Exchanging a keyboard for a mic
I’m no stranger to being heard.
I took radio broadcasting in college before taking the sports journalism post-grad program to get a more hands-on look at the sports side of broadcasting.
While in the radio program, we got to go live on-air as DJs on the college’s radio station. Even though there isn’t a ton of people listening, it’s still kind of nerve wracking the first few times you go on air.
“How do I sound? Does anyone think my jokes are funny? Am I pronouncing these words correctly?” Are just some of the things that went through my head while on the radio.
I also worked at the radio station Whitehorse as a news anchor, reading hourly news and sportscasts. If I ever stuttered or stumbled while reading the news, I was always on the receiving end of a text from a friend of mine saying, “Nice one.” What are friends for?
Of course, it was never my intention to be a radio DJ; I wanted to be a sportscaster. Since it was obviously too late for me to be a hockey player for my career, getting paid to talk about hockey seemed like the most logical career to pursue.
Living in Belleville, Ont., where I went to college, there were a few hockey teams in the surrounding area, which gave all the sports journalism students a chance to interview players and do commentary of games.
I did play-by-play for a few Wellington Dukes games, who play in a junior A league just like the Battlefords North Stars.
I remember being a bit nervous before the first game I ever called, mostly because I hadn’t even heard of this league before, let alone known a single player on either team.
I split half of warmup between each team, looking at all the players and their jersey numbers, doing my best to memorize who they were so I wouldn’t have to keep glancing down at my roster sheet during the game.
It’s tough to memorize 36 players in 15 minutes, however. But as the game goes on, you get more and more comfortable not having to look down at your sheet.
The first few minutes were tough, because I basically had to look at my sheet to quickly match the number to the name every time a new player touched the puck.
By the third period, however, most of the names are fresh on your mind and you don’t need to look down anymore. That’s when it gets really fun.
The nerves are gone and you can just watch the game unfold in front of your eyes. Being in that state of comfort really made me realize that’s what I want to do for my career.
While in the sports journalism program, we also had to do play-by-play for the college’s basketball team. That was hard.
I don’t watch basketball. I’ll watch highlights, I know a lot of players in the league and who’s good and not good, but I don’t know anything about the rules.
Whenever it was my turn to do play-by-play, I made sure former sports reporter at the News-Optimist Brett Smith was my colour guy, because he is a big basketball fan.
He knew all the rules, knew exactly why the whistle was blown each time it was blown, and could give some actual insight into what was happening on the court. What a life saver that guy is.
I was sitting at my desk Thursday afternoon when I received a text from someone who identified herself as an employee at Access 7. She asked if I would be able to provide TV commentary for the final game of the Senior A Provincial Championships that were taking place in North Battleford over the weekend.
Naturally I volunteered to do it. Practice makes perfect, right?
I started to think about baseball games I watch on TV and how the play-by-play announcers carry the game. The big problem is that a lot of MLB announcers are former players, so they have experience in knowing what pitch could be coming, what the managers might be thinking and how it feels to be at the plate or on the mound.
My experience in playing baseball is limited to playing catch with friends and playing slo-pitch here over the summer, in which I was really no help to my team. Surely people would love hearing about that, right? Maybe if I was on stage at a comedy club.
I went to the ballpark Saturday afternoon to catch the North Battleford Beavers play the Arm River Indians and walk away with a 7-1 win. The game got a little heated late after an Arm River batter was hit by a pitch, and then Beavers MVP Kyle Palmer was hit leading off the next inning.
The umpires had to get between the players and tell them enough was enough before the game resumed. What’s baseball without a little passion?
I took in just the one game Saturday, but games were played until around 2 a.m. due to all games Friday being cancelled from rain. Have to give credit to everyone who played and volunteered Saturday.
Sunday’s games had the two semifinals as the Yorkton Yankees crushed the Findlater Braves 10-1 and the Meadow Lake Sox defeated the hometown North Battleford Beavers 7-2.
The semis wrapped up around 3 p.m., which was when the final was scheduled to start, but an hour-break allowed me to get to know the Access 7 worker Katherine.
I found out she attended the University of Miami on a rowing scholarship. How cool is that?
I had my lineups all written out and I was ready for my best Vin Scully impression as I was given the thumbs up to start the broadcast.
Thankfully, this wasn’t a live broadcast. There’s something about being on live TV that makes you feel a little nervous when the camera first starts rolling. I remember the first hockey game I did colour commentary for on TV. Right before we went live to air my broadcast partner looked at me and said, “You all right?” I was all right. Nervous, but all right. Being in front of the camera isn’t something all people are comfortable with, but it’s something I need to conquer if I want to get where I want in my career.
I feel the game Sunday went rather smoothly. Thankfully baseball is slow-paced, allowing for a rookie broadcaster like myself to not feel overwhelmed.
When you’re doing a baseball game you have to make sure you’re keeping score on your own sheet so you can refer back to previous at-bats. Knowing that a player struck out swinging in his previous two at-bats is important knowledge and something you can mention when he comes to the plate again.
There are also little things to pick up on as well. I noticed the Meadow Lake pitcher threw a lot of fastballs up in the zone, but had good control of his breaking ball and was able to throw it for strikes often. Like all sports, when you notice things like that you can relay it to viewers who might be watching casually, or not notice it until you say something.
The game moved fairly quickly, except for the third inning for the Yankees as they had nine batters come to the plate, yet only recorded one hit. Three hit batters, a walk, an error, one single and three outs resulted in the Yankees taking the lead for good as they cruised after that inning to a 6-3 victory.
It’s too bad there were no no-doubt home runs hit in the game so I could try my hand at Toronto Blue Jays broadcaster Buck Martinez’s “Swing and a drive!”
While there were a few instances of nothing to say in-between pitches or batters, I thought it was a fun experience.
I’ve never thought about a career in baseball broadcasting, but at least now I can say I gave it a shot.
I think Martinez’s contract is up in 2020, maybe I can get the tape from Access 7 and send it off to Sportsnet?
