Breaux (or BRO!)

Goodbye, Mr. Spalding

 

The crack of the bat sounded good and I watched the ball jump.

I described it but, in my brain, I heard a voice.

"Wait...that's gonna be a home run and this game will be over. Don't *bleep* it up! Don't get fancy. Stay on point. Don't oversell it."

Normally I'd try to get the outfielder's name as he ranged back. In this case, it was Hunter Hearn. Yet I didn't want to flub it like I did when New Canaan walked off on Greenwich years ago. That always bothered me.

All of that was in the span of a second. Maybe.

The home run was a high, majestic "no-doubter." It was gone off the bat. Josh Breaux, the author of this mighty wallop, knew it was gone when he hit it. You could see it in his body language.

The ball disappeared into the Wappingers Falls night and the Renegades had beaten Jersey Shore, 6-5.

There was one out in the bottom of the ninth when Breaux hit it out. In the booth, seconds earlier, I sounded somewhat prescient.

"I have the POWERRRR!" He-Man

"He has the power," I said, realizing I had just echoed an 80s cartoon. "Let's see if he 'He-Man's' his way to end this game."

I glanced up at Sean, who wiggled his hand to indicate he thought the pun was so-so. Not my best work, he was implying.

BlueClaws' pitcher Aneurys Zabala dealt a one-one pitch...

Breaux connected.

Crack.

"AND A DRIVE TO DEEP LEFT."

So far. So good. That's factual. Not having enough time to confirm Hunter Hearn's name on my defensive chart, I stayed basic.

"TURN AROUND AND WATCH IT."

If this was purely a TV call, I might have been OK to stop there and let the crowd do the rest. But people are listening on Z93 and hvrenegades.com. More detail was needed to confirm that we were done. So I punctuated.

"AND SAY GOODNIGHT!"

Still, I didn't feel that was quite enough. I stated the obvious.

"THE BALLGAME'S OVER."

Oh, and it was, but the drama was not.

Braux triumphantly rounded the bases. I called back to my He-Man comment of just a moment earlier.

"Josh Breaux HAS the power...and he hits a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth..."

But, was I saying too much? Should I layout a little more and let those remaining in the crowd fill the moment?

Then?

Hold on. Breaux and Zabala are chirping at each other. Gesturing. What's going on?

"...says something to Zabala..."

I still had a job to do. I still had to report.

"...and this ballgame is over. The Renegades win, six-five."

The Gades stood at home plate to greet the hero and then, quickly, they wanted a piece of the Claws. Oh, and the Claws wanted a piece of the Gades.

The umpires and coaches immediately stepped in and stopped it. The BlueClaws were told to go to the clubhouse. The Gades were told to stay in the first base dugout. This was one time where the teams wouldn't be walking out together.

So there's a story that will be monitored moving into tonight.

On the air, I described everything, found a natural break, and took it before coming back. I recapped the game, and "put a ribbon" on the broadcast.

My phone began to buzz almost immediately. I knew I had a call that I'd keep for fun. I had no idea what awaited me.

I got a few texts and messages.

Christian Mingione, a talented baseball player at Greenwich High School, tagged me in a tweet in response to a popular social media star named Jomboy.

"@double5 bringing the heat as always," he tweeted to Jomboy.

Wait. He was tweeting at Jomboy? About me?

And then I discovered Jomboy, who creates often hysterical social media content on sports, retweeted the home run and quoted me.

TURN AROUND AND WATCH IT.

AND SAY GOODNIGHT.

THE BALLGAME IS OVER. https://t.co/nQvMfF4reX

— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) June 16, 2021

Jomboy talks about the Yankees on a daily basis and has also been talking up the Renegades. I never suspected that he'd do this. 

Keep in mind, this is someone with over 340,000 followers.

Jake Zimmer, Mike Hirn, Shawn Sailer, Tom Prizeman (who works for Jomboy), Dan Gardella, and others were among those liking, commenting, and retweeting what had just happened.

I was stunned at the attention.

"Elite level call," Adriana S tweeted. "Get this man to the big leagues...Just perfection."

The full at-bat can be heard here.

I'm humbled and am still processing this.

The video, from the Renegades Twitter account, has been viewed over 28,000 times as of this morning. It is the work of Zach Neubauer, who does a remarkable job of getting those items out on social media.

It is the work of the director Sam Eisenbaum and replay/graphics coordinator Clint McLeod. It's the steady camera work of Matt DeBara (1st base), Jason Stapf (3rd base), Brian Camporese (wireless), and Sean Adams (high home). It's also the work of Conor Santoianni and Spencer Pearce, who produced game notes.

It's them and others who helped produce a tremendous broadcast that I hope everyone is proud of. I talked.

The praise has been wonderful but I'll say the finest praise might have come from the high home operator.

My son.

"Your home run calls are always great," he said.

There was no punchline. He was serious.

Still, the thing is to stay humble. I drove home, overwhelmed by what had happened. I wrote the game story and had to get to bed quickly because I needed to be up at 4 a.m. to start work (yes, you read that correctly).

As calls go, is this my best "walk-off home run" call? Maybe. I'm not going to worry about that. I'm content to have the next one be hopefully as good or better.

"Just FYI you slayed that s*it," Mike Hirn messaged me.

Overwhelmed. Yes. Definitely.

What's it all mean? Not much. It means I had a call that people liked. ESPN hasn't called. Nor has anyone else. No job offers are magically jumping up. 

It was one call and I can be proud of the reaction. I can be proud that I did my job.

Hopefully, I was dressed appropriately.

Now? Do it again.

Back at it tonight.