Mixed emotions? This would be cool to see?

Fuck you Fred, you're dead to me.

McLeod ready for Cavs stint

Monday, October 02, 2006

By Roger Brown
Plain Dealer Columnist

Strongsville native Fred McLeod says mixed emotions were coursing through him last spring as a Detroit Pistons TV announcer, watching the favorite Pistons barely hold off the Cavs in their seven-game Eastern Conference semifinal series.

"The Pistons part of me was saying, 'Whoa, this is not good at all. [The Cavs] have us fighting for our lives,' " McLeod says.

"But the Cleveland kid in me was saying, 'Man, this is really cool to see.' I'd never been in an arena as loud as The Q was during that Game 6. It put goose bumps on my skin."

And McLeod will have plenty of eyes and ears on him, too, in his new role as the Cavs' TV play-by-play voice. The longtime Detroit personality was hired after owner Dan Gilbert dumped longtime team broadcaster Michael Reghi in a controversial move.

"I really don't feel any extra pressure," says McLeod, who briefly called Indians and Cavs games years ago while working as a WJKW Channel 8 sportscaster.

"Michael is a great talent and a good friend of mine, but we both know things like this happen in our business," McLeod says. "What's important now is that I prove to fans that I'm a high-energy [announcer] who knows the games aren't about me. They're about the Cavs. And, hopefully, they're going to be about more great moments like last season."

McLeod will do play-by-play for all 70 Cavs telecasts on cable network FSN Ohio (five of which will be simulcast on WUAB Channel 43). He'll be joined on 40 games by analyst Scott Williams, while Austin Carr will do color on the remaining 30 telecasts.