 9150 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 350, Beverly Hills, CA 90212.

CAREER: Sports journalist. Appeared in television series, including (as baseball announcer) Game of the Week, National Broadcasting Company (NBC), 1983–89; (as host) NFL Live, NBC, 1984–93; (as host) Later with Bob Costas, NBC, 1988–94; The NBC Saturday Sports Showcase, NBC, 1990; (as host) NBA Showtime, NBC, 1991–97; (as correspondent) Dateline NBC, NBC, 1992–; (as correspondent) Now, NBC, 1993–94; (as correspondent) The Today Show, NBC, 1995–; (as host, with Katie Couric) Internight, MSNBC, 1996; and (as host) On the Record with Bob Costas, Home Box Office (HBO), 2001–. Host of radio series, including Costas Coast-to-Coast, syndicated until 1994, Major Talk Radio Network, 1996; The Sporting News Report; and Sports Flashback. Appeared in television miniseries Baseball, Public Broadcasting System (PBS), 1994. Appeared in television specials, including (as moderator) NFL '85, NBC, 1985; (as host) SportsWorld Looks at Sports Humor, NBC, 1986; (as studio anchor) 1988 Winter Olympic Games, American Broadcasting Companies (ABC), 1988; (as pregame host, with others) 1988 World Series, NBC, 1988; (as commentator), SportsWorld 10th Anniversary Special, NBC, 1988; (as anchor) 1988 Summer Olympic Games, NBC, 1988; Friday Night Surprise!, NBC, 1989; (as pregame host) 1989 Major League All-Star Game, NBC, 1989; (as host) One Year: Later), NBC, 1989; (as host) Two Years: Later, NBC, 1990; NBC All-Star Stay in School Jam, NBC/Nickelodeon/Turner Network Television (TNT), 1991; (as host) Play by Play: A History of Sports Television, HBO, 1991; (as himself) Diamonds on the Silver Screen, syndicated, 1992; (as primetime host) The 1992 Summer Olympics, NBC, 1992; (as host) An Olympic Christmas: Barcelona Memories, NBC, 1992; (as host) Barcelona '92: A New World Gathers, NBC, 1992; Five Years Later … with Bob Costas, NBC, 1993; Bob Hope: The First Ninety Years, NBC, 1993; (as host) Super Bowl Live, NBC, 1993; (as host) One Child, One Dream: The Horatio Alger Awards, NBC, 1993; (as host) Last Call! A Cheers' Celebration, NBC, 1993; (as host, with others) One on One: Classic Television Interviews, CBS, 1993; (as himself) TV Guide: 40th Anniversary Special, 1993; (as host) Forty for the Ages: Sports Illustrated's 40th Anniversary Special, NBC, 1994; (as host) The Horatio Alger Awards, 1994; Fields of Fire: Sports in the '60s, HBO, 1995; (as host) Great Moments of Discovery, Discovery Channel, 1995; (as host) The Opening Ceremonies of the 1995 Special Olympics World Games, NBC, 1995; The Ultimate TV Trivia Challenge, ABC, 1995; Baseball-a-Palooza II, Comedy Central, 1996; NBA at Fifty, TNT, 1996; (as host) Sports Illustrated Olympic Special: A Prelude to the Games, NBC, 1996; (as pregame interviewer and commentator) Super Bowl XXX, NBC, 1996; (as primetime host and cohost of opening and closing ceremonies) The 1996 Summer Olympics, NBC, 1996; (as play-by-play commentator) The 67th Annual Major-League Baseball All-Star Game, NBC, 1996; All-Star Moms, CBS, 1997; Long Shots: The Life and Times of the American Basketball Association, HBO, 1997; (as play-by-play commentator) The 48th NBA All-Star Game, NBC, 1998; The 69th Annual Major League Baseball All-Star Game, NBC, 1998; The Greek Americans, PBS, 1998; (as commentator) The 50th Emmy Awards, NBC, 1998; (as host and narrator) Yogi Berra: Deja Vu All over Again, PBS, 1999; (as voice of himself) When It Was a Game 3, HBO, 2000; (as narrator) Twice Born, NBC, 2000; The Sportscasters: Behind the Mike, History Channel, 2000; Nick News Presents Lifestory: Muhammad Ali, Nickelodeon, 2000; (as play-by-play commentator) The 71st Annual Major-League Baseball All-Star Game, NBC, 2000; The '70s: The Decade That Changed Television, ABC, 2000; (as play-by-play commentator) The 49th NBA All-Star Game, NBC, 2000; (as opening ceremony host, with others, and primetime host) 2000 Olympic Games, NBC, 2000; (as host) Sports Illustrated's Night of Champions, NBC, 2001; (as commentator) The 133rd Belmont Stakes, NBC, 2001; (as commentator) The 127th Kentucky Derby, NBC, 2001; (as commentator) The 126th Preakness Stakes, NBC, 2001; (as host) All State Presents an All-Star Olympic Salute: Countdown to Salt Lake City, NBC, 2002; (as host) 2002 Olympic Winter Games, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), 2002; and (as himself) 100 Years of Hope and Humor, 2003. Guest star as himself on television series, including The Critic, Arli$$, Frasier, NewsRadio, The Larry Sanders Show, The Drew Carey Show, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Baby Blues, Dennis Miller Live, Tracey Takes On …, The Brendon Leonard Show, and Spin City. Appeared as himself in films, including New York Yankees (The Movie), Magig Video/Philo, 1987; The Paper, Universal, 1994; The Scout, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1994; Open Season, Legacy Releasing, 1996; BASEketball, Universal, 1998; Express: Aisle to Glory, 1998; Race for the Record, 1998; Michael Jordan to the Max, Giant Screen Sports, 2000; (as narrator) Major-League Baseball: All-Century Team, 2000; Looking for Oscar, 2000; Pootie Tang, Paramount, 2001; and The Swinger, 2001. Appeared in video The 500 Home Run Club, 1988. Reader of audio books, including And the Crowd Goes Wild, 1999; and And the Fans Roared: The Sports Broadcasts That Kept Us on the Edge of Our Seats, Sourcebooks, 2000.

AWARDS, HONORS: Sportscaster of the Year Award, National Sportscasters and Writers Association, 1985; Best Sportscaster Award, American Journalism Review Reader's Poll, 1993.

WRITINGS:

Fair Ball: A Fan's Case for Baseball, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Contributor to magazines, including Time and Sporting News.

SIDELIGHTS: Robert Costas—better known as Bob Costas—may be one of the most recognizable faces and voices in American sports journalism. Since he started announcing baseball games for nationwide broadcasts in 1983, Costas has become the voice of baseball, football, basketball, and the Olympics for many Americans. He has also interviewed scores of figures, athletic and otherwise, on his own two highly praised late-night talk shows, Later with Bob Costas and On the Record with Bob Costas. Both shows have their guests on for extended periods of time, rather than the brief segments seen on other talk shows, which allows for extended discussions of topics of interests to the guests.

Costas is also a die-hard baseball fan and a student of the business of that sport, which led him to write the book Fair Ball: A Fan's Case for Baseball. In Fair Ball, Costas lays out the problems facing professional baseball, including the lack of competitiveness of small-market teams and the meaninglessness of pennant races, and proposes solutions for them, including revenue sharing and the elimination of the wild card in the playoffs. It is a "logical, reasoned, dispassionate argument," Jay Ziemann wrote in Nine, and Costa's proposed restructuring of the divisions and playoff system "is straightforward and preserves the historic integrity of the leagues and team rivalries." As Paul Tuns wrote in the National Post, "Fair Ball should be required reading in the suites of Official Baseball and be the starting point for the discussion on how to ensure baseball's continued glory."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Newsmakers 1986, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1987.

St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, five volumes, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2000.

PERIODICALS

American Enterprise, June, 2000, interview with Costas, p. 16.

American Journalism Review, March, 1993, Penny Pagano and Jean Cobb, "The Best in the Business," pp. 32-38.

Booklist, March 15, 2000, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Fair Ball: A Fan's Case for Baseball, p. 1290; September 1, 2000, review of Fair Ball (audiobook), p. 144; September 1, 2001, Mary Frances Wilkens, review of Fair Ball (audiobook), p. 127.

Broadcasting & Cable, April 2, 2001, Joe Schlosser, interview with Costas, p. 34; November 4, 2002, "A Powerful Franchise," p. A12.

Daily Variety, July 14, 2003, review of On the Record with Bob Costas, p. A9.

Denver Business Journal, March 24, 2000, Erik Spanberg, interview with Costas, p. A25.

Entertainment Weekly, January 29, 1993, Kate Meyers, "The King of Late Late Night," p. 46; July 19, 1996, pp. 30-37.

Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, April 5, 1994, Mike Antonucci, "Bob Costas' Hour May Have Finally Arrived," p. 0405K2795; April 21, 2000, Stan Hochman, review of Fair Ball, p. K6210; January 12, 2001, Joe Posnanski, "Bob Costas Ponders a Quiet Life," p. K7481; February 13, 2001, Tim Kawakami, review of On the Record, p. K4242; May 1, 2003, Ed Sherman, "Bob Costas Expands His Field of Play," p. K3279.

Library Journal, February 1, 1998, Paul Kaplan and Morey Berger, review of Costas on Baseball, p. 93; April 15, 2000, Paul Kaplan, review of Fair Ball, p. 98.

MediaWeek, May 20, 1991, John McManus, "Bryant Bumped: Costas Tapped as Anchor of 1992 Summer Olympics," pp. 1-2.

Milwaukee Business Journal, June 23, 2000, Bruce Schoenfeld, interview with Costas, p. 12.

Multichannel News, February 19, 2001, R. Thomas Umstead, review of On the Record with Bob Costas, p. 22.

National Post, May 6, 2000, Paul Tuns, review of Fair Ball, p. 20.

Newsweek, July 22, 1996, Mark Starr, interview with Costas, p. 51.

Nine, fall, 2000, Jay Ziemann, review of Fair Ball, p. 112.

People, September 5, 1988, Jeff Jarvis, review of Later with Bob Costas, p. 15; February 1, 1993, Mark Goodman, "Bob Costas," pp. 71-74.

Publishers Weekly, May 3, 1991, March 27, 2000, review of Fair Ball, p. 68; June 5, 2000, review of Fair Ball (audiobook), p. 63.

St. Louis Business Journal, August 12, 1996, Alfred Fleishman, "Hometown Guys," p. A17.

St. Louis Journalism Review, March, 1994, Harry James Cargas, interview with Costas, pp. 10-12; July, 2000, Joe Pollack, review of Fair Ball, p. 10; June, 2001, Ed Bishop, interview with Costas, p. 16.

Sporting News, February 13, 1995, Steve Marantz, interview with Costas, pp. 18-20; March 5, 2001, Fritz Quindt, review of On the Record with Bob Costas, p. 7.

Sports Illustrated, May 12, 1986, William Taaffe, "A Fun Guy, No Kidding," pp. 62-64; April 6, 1992, Jon Scher, "Preempted: The Managerial Aspirations of Bob Costas," p. 130; July 22, 1992, Steve Wulf, "The Host with the Most," pp. 18-20; May 15, 2000, Ron Fimrite, review of Fair Ball, p. 8; February 5, 2001, John Walters, interview with Costas, p. 32; April 1, 2002, Richard Deitsch, interview with Costas, p. 16.

Time, August 3, 1992, David Ellis, "America's Host," p. 64; April 17, 2000, Daniel Okrent, review of Fair Ball, p. 84.