A quick Internet search yielded no results on this, so I figured I'd turn it to the elite at ClutchFans. Anyone know why Mike Fratello is known as the "Czar of the Telestrator"? Just curious. Thanks.
I think it was that total porve Marv Albert that named him that. They were announcing games together (TV), and Fratello was the color commentator, complete with telestrated reviews of highlights.
B-Bob is exactly correct. It was Marv who gave him the nickname. For some odd reason, I remember this, but I can never remember my zip code.
that's what i think as well. don't know the exact reference or how marv albert came up with it though.
I think that's what Marv calls him while he's biting him in the back dressed in womens lingerie. YEEESSS!!!!
Now, if only the phone company, electric company, and credit card company could forget these minor details...
Oh... well I actually knew that Marv Albert coined the name, but I was sort of hoping there was some actual origin other than the whims of said Mr. Albert.
I have no idea why he had the nick, but I believe Fratello had the nick of "czar" when he was a coach. Then Alberts just tried to weasle the nick somehow into his new job, between bites of his back that is.
Back in the early days of Marv & Mike, Mike would use the telestrator to break down plays. Mike got so into it he would end up drawing all over the screen so, when he was done, the viewer couldn't see anything. Marv began calling him "The Czar of the Telestrator" because of his prowess to totally confuse the viewer
snippet from SI Q&A session with The Rug... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_online/QandA/2003/0428/ SI: Who is your favorite czar of alltime? Albert: It's very close among the Czar of the Telestrator, Mike Fratello; former drug czar William Bennett; and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. But I would give the Czar of the Telestrator a slight edge because once a week he comes over to water my house plants.
