Sleepy Sunday

Back at the Darien Ice House (formerly "Rink") for the first time since 2/24/16

A good run of games pushes me into a happy exhaustion.

Yet if I was needed today, I'd be right back on the air. It's the life of a play-by-play voice (or, really, any journalist/broadcaster).

When it's going right, I feel confident. The rush of a streak of games keeps me going, so sitting home for a day while games are going on makes me feel useless.

As I've said time after time, I feel honored to call these games. I feel a duty. I was the voice for two more FCIAC championships this week, and I expect to call two more before the end of next Saturday. Then I'll roll into the girls hockey state tournament. I wish I was part of the "Run to the Sun" or Ingalls Rink, but there's nothing I can do.

Still, I'm hopeful for more. Lots more. Don't be fooled: things aren't financially better yet.

So back to last night and our hockey doubleheader. A huge shoutout to Paul Silverfarb for riding shotgun on both games yesterday. As I've said many times, chemistry is everything in a booth. Paul and I are friends, and we work well together.

That's the key to this. Be it Paul, Chris Erway, Chris Kaelin, Jake Zimmer, Mick, Harold, and others, these are the guys I know I can trust. They've got my back in the booth.

I've worked with people I've literally never met until minutes before air time. It's worked, but it's still always a worry. Will they understand my cadence? Will they play along with my sense of humor? Do they really know when to talk and when not to talk? Do they know what to say? How is their integrity? Are they biased?

I'd never called a game with John Nash (fellow #Project365 er), but we're friends so I could tell how it would go, and it's worked just fine.

Joe Early jumped on a couple of times and, again, I knew it would work. I have a sense of it.

Last spring, I called the Brunswick/Hopkins FAA baseball championship. As I take every call very seriously, working with someone I've never met can be nerve-wracking. Working with someone I've never met for a championship/playoff game can really rattle me. The stakes are especially high, as there are people who actually look to replay those broadcasts for years to come.

Brunswick and Hopkins co-produced the broadcast, so the Hilltoppers asked to add an analyst. Fortunately, it worked.

Another time, I was to call the girls FCIAC volleyball championship. Here's the thing: I'd never called volleyball. Then I found out I was getting an analyst I've never met.

Enter Matt Narwold. Bingo. He was perfect.

Sometimes there are mixed results.

Anyway, I'm sort of babbling on this day in which I have little energy.

Unless I had a game to call. Then I would get to work.

Exhaustion be damned.