Neumeier is on his Games

Bob Neumeier must be:

A. At a racetrack as a serious horse player and analyst.

B. Doing play-by-play at an NHL game, or in the studio, breaking down what just happened in a Stanley Cup matchup.

C. Offering sideline reports during a National Football League game.

D. Providing nightly sports updates on WBZ-TV.

E. Debating the latest Red Sox or Patriots news with Dale Arnold on WEEI's "Dale and Neumy" midday show.

F. In Las Vegas, testing out his thoroughbred knowledge in a national handicapping contest.

G. Working the Summer or Winter Olympics for NBC.

H. All of the above.

The current answer, of course, is G, as Neumeier is part of the vast NBC broadcast crew in Beijing.

Over the course of a long and distinguished career, however, the answer would be H, because Neumeier has been all over the world and has done just about everything in the world of sports broadcasting.

Neumeier gives a fan's view of sports from up close.

"It's been a great run at NBC," said Neumeier by telephone this week from Beijing, where he was preparing to cover synchronized diving. "I'm in the second year of a three-year contract and it's been a blast. I love it; it's great working with these people."

Neumeier will start the main focus of his Olympic duties today, when track and field begins. But he has had time to get a feeling for the city. "I was in Athens and Torino and now Beijing," he said. "With Athens and Beijing, it does give you a sense of history."

Neumeier considers Beijing a much bigger version of New York, with the heat of the Chinese summer and the extraordinary security dominating the Games part of the landscape.

Neumeier grew up as a sports junkie in Weymouth, and went to Syracuse University. He later returned to Boston and worked primarily at WBZ.

Upon leaving WBZ, he made the switch to talk radio, forming a nice combination with Arnold. "It was good," said Neumeier, who has returned to WEEI as a guest host and was on the "Dennis & Callahan Show" Wednesday morning. "And I probably would have still been there if they had been a little more fair in their negotiations about my new contract. But it didn't work out, so I took a chance and left and hooked up with NBC."

After his full-time stint at WEEI, Neumeier stuck to his passion, horse racing, for a while. Gradually he added more sports, and last year he signed a three-year deal with NBC.

His next work after the Olympics will be on the sidelines during the NFL season. "I will be in Miami for the Jets-Dolphins game [Sept. 7]," said Neumeier. "The Brett Favre-Chad Pennington bowl. It should be great."

Will Neumeier have any downtime between assignments? "Sure," he said. "I'm getting home and then heading straight to Saratoga and kick back for a few days and then it will be off to Miami. Not bad for a kid from Weymouth."

Not bad at all.

Here and there

If you are a Summer Olympics fan, watching everything from Michael Phelps's march into the record books to badminton, baseball, and archery, you may not know that some of the NBC broadcast crew of 106 commentators and analysts are doing what you are: watching the action on television.

Of the 34 sports NBC is covering in Beijing, only 13 have announcers actually on site. The rest are being called from the old "Saturday Night Live" studios in New York.

It is not that uncommon a practice. Many countries outside of the United States have covered the Olympics that way for years. And NBC has not tried to hide it, announcing at the start of those broadcasts that the commentators are in New York. And if you aren't paying attention, you cannot tell the difference, with the quality of the sound feed.