If you have been around baseball at any point since the 1970’s you may not know Ed Randall, but you know of him. A longtime New York radio and TV personality and published author, he now hosts the Sunday morning radio program Ed Randall’s Talking Baseball, which airs on New York’s WFAN-Radio and “Remember When” nationally on Sirius/XM Radio’s MLB Network Radio channel on Saturday mornings. Ed spent seven years in minor league baseball as a play-by-play broadcaster and pinch-hit as the public address announcer at the original Yankee Stadium in 2008 for the legendary Bob Sheppard.
Ed also has another passion, which is working tirelessly to promote prostate cancer awareness. A survivor of the disease himself, he will host the first annual Ed Randall’s “Fans For The Cure” Celebrity Dinner on March 5 at the 101 Club on New York’s Park Avenue. The dinner will serve two purposes, one is to raise funds and awareness to fight prostate cancer, and the other is to serve as a much-needed replacement for the Baseball Assistance Team (BAT) Fundraiser that is not being held this year. One of the many luminaries in attendance that night will be baseball legend Steve Garvey, who Ed will have an in-depth conversation with about all things in and around the diamond. Details for the dinner can be found at www.fans4thecure.org
We caught up with Randall just before pitchers and catchers report to talk baseball and social responsibility.
You have had a storied career in baseball, what has been the key in working in sports for so long for you?
My friend Ernie Harwell once told me, “Lucky is the man to whom God gives a job he loves.” I would be that guy. I would like to think I owe my longevity to outworking everyone else. John Walsh, retiring now as Executive Editor at ESPN, told me, “Your industriousness is a beacon for everyone in this industry.” Nuff said.
You were a member of WFUV Radio really as sports was becoming a bigger deal in the 1970’s, what were some of your favorite memories on air at Fordham?
While there, Senator Albert Gore of Tennessee addressed the student body in the gym and I, a political science major, was part of the coverage. While everyone was fighting to do basketball, I was the guy hungering to stand with a mike in my hand behind home plate in 35-degree weather to do PXP of baseball. That ultimately changed my life because Gil McDougald heard my doing the PXP as he coached and did something that changed my life (long story). Everything that followed for me in my years in the minor leagues stemmed from his thoughtfulness. I also an a mixer so that we could have the funding to broadcast three basketball games from California leading into the Christmas holidays in 1973. Finally, I hosted a general interest talk show called “Dimension” my senior year. “One on One” began my senior year but I never hosted because I feared getting a question I could not answer. I was fearful then of hosting a talk show. Ironic now.
As a prostate cancer survivor you have been passionate about telling the story of prevention. How did the latest dinner come about?
There is no BAT Dinner, suspended they say for the first time since its birth in the mid-1980s. We are stepping into the breach.
What is it like hosting both a weekly Sirius show on baseball, and then your “Talking Baseball” show on WFAN? how are they different?
One is national, the other is local. One is a nostalgia show, the other is timely focusing on news of the day. One is having a co-host, a first for me, in Rico Petrocelli, the other is my responsibility. I am the unannounced producer of both show, booking all the guests.
Who is your favorite interview?
Off the top of my head, two: Eddie Murray because, over a year, I convinced him to be my guest on “Ed Randall’s Talking Baseball” in his first television interview in 10 years and Ted Williams for the obvious reasons.
What message do you tell young people looking to break into the business of sports?
Be relentless but do so with grace and know that you are only as good as your resume.
