Joe Zagacki, one in all Mr. Goldberg’s producers at WIOD, recalled in a cellphone interview a day when “Hank had an argument with a caller — he had one in all 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 precise 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 making an attempt to succeed in a youthful viewers with anchors who wearing an informal, cool fashion. 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 might match into any style; he might match wherever,” 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 incessantly took his spouse and youngsters to the Yankees’ spring coaching in Florida, the place younger Hank grew to become pleasant with Joe DiMaggio, who known 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 residence, he recalled, his father informed him, “Oh, you’re in bother now.” In an interview this 12 months with The Las Vegas Evaluate-Journal, he added, “He knew I’d by no means recover from my love for the races.”
