By Ryan Maquiñana

This week, one of boxing’s broadcasting legends, Al Bernstein, released a book titled 30 Years, 30 Undeniable Truths about Boxing, Sports, and TV.

“I fudged it a little bit.  It’s actually been 32 years now, but 30 is a nice, symmetrical number,” he said, laughing. “To be fair, I started writing it when I was in my 30th year in broadcasting, so I went with it.”

Fair is an apt description of Bernstein’s analysis throughout the years, something that has been his hallmark and has led to him earn universal acclaim from fans, media, and fighters alike.

Whether in breaking down a bout beforehand or giving a post-mortem on a pugilist’s career, Bernstein’s calm but frank delivery has endured over three decades (and a couple years extra, but who’s counting?).

BoxingScene.com discussed a plethora of topics with the 2012 International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee, as we broke down his latest book, his reflections on the sport’s past, present, and future, as well as who or what exactly is “Velvet Al.”  Here is the first of a two-part installment.

BoxingScene.com: Al, I’ve read the book, and it has a very conversational tone.  It doesn’t stick to a rigid format.  You also include plenty of anecdotes and humor over 30 years, although if I remember correctly, isn’t this now 32?

Al Bernstein: I fudged it a little bit.  It’s actually been 32 years now, but 30 is a nice, symmetrical number.  To be fair, I started writing it when I was in my 30th year in broadcasting, so I went with it. (Laughs)

 BoxingScene.com: I guess the obvious question is why did you write the book, and why did you decide to go with that particular way of writing it?

Al Bernstein: I settled on that format, to be honest, because it gave me the most flexibility.  I wasn’t writing my life story, and I don’t think I’m narcissistic enough to think my life story’s that interesting.  I wanted to write about all these things in such a way that I wasn’t restricted to boxing.  I threw in some humor elements with short stories and everything, and I used this format because it allowed me to kind of travel back and forth through time.

BoxingScene.com: With the short stories and trivia, the book kind of reminded me of one of your boxing parties where you interact with the fans.

Al Bernstein: That’s true in a way.  I wanted people to sit down and read it, and enjoy it in bite-size chunks.  I included things that maybe they didn’t hear, or maybe would get a laugh out of.  I took a few moments to be serious, but for the most part, it was just to tell some good stories.

BoxingScene.com: Do you have a general sense of what you want readers to get out of it? Obviously boxing fans will love it, but is there anything there that might appeal to the casual sports fan who will pick this up and fall in love with?  Maybe even for an aspiring broadcaster?

Al Bernstein: I’ve had a lot of people read the book who are not hardcore boxing fans—and I sound like I’m shilling for the book here, so excuse me—but they’ve all found humor in the stuff I was writing about without knowing who all the people are.  Some of it’s about television, and some of it’s about different celebrities.

Most of the chapters don’t talk about hardcore boxing too much to begin with.  There’s one chapter in the book about Ray Mancini, and one about [George] Foreman, but with the humor, you don’t really have to know a lot of boxing.  There was somebody on Twitter who was looking for a good sports read, and someone recommended my book.  They weren’t big boxing fans, but they told me they enjoyed it.

And then you have the stories about the old days of ESPN.  I think if you’re any casual sports fan 30 years old or younger, I don’t think any of the stuff I write in there would be comprehensible to them.  I bet they could never imagine that ESPN once had only 200 people at their Christmas party, or that we used to do shows on a budget so small we weren’t even sure we were going to get on the air.

They’ll also be shocked to know that ESPN thought mustaches were evil once upon a time. (Laughs) They really did.  To them at the time, sportscasters should never have facial hair.

BoxingScene.com: You’ve always had a reputation not just for getting things right, but being fair and honest.  I’ve never heard a single fan call you biased, and you know how rough the internet can be with so many people roaming around with neither a face nor filter.  Can you talk how much you’ve enjoyed breaking the fourth wall as well as your embracing of Twitter, which you talk about in the book?

Al Bernstein: In chapter 28, I talk about Twitter.  I think it’s a funny thing.  When you do broadcasting, it’s an insular world, and there’s something not quite right about it.  On one hand, you have to be insulated a little bit, and there so many voices out there so you do have to have some ability to separate yourself.

But by being too insulated, you don’t know what your constituents are thinking, and two, you don’t realize that the things you are saying have an impact on the participants you’re talking about, and sometimes you have a great influence on the way people perceive events you are doing.

That’s why the more you can have that involvement, the better.  The ways I used to do it before the Internet was sophisticated would be through the great fun I had doing boxing parties.  While I would sign autographs or ask trivia questions, I got to learn what fans were thinking.  I wouldn’t even mind when fans would disagree, I just wanted to know what they were thinking, and that’s valuable.

BoxingScene.com: Speaking of adapting to change, you address list-making being such a part of American culture in this day and age.  You even put up a couple lists in your book.  What is behind our fascination with lists and arguing to the death things like Fighter A was greater all-time than Fighter B, or whether Manny Pacquiao was or wasn’t robbed against Timothy Bradley—especially in the Internet age when you get some smart, but also some ridiculous theses at times?

Al Bernstein: I’m probably the least combative of all the sportscasters in a way.  It doesn’t mean I don’t have an opinion frequently.  On Twitter sometimes, you’re going to face some bizarreness, and you think that would turn you off to it, but I tell you, you have to have a balanced view on it.

Yes, some people are going to be moronic, and yes, some people are going to be so opinionated they just can’t even step back to be objective.  But for the most part, that communication is like a democracy.  You’re going to have some things that aren’t perfect.

But does social media fuel more controversy, and is that a good thing?  In the sense that we have more people communicating and participating, it can be in a way.

BoxingScene.com: What about your take on journalism today, with Twitter making things as instant as possible, but also opening the door to allowing anyone with a computer to pass themselves off as legitimate? Are things more susceptible to being done inaccurately and/or ethically, or the other way around since more information is at our fingertips?

Al Bernstein: The Internet is the perfect example, where there aren’t as many gatekeepers and there’s not as many checks-and-balances, so often times, it’s up to the writer to do their own gatekeeping.  And it’s tricky.  The media’s tricky now.  It’s a whole different world.

And TV especially is odd, because you would think there’d be more checks-and-balances on networks and channels, and now, there are actually things that were once—and I’ve been at this for 30 years—things that, as I say in the book, things that once were discouraged or frowned upon, are not only allowed, but encouraged.  And that’s disheartening to me.

Look, there are certain canons of journalism that seem to me to be common sense ones.  And often times, if people have an agenda, or they’re not being diligent enough, those things get left behind.  And I’m not suggesting that we still live in a day and age where it’s a ‘who, what, when, how, and where,’ because we get that information immediately, and let’s say, there are some parts of that.

Well, that even worries me, because the Internet, for instance, is a place where now we’re supposed to first get the ‘who, what, where, and how’ right.  Because it gets delivered immediately.  In two seconds.  And that’s great.  I love that.

But what worries me though, is that both on TV when it’s being reported, and let’s say it’s a live event, and on the Internet when it’s being disseminated to all the people that didn’t see it…if we don’t do the ‘who, what, where, how, and when’ the first time out of the box, that means people are never just getting the facts.  They’re only getting opinions. And so, I’m all for people having all the opinions as they want, but first I’d like information and analysis.

BoxingScene.com: Unfortunately Al, I have a feeling it’s going that way.

Al Bernstein:  That ship may have sailed, huh? (Laughs)  And it creates a distinct debate, a distinct discussion.  It’s funny, but in the book, I think that’s probably the only super-serious or opinionated chapter that I write.  And I’ve been waiting for a long time to write that.  And I’m not known as the guy that wades into those kinds of controversies, but I wanted to write it in the book because I felt that it’s just something I wanted to say.

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Al Bernstein’s new book titled 30 Years, 30 Undeniable Truths about Boxing, Sports, and TV can be found by clicking HERE .  For The Caring Place, a program of the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation that is dedicated to easing the journey of those touched by cancer, click HERE .

Kim Francesca Martinez contributed to this report.

Ryan Maquiñana writes a weekly boxing column for CSNBayArea.com.  He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the Ratings Panel for Ring Magazine. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com , check out his blog at Norcalboxing.net, or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.