CLEVELAND, Ohio – The name of the show said so much about the man.
More sports and Les Levine. It was Les, the lover of sports and puns. It was Les, who never ceased to be grateful for his own sports talk show.
Lesson. He has always been just ‘Lesson’ for his friends and the thousands who have followed his various shows, including the MS & LL show he has hosted on cleveland.com for the past few years. He died Wednesday of complications from Parkinson’s and diabetes at the age of 74.
But in this story he is Les.
He’s one of those special people who apparently welcomed me into the inner circle of the Cleveland sports media a million years ago. That was in the early 1980s, when I was a young baseball writer for The Plain Dealer.
That was when Hal Lebovitz was the voice of sports as the columnist for The Plain Dealer. That was when Pete Franklin (another wonderful friend) was the booming voice on the old WWWE radio AM-1100, “heard in 38 states and half of Canada!”
And that’s when Les was the ‘Voice of Truth & Reason’.
AHEAD OF HIS TIME
That was 25 years ago when Les took up his sports talk show on cable television. I wondered, “Does anyone want to watch someone talk sports? Listen, sure. But look? ”
Except for the Chicago Sportswriters on TV (1985-2000), I can not remember anyone else doing it before Les. He made the move in 1996 from WHK radio. He was definitely the first to present a show in that market.
Les was not only the host, he also sold his own ads and wrote the ads, which he read with passion and panache. Lesson would love to have that word – panache. That means with a special flamboyance, not the same old story.
I did his show once in 2009 with former Browns coach Eric Mangini. Then Mangini said, “I’ve never heard anyone read such ads!”
It was a compliment. I think of Sokolowski’s University Inn and Gallucci’s Italian market as two of his favorites. He’s owned McDonald’s for years. But when he loses it, he adds Nature Stone, a key pillar of his show.
“Lesson has always been his own man,” former Cavs broadcaster Joe Tait said. “He did not try to be Pete Franklin or anyone else, I loved it. His puns were usually funny. The Lesson you saw in the air was Les Levine. He was real. ”
Then Tait tells the story of meeting Les in the spring of 1970 in Indiana. Tait was playing an American Legion baseball game for a Terre Haute radio station. He met Les in the same game he started his broadcasting career with a radio station in Jasper, Indiana.
“And a few years later, we’re both small-town radio guys ending up in Cleveland,” Tait said.
THE BELDERS RESPECTED
I posted a note about Les’ death on my Facebook page. Within a few hours, there were nearly 100 comments.
Robert Rodman wrote:
‘Wow … another Cleveland media legend is gone. He appeared to be a kind man as well as very knowledgeable, and I never heard him suddenly or condescendingly to callers. ‘
After doing hundreds of shows with Les, I was very amazed at his patience with callers. Some like “The Provoker” came to Les to annoy him. But Les and ‘The Provoker’ both knew the game and had fun with it, no matter how outrageous the comments were.
Cliff Kessler wrote:
“I will really miss him. A decent man who discussed sports in the right way with a chat show. I’m sure it’s a generation thing, he did not have enough drama for most young people. ”
But he also had a younger audience. Michael Shaffer wrote:
“Good performance!”
‘Tonight?’
“I watched every night. Will really miss Les. ”
This is because Lesson is always “Tonight?” Would ask. after someone complimented his show on air.
Then there was this one from Michael Hoover:
‘I just learned about the passing of one of my favorite sports exhibitors, Les Levine. I drove several times more than 200 miles back and forth to the eastern suburbs to see his show live on the host premises. ”
MORE THAN NOT TALKING
Lesson was a wonderful writer. Those “Truth and Reason” comments he used to open the program were not only well written, but also written quickly – within 20 minutes. I regularly saw him do before he went into the air. For many years he edited two books by Lebovitz, his good friend and the star of his show, during the weekly appearance of the sports writer. Les also wrote a regular column for the Cleveland Jewish News.
He has met the fans in so many places, from walking his dog to charities. He will talk to someone sporting at any time.
I wrote this column with a few tears in my eyes. Les was a man with a big heart who cared for others. This is what I remember best of him.
Finally, David Lasky wrote:
‘How come Les doesn’t feel us anymore? Goodbye, Mr. Levine. Thank you for all the laughter, may your memory be a blessing to all who loved you. ‘
The only thing “Mr. Levine ”would say,” Thank you very much … and you can call me Lesson. “
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