Tommy’s cup runneth over

By Jay Mwamba

France ’98 has had a distinct Irish accent on more than a few occasions for frequent ESPN viewers. It’s the voice of soccer sage Tommy Smyth, a Count Louth immigrant who was the first Irish-born announcer to broadcast the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on New York television.

A run-of-the-mill soccer player, by his own admission, who had a more enduring Gaelic football career, Smyth has nevertheless been one of the standouts in ESPN’s team coverage of the 1998 World Cup finals.

It’s not surprising considering the experience he’s racked up during his relatively short TV career. Smyth, who’s 52, estimates that he’s covered some 1,500 games since joining ESPN in February 1993 as an analyst for the cable network and it’s sister channels ESPN2 and ESPN International.

He has called matches from league’s around the world and provided color commentaries on all the major tournaments, including European Championship qualifiers, Copa America, the African Nations Cup finals, and World Cup qualifiers.

For France ’98, Smyth has provided match analyses for ESPN2’s “World Cup 2Night,” as well as other pre-game and half time coverage for ESPN and ESPN2.

From his astute analysis and keen observation of the action, one cannot tell that unlike most of ESPN’s other commentators who are reporting from France, Smyth has been working out of the network’s Bristol, Conn., studios.

“We’re broadcasting live, so there’s no margin for error,” said the man from Knockbridge, who long before becoming a soccer guru was better known in New York’s Irish community as the host of the long-running radio show “Ireland Calls.”

Smyth launched the program in 1969, presenting Irish music, news and sports. It still airs on WVOX 1460 AM at 6 pm on Saturdays.

“It’s the longest-running Irish show in New York,” he said. “Before the Internet came out, we were very popular. We had all the [soccer] results from England and Ireland, which I got via phone every Saturday.”

The New Rochelle-based show also enabled Smyth to establish his reputation as the veritable “Voice of New York’s Gaelic Park,” where he played for Louth for close to 30 years.

Naturally, Smyth’s “Ireland Calls” experience would later come in useful when it came to auditioning for ESPN. But before that he would gain prominence as Jack McCarty’s replacement as the announcer of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Channel 11 in 1991.

“I became the first Irish-bred person to broadcast it,” he said proudly.

He was never that successful as a soccer player, however, and chuckles self-deprecatingly at the few that have mistaken him for Tommy Smith, the legendary Liverpool FC hardman of the 1970s, who was said to practice his tackles on lamp posts.

Smyth, who grew up rooting for Dundalk in the League of Ireland, played for Shamrock in the old German-American (now Cosmopolitan Soccer League after moving to the United States in 1963.

Iron man

He played until 1980, having fancied himself “a bit of an iron man,” but only showing that kind of toughness at Gaelic Park in the Bronx, where he kept turning out as player-manager for Louth until the team, hard up for players, disbanded in 1991.

“In the end, it turned out to be more of a necessity for me to play,” Smyth said of his Gaelic career. “I played every position on the team, even in goal.”

In 1992, Smyth approached ESPN offering to work on their fledgling soccer broadcasts ahead of World Cup ’94 in the United States. He was signed on early in 1993 and got his start calling Brazilian games.

He covered the World Cup for One-on-One, a radio station broadcasting out of Chicago, before his workload with ESPN increased.

In a typical month when the European and South American seasons overlap, Smyth covers about 30 games from around the world for ESPN International, which has subscribers in more than 180 countries.

What does his weekly schedule look like? Saturday – Brazilian league championship match; Sunday – two Serie A (Italian) games; Monday – English Premiership fixture; Tuesday – off; Wednesday – UEFA Cup match; Thursday – co-host Latin Football Weekly, and Friday – International Game of the Week.

Throw in the Major League Soccer’s New York/New Jersey MetroStars, whose games he’s covered for MSG network, and you have one very busy man with very little free time.

“Fortunately, I had good training broadcasting Gaelic games, so it doesn’t bother me much,” Smyth said.

Knowledgeable, personable

Smyth’s vast knowledge of the game, its nuances and personalities, sometimes delivered with a touch of humor, have helped ESPN and ESPN International forge a unique identity in its soccer coverage both domestically and world-wide.

Former BBC commentator Derek R’, who frequently works with Smyth extols his ESPN partner for his personality and professionalism.

“Tommy is a wonderful person to work with. He knows the game well and has a magnificent manner about him,” says the Aberdeen-born R’, who ribs the Irishman about their Celtic kinship.

Rob Lemley, ESPN’s studio producer for World Cup ’98, also talks highly of Smyth’s knowledge and his analytical skills. “He can be both informative and entertaining, which is a real gift for an analyst,” Lemley said.

“He’s also one of the nicest people I’ve ever come across. Very professional and very easy to work with. A man devoid of any ego.”

There certainly can’t be time for inflated egos with Smyth, who often eschews ESPN’s research department to do his own fact-finding before games.

Smyth’s grasp of soccer and it’s subtleties is sometimes uncanny. During a guest appearance on PBS’ “Charlie Rose Show” last Friday night, he predicted a big win by World Cup debutantes Croatia over three-time champs Germany in the following day’s quarterfinal. Croatia hammered the Germans, 3-0.

“I think they have a shot,” he said of the Croats, who meets hosts France in the semifinals today, July 10. “I’m hoping Croatia win [the World Cup]. It would be a great story if they won it.”

A bachelor who tries to visit Ireland twice a year, Smyth has only covered the Irish national team twice. The last was a difficult assignment. “Ireland versus Holland at Anfield. What a heart-breaker,” he said, recalling the 2-0 Euro ’96 playoff defeat to the Dutch in Jack Charlton’s last match as Irish manager.

He likes Charlton’s successor, Mick McCarthy, and Ireland’s prospects in the long haul, with its new corps of young players. “[He’s] brought a lot of young players into the system,” he said of McCarthy. “It’s [just] a matter of blending them and they’ll probably be good for the next World Cup.”

Smyth’s long-term forecast for the U.S. game is just as upbeat, despite Team USA’s poor showing in France ’98.

“The U.S.’ failure may have adverse effects [on soccer development] in the short term, but not in the long term,” he said. “U.S. Soccer have just announced that they’ll scout all the playgrounds and come up with 75 players every year for development. It’s a step in the right direction.”

The ESPN network took that kind of step, too, a few years ago when they hired Smyth to breadown the game to U.S. viewers.