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Joe Zagacki, certainly one of Mr. Goldberg’s producers at WIOD, recalled in a telephone interview a day when “Hank had an argument with a caller — he had certainly one of his volcanic explosions — and I mentioned, ‘My goodness, you simply hammered that man. You’re ‘Hammering Hank Goldberg.’”
The nickname caught. After he began at ESPN in 1993, Mr. Goldberg started banging a mallet on a studio desk to specific his disagreement with a colleague or his disdain for a sports activities determine. He referred to himself as “Hammer.”
He initially appeared on ESPN2, which was new on the time and was trying to succeed in a youthful viewers with anchors who wearing an informal, cool model. Not Mr. Goldberg, who was undoubtedly not cool however introduced a unusual, brassy character to the community — though it was extra congenial than his in-your-face radio demeanor.
“Hank may match into any style; he may match anyplace,” mentioned Suzy Kolber, a longtime anchor and reporter at ESPN who labored with Mr. Goldberg on ESPN2 and in Florida. “Plug him into the horse-racing crowd or the ESPN2 bunch. He match proper in.”
Henry Edward Goldberg was born on July 4, 1940, in Newark and grew up in South Orange, N.J. His mom, Sadie (Abben) Goldberg, was a homemaker; his father, Hy, was a sports activities columnist for The Newark Night Information. Hy Goldberg often took his spouse and kids to the Yankees’ spring coaching in Florida, the place younger Hank turned pleasant with Joe DiMaggio, who referred to as him Henry, Ms. Goldberg mentioned in an interview.
At 17, Mr. Goldberg went to the racetrack for the primary time and gained $450 when he hit the each day double at Monmouth Park in New Jersey. When he introduced his winnings house, he recalled, his father instructed him, “Oh, you’re in hassle now.” In an interview this 12 months with The Las Vegas Assessment-Journal, he added, “He knew I’d by no means recover from my love for the races.”
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