Hello from Peoria, AZ! Of course, depending on when you read this, it may be hello from somewhere over the ocean! Or even hello from Seoul, Korea!
Regardless, we are just about done with Cactus League play and are very much readying ourselves for a heck of a trip.
After today’s game against the A’s, the team will head to the airport and fly roughly 6,240 miles (or about 33-million feet) across the big blue.
We have the exhibition games against the Korean National Team and LG Twins (the defending champions of the KBO), and of course the two Dodger games to kick off the regular season. All of those games, btw, will be live on Padres Radio (97.3-FM).
One of the most interesting things about the way the season is starting, of course, is the pitching situation. With the matchups for the games announced (Darvish-Glasnow & Musgrove-Yamamoto), both teams can get super creative with how they deploy their arms.
For instance, it would seem very possible (probable?) that Darvish and Musgrove (or Musgrove and Darvish?) would start the first two games at Petco against the Giants when we get back. That means those guys would each have two regular season starts before anyone else gets one. Further, someone like Michael King, anticipated to be the third man in the rotation, could be used in relief against the Dodgers.
Anyway, just some neat stuff to keep in mind in the days ahead.
Shildt’s Creek
Our latest edition of “Covering the Bases” dropped last night and it was a pleasure to awkwardly1 wander around the warning track of Peoria Stadium with Mike Shildt. We begin talking about how the new Padres skipper is even more of a “baseball lifer” than most everyone else who gets called that and work our way through his life, career and finally his time here in San Diego. Hope you enjoy…
Q&A Fun
Thanks to everyone who used the new “submit question” button last week to send in questions. Kind of a good news/bad news situation, though.
The good: the button worked! I got notifications that a bunch of messages were received.
The bad: I have no idea how to access those messages.
UPDATE: I figured it out! Suppose I could just delete all of the above, but whatever.
Anyway!
First question came from Roy, who wanted to follow-up on the scorebook stuff from the last newsletter. He asked about my style of scorekeeping and what kinds of things I do to make it more functional in a broadcast. Fun question.
First off, when it comes to how you score a certain play—lines or boxes or whatever you do—I always say just do what works best for you.
When it comes to little things that help the broadcast, a few things I do that I wouldn’t if I were just sitting in the stands:
-On a base hit, I’ll put a little dot where the ball went so that later on I can easily recall “he singled to left his last time up,” or whatever.
-I highlight all walks by the starting pitcher in pink, to help keep track of those.
-I highlight all strikeouts in yellow
-I highlight all RBIs in blue and all runs that came some other way (error, wild pitch, etc.) in green.
That might seem like overkill, but it’s crazy how useful it’s all become to me and can certainly contribute to the level of detail I can provide on the air.
There are many other little things I put down, but that’s a little look at the kind of thing I do to try and keep myself organized.
Next up is Geoffrey, who has a 13-year old son who wants to pursue sports broadcasting. Geoffrey asked for some tips and also wondered about having “a voice for broadcasting.”
In terms of advice for anyone looking to crack into the industry, there are a few things that are pretty universal: know and love the sport(s) you’re covering, work hard, try and get involved in any way you can. That might mean a high school newspaper or a college radio station or an internship or an entry-level position at some broadcast outlet. Just start getting the ball rolling in the experience department. Write a blog, even if no one reads it. Make a podcast, even if no one hears it. And read, read, read.
Once you finish college or sort of make entry into the “real world,” much of all of that still applies. Keep working hard. Get any opportunity you can get, even if it’s not exactly what you want to be doing. All experience helps and you never know how much you may (or may not enjoy) other parts of the business.
Beyond that, be patient, be kind, work hard (have I mentioned that??), read everything, and stick with it all best you can. It’s super easy to get discouraged. Rejection is a huge part of the business. Don’t take it personally.
As for the voice stuff, I think the idea of a “traditional” broadcast sound is fairly outdated. I think there are many different voices that can sound great on the air. You don’t need to be born with a deep baritone to make it work. Don’t get me wrong, big pipes help, but in my opinion (as a guy who doesn’t have a naturally booming voice) is that controlling your voice, which is very much a learned skill, is much more important. And as you do more and more stuff and listen back, you’ll sort of learn how to tune your instrument, so to speak.
Hope that helps!
Last one today, since that was a long answer, comes from Jeff and his son Jack, who have two very timely queries. First, they want to know how I plan on filling the 13 hours on this plane tonight and also how I manage all the usual time zone changes that occur during the season.
Quick answer to the first part: I have downloaded so many movies and TV shows and am also bringing three books. I also hope to be able to sleep for at least 5/6 hours, so we’ll see how that goes. Check in next time to find out lol.
I’m lucky when it comes to time changes…I usually handle them really well. My main strategy when we get in to some place at 4am or whatever is to just make sure I wake up by 9 or 10am at the latest. It makes for a very tired day, but it sort of puts you on track for success moving forward. I’ll attempt a similar strategy both to and from Korea, but of course, this is way different than landing in Philly. So we’ll see! If you see me zombie-walking around FanFest, you’ll know why.
Oh, also, coffee. Lots of coffee. Always coffee.
Thanks to everyone who sent questions in!
To Read…
While I may actually read some non-baseball stuff on this trip, I’ll continue to try and consume pretty much every word that is written about this team. And for your reading pleasure, here’s some of what has stood out to me recently:
If you want some more details on the logistics of flying halfway around the world to play baseball, Kevin Acee of the U-T has you covered. Great stuff.
Meanwhile, at The Athletic, Dennis Lin wrote a reallyyyyyy great piece on Joe Musgrove’s “Camp 44,” in which he hosts a collection of pitchers and catchers in San Diego to work on and off the field. Majorly worth your time. Not new news, but Joe is the man.
Lastly, with the possibility of Jackson Merrill looking more and more like he could be the Opening Day CF, AJ Cassavel of MLB.com takes a look at where that places him in the context of history. Spoiler: it’s wildly impressive.
What a Shot
The Padres team photographer, Matt Thomas, is a very good egg with a very great eye. And while I don’t know much of anything about the ins and outs of photography, I certainly have enough of an appreciation to recognize something great when I see it. And this photo he took last Friday night in Peoria is pretty phenomenal:
Like a Renaissance Painting, right? There’s Fernando reaching towards us, almost all the way out of the picture. The towel, with his one eye looking at us. The rain drops. The kids. The sky. The pop of the City Connect uniform in the foreground—the only bright colors in the entire shot. Just incredible.
That’s the extent of my ability to play art critic, but if you enjoy sports and art and aren’t following “Art But Make it Sports” on social media, you’re really missing out.
For the uninitiated, the account is run by a guy who loves both art and sports and he’ll do a side-by-side of a moment in sports with a piece of art it resembles. It’s really a blast. And one of Matt’s other shots from Friday night got the treatment:
Yu Darvish and Robert Henri. Stellar.
I was talking to Matt this week about the pictures from that night and well, I figured it would be best if he broke it down. Great stuff from the man himself and here are a couple of the others he snapped that night:
This set of Yu Darvish throwing while standing in the strip of light with the rain falling may be some of my favorite photos of my photography career. Night games are a rarity during Spring Training and typically more of a challenge for photographers because the stadium lights can be dimer than at the stadiums we’re used to. But, when I walked into the Peoria Stadium and saw the way the sun was setting I had a feeling that there would be a picture made if Darvish stood in the right spot. He did, and then the rain began, only intensifying the dramatic feel of standing in the outfield watching him warm up. Suddenly, the sun had set, the light was gone and I began to wander back to the dugout. With the rain continuing to fall, two rainbows appeared behind him— a chance for another photo you don’t usually see in the game of baseball. Friday night was a perfect storm.
Now THAT is a breakdown.
Hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week. Talk to you from Korea…
Awkward because I’m awkward, not because of Mike or the warning track itself