Editing Al McCoy (sportscaster) (section)

===Early Phoenix career===
After getting married, Al & Georgia McCoy moved to [[Phoenix, AZ]] in the summer of 1958.<ref name="McCoy's-Book" />   He was soon hired by [[KOOL-FM|KOOL]], scheduled broadcaster for the [[Phoenix Giants]], and he worked as the host of night-time radio shows for the station until the team completed their own move to the [[West Coast of the United States|west coast]].{{Cn|date=September 2024}}
[[File:AlMccoy Phoenix Giants advertisement KOOL-960.jpg|thumb|Advertisement for Phoenix Giants games on radio, 1958.]]

With the Phoenix Giants, McCoy broadcast the only baseball game in history to be postponed due to [[grasshoppers]], who collectively gathered around all the surrounding sources of light and placed the ball park in a shroud of darkness.  McCoy described exiting the ball park grounds as “like driving around in [[snow]]. There'd be a drift of grasshoppers in the street. you'd start sliding around.”<ref name="McCoy's-Book" /> 

McCoy was occasionally visited during Phoenix Giants broadcasts by then-[[San Francisco Giants]] owner [[Horace Stoneham]], who often told McCoy he would become the next “Voice of the Giants” in [[Major League Baseball]].<ref name="McCoy's-Book" />   When the job was eventually offered, talk of a potential move of the team away from the west coast caused McCoy to decline, believing it to not be the “right fit.”  During another period in time when the Giants job was again presented, McCoy briefly contemplated broadcasting both Suns and Giants games, planning to make a decision later, but was ultimately glad he did not.<ref name="McCoy's-Book" />   He would eventually one day fill-in as play-by-play for the San Francisco Giants for one single game, during a night the Suns were not playing.

The [[Triple-A (baseball)|Triple-A]] team would also eventually leave Phoenix for Tacoma, WA due to a dispute over construction of a new ball park, while McCoy remained in Phoenix.  Once the park was built, the team returned.  In the interim five years without the Phoenix Giants, McCoy became "One of the Good Guys", a [[radio personality|DJ]] on [[KRUX]] 1360 AM.  While on KRUX in the 1960s he also did play-by-play for [[Arizona State University|ASU]] [[Arizona State Sun Devils|Sun Devil's]] football and basketball.<ref name="McCoy's-Book" />   On local television stations [[KTVK]] and [[KTAR-TV]], he did [[Ring announcer|ring announcing]] work for [[boxing]] fights held at Phoenix Madison Square Garden, and also some [[professional wrestling]] commentary for the regional territory.<ref name="McCoy's-Book" />

McCoy parted ways with the Phoenix Giants three years after their return to Phoenix in 1966.  He would eventually return to baseball some 32-years later with the [[Arizona Diamondbacks]] during the club's first season in 1998, paired with [[Joe Garagiola Sr.|Joe Garagiola]].{{Cn|date=September 2024}}
 
As the [[Western Hockey League (1952–1974)|Western Hockey League]] expanded to Arizona in 1967, McCoy also began broadcasting for the [[Phoenix Roadrunners (WHL)|Phoenix Roadrunners]] during the Giants' off-season.  Less experienced with hockey, McCoy served as a color-commentator for two seasons before learning to do play-by-play for the ice on-the-fly after his broadcaster partner Jim Wells fell through a shower door.  McCoy found he enjoyed doing hockey play-by-play, and Wells' agreed that it would be a better fit if they switched roles after his recovery.<ref name="McCoy's-Book" /> 

As his ongoing commitments to the Phoenix Giants, the Phoenix Roadrunners and other radio stations transitioned, he began to observe a “buzz” in the city over a potential new NBA expansion team and quickly made inroads to secure a job with the new franchise as it was officially announced in 1968.<ref name="McCoy's-Book" />