Legendary TV sportscasters Mike Lynch and Bob Lobel have teamed up and launched a new podcast.
Cohosted by longtime radio veteran Hank Morse, the weekly show focuses on Boston sports, both past and present, and features entertaining stories from their lengthy careers in broadcasting. Episodes are available on Apple Podcasts and on the “Lobey, Lynchie and Friends with Hank Morse” Facebook page.
Lobel said he’s enjoyed working with Lynch and Morse on the new podcast, and discussing what they witnessed behind the scenes while covering sports in Boston for decades.
“It’s kind of therapeutic. . . to sit back and think about what we did, and share things we never talked about before,” Lobel said in a telephone interview with the Globe.
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For example, Lobel was surprised to learn that Lynch had a hard time talking to Carlton Fisk. “I never knew that Mike had an issue with him,” he said.
Lobel expects many more interesting tidbits to be revealed in future episodes.
Lynch said that he and Lobel worked for different stations for decades and were “competitors, but always friends” throughout their careers, and he’s happy to have the opportunity to work with his old rival.
“Bob and I covered a lot of sporting events,” said Lynch, who looks forward to swapping more “anecdotes and tales that weren’t told” back then; stories that can be told now, since they have the time and a platform to share them.
Lobel began covering sports for WBZ-TV in Boston in 1979; Lynch has been covering sports for WCVB since 1982. Although Lynch anchored his final sportscast in August, he can still be seen on Channel 5 as a correspondent for WCVB’s sports department, where he does his signature “High Five” high school sports series.
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In the first episode of the “Lobey, Lynchie and Friends with Hank Morse” podcast, they reminisce about some of the players they had to cover and the difficulties they encountered on the job, especially inside the teams’ locker rooms.
“It was my most hated part of the job, was going in the locker room,” Lobel said in the podcast.
“’Cause nine guys would tell you to go pound sand before one guy would talk to you,” said Lynch.
Lynch said Fisk, legendary catcher for the Red Sox and White Sox, was one of the toughest players that he had to deal with.
“I just was always treated poorly by Carlton Fisk,” said Lynch, who recalled one time that he tried to interview Fisk and he “wouldn’t even look at me.”
Lobel, on the other hand, had a very different experience, and talked about the time Fisk helped him broadcast a New Hampshire high school football game.
“We were pretty close friends,” said Lobel.
In that same episode, Lynch told the story of a funny encounter that he had with former Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach at an old-timers’ charity game in 1986. Lynch was one of the referees, and Auerbach was coaching one of the alumni teams.
Lynch said at one point during the game, Tom Heinsohn came up to him and let him in on a secret. Heinsohn told Lynch that on the next foul shot, he would walk out and pretend to go to the locker room. But instead of going to the locker room, he’d actually run down the hall and appear at the other end of the court, and Sam Jones would fire the ball down to him so he could score on a lay up.
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Their illegal play worked out as planned, Lynch said, but Auerbach was none too pleased.
“Red comes out on the court and he just rips me a new one,” said Lynch. “’You’re making a mockery of my game! This isn’t a joke. This isn’t just some friggin’ park league game, pickup game! You’re a friggin’ disgrace!’”
Lynch said he had a cigar in his pocket, which he took out and presented to Auerbach as a peace offering.
Lynch said Auerbach wasn’t having it, and promptly told him to “take that cigar and shove it” where the sun doesn’t shine.
In the second episode, Lobel, Lynch, and Morse have a debate about who’s been more important to the success of the New England Patriots: quarterback Tom Brady or coach Bill Belichick, and Lynch talks about interviewing Belichick before the Patriots’ game against the Jets.
Lobel, Lynch, and Morse record each episode at the Lexington Toyota car dealership — the space is good for recording and it’s a central meeting point for the three of them. Morse said they’re going to invite athletes and media personalities to appear as guests on the show, and they plan to release a new episode every week.
Morse said both Lobel and Lynch have an enormous amount of institutional knowledge to share.
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“They’ve seen a lot, and they’re great storytellers,” Morse in a telephone interview. “Bostonians love history, and they’ve been a witness to all of it for 40 years.”
Morse himself has over 30 years of experience in Boston radio. He was most recently on the “Loren & Wally” morning show on WROR (105.7 FM) from 1998 to June 2019.
Morse is looking forward to recording more episodes of the podcast with Lynch and Lobel, and said they may even bring their show out on the road at some point.
“We’re very excited about it,” he said.
Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @emilysweeney.