More Baseball to Call

Unity Field, Trumbull, CT, 2022

 

I'm happy to say that a Robcasting tradition will continue in 2023.

Babe Ruth Baseball is returning to the air.

For the seventh year, I'm honored to be on the call for some great baseball in Connecticut. This time, it is a 14U tournament to decide the state champion.

The winner will head to North Providence, RI as the Connecticut champions for the New England Regional Tournament. The winner of that tournament heads to Fredericksburg, VA for the Babe Ruth World Series.

I've done a few of the Babe Ruth state games in the past but this will be the first time I'll call most of the state tournament.

The previous years have been the New England regional in a certain age group. However, no New England regional tourney will be played in Fairfield County this year.

So, how did this happen?

It was back in 2015 at the evolving HAN Network when Marty Hersam asked me if I'd be interested in covering Babe Ruth Baseball. A Trumbull parent who was part of that year's committee asked if we would cover it and Marty brought it to me.

I was thrilled.

He thought we should broadcast the semifinals and championship as we were moving from being an audio broadcasting group (HAN Radio) to all video (HAN Network).

I told Marty I'd broadcast the whole thing. He, of course, thought I was nuts. It would be 15 games stretched over five days. He tried to talk me out of it.

I said I'd do it audio only until we bring the video in for the semis.

I mean, had he met me?

So there I was on Friday, July 24, 2015, at 10:30 a.m. for the call of New Milford, CT and Nashua, NH. The game featured a no-hitter and was stopped early due to score control. Jake Zimmer and Dan Gardella were my trusty sidekicks.

Three more games followed that. Then four more the next day and four more the day after. Then two for the semis and a championship game that Tuesday night. Pittsfield, MA beat the host Trumbull team for the tiele.

A few things emerged from it.

1) It's a grind and taking care of my voice is so important. I made sure to stay hydrated and began living with honey lemon throat drops nearby. Each night, I'd drive home with a weak voice. The next day, I'd be ready by the first pitch.

2) Trumbull head coach Mike Buswell and I became fast friends and that has not stopped. I think the world of the guy and he asks me to come back every year when Trumbull hosts a tournament.

3) HAN officially picked up the FCIAC that weekend and our Babe Ruth baseball coverage was a triumph. But the pressure was about to intensify.

4) Jake and Dan immediately became people I could count on. Also, AJ Szymanowski directed the video finale and he and I understood each other. No egos. No issues. It was his show but it was also my show, per him. I appreciated that. (Oh, to write a book even though I'm softening over the years. Honest.)

5) Like I said, it's a grind but I loved basically every moment of it.

I returned to Trumbull in 2017, encouraged by Mike Buswell to cover another New England regional. At that time, we were on a new channel -- Sentinel Radio. That was created after I initially started a WGCH2 webstream channel that was like a secret to find. So while it still technically exists, we gave up on it. I created a Mixlr channel for the Greenwich Sentinel newspaper to have its own station.

There's a deeper story there and so, friends, it's safe to say that while it wasn't officially called Robcasting that day, Robcasting began that day. That was the day AJ sent me a logo as a joke. But, no joke, I soon began using it.

One can say Robcasting existed minus the name long before then. By September 2017 Robcasting was a real thing (even if I still think it's a silly name).

But I'll always believe it started that Friday morning in Trumbull, with Dan Gardella on the call. He, Jake Zimmer, and Shawn Sailer helped me through those 12 games that weekend. We only covered pool play before handing things off to HAN, which I was no longer a part of.

In 2018, Mike Buswell again encouraged me to cover games, this time in the state tournament. Then I took on the New England regional, though they were at a steamy Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk, where I stood on pavement calling games through a fence view via the first base dugout.

Ah, what I do for a broadcast.

I also balanced Little League Baseball calls at that same time.

In 2019, I thought I was going to have a heatstroke in Stamford's Cubeta Stadium press box. Temperatures soared past 100 degrees on the first day in the booth. A pitcher collapsed, ending one game, and had us standing back in a concession stand freezer with him to cool down. The pitcher was fine. He was embarrassed if anything.

We also did another state game, Little League Baseball, and lots of juggling through that New England Regional.

You can probably guess there was no Babe Ruth Baseball in 2020. There was, however, some American Legion and Little League Baseball. 

By 2021, we were back in Trumbull, calling the 15U regional tournament. If it wasn't for the Renegades, who I was also calling at that time, I would have gone to Texas with the champion Trumbull team for the Babe Ruth World Series.

The same could be said of 2022, as two age divisions in Trumbull wanted me to come along but, unfortunately, neither won their group. Pittsfield, MA won the 13U title and I was there for every pitch on Robcasting.

As I recall, I would have gone to either near Richmond, VA, or up to North Dakota. 

Some of these broadcasts had analysts next to me. Some did not. As you know, calling a game alone is not something that bothers me.

But these tournaments have become a favorite thing of mine. I get paid in things like t-shirts and food and a cup of coffee and appreciation from those who also volunteer to run these events.

The audience and the players are also very kind.

One day, I would absolutely love to go somewhere and call the World Series itself. Remember, I called the championship of the 18U tournament in Stamford in 2002.

This Saturday will begin a state championship run for Bethel, New Milford, Norwalk, Shelton, Stamford, Trumbull, and Waterford. All are good programs and I expect good games.

There is one day where we have two games at the same time -- Tuesday, 7/11, 8 p.m. One game is at Unity Field and the other is at Trumbull High School. Unless we find an alternate game plan one game will go uncovered. Unfortunately, it happens and it's out of my control.

I offered the broadcast to someone and they are unavailable. So we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Otherwise, it is business as usual. Equipment, vantage point, lineups, theme music, baseball! 

As I've been away from play-by-play for almost a month, it's a nice way to jump back in for a few days. Then things will sadly get quiet again until football in early September.

It's not what I want that's for sure.

But I'm grateful for this.

Saturday. 

Pregame show 12:55 (ish). Shelton and New Milford in game one.

We'll talk to you then.