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Late, great draftnik Joel Buchsbaum remains one of a kind
By John McClain Updated 11:37 am, Tuesday, April 25, 2017
[www.chron.com]
I wonder what the late, great Joel Buchsbaum would think about how the NFL draft has become such a spectacle?
In my book – and the books of so many others – Buchsbaum was the greatest draftnik to turn on a film projector and later a computer to compile information on college prospects.
If he hadn't died of natural causes in 2002 in his Brooklyn apartment – way too young at 48 – the longtime NFL editor of Pro Football Weekly would have adjusted to the times.
Can you imagine how much information Joel would have because of social media?
Like other Houston football fans, I was blessed to listen to Joel every Wednesday night on KTRH for more than 20 years. To this day – my 32nd year of doing weekly radio in Houston, 17 at KTRH and 15 at Sports Radio 610 – I've never been asked about an individual more than fans asked about Buchsbaum. J.J. Watt is getting close, though.
I also was privileged to be invited into his inner sanctum – his two-bedroom Brooklyn apartment on Flatbush Avenue. I wrote about my first-hand experience with Joel before the 1998 draft.
You can read the story below. If you haven't read it, I hope you enjoy it. If you have read it, I hope you enjoy it again.
R.I.P. Joel Buchsbaum, one of a kind and still the very best at what he did.
-------------
Editor's note: This story was originally published in the April 16, 1998, edition of the Houston Chronicle.
THE FOOTBALL ENCYCLOPEDIA / Meet Joel Buchsbaum, ultimate NFL draftnik
By John McClain
NEW YORK - Joel Stephen Buchsbaum resides in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, but he is a cult figure in Houston.
After 20 years of doing a radio show and sports commentaries on KTRH, even many non-football fans in Houston recognize his nasal Brooklyn accent, which is as different from a Texas twang as Flatbush is from Montrose.
His name is pronounced "Bucks-baum" at home and "Bush-baum" everywhere else. The pronunciation was changed in 1978 when he got his first radio job at KMOX in St. Louis, where Busch is such a prominent name. He didn't correct the talk-show host; Buchsbaum was so happy to be on the radio, he didn't want to do anything that might mess it up.
Now 43, Buchsbaum is in his 21st season of writing about college football and the NFL for Pro Football Weekly. But it is his weekly appearance on KTRH (740 AM) that has captured the imagination of sports fans in this part of Texas.
"When you talk about that (his popularity in Houston), I don't know how to feel," Buchsbaum says with genuine modesty. "I've never seen myself as anything special. I just can't comprehend it, because I'm just another guy in New York. It's almost like you're not speaking about me.
"Maybe it's because I'm not in Houston. Part of it may be my accent. Part may be that I'm a unique person for radio because I've had no formal training, and I've developed my own style."
Buchsbaum's apartment near Flatbush Avenue is a museum of scouting information - a storehouse for game tapes, reference books, media guides, newspapers, magazines and memorabilia from football and baseball teams, including his beloved Baltimore Orioles.
"I'm reluctant to throw anything away," Buchsbaum says as he looks around an apartment with more bookshelves than a library.
An Orioles cap and pennant hang on the inside of his front door. The sign above the kitchen door says "Hot Corner" in honor of his dog Brooks, a 10-month-old mixed breed named after Buchsbaum's idol, former Orioles third baseman Brooks Robinson.
"He didn't have great measurable talent, but he was a gutty, consummate team player who was great in the clutch," Buchsbaum says.
He can still get misty-eyed when he talks about Buck the Wonder Dog, who had to be put to sleep last year at 15.
Other than sports in general and football and baseball in particular, the only thing Buchsbaum reads about is politics.
The only television shows he watches are ''Law and Order,'' ''NYPD Blue'' and reruns of ''Quincy.'' Of all the scouting services, he mentions Mel Kiper and OURLAD as the competition he respects the most.
The light in Apt. 4L may be on at all hours of the night as Buchsbaum analyzes videotapes of college and NFL players. He works 12 to 14 hours a day in his apartment. In the weeks leading up to the NFL draft, he will spend 16 to 18 hours a day working. A computer and two television sets with VCRs are on his desk. Another television and VCR are in his bedroom so he can watch tapes before he falls asleep.
"I have a crazy schedule, especially at this time of year," he says.
Buchsbaum's telephone rings constantly. Most of his calls are from NFL scouts and personnel people, radio stations, sportswriters, friends and a few agents, all wanting to get his most up-to-date scouting information.
In Houston, there is almost a mystique about Buchsbaum. Fans are curious about him because they know so little about him.
Some think he is tall and thin with short hair. Others think he is short and pudgy with curly hair. Because he is shy, humble and private, Buchsbaum doesn't like to talk about himself. When a caller asks him something personal, it's obvious from his response that he's uncomfortable revealing much about himself.
Buchsbaum is 5-8 3/4 (leave it to a draft guru to include the fraction) and 130 pounds. He wears thick glasses. His hair is neither short nor long, just straight. Because of stress, he is allergic to different kinds of foods, so he doesn't eat much. He eats at home, unless he goes to an identical apartment building next door to eat with his parents, Stanley, 86, and Frances, 83.
Fans want to know about his encyclopedic knowledge of college and pro players. They insist that all that knowledge must be stored in a computer, because no one could disseminate so much information so fast when a caller asks about a player, no matter how obscure.
But when Buchsbaum does a radio show, he leaves his computer and sits in a recliner so he can relax when taking calls.
"I still get nervous before shows," he says. "I'm a worrier by nature. I don't feel totally comfortable until I give a couple of good answers and the show starts to flow."
Buchsbaum still does several radio shows semiregularly in such cities as St. Louis, Baltimore and Buffalo, N.Y., but the only station on which he can be heard weekly is KTRH, from 7-9 p.m. on Wednesdays.
"Radio's too time-consuming," he says. "I'm so busy, I just don't have enough time to devote to talk shows every week. I love doing KTRH, though. I love the callers in Houston because they're different than other cities. It's not a homer city, and the callers are very knowledgeable about football. Many of the calls I get are very stimulating."
Buchsbaum doesn't like to elaborate. He may give one-word or one-sentence answers if he thinks no more is required. His father, who was a New York City attorney who specialized in tax law, has been his role model.
"One of the many things he taught me is that, in court, they don't want to know how much you know," he says. "They just want to know the facts that are directly pertinent to the case.
"My father's the most honest person I've ever known. He's my financial adviser and my best friend. He's someone I can rely on. My father worked very hard for the city, but he was always there when I needed him. I remember one time in Little League, I got in a slump. He took me to the park and threw pitches for hours, and I broke out of my slump.
"I'm very happy right now, but something that troubles me is that I don't know how I'll react when I lose my parents.
They're such a big part of my life. My father means so much to me. When you don't have brothers and sisters, and you don't work in a social environment, you don't have a lot of friends.
I'm not an outgoing person who makes friends quickly.
Basically, I don't make friends until I know them a long time.
I'm not a naturally trusting person."
When Buchsbaum was growing up, his father took him to sporting events all over the five boroughs of New York. He has been to every stadium and arena in the New York area.
"I saw the first Mets game at the Polo Grounds and their first game at Shea (Stadium)," he says. "I went to see the Jets when they were the Titans. I was a fan of the old AFL because we couldn't get tickets to Giants games."
His father was devoted to the Brooklyn Dodgers, and when they moved to Los Angeles in 1958, he couldn't bring himself to cheer for the Yankees. That's why father and son shifted their allegiance to the Orioles, one of the few American League teams that were competitive with the Yankees in those days.
"For as long as I can remember, I was a big sports fan,"
Buchsbaum says. "I read everything I could get my hands on.
That's how I got into this business."
Buchsbaum went to State University of New York (Albany) to major in political science and become an attorney, just like his father. But his hobby was writing scouting reports on football players. It began when he was a teen-ager reading the scouting reports of Carl and Pete Marasco in Pro Football Weekly.
"It started out as a hobby and became a job," he says.
In 1974, Buchsbaum had transferred to Brooklyn College. He was 20 years old, and he sent his resume - complete with scouting reports - to 120 newspapers and magazines to see if they would be interested in having him write about the NFL draft. Roger Stanton, the publisher of the Football News, hired him. The 1975 draft was the first one Buchsbaum evaluated for publication.
"I took a writing class after the Football News hired me," he says. "The teacher told me no one would read me because I wasn't colorful. I guess she wanted me to write like Shakespeare."
In 1978, Pro Football Weekly had an opening for someone to write about college and pro football. Arthur Arkush, the late publisher, called Buchsbaum and offered him a job. It has been a match made in scouting heaven.
That same year, Buchsbaum got his start in radio. KMOX had Buchsbaum and Joe Stein, draft expert for The Sporting News, on a pre-draft show in St. Louis with some other experts.
"They were saying that Charles Alexander and Theotis Brown were the best running backs, but I said O.J. Anderson was better than both of them," Buchsbaum says. "The Cardinals drafted Anderson, and he became a very good player.
"I have a terrible radio voice, but they (KMOX) were fascinated because this squeaky-voice guy from Brooklyn got the pick, and the so-called experts didn't."
A radio star was born.
Former KTRH sports director Jerry Trupiano, now a broadcaster with the Boston Red Sox, is a St. Louis native who used to work for KMOX. He heard Buchsbaum on KMOX and put him on KTRH in 1979. That same year, Buchsbaum produced his first scout's notebook for Pro Football Weekly. It was 56 pages. This year's edition is 184 pages.
Over the years, Buchsbaum has turned down offers from numerous NFL teams to join their scouting departments.
"I owe Pro Football Weekly, and loyalty's important to me," he says. "They've been a vital part of my life for so long. I like to think I'm vital to them.
"Although I couldn't do my job without NFL people helping me, I don't know if I could do it (scouting players for an NFL team). I like scouting off tapes. There's more uncertainty with teams, because owners can be so whimsical. I've never come close to taking an offer.
"I love my job, but it's all-encompassing. If I had to serve jury duty, I'd be dead. I don't think a judge could conceive how important this is to me. My whole life depends on every day getting the material I need. I can't let things pass me by, because I'm a one-man business. I was in the hospital, and I had my parents and friends bringing me the mail every day. I don't know what I'd do if I had to have surgery."
To relieve stress, Buchsbaum goes to the Paerdegat Athletic Club in Brooklyn six nights a week to work out with some friends.
"It's the only time of the day I have social contact," he says. "It's a relaxed atmosphere, and I'm around a good group of people."
He says one friend, Marty Fox, knows more about football than he does.
"Marty's the one who should be on radio," Buchsbaum says. "He knows more about sports than anyone I know."
Buchsbaum has never married and doubts he ever will.
"I can't get married, because I wouldn't be a good husband and father," he says. "My job takes too much time. It wouldn't be fair to them. I may change my mind after my parents are gone, but right now, it's just me and Brooks.
"To tell you the truth, there are times when I think about what else I could do. It's a scary thought, because I realize I'm not trained for anything else. When it comes my time to go, I hope I'm 90, and I've just finished another draft. Yeah, that's the way I want to go."
By John McClain Updated 11:37 am, Tuesday, April 25, 2017
[www.chron.com]
I wonder what the late, great Joel Buchsbaum would think about how the NFL draft has become such a spectacle?
In my book – and the books of so many others – Buchsbaum was the greatest draftnik to turn on a film projector and later a computer to compile information on college prospects.
If he hadn't died of natural causes in 2002 in his Brooklyn apartment – way too young at 48 – the longtime NFL editor of Pro Football Weekly would have adjusted to the times.
Can you imagine how much information Joel would have because of social media?
Like other Houston football fans, I was blessed to listen to Joel every Wednesday night on KTRH for more than 20 years. To this day – my 32nd year of doing weekly radio in Houston, 17 at KTRH and 15 at Sports Radio 610 – I've never been asked about an individual more than fans asked about Buchsbaum. J.J. Watt is getting close, though.
I also was privileged to be invited into his inner sanctum – his two-bedroom Brooklyn apartment on Flatbush Avenue. I wrote about my first-hand experience with Joel before the 1998 draft.
You can read the story below. If you haven't read it, I hope you enjoy it. If you have read it, I hope you enjoy it again.
R.I.P. Joel Buchsbaum, one of a kind and still the very best at what he did.
-------------
Editor's note: This story was originally published in the April 16, 1998, edition of the Houston Chronicle.
THE FOOTBALL ENCYCLOPEDIA / Meet Joel Buchsbaum, ultimate NFL draftnik
By John McClain
NEW YORK - Joel Stephen Buchsbaum resides in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, but he is a cult figure in Houston.
After 20 years of doing a radio show and sports commentaries on KTRH, even many non-football fans in Houston recognize his nasal Brooklyn accent, which is as different from a Texas twang as Flatbush is from Montrose.
His name is pronounced "Bucks-baum" at home and "Bush-baum" everywhere else. The pronunciation was changed in 1978 when he got his first radio job at KMOX in St. Louis, where Busch is such a prominent name. He didn't correct the talk-show host; Buchsbaum was so happy to be on the radio, he didn't want to do anything that might mess it up.
Now 43, Buchsbaum is in his 21st season of writing about college football and the NFL for Pro Football Weekly. But it is his weekly appearance on KTRH (740 AM) that has captured the imagination of sports fans in this part of Texas.
"When you talk about that (his popularity in Houston), I don't know how to feel," Buchsbaum says with genuine modesty. "I've never seen myself as anything special. I just can't comprehend it, because I'm just another guy in New York. It's almost like you're not speaking about me.
"Maybe it's because I'm not in Houston. Part of it may be my accent. Part may be that I'm a unique person for radio because I've had no formal training, and I've developed my own style."
Buchsbaum's apartment near Flatbush Avenue is a museum of scouting information - a storehouse for game tapes, reference books, media guides, newspapers, magazines and memorabilia from football and baseball teams, including his beloved Baltimore Orioles.
"I'm reluctant to throw anything away," Buchsbaum says as he looks around an apartment with more bookshelves than a library.
An Orioles cap and pennant hang on the inside of his front door. The sign above the kitchen door says "Hot Corner" in honor of his dog Brooks, a 10-month-old mixed breed named after Buchsbaum's idol, former Orioles third baseman Brooks Robinson.
"He didn't have great measurable talent, but he was a gutty, consummate team player who was great in the clutch," Buchsbaum says.
He can still get misty-eyed when he talks about Buck the Wonder Dog, who had to be put to sleep last year at 15.
Other than sports in general and football and baseball in particular, the only thing Buchsbaum reads about is politics.
The only television shows he watches are ''Law and Order,'' ''NYPD Blue'' and reruns of ''Quincy.'' Of all the scouting services, he mentions Mel Kiper and OURLAD as the competition he respects the most.
The light in Apt. 4L may be on at all hours of the night as Buchsbaum analyzes videotapes of college and NFL players. He works 12 to 14 hours a day in his apartment. In the weeks leading up to the NFL draft, he will spend 16 to 18 hours a day working. A computer and two television sets with VCRs are on his desk. Another television and VCR are in his bedroom so he can watch tapes before he falls asleep.
"I have a crazy schedule, especially at this time of year," he says.
Buchsbaum's telephone rings constantly. Most of his calls are from NFL scouts and personnel people, radio stations, sportswriters, friends and a few agents, all wanting to get his most up-to-date scouting information.
In Houston, there is almost a mystique about Buchsbaum. Fans are curious about him because they know so little about him.
Some think he is tall and thin with short hair. Others think he is short and pudgy with curly hair. Because he is shy, humble and private, Buchsbaum doesn't like to talk about himself. When a caller asks him something personal, it's obvious from his response that he's uncomfortable revealing much about himself.
Buchsbaum is 5-8 3/4 (leave it to a draft guru to include the fraction) and 130 pounds. He wears thick glasses. His hair is neither short nor long, just straight. Because of stress, he is allergic to different kinds of foods, so he doesn't eat much. He eats at home, unless he goes to an identical apartment building next door to eat with his parents, Stanley, 86, and Frances, 83.
Fans want to know about his encyclopedic knowledge of college and pro players. They insist that all that knowledge must be stored in a computer, because no one could disseminate so much information so fast when a caller asks about a player, no matter how obscure.
But when Buchsbaum does a radio show, he leaves his computer and sits in a recliner so he can relax when taking calls.
"I still get nervous before shows," he says. "I'm a worrier by nature. I don't feel totally comfortable until I give a couple of good answers and the show starts to flow."
Buchsbaum still does several radio shows semiregularly in such cities as St. Louis, Baltimore and Buffalo, N.Y., but the only station on which he can be heard weekly is KTRH, from 7-9 p.m. on Wednesdays.
"Radio's too time-consuming," he says. "I'm so busy, I just don't have enough time to devote to talk shows every week. I love doing KTRH, though. I love the callers in Houston because they're different than other cities. It's not a homer city, and the callers are very knowledgeable about football. Many of the calls I get are very stimulating."
Buchsbaum doesn't like to elaborate. He may give one-word or one-sentence answers if he thinks no more is required. His father, who was a New York City attorney who specialized in tax law, has been his role model.
"One of the many things he taught me is that, in court, they don't want to know how much you know," he says. "They just want to know the facts that are directly pertinent to the case.
"My father's the most honest person I've ever known. He's my financial adviser and my best friend. He's someone I can rely on. My father worked very hard for the city, but he was always there when I needed him. I remember one time in Little League, I got in a slump. He took me to the park and threw pitches for hours, and I broke out of my slump.
"I'm very happy right now, but something that troubles me is that I don't know how I'll react when I lose my parents.
They're such a big part of my life. My father means so much to me. When you don't have brothers and sisters, and you don't work in a social environment, you don't have a lot of friends.
I'm not an outgoing person who makes friends quickly.
Basically, I don't make friends until I know them a long time.
I'm not a naturally trusting person."
When Buchsbaum was growing up, his father took him to sporting events all over the five boroughs of New York. He has been to every stadium and arena in the New York area.
"I saw the first Mets game at the Polo Grounds and their first game at Shea (Stadium)," he says. "I went to see the Jets when they were the Titans. I was a fan of the old AFL because we couldn't get tickets to Giants games."
His father was devoted to the Brooklyn Dodgers, and when they moved to Los Angeles in 1958, he couldn't bring himself to cheer for the Yankees. That's why father and son shifted their allegiance to the Orioles, one of the few American League teams that were competitive with the Yankees in those days.
"For as long as I can remember, I was a big sports fan,"
Buchsbaum says. "I read everything I could get my hands on.
That's how I got into this business."
Buchsbaum went to State University of New York (Albany) to major in political science and become an attorney, just like his father. But his hobby was writing scouting reports on football players. It began when he was a teen-ager reading the scouting reports of Carl and Pete Marasco in Pro Football Weekly.
"It started out as a hobby and became a job," he says.
In 1974, Buchsbaum had transferred to Brooklyn College. He was 20 years old, and he sent his resume - complete with scouting reports - to 120 newspapers and magazines to see if they would be interested in having him write about the NFL draft. Roger Stanton, the publisher of the Football News, hired him. The 1975 draft was the first one Buchsbaum evaluated for publication.
"I took a writing class after the Football News hired me," he says. "The teacher told me no one would read me because I wasn't colorful. I guess she wanted me to write like Shakespeare."
In 1978, Pro Football Weekly had an opening for someone to write about college and pro football. Arthur Arkush, the late publisher, called Buchsbaum and offered him a job. It has been a match made in scouting heaven.
That same year, Buchsbaum got his start in radio. KMOX had Buchsbaum and Joe Stein, draft expert for The Sporting News, on a pre-draft show in St. Louis with some other experts.
"They were saying that Charles Alexander and Theotis Brown were the best running backs, but I said O.J. Anderson was better than both of them," Buchsbaum says. "The Cardinals drafted Anderson, and he became a very good player.
"I have a terrible radio voice, but they (KMOX) were fascinated because this squeaky-voice guy from Brooklyn got the pick, and the so-called experts didn't."
A radio star was born.
Former KTRH sports director Jerry Trupiano, now a broadcaster with the Boston Red Sox, is a St. Louis native who used to work for KMOX. He heard Buchsbaum on KMOX and put him on KTRH in 1979. That same year, Buchsbaum produced his first scout's notebook for Pro Football Weekly. It was 56 pages. This year's edition is 184 pages.
Over the years, Buchsbaum has turned down offers from numerous NFL teams to join their scouting departments.
"I owe Pro Football Weekly, and loyalty's important to me," he says. "They've been a vital part of my life for so long. I like to think I'm vital to them.
"Although I couldn't do my job without NFL people helping me, I don't know if I could do it (scouting players for an NFL team). I like scouting off tapes. There's more uncertainty with teams, because owners can be so whimsical. I've never come close to taking an offer.
"I love my job, but it's all-encompassing. If I had to serve jury duty, I'd be dead. I don't think a judge could conceive how important this is to me. My whole life depends on every day getting the material I need. I can't let things pass me by, because I'm a one-man business. I was in the hospital, and I had my parents and friends bringing me the mail every day. I don't know what I'd do if I had to have surgery."
To relieve stress, Buchsbaum goes to the Paerdegat Athletic Club in Brooklyn six nights a week to work out with some friends.
"It's the only time of the day I have social contact," he says. "It's a relaxed atmosphere, and I'm around a good group of people."
He says one friend, Marty Fox, knows more about football than he does.
"Marty's the one who should be on radio," Buchsbaum says. "He knows more about sports than anyone I know."
Buchsbaum has never married and doubts he ever will.
"I can't get married, because I wouldn't be a good husband and father," he says. "My job takes too much time. It wouldn't be fair to them. I may change my mind after my parents are gone, but right now, it's just me and Brooks.
"To tell you the truth, there are times when I think about what else I could do. It's a scary thought, because I realize I'm not trained for anything else. When it comes my time to go, I hope I'm 90, and I've just finished another draft. Yeah, that's the way I want to go."
