Through a son’s eyes, With A Kiss tells the story of a father who had been on the Road to the Final Four his whole life, and last year, at age 73, got the call to announce his first Final Four on television. The documentary chronicles Raftery’s experience at the 2015 Final Four in Indianapolis, his 35-year broadcasting career, and ascent to one of the pinnacles in sports broadcasting as CBS Sports’ lead college basketball analyst. The show presents an intimate look at Raftery’s family life and highlights his early years in which the Kearny, N.J. native was a basketball star earning player of the year honors as a high school senior in 1959.
On Oct. 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. PT, soon after Al Michaels and Tim McCarver started the ABC telecast for Game 3 of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics, the ground began to shake beneath Candlestick Park. Even before that moment, this had promised to be a memorable matchup: the first in 33 years between teams from the same metropolitan area, a battle featuring larger-than-life characters and equally colorful fan bases. But after the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake rolled through, bringing death and destruction, the Bay Area pulled together, and baseball took a backseat.