I had the absolute pleasure of listening to the first 6 or 7 innings of yesterday’s Minnesota Twins game on the teams WCCO local radio feed.
Yet another reason baseball is far and away the best sport to be a fan of.
I’ve heard a lot of sports talking heads and pundits say baseball is the easiest sport to call if you’re a play-by-play announcer because the pace of the game is so slow.
False.
Baseball is the hardest sport to call if you’re a play-by-play announcer because the game moves so slow.
They are required to fill all that dead-air between pitches with some form of commentary. Television baseball announcers have it fairly tough too, but ultimately the visionary aspect of things makes up for any awkward silence.
Radio guys aren’t so lucky.
I have no idea who the Twins radio announcers are (I supposed I could do a little research) but they are absolutely excellent.
The best part about them is they are straight up fans of the team. I caught the color guy griping about calls or complaining about things not going the Twins way on several occasions, all while the play-by-play guy eggs him on.
Last night they came on the air and said some company in the Twin Cities was sponsoring a sweepstakes where if any Twin gets a triple at any point in the game some fan who entered (they specifically named him) would win $1800, if not the pot would go up to $1900 for another fan the next night. I heard it and didn’t think much of it. Then a few innings later Max Kepler got a triple. There was apparently some debate to whether it was a double and a throwing error or a legit triple. After the dust had settled, the announcers came back on and said “and congratulations to our sweepstakes winner…” Ha. I had forgotten all about it until that point.
The stats they come up with during a game to fill those moments of silence are borderline crazy sometimes. But always interesting and entertaining. Anything to fill that dead air. I wish I would have taken notes on some of them.
After Franmil Reyes of the Indians whiffed on a ball and injured himself during his second at-bat the Twins announcing team filled time by talking about how amazing it is that Reyes was 4 for 4 in his last FOUR PITCHES against Twins pitcher Kenta Maeda with 3 home runs and 1 single. Unbelievable.
And every crowd member anywhere near the mic, especially now with the reduced capacity stadiums, can be heard word for word. It’s mostly just inaudible chatter, but yesterday an Indians fan ran “Hey Donaldson…LET’S GO BLUE JAYS!!!” (clap, clap, clap clap clap) into the ground with its usage rate.
I love how in 2021, you can still listen to baseball game on the radio like you would’ve in the early 1920’s.
And I genuinely appreciate the approach and different element the home broadcasting team brings to the table when choosing my how I want to consume my Minnesota Twins content.
Now let’s win this game today, take two outta three from Cleveland, get some guys healthy and go on a little run here.
