Story: Carlton Reese
Chuck Galeti rests on a bench near the downtown square gazebo, hoping to gain a bronze hue before returning home to the icy tundra of Ohio. It’s been a brief stop in Ocala to visit his daughter and before heading to the airport, his quixotic attempts of listening to his beloved Cleveland Browns are cut short by the National Football League’s punitive broadcast rules.
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Without a game to occupy his time, he is left with reflections, not of the sun on his face, but of a life that has gone by in a flash, rife with triumphs and failures, and one in constant battle with himself and the bottle. Too often, the bottle won those battles, but now he seems to have gained the high ground, considering himself a survivor and blessed simply to be alive.
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For 30 years beginning in 1991, Galeti was practically a household name among Cleveland sports fans, broadcasting pre-game shows for the Browns and post-game call-in shows for the baseball Indians. As a sportscaster for the local CBS affiliate, Galeti interviewed Michael Jordan and rubbed elbows with other NBA legends. He covered the Indians’ World Series Game 7 defeat to the Florida Marlins in 1997 and covered the Browns’ exit from Cleveland and later their return.
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The Cleveland sports world was in the palm of his hands. Then he tossed it aside because he loved to drink and party. Today, Galeti resides in Cleveland’s “Where Are They Now?” file, out of the limelight with only memories and YouTube videos that prove he was once a major player in his industry back home.
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“Alcoholism screwed up my whole life,” Galeti says with a baritone voice that gives away his talent for radio and television. “I started drinking when I was a kid.”
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At age 13, Galeti enjoyed a stint as a bat boy for the Indians and that’s when he noticed his idols consuming alcohol and figured he’d be like them. After both parents passed away when he was 18, the drinking went from good-time partying to full-bore pain numbing. For Galeti, it was about partying and having fun, but the growing debilitation could not be stopped, and he eventually paid a heavy price.
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“I got a little crazy in those first days of poison,” Galeti said of the first few years following his parents’ deaths. “I ended up going into rehab and ended up leaving after three days, but I stayed sober for three years.”
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And his career took off. He married a beautiful girl who also liked to party and worked as a broadcaster in Youngstown before heading to Cleveland. There, Galeti became the weekend sports anchor for the NBC affiliate and worked 15 years with local legend Jim Donovan. From age 24 to 30, Galeti was sober and gaining popularity.
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“Then, I started drinking again. Your ego tells you, ‘I’ll only drink one’ or ‘I won’t drink whiskey; it’ll just be beer’ and it’s always the same outcome because you can’t stop.” With a captivating sense of humor and a growing fan following, Galeti was pulling in great ratings, but trouble lingered in the future.
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The monster grew and eventually led to a divorce, during which he drove his car into a mailbox and was arrested for DUI. He tried to run from the scene, but to no avail. His picture would appear on the front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, something that happened twice to him during his career.
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By this time, Galeti’s reputation as a partier and heavy drinker took over whatever semblance of serious sports journalism had remained. He returned to the airwaves, not to interview star athletes, but to be the fun-loving barfly with a microphone.
“I bounce back, and my career gets bigger than ever. People still like me… it almost gave me a popularity in another way later, and I just rode it.”
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At this point, Galeti’s drinking had become somewhat of a punchline to the television producers, who decided to capitalize on his substance abuse. They wanted him to host an Indians post-game call-in show and would name it, not through a simple stroke of blind irony, “Chuck’s Last Call.”
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“We do two weeks of it, and it sucks,” Galeti says almost proudly. “Every caller was, ‘Jose Peralta sucks,’ so after a week I see the kid producer on social media and they’re reading comments of the show and they’re all terrible, ripping me. So, I get on the air and start reading them.”
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Galeti welcomed the arrows and jabs from people, most of who would call and make fun of his DUIs and drinking proclivities. He played to the audience and the show exploded in popularity. “… And I’m drinking the whole time.
“The persona and my popularity was growing.”
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Then came another show, this one also capitalizing on Galeti’s addiction and reputation: “Beer Money.” On the show, Galeti would walk around a bar with a camera and microphone, asking bar patrons Cleveland sports trivia questions and offering them money if they answered correctly. His knowledge of sports and quick wit made him perfect for the job… and perfect for a relapse.
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“I would get to bring my friends, family, kids, eat for free, drink for free, do whatever I want,” Galeti says with a noticeable pep in his voice. “I’d run around the place with a live mic and yell, ‘here’s your question on Beeeeeeer Money!’
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“In (Alcoholics Anonymous), people will say ‘My worst day sober is still 10 times better than my best day drinking,’ and everything’s always black and white. But I’m honest; I say, ‘I can’t say that,’ and ‘Beer Money’ showed that.”
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Then 10 years after his DUI landed him on the front page of the Plain Dealer, Galeti repeated the performance: Another DUI, and again his image paraded in the newspaper.
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“You solve your life from alcohol in your 20s, but it’s still there – it’s still the nightmare. But this time there’s no recouping.”
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The next morning, Galeti was to leave the house with his second wife and she uttered the words that pierced like a dagger: “I don’t want to be seen with you.”
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“That killed me. We had two young daughters, and it was hell. She left me and I had zip show, nothing, and there was nothing I was ever going to get again.”
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That was 10 years ago and the moment he left the spotlight. He had moments of sobriety, “crummy jobs” and mostly disappointment. In 2021, he was given the opportunity to audition for a radio broadcasting job being left vacated by the retiring Mike Trivisonno, another local legend. For that, he sobered up and went through a painful detox and withdrawal.
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He impressed with his on-air trial and was asked to return for some more audition days and perhaps talk about taking over the position full-time.
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“I just knew it wouldn’t be good for me,” Galeti says with a sobering melancholy. “I would have failed them. I was just drinking to a point where I thought I would never stop.”
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During his detox, Galeti thought he was going to die… and even prayed for death. He prayed that he wouldn’t have a stroke like his father and become a burden, that his death would be the best thing for everyone.
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“I was mad at God: Hey, I tried and you f’d me! But it wasn’t His fault – I was praying, not to get sober, but to let me die.”
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Since the interview, Galeti has remained sober and even though he isn’t in the spotlight, he is alive. Visiting Ocala for a brief visit with his daughter gave him a chance to drink in the miracle of life and enjoy this place he calls “a gem.”
“I’m here and I’m grateful,” Galeti says as he makes his way to an Uber that will take him to the airport. “I think (my life) is defined by alcoholism, but I don’t want it to be. But I’m a survivor through alcoholism somehow.
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“I had a great career and couldn’t be happier. You don’t think, ‘Oh, I lost it all,’ because things don’t stay the same forever. I’m more fortunate than a lot of people in that I’m alive – I have many friends that aren’t alive.”