Wally Pipp? Nah

 

The new GHS Hall of Famers (Class of 2020, inducted in 2023)

It's Saturday.

It rained.

A likely story.

It began with the wonderful Greenwich High School Sports Hall of Fame breakfast. I had been asked to talk about my career and my connection to Greenwich sports. After that, I introduced John Sullivan to the crowd in Stamford.

I admire people who write their speeches. There have been numerous times when I have done the same.

Today, I went with my gut and just spoke. I hope what I said was enjoyable and interesting.

Inevitably, I know I forgot something but all I can do is my best.

From there, I moved to Cardinal Stadium for the homecoming football game.

As I'd explained, today's broadcast would feature two rookies:

- In the studio, on the board, Sean Adams, in for Sean Kilkelly.

- In the booth, doing color commentary, Dan Murphy, in for Chris Erway.

Sean was put in that position by Bob Small with my approval since it's a broadcast that I'm the lead on. He was trained well by Bob and Sean Kilkelly, and I answered any questions as necessary.

For Dan, I went with a gut feeling. Being a part of a sports broadcasting team requires chemistry and an understanding of how a game is called. Dan was with us back on opening day. He listened in as Chris Erway and I called the Fairfield Prep/Greenwich game, understanding how Chris does his role and plays off of me. 

Based on that and our mock half-inning of baseball in Buffalo, I knew Dan had potential.

From there, it's that chemistry. Will he laugh? Relax? Have fun? Be serious but not too serious? Will we step on each other? Will he break things down or try too hard to add statistics?

I'm not here to tell you today's broadcast was perfect. I'm not here to tell you that either Sean Kilkelly or Chris Erway is in any danger of being replaced.

I'm here to tell you we built our depth chart today and that's very important to me. We once had quite a bit of depth at WGCH and I'm happy that we have some people who can jump in as needed.

Dan added everything that I hoped for and impressed people that his first time on the air was solid. He definitely was thrown into the deep end of the pool by being on Darien/Greenwich but it also turned out to not be a classic game. That alleviates a certain level of pressure but it still means filling some time as the Cardinals built up a 30-7 lead.

They eventually won 30-14 to improve to 5-0.

Sean enjoyed his end of things and was happy to have Dan on the broadcast because he wanted someone there with me. To that end, I'm content to do games alone but it helps if I have someone on-site who knows the game and adds to the flavor. Chris Erway is always that person.

Dan showed he has the chops to do this as well.

There's a reason Chris and I call ourselves "The A-Team." It's because we're comfortable to be the top play-by-play duo for WGCH. I frankly think Chris and I could call anything. Heck, we've already done football, baseball, and election night, so why not?

But today's group was probably no lower than "The B-Plus-Team." I mean, considering the circumstances of homecoming, bad weather, good matchup, so-so game, and having to also stay on the air during halftime?

Yeah. A pretty solid effort.

Next Friday, the TEN Network team of Trumbull will join me on WGCH. We'll be at McDougall Stadium in Trumbull for the All-Birds matchup as the Cardinals meet the Eagles at 7 p.m.

Oh, and I could have made it over to Brunswick as it appears they didn't use a broadcaster. But I was right in that it would have been halftime before I got there. The Bruins won 31-18. I'll be back with them next Saturday for a bus ride to Massachusetts.

Dan and I had dinner in town after the game while Sean ran the board for a UConn hockey game. Dan and I solved world problems (or not) and had breakfast for dinner.

I told him he'll get another chance. He's now a clear backup whenever we need someone.

Welcome aboard.

You can listen to the broadcast here in the archive.