Last Minute? No problem!

The camera sits in the right field corner at 6:55 p.m.

 I do love the grind.

The hustle of pulling things together and seeing if it can all happen. It's a challenge.

When the morning started, I had one game: baseball, between Brunswick and Hopkins.

I started gathering for that when my phone rang.

There was also lacrosse at Brunswick, but the Bruins wouldn't be playing. It was a neutral site game between Lawrenceville -- the number two team in the country -- and Deerfield.

Oh, by the way, Brunswick is number one in the country.

So, yeah, I was being asked to do that game also.

Thus -- baseball at 3:30 and lacrosse at 5:15. Both games would be on the same campus and I had access to set up whenever.

I quickly got a roster from Deerfield and went to work on setting that up for the broadcast.

No roster came along from Lawrenceville. OK, I'd finish prepping for baseball instead.

So I put the baseball scorecard together and updated my computer for a deposition tomorrow. It was nice to pick up some extra work.

I also went about setting up two cases of broadcast equipment to go to Brunswick with. 

In truth, I should have stopped at WGCH and borrowed their stuff but I didn't. That was a mistake but I knew it would be OK. 

Before I went to Brunswick, I needed something to eat so I made a quick deli stop and drove up King St. to the campus. It was a little after 2 p.m. when I walked into Cosby Field.

The booth was wide open, so I quickly set up in the first window, putting a mixer, headset, crowd mic, and cables in place. 

Then I drove to the baseball field, where I grabbed the LocalLive camera and huffed my way out to right field.

Again, I set up a mixer, headset, natural sound microphone, and cables, along with setting up the camera.

Then, it was lineup time. 

The game started at 3:36 and I ate my sandwich just before the first pitch.

We were off and running.

The Bruins played pretty quickly, building up an eventual 9-1 lead over the Hilltoppers. Still, I was running out of time. Josh Drebsky -- trusty videographer -- was down at Cosby Field waiting for the lacrosse game to start and curious if I'd be showing up.

I would, I assured him.

It was just about 5:00, so I knew I could break my baseball equipment down, jump in my car, and hustle down to lacrosse.

I stretched my baseball call to the very end of the sixth inning and broke down my audio. Then I drove to Cosby Field, finding the only available parking spot. I walked towards the field, spying the game clock counting down at 6:42.

Cool! I'd made it! I'd plug my computer in, say hi to Josh, and it would be game on.

Except...

1) Lawrenceville still had not sent a roster. Keep in mind that Brunswick was providing a broadcaster for the game (that's me) and we sent a request for a roster. This is the second year in a row that it happened, as they ignored my request in 2023 and then refused to give me one at the game site. But put a pin in that...

2) The 6:42 on the clock was the time left in the first quarter. For whatever reason, the game started at 5:00 and not the scheduled 5:15. So I hustled, plugged in, and went live. Josh was already sending a signal so it wasn't like we weren't on the air.

3) OK, back to the roster pin. I messaged Ty Xanders, an outstanding reporter in the lacrosse world whom I've known for a few years. He sent me a Lawrenceville roster last year and he sent me another one this year. I'd just read the roster off my computer!

So, we were ready. The game, initially competitive, turned into an easy win for Lawrenceville but I'll still need that roster anyway. We'll see them for the Prep National Championship in a few weeks.

It was heading past 6:45 when everything wrapped up. I packed my lacrosse set up and headed to the car. I turned right out of the campus and started down King Street towards home when I had a thought: what happened with the camera at the baseball game?

I turned around. Sure enough, it was still set up. So, I pulled back onto the campus, parked at the baseball field, packed up the camera, and put it away.

Then I drove home. Finally.

If I told you all of the nonsense that goes into broadcasting you would be astounded. Literally. It's like middle school.

Like the person who would have never taken this gig today because he wouldn't have enough time to prepare his notes, charts, graphs, and whatever else.

I'm comfortable knowing I can make it work with whatever I have, so long as there's a roster.

I'll do it because if I don't, someone else will. I've worked too hard and will continue to do so. 

This day didn't work perfectly but the job still got done and I feel pride in that.

And I'll do it again.