976-1313: How Sports Phone Launched Careers and Broke New Ground

by Scott Orgera, Howie Karpin

Sports Phone set out to change the way scores and breaking news were consumed, and in turn ended up setting the tone for the up-to-the-second updates we take for granted today. Found among those who called the service home are some of the most well-known broadcasters, reporters, public address announcers, and other prominent media figures - as well as several who've been successful in Hollywood and the music industry. A veritable breeding ground for these now-polished professionals, the dial-up platform that once handled 50 million calls in a year churned out talent at a level likely not seen before or since. Brought to you by sports media veterans Howie Karpin and Scott Orgera, 976-1313: How Sports Phone Launched Careers and Broke New Ground features never-before-told tales of triumph and tragedy, a mix of hilarity, inspiration, and regret from the broadcasting hopefuls and sports junkies that comprised the brains and voices behind the pioneering operation. If you were assembling an All-Star team of media personnel, you'd only have to look as far as Sports Phone's ranks to fill out your roster. As colorful as that cast of characters was, those who dialed 976-1313 regularly had their own yarns to spin. They form a tapestry of hardcore fans, award-winning actors, well-known comedians, impulsive gamblers, Broadway singers, and infamous mobsters, each with captivating stories told within these pages. With 75 years of collective experience between them, Karpin and Orgera interviewed more than a hundred people en route to creating what is a must-read. Much of what we see and hear today was started by Sports Phone, and this tome covers untapped historical territory from every angle, beginning with a compelling foreword written by revered broadcaster Kenny Albert. Also included is the 1978-79 Boston College point-shaving scandal and the record-setting Lufthansa heist, the latter of which was immortalized in Martin Scorsese's blockbuster film, Goodfellas. At the center of the scheme to fix games were infamous mobsters Henry Hill (portrayed by Ray Liotta) and Jimmy "the Gent" Burke (Robert De Niro), as were a slew of calls to Sports Phone placed by multiple defendants.

Audiobook

Published May 1, 2024

About the author

Scott Orgera is a sportswriter and statistician with three decades of experience under his belt. He has covered thousands of MLB and NFL games and events during that time. His reporting has extended to Division I college sports, professional soccer, the NBA, and the NHL. Orgera's bylines include the Associated Press, Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, FanGraphs, Forbes, and The Hardball Times, among others. He has also contributed to several editions of Baseball Prospectus’s bestselling books, serving as an associate editor, proofreader, and writer.
 
Formerly a highly rated reporter for STATS for 25 seasons and an MLB.com datacaster, Scott is a Baseball Writers' Association of America member, managing social media for their New York chapter. He graduated summa cum laude in Analytics from Purdue University. Beyond sports, Orgera has authored over 1,500 computing and technology articles for Lifewire (formerly About.com), co-written the children's book Mikey and the Magic Medicine, and has over a quarter-century of experience in software development, quality assurance, and technical writing for multiple Fortune 100 companies.

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable, but extremely repetitive. So many of the stories are the same. There are good ones, to be sure, but you could take a third of them out and lose nothing. Would have traded those for more on the business, the tech, the overall impact -- those parts of the book were the highlights.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as a gift from the author.

Entertaining and colorful history of Sports Phone.

The book is clearly a labor of love for Scott and Howie. The history of Sports Phone is on Wikipedia in about 5000 words, but these guys provide a rich panoply of anecdotes and stories that brings the era to life in a visceral way.
From the preface where they both talk about their relationship with Sport Phone and sports in general to the acknowledgments at the end where Scott cites the many people who have helped make him and the book what they are, the passion for sports, and especially baseball, comes through on every page. Growing up pre-internet, this book brought back many memories of the time when modern telecommunications was finding its footing, and the concept of real-time sports and news was novel.
This is a must read for anyone with an interest in sports or telecommunications history.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember the ubiquity of the 976-1313 ads running in the 1980s as my teenage self consumed whatever sports information available at the time. I was a very occasional caller to Sports Phone, limited by a dad who wouldn’t tolerate high phone bills. So, when a friend told me about this book, I knew I had to read it.

It was a bit of a disappointment. I guess I went in expecting to love this book, and it was just ok.
It is chock full of anecdotes…too many of them. 400 pages of anecdotes. Better editing could have cut this book by 50% and made it a great read. It just went on too long, and I found myself thinking, “Haven’t I heard this story already?” for nearly the entire 2nd half of the book.

[Megan Martinetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

This number is ingrained into my brain. Before the days of cell phones, I would call this line while waiting for someone to call in on the other line so it wouldn't wake up the house. This is a must read for any sports lover, but should be required reading for anyone who lived in the NY metro area at the time. It's hard to remember a time before any and all information being at your fingertips and the book perfectly encapsulates the feeling of having few options available to you for real time updates. The way the authors laid out this history and first hand accounts kept my interest so while it is definitely about sports history, it didn't read like a history book.

[Andrew Kutzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An engaging read that pulled me in with its voluminous insider anecdotes, this book gave a real sense of being part of this truly game changing and ahead of its time phenomenon. With many of the people involved with Sport Phone now well known in their own right, I felt a real connection to the history and evolution of how we consume sports news and information today.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great throwback to the times that created the sports reporting world as we know it. A history as told from multiple, diverse perspectives, including many big names from today. I enjoyed.