Mike “Doc” Emrick is arguably the best play-by-play announcer in the business. He’s also a pretty incredible person.
In the midst of his “busy season” — the Stanley Cup playoffs — Emrick is finding the time to write a handwritten letter every single day to someone who made a lasting impact on him, Ed Sherman of USA TODAY writes. Sherman notes that these thank-you notes range from colleagues to former high school classmates to neighbors to people in the business he met when he was just starting off.
“There’s so much that people did for you along the way that they probably thought was nothing at all,” Emrick said, via USA TODAY. “I wanted to tell them what it meant to me. It seemed like something that needed to be done.”
Emrick said he got the inspiration from his brother, Dan. Their parents were both teachers and Dan arranged for their former students to write them letters that “showed they made a difference.”
Emrick has already penned notes to his former neighbors in New Jersey who he called “The Wayne Gretzky of neighbors,” and a radio analyst who let him tag along to games with him when he was in college. He isn’t even close to being done.
“I figure it is going to take me a couple of years if I do 365 per year,” Emrick said, “just because I keep thinking of people who made a difference in my life.”
He will miss Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final due to a death in the family but will return for Game 2.
