Knecht: From Bando to Beijing

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jul 16, 2008 | by Carl Steward

WALNUT CREEK native John Knecht has built a compelling career in sports broadcasting that will soon take him to his fifth Summer Olympics, this time in Beijing.

The most compelling part, though, is that one-time A's third baseman Sal Bando indirectly punched his ticket.

Knecht, a 1984 Northgate High School graduate, says he owes his career as NBC's overseeing graphics coordinator to his sports memorabilia collection, his teenaged zeal for ballplayer autographs and a missed signature opportunity that turned into something much bigger starting in 1984.

"One day, I really will write a book called 'From Baseball Cards to Broadcasting,'" Knecht said by phone from Karlskrona, Sweden, where he now lives with his wife and five children.

Consider this the condensed version until then. Growing up in Walnut Creek, where he once delivered the Contra Costa Times, Knecht was an avid card collector who regularly hopped on BART starting at age 11 to get them signed by the A's and their opponents at the Coliseum.

As his pursuit of signatures grew more serious, he gravitated to the players' parking lots, and ultimately, the lobby of the now- extinct Edgewater Hyatt. In 1984, with the Milwaukee Brewers in town to play the A's and NBC scheduled to air the game with Bando in the broadcast booth, Knecht made his way to the Hyatt lobby.

"I was hoping to get my '72-'73-'74 World Series programs signed by Captain Sal because I had most everyone else on it -- Reggie (Jackson), Vida Blue, on down the list," Knecht said.

His hopes were dashed when he approached a man wearing a sweater with an NBC logo and was told Bando wasn't in town to do the game. Fifteen minutes later, the man reappeared and asked if Knecht "knew how to run."

"I have two legs," Knecht replied.

Little did he know the man was John Kuhn, NBC Sports' West Coast production manager. He needed an errand boy -- a "runner" as they are most commonly known in the business. They perform jobs as wide- ranging as fetching food, driving limousines or going out to buy electronic parts at the nearest Radio Shack.

It didn't matter to Knecht. He was getting paid $40 to "run." He did such a good job the network invited him back a few weeks later. While in the broadcast truck, he made a couple of astute observations, including pointing out a graphic mistake that had gone out over the air. Knecht was immediately dispatched to the broadcast booth manned by Tony Kubek and a young Bob Costas, where he replaced the asleep-at-the-wheel statistician relaying flawed information to the graphics coordination crew.

"They still only paid me $40 because they said they'd already paid the guy I replaced," Knecht said. "But I was getting paid to sit in the booth and watch a game ... every kid's dream."

Knecht worked for NBC the rest of that summer and also for local companies as a graphics coordinator, which was performed manually in those days. He thought it might end there when he departed on a two- year Mormon mission in Brazil, but when he returned in 1987, the All- Star Game was being played in Oakland and he called Kuhn to see if help was needed.

Knecht was hired as "lead runner" at the event and impressed again, to the degree that he was hired to work other jobs, including his first Olympic assignment as part of NBC's track and field production team in Seoul in 1988.

While Knecht was attending BYU from 1989 to 1993, he continued to work a number of odd jobs. At the 1994 World Basketball Championships, he met a statistical crew from Assistant Coach Software, which had written an interface to drive the character generator that revolutionized graphics operations.

He subsequently was hired as a liaison between NBC and IBM, the technology provider for the 1996 Games in Atlanta. For the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics, Knecht actually owned the development and support for the graphics interface, as well as the Commentator Information System (CIS), which relays up-to-date information instantaneously to commentators in myriad languages through touch screens.

Even though IBM no longer has any involvement of the Games, Knecht leaves for Beijing in two weeks to continue his unlikely 20- year journey, where he'll work for the host world broadcasters at the aquatics and gymnastics venues in a freelance capacity.

In short, Knecht, 42, has been on quite an international ride since the days of scouring for A's autographs.

The postscript?

"I finally got Sal Bando's autograph at an old-timers' game," he said. "I still have those programs and all that other fun stuff. To think where I am now all started from collecting baseball cards and using the Oakland Coliseum as a baby-sitting place, it's amazing."

Do you know of a local sports story that deserves to be told? Contact Carl Steward at (510) 293-2451 or csteward@bayareanewsgroup.com.