With the exception of Ernie Harwell’s pink slip in December 1990, no Detroit sports broadcasting story in memory matches the tragedy of last month’s fracas that cost Tigers broadcasters Mario Impemba and Rod Allen their jobs with Fox Sports Detroit.
People wonder how careers so special, positions so personally and professionally gratifying for two men, could have been risked and ruptured Sept. 4 during a seconds-long fracas outside their broadcast booth in Chicago.
The answer isn’t satisfying. The answer, simply, is that they’re human beings. Two men had the kind of moment too many of us have had at some moment, in some context, during lives that are forever vulnerable to mishap.