‘The beauty of sports is there‘s no script:’ Out to Lunch with MPR News sports contributors

Most Mondays on Minnesota Now, MPR News listeners hear the voices of sports contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Each week they walk us through the winning streaks, slumps and near-misses of Minnesota teams.

In this installment of our series Out to Lunch, we go out to the ballgame with these two longtime broadcasters to find out what drives their passion for sports.

MPR News host Nina Moini meets up with Wally and Eric at a recent Twins game against the Seattle Mariners.

Our lunch guests: Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson

The location: Target Field in Minneapolis

The following has been edited for length and clarity. Use the audio player above for the full conversation.

How did you two meet and get to work together so closely?

Wally: The very first time we met, I want to say it was during the 1991 World Series. I think we met at, or after, a World Series game or something along those lines. I was working at the time for Hubbard Broadcasting. I was at the All News Channel. Eric came over to work there. We worked together for about a year and then he went to WCCO. But before he started all news channel, he had a talk radio show that I would call into.

Then we took a road trip together back in ‘95 when we were working together. We we stopped at Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, and we went to Cleveland for some baseball games. We’ve been hanging out and working together and friends ever since.

Eric: We got along away from the studio, if you will, and I think that lends itself to better radio. We don’t agree on everything, but we have the same vision of sports and a lot of that is being at events. I believe you got to be at the events to really know what's going on.

You can't be at all of them, but if you just sit there and hunker down in a basement, watch it on TV or your phone — anyone can be a basement critic, right? I think coming to the events can be a separator. Doesn't mean you know everything — not even close — but you find out things when you're at these places.

We sit by a guy at some of these Twins games. He works for Major League Baseball in the umpires department. He'll tell us things about what he's looking for in grading the umps. We work by a security person who's with the Minneapolis Police Department and Major League Baseball security. She tells me how the crowd's behaving each night.

What drew you to sports?

Wally: I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and all the kids in the neighborhood played sports, and my dad was an athlete in high school, so that's kind of the genesis of it. I just latched on and never gave it up. Played sports my whole life: baseball, basketball and football.

I still play competitive men's softball against young guys, 25 and 30-year-olds. And I am involved in a project bringing baseball to a small country in West Africa, Benin. I was coaching just out of college. I coached for a long time and then picked it up again when my after my kids got of that age. I coach baseball and basketball and still do it, for the last 25 years.

Eric: I grew up in Orange County, suburban Los Angeles. My stepfather was from Minnesota, so all of a sudden I had this tie to flyover land. I never dreamed I'd have any interest in Minnesota. Coincidentally, I was really young, and the Minnesota Vikings got really good. They were easy to root for, and their archrival in the playoffs was the Los Angeles Rams. All my friends cheered for the Rams. I was the one guy who wore a purple jacket to school every day even though it was 90 degrees.

When I was real young, I would go to California Angel games. And I discovered you could get a press pass and you didn't have to pay to go. Boy, not only did you get a free meal back then, but you could go on the field, get interviews. There was a guy I used to go with named Bill Robertson, who used to work for the Timberwolves and the Wild, and he got a pass too. It was Christmas Day and New Year's Eve rolled into one for us.

Is there a story or a time in a game that sticks out to either of you as one of your favorites?

Eric: 1977, again, I'm a real young kid. Minnesota Vikings at the LA Rams. Both teams at that time were outdoor teams, and the Rams played them in Los Angeles. They thought, “Good. We got the Vikings in the sunshine. We're going to win. We're going to prove they can only win when it's cold.” Well, California was in a drought. Guess what? It rained all day. I was drenched. You couldn't see the players’ uniforms. It's called the Mud Bowl. Minnesota won it 14-7. It's still one of the greatest games I've ever seen in person. And the next day in the LA Times, the headline said, “Rams drought continues in the rain as they lose another playoff game to the Minnesota Vikings.”

Wally: Probably the two Twins World Series, ‘87 and ‘91. ‘87 in particular, because it was the first championship of any team that I had followed closely. One of the other greatest games I've seen was the only game I ever saw at Met Stadium, where the Vikings and Twins used to play. I was in college and a friend said, “Hey, we have an extra ticket. Do you want to go to the Vikings game?”

Well, they happened to be playing the Cleveland Browns, which was my team, of course, and so I'm there probably one of 10 people in the stadium cheering for Cleveland, winning the entire game. And then the Vikings win on a miraculous Hail-Mary tip ball that Ahmad Rashad caught from Tommy Kramer. I literally tell this to people, and I was telling them the day it happened: the ground shook, people were cheering so loudly.

The Last Bite: What are the ingredients to an unforgettable sports moment?

Eric: I think it's got to be spontaneous and organic and unexpected. I mean, something that is a lightning bolt out of the sky. Now granted, if your team's on the precipice of winning a title, and they finally do — what happened in Oklahoma City the other night, that's real. I mean, they've never had that before.

The beauty of sports is there's no script. I can walk into the stadium or the arena. I might think I know what's going to happen, but I don't know for sure. That’s another reason I like weather games. Weather games can change the whole outcome of what you think might happen. So I think the beauty of it is spontaneous, organic and something that you never dreamed you'd see when you entered the venue that night or day.

Wally: I'll say ditto, but I'll add this to it. I like to be there for special moments, not just exciting moments: when a pitcher throws a no-hitter, when a home run record is broken — we'll see, someday, somebody might score 100 points in a basketball game, or 101 like Will Chamberlain did back in the day. I want to be there for that. To me, that would be an ultimate sports moment beyond seeing a championship.

The other thing for me is, I'm a big Cleveland baseball fan. They have the longest current drought in Major League Baseball. Someday, I need to see them win a World Series. It has been since 1948 which was way before my time.