Baseball Eve

 

Brunswick, 2022

I say this in preparation.

I'm ready to be disappointed.

Tomorrow is my first scheduled baseball broadcast of 2023 as Brunswick hosts Winchendon for a doubleheader. I expect it to be rained out and thus the disappointment.

It's my first scheduled baseball call since *checks notes* July 27, 2022.

That's so sad and shameful but that's out of my control so we move forward.

Let me try to explain this if you don't know it already.

I've wanted to broadcast baseball since I was maybe 10 or 11. Maybe earlier but I can tell you that I was probably 11 when I lugged a small tape recorder and a lousy microphone to Sycamore Park in Mahopac for an all-star game. I tried to dabble in play-by-play that June afternoon.

I can assure you I was bad because, among many things, I didn't have lineups or rosters. While I've improved in surviving there's still only so much you can do if you don't know who the participants are. Oh, I knew some of the players but not everyone.

I eventually became a huge fan of the "major" pro sports of that time. So I thought broadcasting football would also be great but baseball was my focus.

I also studied so many different broadcasting styles to understand what I wanted to be.

Baseball is the storytellers' game. I wanted to leisurely tell tales from some ballpark while sipping lemonade on a hot summer night.

But I never thought I'd just do baseball. Like I said, I definitely wanted to do football and had practiced a few basketball games as well off TV. In fact, the first time I ever had to do play-by-play with an audience was in school at CSB. In front of a group of strangers, I called a Celtics/Knicks game off a TV in the classroom. 

Apparently, I scared a few of the students somehow. So began over 30 years of doing that.

I did OK -- enough so that I floated home that night. I survived.

Eventually, it was men's softball while working at Kraft General Foods in 1995 when I actually led a broadcast. It was taped and replayed on the in-house TVs at our building in White Plains. I didn't embarrass myself and had a blast doing it.

Then, finally, I called my first game for WGCH on Apr 10, 1999, when Greenwich hosted Port Chester. I've never looked back despite every glimpse of doubt that I've had.

I joined the Renegades in 2001 and, suddenly, I found that maybe I really could do this. That, I suppose, is still a point of debate but it brought me joy to do the number of games I did over the years with the Gades, no matter how sporadically. It culminated in the fun ride of 2021 and I'd be lying if I didn't say I miss it a lot.

I've had broadcasters over the years tell me that by the final game of a season they are just done. They're burned out and can't wait for it to be over. I can tell you that after all of these years and all of these games I've never experienced that feeling.

Especially not with baseball. Oh, sure, it's a grind. Each Babe Ruth tournament that I've called has me worn out by the end of each night, let alone the entire tournament. Still, come the next morning, I'm ready to do it again.

I often feel bad when I drone on about my love of broadcasting baseball. I don't want any other sport to misunderstand that I love calling your teams also. But I'm here because of baseball.

I'm very proud of the work I've done in each sport. I still love calling football for instance, especially when there's a big crowd and there's a different energy. But despite any misgivings mostly due to nerves, I've come to appreciate the nuances of soccer, field hockey, water polo, track and field, volleyball, cheerleading, wrestling, lacrosse, and of course hockey and basketball.

Oh, I've also done golf but that was just phone-in reports from the Greenwich town tournament years ago. Sadly, we haven't covered it since.

Let me repeat: sadly.

Have I missed any sports that I've covered? I'll apologize in advance but I don't think I have.

That's where what we did on HAN was so wonderful. Selfishly, it made me do things that I probably would never get a chance to do, like field hockey and soccer but even unified basketball which was among the most rewarding events I've ever participated in. It was more interview-based than play-by-play but there were still elements of "calling" games and it made a lot of people happy.

And I love covering any age. I've committed to being with Boomslang basketball again, beginning Sunday afternoon, and will make whatever games I can.

But my first love will always be at a baseball field. It's where I can still hear the echoes of Frank Messer on Yankees broadcasts and, of course, Vin. 

Not Vin Diesel or Vince Lombardi, to be clear.

But both Vin (Scully) and Dick Enberg both helped me know that I should do more sports, as they each did football. Enberg was a wonderful basketball announcer while Vin apparently did Fordham hoops back in the 40s. No proof of it exists, sadly. 

Let's not forget Al Michaels, of course, who has called the four major sports, including that little hockey game in Lake Placid in 1980.

No miracles will be necessary to make baseball happen tomorrow. Just crossing of a few fingers I suppose.

I'll go with my Pelican hard-sided case (a gift a few years back from Hector) and maybe my pop-up pod tent in an effort to keep things dry if they play in the rain.

I'll bundle up for the doubleheader. A heavier jacket since the temperature is supposed to be in the 40s.

It's just part of the preparation.

To some of you, this sounds insane and not very appealing. I get it. 

To me, it's part of the story. The weather becomes a chapter in the book.

I'll be learning the 2023 Bruins on the fly tomorrow but I have a good relationship with the coaches so they'll bring me up to speed. I'll also try to ramp up some on Winchendon.

Then -- if they play -- it will be the same as ever. Balls, strikes, infield positions, pitch movement, base-running, and stories.

Somewhere, down in my soul, I still think this is something I was born to do. Somewhere I still think I'm fair at it. So many think they can do it. But there is so much that goes into being a broadcaster. It's more than just balls and strikes. It's opening, closing, transitioning, engineering, describing, analyzing, organizing, engaging, explaining, elaborating, troubleshooting, juggling, and, yes, entertaining.

It's making the broadcast happen until everything else fails and it's literally out of your control. You exhaust all options.

In the case of the weather, I can't fool Mother Nature. She (and the teams) get the final say.

Then, if allowed, I become the conduit by describing the action.

If it happens, I'll talk to you at noon tomorrow on LocalLive and Robcasting.