Mike Lynch with WBZ's Drew Moholland. (WBZ NewsRadio)
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — WCVB sports anchor Mike Lynch retired last month after nearly four decades at Channel 5.
"Lynchie," as he is known by viewers and friends, won Massachusetts Sportscaster of the Year sixteen times.
He tells WBZ NewsRadio's Drew Moholland that adjusting to retirement has been difficult for him.
"It's a little hard," he said. "Like getting off an off ramp at 70 mph and hitting a stop sign."
The two spoke about retirement life, Lynch's long and storied career, and the golden age of local news—as well as some of Lynch's favorite interview subjects, including Celtics legend Larry Bird.
"I'd come into the Garden at 3:30-4 p.m. and Larry would be shooting 200 shots," Lynch said. "The ushers weren't there yet. The rats hadn't even woken up from the night before."
As for the GOAT, Patriots legend Tom Brady, Lynch said, "He's as nice as he was the first time I met him," but added that Brady "always turns the conversation around" to make an interview not about him.
Lynch shared his memories of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, which ended in a famous error by Boston first baseman Bill Buckner.
"We were going to break into Nightline, 'Breaking News: Red Sox have won the World Series'," he said. "We were in the bowels of the stadium, my cameraman and myself, but we can't see anything—there's no TVs, there's no cell phone, there's nothing to tell you what's going on, it's a concrete wall-way."
When he saw the trophy and champagne wheeled out of the Red Sox locker room, he figured they were just moving to a larger room for a celebration, because he hadn't heard the bad news.
"The ball had gone through Buckner's legs, I never saw it," he said. "Then I hear the clickity-clack of cleats coming and some profanity and here come the players, and I'm going, what happened? And some New York police officer had a little transistor radio, he says, 'The ball went through Buckner's legs!' I never saw the ball go through Buckner's legs until the next day, on like, the mid-day news."
Listen to the full interview below.
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WBZ NewsRadio's Drew Moholland (@DrewWBZ) reports