Relax and reflect

 

Purely to make sure I turn the right microphone on.

I won't write about the Gades every day but I hope you'll forgive me if I do.

Never have I felt so exhilarated.

Rarely have I worked so hard on a broadcast, let alone six.

I've known this exhaustion from days at Ingalls Rink and Mohegan Sun and Cooperstown and Trumbull High School and Brien McMahon High School. It's good exhaustion.

There were many kind words. There were a few demons in my head.

Now that six games are in the books, I just have to remind myself to relax.

I have to not try too hard but I care so much about this. When I judged my opening night performance as "meh," I got more than a couple of messages about that. They didn't think I was "meh" at all.

That's just me. I always want to be better.

It should come as no surprise that I had bouts of self-doubt throughout the week. My confidence got swiped at times. This shouldn't shock you.

But it didn't change my energy. When it all settles in this is way too much fun.

And it's just beginning.

Enough about me. It's not about me.

This first week doesn't happen without Steve Gliner and Joe Ausanio and Zach Neubauer and Rick Zolzer and Tyson Jeffers.

It doesn't happen without Sean Adams and Sam Eisenbaum and the vendors and concessionaires and Tom Hubmaster, working his crew to make the stadium look great.

I don't know everyone's name. I wish I did.

I know Zach runs the Renegades Retail store.

I know there's another Zach in the front office. 

I know Joe Small, one of Zolz's interns. Like me, he's a guy who wants to do his best. He'll get there.

I know Dan who has stood sentry over the suite deck on third base side since I was first calling games at Dutchess Stadium and who loves to talk about Yogi Berra.

Not Yogi Bear, despite what Sam Eisenbaum might think. Sam directs the video feed for MiLB.tv and I only met him Tuesday night. Despite the fact we don't directly work together, we do work together. He's directing Sean and Sam is listening to me blabber for three hours a night. Sam is reacting to what I say. Now that I have a monitor in the booth, I can see what he's putting on the screen.

This just makes all of us better.

And if you didn't see how we handled the video board problem over the weekend, well, I couldn't be prouder to be a part of this organization. We made the best of it and laughed at it.

It was, to quote Benjamin Hill, "Minor League Baseball at its best."

Now comes a week, basically, away while the team is in Brooklyn. I might wind up at the stadium for one reason or another and have a few things to do as they pop up.

But I can think about all of it. I can think about how to get better at it. As I wrote last week, I'm settling into the rhythm of it all. Understanding the timing of the lineups and which reports to generate and who to generate them to and the process of setting it all up.

Susan texted me a few times and told me to be proud of myself and that she was proud of me. The funny thing is I was saying the same thing to Sean. I'm really proud of him.

I'm also really proud of Susan, by the way, and this post is absolutely gorgeous. I'm glad there are those who realize what they're losing. The rest will figure it out and, if they don't, shame on them.

As for me?

I'm proud that we're here. 

I've hit the ground running and I want more.

I'm proud of that.