After 43 interviews with 33 broadcasters discussing 60 stadiums, I might be expected to “have a few stories.” Not to disappoint, I have several. When I started off with this project—once I had grasped the notion that I wanted to interview the actual broadcasters themselves—I got to daydreaming quite a bit. “Hey, wouldn’t it be great to talk with Jon Miller about AT&T Park?” and “How awesome would it be to discuss both ‘new’ and ‘old’ Yankee Stadiums with John Sterling?” and finally, “What if I got to speak with Vin Scully about anything?” After I got a few agents and friends “in the business” interested in this concept for the book, I just could never figure out how to get that first foot in the door. Being from Las Vegas, I’m a four-hour drive from the nearest team. Scrambling for ideas one day, I was reading the Review Journal, Vegas’s main newspaper. Opening up a section, I saw a picture of the Oakland A’s Ken Korach accompanying an article for his recently released book, Holy Toledo: Lessons from Bill King, Renaissance Man of the Mic. Reading the article, I discovered that he, too, is a resident of the Las Vegas valley. I also learned that Ken used to announce for UNLV, just like a friend of the family. One phone call, two passed-along e-mails, and an appointment later, I was sitting across from him in a Henderson, Nevada, public library. After we completed our interview, Ken asked me, “Are you going to do this with all 30 teams?” I remember how daunting the question seemed at the time, but also how resolute I was, responding “Yes,” albeit with a cracking voice. Though Ken didn’t have any “digits” to pass along for me to do the same process with other broadcasters, he did offer up what turned out to be a great piece of advice: Cactus League; Phoenix; springtime.
What an experience spring training is. If you love baseball, my advice would be to travel to the Sonoran Desert or central Florida during February and March. Half of baseball’s teams play in facilities that make most Minor League ballparks green with envy, and all within a radius of about 50 miles. My first day, I had what is still my favorite interview, Eric Nadel of the Texas Rangers. He and I spoke in the actual seats at the Rangers’ spring training stadium in Surprise, Arizona. We sat above a section but were close enough that the couple below us could practically hear every word. I noticed them “half turning” their heads every so often and kept thinking, “I sure hope we’re not bothering these two.” After the interview was over and Nadel walked away, the couple approached me and said, “We enjoyed your interview. We’re Rangers fans. We recognized Mr. Nadel’s voice immediately. When does your book come out?” To this day, I regret not having taken down the couple’s contact info, or at least giving them mine. I can only hope they pick up a copy someday so my conscience can finally be cleared.
Aside from being a great story that I have told at least a couple dozen times preparing this book, Nadel’s interview opened up a mammoth-sized door for me. While I was speaking with Nadel, he mentioned Ebbets Field as a kid and gave me a perspective I wasn’t even planning on when preparing for these interviews. These broadcasters, too, were fans of the game. Their insight extends beyond the booth, all the way back to their first game as a child. Broadcasters like Vin Scully, Denny Matthews, Joe Castiglione, and Dave Van Horne shared experiences of attending stadiums like the Polo Grounds, Shibe Park, and Sportsman’s Park. Needless to say, I was very fortunate to have interviewed Nadel so early in the process. The hall of fame broadcaster was also my first taste of “broadcaster networking,” as a special “plug” from Nadel to fellow hall of famer Jon Miller resulted in my meeting with Miller by the end of the week. I remember typing Miller’s name into my interview software on my computer. I paused for a split second just to take in this surreal moment. Here I was speaking with someone I had watched almost every Sunday night during the baseball season for 20 years. It was at this point that my mind-set went from “if” the book gets a publishing deal to “when.”
Having already checked off one of my “what if’s” by speaking with Jon Miller, the interviews kept coming, mostly via phone. Feeling lucky, I decided to go after the Yankees. I already knew I was going to make my annual drive to Angel Stadium of Anaheim to watch my beloved Yankees face the Los Angeles Angels, so I decided to “reach for the stars” on this particular trip. Unbelievably, after a couple of e-mails I was speaking with the John Sterling and scheduling an interview. He actually told me I’d be doing him a favor by meeting with him since he’d be getting to the stadium so early. Here I was in the first stadium I had ever set foot in, almost 30 years before, looking over to my right to a digital clock set to eastern standard time and sitting straight across from the voice of my favorite team. The World Series ring Sterling was wearing was bigger than the candy ring pops I buy for my four-year-old daughter. Sterling shared his love for music, and channeling the late Russ Hodges, sang “Bye-bye baby,” and said, “If Brian Roberts hits a home run, I’ll say, ‘Bye-bye Brian’.” That night Brian Roberts hit the go-ahead home run in the ninth inning, which proved to be the game winner. After my interview with Mr. Sterling—holding my press credential—I felt like Charlie with the golden ticket. Walking into the press dining room, I found Michael Kay, another Yankees broadcaster I had imagined myself interviewing in the daydream phase of this project. Resolute, I gave Kay the spiel and we exchanged contacts. From that point on, I felt that everything was gravy as far as the book was concerned. I soon got an agent, and shortly afterward, I got the book deal.
Things were going very well; Jon Miller himself volunteered to help with the Camden Yards chapter of the book. This was an added bonus because Miller was the team’s lead voice the night Cal Ripken Jr. passed Lou Gehrig’s record of consecutive games played. The same thing happened when I couldn’t lock down an interview with an Angels broadcaster. There I was, sitting with the PR rep for the Royals (Rex Hudler’s current team), and I asked if “Hud” was available for an interview. A phone call and several text messages later, the TV voice of the Angels during their championship season was discussing the 2002 World Series game 6 and the Rally Monkey with me. “Hud” and Miller provided as good memories as I could have ever hoped for from the Angels and Orioles current broadcasters. That’s just the way this project went. Everything just found a way to fall into place.
Nearly two months after I thought I was done with the interview process, I get a phone call from none other than Vin Scully himself. This was, as Charley Steiner would say, the “pinch me” moment of the book. Not only was I able to conduct a 30-minute interview with Scully, I was able to send his regards to New York Mets lead radio voice Howie Rose when I called him immediately afterward. As Mel Allen would say, “How about that?” My third “what if” was checked off before I even had a chance to prepare myself for it. I found it incredible that Scully could speak about Hilda Chester, whom he probably hadn’t heard from in decades, as if he’d just seen her the day before. The moments of the past year are far more than I could count, much less describe in enough detail, when signing off on this book. It was great to tour the country, virtually, from the Phoenix Valley and my own home. The regions covered by these broadcasters: Rick Rizzs in the Pacific Northwest, Dave Van Horne in south Florida, Joe Castiglione in New England, Dick Bremer in the upper Midwest, Mike Wilner “north of the border.” I was able to gather an impression of these broadcasters’ roots just from my 30-minute encounters with them: Marty Brennaman’s Virginia-bred hospitality, Greg Brown’s “inner child” coming out in his voice and recollections of Three Rivers Stadium, Ted Leitner’s forthcoming account of San Diego politics mixed with baseball, Charlie Slowes’s New York lingo following him to the nation’s capital, Charley Steiner’s wit and brevity suiting him for a career on the other side of the hills in Hollywood if he ever leaves his craft of broadcasting Dodgers baseball. Finally, being a Yankees fan and listening to the “other dugout’s” side of many of my least favorite memories: Greg Schulte discussing game 7 of the 2001 World Series, Jim Rosenhaus describing “the Bug Game” in Cleveland during the 2007 playoffs, Dan Dickerson’s retelling of Kenny Rogers’s unforeseen mastery of the Yankees in the 2006 Division Series, and most of all Joe Castiglione’s revisiting of game 4 of the 2004 American League Championship Series. Seeing how much happiness these moments brought these broadcasters and their teams’ fans was almost like receiving some sort of closure, a “one’s loss is another’s gain” type of thing. I feel this closing chapter of the book would need another several pages to do justice to the abundance of hospitality I have received from these 33 broadcasters. I would have never imagined people I had listened to and watched growing up could be so giving of their time and words. Meeting them, for me, was better than meeting the players, which I did in a few cases. Looking back on this experience on which I have spent, without regret, one year of my life, I may have to relisten to the audio from time to time to assure myself it all really did happen. To quote Chicago White Sox broadcaster Ken “Hawk” Harrelson—whom I listened to on WGN growing up and got a chance to meet in person—the best way for me to close the book would be to say, “It’s been a great ride.”