Hold My Cutter
Joe Block's Journey: From AM Waves to Big League Plays
Just when you thought the airwaves were only for play-by-plays, Joe Block, one of the esteemed voices of the Pittsburgh Pirates, pulls up a chair and brings with him an aroma of stories as rich as his preferred Andorran-wrapped cigar. As we share a 'Smoke of the Week,' Joe serves up a banquet of broadcasting tales, from the kinship he's found within the booth to the parallels he draws between his Detroit Lions and the Pirates. Imagine sitting in America's best ballpark, PNC Park, where every game is a narrative waiting to unfold, and that's just the start of our journey with Joe.
Ever wondered how a love for sports broadcasting is kindled? Think back to the crackle of AM radio and voices that became the soundtrack to our childhood. Like a familiar play unfolding on the field, we recount the moments that shifted our dreams from the stands into the booth. Joe and I don't just reminisce about legends like Ernie Harwell; we reveal the serendipity and the personal milestones that transformed our aspirations into a reality behind the mic. This episode isn't just about the past; it's a living tribute to the voices that still echo in our hearts.
But life isn't all home runs and hat tricks; in the world of sports broadcasting, you've got to be ready when a curveball comes your way. Joe and I swing into stories of rapid career transitions, from the unpredictability of calling innings to the resilience needed when the industry throws you a slider. Joe's not just covering bases; he's knocking life's pitches out of the park, from Super Bowl coverage to embracing a new adventure across the states. By the end of our chat, you'll see that Joe's journey to play-by-play announcer is more than a career—it's a testament to the power of adaptability and a love for the game.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!!!!
www.holdmycutter.com
Just when you thought the airwaves were only for play-by-plays, Joe Block, one of the esteemed voices of the Pittsburgh Pirates, pulls up a chair and brings with him an aroma of stories as rich as his preferred Andorran-wrapped cigar. As we share a 'Smoke of the Week,' Joe serves up a banquet of broadcasting tales, from the kinship he's found within the booth to the parallels he draws between his Detroit Lions and the Pirates. Imagine sitting in America's best ballpark, PNC Park, where every game is a narrative waiting to unfold, and that's just the start of our journey with Joe.
Ever wondered how a love for sports broadcasting is kindled? Think back to the crackle of AM radio and voices that became the soundtrack to our childhood. Like a familiar play unfolding on the field, we recount the moments that shifted our dreams from the stands into the booth. Joe and I don't just reminisce about legends like Ernie Harwell; we reveal the serendipity and the personal milestones that transformed our aspirations into a reality behind the mic. This episode isn't just about the past; it's a living tribute to the voices that still echo in our hearts.
But life isn't all home runs and hat tricks; in the world of sports broadcasting, you've got to be ready when a curveball comes your way. Joe and I swing into stories of rapid career transitions, from the unpredictability of calling innings to the resilience needed when the industry throws you a slider. Joe's not just covering bases; he's knocking life's pitches out of the park, from Super Bowl coverage to embracing a new adventure across the states. By the end of our chat, you'll see that Joe's journey to play-by-play announcer is more than a career—it's a testament to the power of adaptability and a love for the game.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!!!!
www.holdmycutter.com
And we welcome you to another episode of Hold my Cutter Coming your way here. Burned by Rocky Patel, just a few blocks down the road from PNC Park, and our special guest has offered us his favorite stogie. This is our Smoke of the Week. This is the number six. I don't know what you're going to say, marte, marte. It's an Andorran wrapper. It's got the Honduran Nicaraguan blend for filler, it's got notes of vanilla and cocoa, which I think we're tasting now, and some black pepper with a spicy, nutty finish, and it's a really good smoke. So, joe Block, thank you so much for the recommendation. Joe, oh yeah, glad to be here. It's sweet and spicy. I just got back from Honduras. For the recommendation, joe. Oh yeah, glad to be here. Judge, judge.
Speaker 3:It's sweet and spicy. I just got back from Honduras. Yes, very good.
Speaker 1:You brought it with you this time Met with Rocky Patel about the whole thing. He's doing good he sends his love.
Speaker 2:Oh, good Thanks.
Speaker 1:You said Rock is doing. That's what I call him, john Wayner.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, rock and rock. Yeah, rock and rock.
Speaker 1:Joe Block is, of course, pirates broadcaster radio and TV, one of the kindest, most decent men I've ever met, amen. Extremely talented, smart. Just an absolute treat to have on the broadcast A lot of broadcasters, and I often talk in our director of broadcasting, our boss, about how fortunate we are that we have gathered, including Michael McHenry who does a pre and post game on the TV side, but how fortunate we are to have a bunch of guys that truly enjoy being with each other. I mean, I love being in your company Fort, of course, and likewise with Joe. Anyway, it's just great to have Joe Block here with us today. Joe, thanks for being our guest.
Speaker 2:This is great. This is great Thanks. I feel the same way.
Speaker 1:By the way, Well, thank you. Does it feel by the way you're into your ninth season? Does it feel like nine years with the Pittsburgh Pirates?
Speaker 3:Is it really nine? Yeah, is it incredible. It's gone fast. Wow, that went fast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's been awesome being here. I just I feel like I've been at home and it's just a lot of fun, as you know. I mean, when you get to call games at that ballpark the best ballpark in America, you know and be in this city, it doesn't get better.
Speaker 1:Joe Block was Johnny Cash. That song I've been everywhere. Man, man, joe Block has been everywhere. I can't wait to hear all this. Oh my gosh, what an unbelievable story. First of all, you're still not quite over that Lions loss, are you Huge Detroit Lions fan?
Speaker 2:Did you see that I'm thinking? Did you see what A'm thinking? Did you see what AB tweeted? He said the Lions would be up 31-10 right now against either of these teams. I mean, they couldn't score and I kept thinking to myself I go, the Lions, oh, they'd be beating the tar out of either of these teams right now, but they didn't win the game to get there. So that's okay. I grew up in Detroit and so I just thought those guys Rock will tell you. So these guys I was crying when they beat the Chiefs in Kansas City. We were in Atlanta that night, we were watching the game and had a couple thousand of these.
Speaker 1:Coffee. This is nice coffee, Really good coffee, by the way, is in a very nice, delicious mug, by the way, Bucko Pirate Mug. This coffee is we've talked about this before and some of our other guests Joe, I don't know Byrne makes some of the best coffee in the area, Isn't that delicious?
Speaker 2:From Honduras. Yes, yes.
Speaker 3:And vanilla, that's right. Right, you made me spit out my coffee, that's okay, you made me laugh, don't be mad at that.
Speaker 1:No, no, laughing, yeah, all right. But yeah, I guess I wasn't there that night, but I guess you put on quite a show. It was quite a show Down in Atlanta. Yeah, that's the word. You were drinking a lot of coffee, yes, a lot of coffee that night, about 16 of them, if I remember.
Speaker 2:That's yes, it was Yep, and they come in buckets there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:Bucket shop, and yeah, but then. So that was game one of the season, so you can imagine the name. Oh man, yeah.
Speaker 1:So did you really grow up? Did you go to Lions games as a kid?
Speaker 2:even no because I couldn't afford it, yeah. So but I watched them all the time and you know what I it's funny, like I don't know if it works like this with you guys, but I watch. I watch a lot, well, lions, and I watch a lot of football and I watch a lot of hockey pens fans, so I watch and so um, so I watch a lot of these other sports and then, like it, I couldn't help but like understand, like being a lions fan since I was a little kid, and like how they just it's there's, there's torment and there's like you just can't quite get there you know, but I think you know a lot of Pirates fans there's a lot of parallels and in some ways and and so I just kept thinking about that and just how I'm watching this game or I'm watching this team or this season and seeing how exciting it is and and it's it's almost kind of come out of nowhere.
Speaker 2:The last couple of years Young team they've drafted a bunch of guys and all of a sudden they've gotten good together real fast and so I was thinking to myself I go, could this be like how the Pirates are operating? And it helps me feel like you know I haven't been around, you know the last several decades what Pirates fans have gone through, and so hopefully, maybe this is a little bit of a mirror you know, with what the Lions have done and maybe Pirates fans can enjoy the same thing.
Speaker 1:Well, I love the comp because we've talked about this before. I grew up a Chicago Bears fanatic when they were horrible but never stopped being a fanatical fan. It didn't matter if they were back then they played. Shoot might have been 14 games when I was growing up, but they didn't snip the playoffs. They barely ever made 500. But I just loved each and every week with the hope, the idea that they're going to get that win.
Speaker 1:So you can certainly relate to that. You don't abandon your team because they're not winning. That doesn't make sense to me, yeah.
Speaker 2:So because they're not winning? That doesn't make sense to me. Yeah, so like last April, when the Pirates get off to that 20 and 8 start, I'm thinking like, wow, this is, you know you just get. I don't know I was getting caught up in it, I was getting crazy, yeah.
Speaker 1:You were what he was getting crazy. Getting crazy, yeah, like on the air. Crazy, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:We don't hear each other.
Speaker 1:We don't hear each other.
Speaker 3:I have the privilege to listen. Both you guys are, both outstanding. That's hilarious. You're exactly right. You were getting super, super excited. That's hysterical.
Speaker 2:It's like I'm like I really want this so bad, you know. So that's what's neat about just like thinking about those kind of parallels and stuff. It's like, well, this could kind of you know, kind of happen here. So so yeah, I don't know, I just get excited. Hopefully it's going to be coming for the Pirates this year.
Speaker 2:Tigers fan growing up too, as a kid yeah, now it's like I don't know. I mean, as a kid you grew up in the Detroit area, so yeah, like the 80s, like mid-80s on, you know, early 90s, when I was growing up, and they were pretty good, a lot of those years too, so, um, so that's kind of what got me into baseball. I remember I was six years old when they won the world series and I don't remember a lot from when I was six. I don't know about you guys, but I remember everybody. There's a street called grashit in detroit. It's like the big thoroughfare and like everybody's cruising grashatiot, honking their horns. My dad, you know, loaded me up in the 57 Chevy pickup and, all right, we're going to go cruise Gratiot and honk our horns. And I made a sign on a piece of plywood, you know, go Tigers or something, tigers 84, I think, or you know, permanent marker. And I still remember that and I didn't know what was really happening, but I just remember it was fun, that's awesome To celebrate, what a cool memory.
Speaker 2:And so the next year I started watching baseball because I was told what it was about my great-grandparents. I had a lot of great-grandparents still living when I was growing up and they were all big baseball fans, so I really learned the game from them and so they taught me about watching baseball. I'd watch games with them and that's how I kind of that's. You know, I was about seven years old. I've gotten into baseball that way.
Speaker 3:Wow, did you have a big family? Sounds like great grandparents.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, they're all dead now.
Speaker 1:They're all, they're all, they're all all the old great great grandparents are dead Wow.
Speaker 2:How about the great? I'm sorry, too soon We've really brought too soon. We've really brought this show down now.
Speaker 1:But that's how I got into it. So Tiger Stadium, then Tiger.
Speaker 2:Stadium. Memories of old.
Speaker 1:Tiger Stadium yeah, that's where I'd always go to games. Really, yeah, tiger Stadium, and did you broadcast games?
Speaker 2:I never got to broadcast a game, but the last year that it was open I was 21. Okay, so it's cool. I got to go there as a kid and I got to go there when I was 21, so I got to have some coffee, oh yeah, good coffee at Tiger Stadium too.
Speaker 2:I believe Not quite like this no, no, but I got to go in and be an intern. I interned for Dan Dickerson when he was working for WJR and Dan Dickerson now calls the tiger games. Um, how did you get that internship? His wife so this is a tiger's play by play. Announcer.
Speaker 2:His wife was one of my journalism professors in Michigan state and she had just started and she tried to get some of her students, you know, hooked up with her husband and say, hey, you should go down and you're interested in baseball, you want to do play-by-play. So does he? Why don't you go and get to know him a little bit? So I got to go down, get sound talk to players, interview them post-game, that kind of thing in the locker room or clubhouse. So I got to do a little bit of that. I got to stand in the booth, which was hard to get into, um, but I didn't get to call gay, I wasn't calling games yet, but it was really cool that I got a little bit of all the experiences in that ballpark before I closed down. So it was, it was really neat, so yeah never got a chance to meet ernie harwell.
Speaker 1:Did you, or did you?
Speaker 2:oh yeah no, he and I actually became good friends through through dan and going up there, but then also so when Dan started it was 2000, I went to Lakeland to go to some spring training games and Dan introduced me to Ernie, and Ernie, of course, was just so genial, so wonderful, such a nice man and took a genuine interest in anybody that really wanted his help, and so it really took off from there.
Speaker 2:I started working in the minor leagues in that year and so I would send him stuff to listen to and he would take time and we'd talk on the phone and then when I moved to Minnesota, when they came in to play the twins, we'd have lunch, or when I'd go back to visit my family in Detroit once a year, you know, we'd sit down and have lunch. So it was really a special relationship to get to know him, because if you grew up in Detroit or Michigan really and listen to Tiger Games, I mean he lied in state at Comerica Park when he passed away and they opened it up at 6 am and at midnight there were still people in line Incredible.
Speaker 2:So just to give you an idea of what he meant to Detroiters and to people in Michigan, and he meant that much to me too and I'm just so lucky to have had that Unbelievable, those experiences with him.
Speaker 3:Sounds like to Yoda.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah To Yoda. We broadcast games at Tiger Stadium One of my first years there, I guess, when we started doing interleague games, of course you know the rickety old press box and well before the game I'm sitting there doing my stats and my numbers, my head buried in the in the book, and I sensed that someone had made their way down the steps and it was seated next to me. I guess I assumed it was maybe Blass who was my partner, and I'd already seen Steve, so I had no reason to kind of look. But I kind of stopped for a second and I hear Greg, I don't want to interrupt you, I look, he goes, ernie Harwell. I went ha-ba, ha-ba, ha-ba. Are you kidding me, ernie? He goes.
Speaker 1:I just wanted to see if there's anything I could do for you, anyway, so you got to really know him. That was kind of the extent that we I wouldn't say I became good friends with Ernie Harwell, but such great respect for such a kind and great broadcaster. But we've talked about Yoda's mentors over the years. Mike Lang is one of mine. You were a big Mike Lang fan listening to Penguin Games in Detroit, right, yeah, it's so weird and thanks to you I got to meet him, which was a great thrill.
Speaker 2:And when I met him it was between innings. You had him on and he goes. Hey, joey, how you doing? He knew my name. Thank you for sending him out, but I thought that was the coolest thing in the world. I'm like, oh my gosh, I grew up listening to you, but, yeah, this is before the Internet. Back in the 1900s, when I was growing up.
Speaker 1:That means I grew up in the 1800s.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no no, so yeah, but I would listen to AM radio. I couldn't get a date or have friends, so what I would do is so I would. You know, I'm a teenager and I'm in my room and I'm like fooling with the AM dial trying to find out of town stations, you know, and you could. You know, on cloudy night you can get a whole bunch of them. So I could get KDKA a bunch, you know, on 1020. So when the Pens late 80s, early 90s were on KDKA, still I could tune in the games. And Lang, of course, is just so unbelievably colorful in the settings, but also his description of hockey.
Speaker 2:You know, I really got into hockey because of him. And watching Hockey Night in Canada on Cherry too, but you know I'd know. And watching hockey night in canada and on cherry too, but you know I'd say 50, 50 so, um, but listening to lang, I'm like wow, I, I actually wanted to be a hockey broadcaster. Because, you know, partially because of him, I thought I thought I don't know, I might want to do that, and so I I actually studied French in high school and I thought, okay, I've got to get ready to be a hockey broadcaster. I've never broadcast a hockey game in my entire life.
Speaker 3:But you still know.
Speaker 2:French, Je parle oh yeah, oh, hello Salut.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I don't know how that all didn't work out, because I didn't really go for any hockey jobs, baseball stills your heart, though.
Speaker 3:Let's be honest, it was always my favorite sport. Yeah, it stills your heart.
Speaker 2:It just kind of worked out. I didn't realize, for hockey there's a couple of minor leagues, but baseball there's a lot of minor leagues and that's really easy to kind of get in somewhere and start and so, oh yeah, I should probably just go with baseball. I guess it worked out, so that's good.
Speaker 3:It worked out great. One question I have, and I've asked just about everybody that's kind of followed their dream. When did the dream start, Like, when did you decide that's what I want to do? You're tuning in on that AM radio, you know, searching. What made you even begin that? Um, I know that's so cool.
Speaker 2:If you don't know, you know, I'm not gonna lie. My oldest daughter has started to get into game shows. She's eight and I told her the other day I said that was the first thing I wanted to be when I was growing up. I wanted to be wink martindale or jack berry or bob eubanks I'd love to see you host a game show I loved. Well, you saw Pirates Fest right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah I did. I was like, all right, give me all the game shows Our boss, yeah I got to do these?
Speaker 2:I just love that stuff. I don't know, but that's what I wanted to do. And then I was telling you, I started watching the baseball games with my great-grandparents and great grandparents and, um, and I said what? No, I want to be a baseball broadcaster, do you remember?
Speaker 3:how old you were, probably seven or eight years old. Wow, that's so cool because I didn't really know what that meant. Yeah, but it correlates to, you know, my dream, you know, like your all's dream, and the stories are, yeah, it's almost in, you know, parallel. It's not an easy task by any stretch. I would almost say it's in some ways harder for you guys because there's less jobs. Yeah, right, so it's remarkable and I've always wondered with each and every one of you, like when did it start? At seven years old, somewhere in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't really act on it maybe until I was 14 or so, but that's when I started doing like a public access show. You know, and a couple of you know high school football game play-by-play, you know, on the local channel, you know that kind of thing. So but yeah, and then it was like, oh, I really like this. So I kept going from there, wow.
Speaker 1:But Joe. So you talk about, you know, Michigan State and journalism, communications major right. And then is your first job out of college doing minor league games down in charleston south carolina as a studio host. What was?
Speaker 2:that, yeah. So it wasn't even play by play. Um, they tantalized you by giving you eight games. They said you couldn't do eight games. Um, and I got that job. I went all the way out to anaheim winter meetings. Um, I had been, I was working as a sports writer. I just had. I was working as a sports writer, I just had graduated. I worked as a sports writer in Jackson, michigan, and covered mostly high school stuff. The calling was there I could make a decent living as a sports writer. I said no, I've got to do this now I'm 22. Let's go, I'm going to give it a try. I went out to winter meetings. I had a buddy, thank goodness. Like you know, all the stuff that I did, I didn't do it on my own. It's, it's always some influence. You know, the only reason I went to michigan state is some guy wanted my buddy, wanted to take me to party there. I had a lot of fun at the party.
Speaker 3:I go I'll go to school there, you know, it turned out to be fantastic.
Speaker 1:You had no thoughts previously.
Speaker 2:I made a potato gun and was like shooting it at my other buddy, and it was reason enough yeah, and I was like that's fun, I'm going, I'm coming here.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great, that's it. Wow, that's the reason they obviously had good coffee.
Speaker 3:You know they had good coffee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's always good coffee there too yeah, that's good, uh, yeah, but yeah, and then charleston. So charleston, uh, that was owned by Mike Vec, the son of the Hall of Famer Bill Vec, and what a great human being. And I don't know, I didn't know, I just got a job there. And so the play-by-play and color analysts are going to do the games, and then I'm going to do a radio pregame show for an A-ball team in Charleston and then a call-in show afterward. Well, you know not a lot of people are calling.
Speaker 1:That had to be one of the first ever in minor leagues. They didn't have that in the minor leagues, did they?
Speaker 2:They did it in Charleston and they did it in maybe New Britain and a couple other places. It was a way for the play-by-play guy is Jim Lucas and Don Wardlow is the color analyst, and those guys would do that. They would convince the team that hired them to have a pre and post-guy, to kind of like break somebody in, get them into pro baseball, but also to help Don, because Don was born without eyes so you had to have somebody to help him get around, and so that's kind of what my job was was to drive Don to the ballpark and his seeing-eye dog. And then I learned a lot from Don's preparation and how he prepared for games. And then when I got to work with Don, you know you think about doing games on the radio.
Speaker 2:Well, you're speaking to somebody who can't see the game. Well, I'm having a conversation, don and I are doing the game. Well, you can't see the game either, and neither can our audience. So anytime I miss something, you know say uh, did josh hamilton get the third base on that, the double? Uh, oh, yeah, yeah, sorry, uh, you know, and then I'd have to, you know, get a little bit better at my description. So, working with him was fantastic.
Speaker 2:I get immediate wow, you know immediate feedback on what I wasn't doing, because he truly did not know what was happening and he has to base all of his analysis on what I'm saying, otherwise he cannot function. So that's incredible. Um, it was a really great experience working, working for mike vac um, you know who, and we still keep in contact and um, and then, uh, you know, don really taught me a lot really quickly on how to get into this and and and really do a good job at it, because he'd take a braille typewriter and his wife would, he'd dictate to his wife what to type and then he you know, or he you know, he types some stuff out and and he'd call guys in their hotel rooms opposing team, call them in their hotel rooms, get color stuff, go down in the cage, you know he did a lot of work and so that's where I got that work ethic from. I said, well, you got to do a lot of preparation to really know your stuff for this.
Speaker 2:So, because I was really lazy, really lazy, so that's hard to believe it really taught me I got a lot of work to do if I'm going to be any good at this hey, what was the craziest promotion they put on down there with mike veck? Oh uh, well, because we had Tanya Harding mini bat night.
Speaker 3:And this is just a few years, no you didn't.
Speaker 2:And we got Tanya to come, no way, but we didn't tell her it was mini bat night. Oh my goodness. So it was funny because I picked her up from the airport. What Come off it? Well, that was kind of.
Speaker 1:I know that's what you did, but still.
Speaker 2:So bringing her in.
Speaker 1:Did you talk to her? Do not tell her you didn't talk to her about. Hey, how are things going? Tell me more about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Just do the chit chat, this and that. Oh my God, I took a picture with her, I remember, and she was super nice hours before and she just thought she's signing autographs. And she did sign autographs, couldn't have been nicer. And then, when you know, they kept asking her to sign a bat, sign a mini bat, sign a mini bat. Then she got upset. What happened? I think she left. I was, I was not. I was not there because I was back in the studio.
Speaker 2:But um, but yeah, at some point she left, you know that's good yeah, I don't know if she they got her to throw out the first pitch or not, but she was there signing autographs and signing a lot of mini-bats.
Speaker 1:That is unbelievable Taking place. Did you ask her about? Hey, you still buddies with Nancy Kerrigan, no, Didn't bring it up.
Speaker 2:Didn't bring up anybody.
Speaker 3:I'm sure nobody else did either.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that was just one of many crazy promotions and that worked at St Paul for a couple of years for the Saints back when they were an independent club.
Speaker 1:Was that back?
Speaker 2:also Wow, mike too, so we did.
Speaker 1:Did he get you the gig, by the way? Was that contact? Yeah, mike, put me in. Okay, st Paul, which?
Speaker 2:was great because you know my buddy Tom, who comes down to spring training every year and stuff my best friend since we were six years old. He still lives in the Twin Cities. I got to be there when his son was born, who was my godson. I got to see him often for his first two years of life. It's just a lot of cool coincidences and experiences that I've had.
Speaker 1:Wow. By the way, none of this is true.
Speaker 2:It's all fake. We're making all this up.
Speaker 1:It's all fake, baseball's all about the stories.
Speaker 3:It doesn't matter if it's factual or not. I kind of want to any other promotions from you guys.
Speaker 1:Because that was probably something Crazy promotions over the years. Besides the Vec fam I mean famously Mike Vec was a longtime baseball owner and promoter and did some crazy disco demolition night in Chicago. They had a DJ. They flew in between games with Doubleheader on the field at Comiskey right.
Speaker 3:You know the story better than I do 79.
Speaker 1:Yeah, brought in just thousands and thousands of old 45 records, disco records, and they put it in this big box vault and blew it up literally and destroyed the field. Well, I guess he was also Tencent Beer Night in Texas, no that was Cleveland.
Speaker 3:That was Cleveland Texas.
Speaker 1:But that could have been a Vec thing, it wasn't.
Speaker 2:There's a great special on Netflix, saint of Second Chances, and it talks about him and that came out, I think, in the fall about Mike, yeah, about Mike. So that's a neat little thing to see about him so great guy so, but plenty of crazy promotions.
Speaker 2:Well, he you know, and one of the things, so one of my jobs, was to do the marketing and PR stuff too, because you wear so many hats in the minor leagues. One of the things that he really taught me was to just go for it. If we get an idea, just suggest it. We might do it and it might fail. Disco Demolition Night didn't turn out and it was a big sore spot for him, even though I still think it's great. It's like so what have you foreshadowed the game?
Speaker 3:It's like everyone's still talking about it, exactly 45 years later.
Speaker 2:That's right, it was a great promotion, you know. So you've got to try stuff and you've got to take chances and you've got to be bold sometimes and just see what happens and and you know what. Sometimes it doesn't work out, you know, but sometimes it does and it's great. So he taught me that and that really stuck with me too.
Speaker 1:Any crazy promotion when you were growing up in the minor leagues. Do you remember Absolutely, besides the bat, spin all the minor leagues do that.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, which is still hilarious. I don't care how often, I imagine they're still doing it my wife did that next to me once when you put your forehead on the handle.
Speaker 1:You know this, joe. Of course the barrel of the bat's on the ground. Put your forehead on you, spin around I think ten times three different people and then you try and run on a straight line like 90 feet. It's hysterical.
Speaker 2:It is. We do it with our kids.
Speaker 3:It's so great Every Saturday, why don't they do that even to the big?
Speaker 1:leagues, that is so much fun to watch.
Speaker 3:It's hilarious. Have you seen the spin? And they try to actually hit a wiffle ball. No, I've not seen that it's priceless, but we used to put actual eye black on the end of the bat, so the person doing it would have this big black spot.
Speaker 3:Unbeknownst to them One night. It was my wife and another wife and I was like no, don't put it on there, don't do it, I'm whispering. And she destroyed the other wife. The other wife had this huge black mark. It became a thing. No more wives ran.
Speaker 3:But the best promotion by far I've ever seen was in Little Rock, arkansas. Okay, they tell us there's going to be little people wrestling. Sure enough, bp's canceled, we're hitting the cage and there's a ring at home plate, so it's right in my territory. So I get out there an hour and a half early. They turn off the lights, they start to come back on and these guys swing open the gate and they just start walking. They don't walk fast, they've got little legs. So they get through about three minutes of their walkout song to get out there. And it is the most entertaining, fun event I've ever been to in my entire life. Where was this again? Little Rock, arkansas. Like we got the game started 30 minutes late and everything because everybody was fired up. There was 10,000 people in the stands. It was amazing, it was a true event. Wow, and I would love if the Pirates did something like that. Yeah, and I would love if the Pirates did something like that.
Speaker 3:I mean they were coming off the top ropes doing backflips. It was incredible. It really was, it was priceless.
Speaker 1:There's so many incredible minor league promotions. For whatever reason you get to the big leagues and I don't know, I don't know why that is. Major league clubs don't kind of step out of their comfort zones, but it's just the way it is. You can do that in the minor leagues, I guess, afraid to take chances. Yeah, exactly Afraid to take chances From there though, joe you're doing, did you go and do some part-time work for the Montreal Expos While in St Paul? How'd that?
Speaker 2:happen. Yeah, I was actually working in Jacksonville at that time, that was 03 and 04. So their last last.
Speaker 1:Well, how'd you get to jacksonville then? Uh, well, I'm playing, I, I knew I was coming, I've got, I've got to know his wit a little bit. Yeah, I drove, yeah I left my.
Speaker 2:What was the car? Uh, it was a dodge stratus. Okay, I drive a dodge stratus yeah, so, uh, let's see.
Speaker 2:So what happened? There was I had started a website for sports broadcasters A long time ago. Call of the Game, right, call of the Game. Yes, yeah, a long time ago. I remember it. That was fun, and one of the, the guy that was doing the English radio, elliot Price. You remember, elliot? He put on kind of an advertisement on there saying hey, major League Baseball now owns the Expos and they have taken my color analyst off the road so I have to do all the games by myself on the road so they can save money. So as a courtesy to you, I'm offering 81 road games of Major League Baseball. We'll pay you nothing, we will not put you up. They will come out of my own pocket. We will not give you meal money, but you can do the games if you want to do them. So a lot of people reached out to him and he reached out to me, just being the guy that runs the site or whatever, and said well, hey, you're in Jacksonville, how about Atlanta?
Speaker 3:and.
Speaker 2:Miami. I think Tony Berners-Arts was doing Miami. The first year. I did it. The second year, Tony Berners-Arts wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, remember that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cleveland, second baseman. Yeah, so I got a handful of games each year getting to not paid or anything, but who cares? I'm 25, 26 years old. Yeah, you're building a resume, doing and seeing how it works. You know, really actually doing the game. Good for you.
Speaker 2:So I got to call the middle three innings. You know, and and be the you know color analyst for the rest of time, but really seeing how it works and Elliot was so great, you know, just telling me how this works. And you know, going into the clubhouse and riding the bus in. You know, because I I said I'm going to do it the way that they do it. I, I paid, you know, paid the money to stay at the hotel. You know I'm going to do, I'm going to come in on the bus and do it just the way he does it so I can see what everything's like. So, um, and it was great experience. I really didn't, okay, you, you were this far away, you were super far because you're not doing these 100 things. So start doing these 100 things so you can get there. So it was a really valuable experience. A couple years?
Speaker 1:Yeah, the last two years. How many total games do you think you did Any idea?
Speaker 2:Eight or nine.
Speaker 1:Just a handful of games. Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 2:Unbelievable experience. Oh yeah, I mean. So I was going to do games at Joe Robbie and then one of the hurricanes was going to come through, so they moved the games to US Cellular, so I drove from Jacksonville to Chicago to do the game instead.
Speaker 1:Wow, this is the stuff. I love hearing it because you and I talked to kids. I'm not giving up those games.
Speaker 2:You and I talked to kids.
Speaker 1:Good for you Younger people that want to get in the business I drove and literally say you've got to be willing to do stuff that you never maybe dreamed about doing. How badly do you want it?
Speaker 3:You say yes and figure it out. Say yes and figure it out If you want it badly enough, you will do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's an example of it. Like there's no thought about money.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:He's spending money to try it. Yeah, because you have a bigger picture, right, you have?
Speaker 3:a bigger. Why? What do you want to do? Yeah, I do so. I've heard this a couple times now, brownie.
Speaker 2:And Joe, what is catch? Three innings of a game. No, you were like I'm in, I'm in for the whole game.
Speaker 1:Hey, I'm McKendree.
Speaker 3:Go in there and catch those three innings and then you're done, we're not as strong as you.
Speaker 2:That's right, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:We build up over the years. So, yeah, you're doing the first three and then we come in, we're the middle three.
Speaker 3:You're talking just the other day, like you would be there. You'd be taking notes, listening, and then you'd emulate. You know the person who did the first three innings. When did that start, when did it stop and why were they doing it? That makes no sense to me.
Speaker 1:Did you like it? Yeah, because in other sports they don't sports starters long season back then. Now they had basically two guys doing radio and radio. Was it back in the day?
Speaker 3:but even when, when you said, when you started, tv was still like that a little bit.
Speaker 1:Well, true, but we were only doing when I started out with the pirates only probably maybe half the games on tv, so you still had so it's still 81 games, that's.
Speaker 1:That's a basketball season, right but it's every night it's still, you know, on on the air, um, and so you basically had two guys. Again, this is years ago that you had the voice of the team who was the primary broadcaster. He would do all, most of the play by play, but he didn't want to do all nine innings, couldn't go the distance, didn't get a complete game, what needed time off, so in the middle three innings, whoever would be, just I'm not just the middle three innings, whoever it would be, I'm not just a pirate, it's just about every broadcast did it this way and that main guy would stretch his legs, go back to the press box, grab a cup of coffee. It's really about the coffee.
Speaker 1:It's about the coffee I would do the middle three innings.
Speaker 3:Great for you guys that are trying to get into it, I'm sure. But like you would hate that now, wouldn't you? Like you guys would Not starting out, I would do it in a heartbeat yeah yeah, starting out, I'm saying like now that you guys are the one you know the ace I wouldn't want to.
Speaker 1:That's weird.
Speaker 2:right Now I wouldn't Right, or even the sixth innings when I was in Milwaukee working with Bob Bucher. Everyone wants to hear Bob Bucher, but he gets a break right, so I'd come in and do three, four, seven, third, fourth inning, seventh inning, really. So that gives it a little time off.
Speaker 3:He just didn't like the sixth you know what? He was doing. Most of the time he was signing autographs.
Speaker 2:He'd go through his mail.
Speaker 1:For the fifth. You know what he was doing most of the time he was signing autographs like he'd go through his mail, you know. Yeah, I've tried to follow. I've tried to follow some of these broadcasts, even now, and I've wondered about that with milwaukee's all here. We all do this. We listen to other games when the pirates are off and we're in other cities we're listening, and our earbuds, whatever we're doing, and uh, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to that. The middle three makes sense. Yeah, the primary guys is the first three and the last three and then the reliever comes in for the middle. But to do that? Where'd that come up?
Speaker 2:I guess it's just so he's not gone for too long. Yeah Well, he'll be back in a couple innings. Joe's on. For right now I won't turn it off because he'll be back soon.
Speaker 3:I don't know. Okay, let's say Corbin Burns is throwing an absolute he just got traded Orioles pitcher yeah yeah, Now the Orioles pitcher but like say he's throwing, it's the fourth inning.
Speaker 2:I still can't believe it, he's not leaving.
Speaker 3:If he's got a no-hitter right, he's not leaving.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay. So what are you saying? No, is he?
Speaker 1:saying I did the middle three innings of the combined. First ever combined. No hitter extra inning, no hitter in baseball history.
Speaker 3:Brownie, you'd have to kill me.
Speaker 1:And Ricardo Rincon, but I was the middle three innings. So the first three, no hitter. Four, five, six, no hitter. I mean I'm sorry, yeah, beat it nerd, I got it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, lanny did so. The way that it worked with Euchre and I, or whoever was, still in Milwaukee.
Speaker 1:Oh, the deal was extra innings I'm doing. Oh okay, I do the 10th. Oh wow, He'll do the 11th. Flip flop, yeah.
Speaker 2:So if it was a 10 inning no hitter, I would have ended up finishing the no hitter. Wow Isn't that weird. That's crazy tore. I'm like I'm not doing this. They're going to be mad about this.
Speaker 1:That's the deal. That's the deal that he signed up for.
Speaker 2:But I never thought about that, michael, like in other sports. All right, fourth quarter. Here's Bob.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right Okay.
Speaker 3:That's wild to me.
Speaker 1:I'm going to do the second quarter and the third quarter. That's wild to me. I'm going to do the second quarter and the third quarter. You do the first and the fourth Over time. You do the first five minutes.
Speaker 3:That's wild. Thank you for that, guys Are we?
Speaker 1:getting you off track.
Speaker 3:Brownie? Not at all. That's my job.
Speaker 1:Get us off track. Tell us about the Jacksonville gig. That's double A with the Dodgers, right, yeah, at that time. Yeah, the Suns About four years there, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'm surprised I made it that long. Why? Because the ownership there at that time had an edict, a rule that broadcasters no more than three years, and then you're fired.
Speaker 3:What that?
Speaker 2:makes sense. Wow, that's why I was like I better get you know the expos games. I'm like I better you know, get some experience because I I know I have three years here and I, I got that job.
Speaker 1:That's worse than having to do just the middle three innings there for it yeah, you're looking at your.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I'm like you. Better live your life well for three years.
Speaker 2:Yes, I've got three, four and five and that team won the championship in 05. So I'm like, oh, they won the championship. I'm like that's my last ever call. Oh, that's great. So I already I'm like I know I'm done. And then he told me you know you're done.
Speaker 3:So he did tell you you're done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was the deal. Yeah, they. They're like here's your ring, you're fired.
Speaker 1:As you know, you're fired, as you know, and here's your ring. Good luck, see you later, yeah.
Speaker 2:But then what was weird about it was, you know, you said four years and you're right. So I was like all right, well, I'm here in Jacksonville. I'm trying for some other jobs. I had interviewed for a couple of like AAA number two jobs. Didn't get nothing's panning out and I'm like what am I going to do? So I'm in Jacksonville, I'm going to stay in Jacksonville. And there was a sports talk station. It's the only terrestrial, you know, like over-the-air station to expand to 50,000 watts after 1983. It just happens to be in Jacksonville, florida, that off-season.
Speaker 3:Come off it.
Speaker 1:What station 1010 XL in.
Speaker 2:Jacksonville.
Speaker 1:What a trivia question that is.
Speaker 2:It's the only time since after 1983, and it'll never happen again. No, yeah, that's wild and it's in my city that I'm living in when I'm looking for work. So I hooked on with this group, my goodness, as a sports talk guy and they were paying a ridiculous salary Like well, double what I was making as a play-by-play guy. But at the time they hadn't launched yet, but they wanted. They were like, oh, we got whoa, we can get him. And I like threw out this ridiculous figure and they were like, yeah, yeah, we'll pay that. I'm like jeez.
Speaker 1:It was and they're like yeah, yeah, we'll pay that. I'm like jeez, it was double what I was making nice, so now I wasn't making much, you know. But double what when you're not making much and you're making double. Two times zero is still zero. But think back when you were driving up to chicago from florida for the expos when you're paying I was like I don't know how long this is gonna last.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like this. So, man, they said, yeah, we're gonna launch in, to launch in like a month. So what we're going to do is they had bought a like a Christian talk and music station on the AM 10, 10 am and they took it over, and so what they're going to do is, before they launch, they're going to kind of like sprinkle in some sports talk. So they said, you can have a show and you have to. You know, we're paying you. Now, if you want to have other people, you pay them or whatever. And then, and then we'll, then we'll do it for real, you know.
Speaker 2:So I brought on a couple of co-hosts, for, you know, they, yeah, just give us a couple of bucks or whatever. They were having fun and we had a lot of fun. So it's Christian music, christian talk, three hours of sports. Come on. And then, you know, yeah, it was hilarious and I'm making. You know, like I said, I was like this is more money I've ever made and it was.
Speaker 2:They were supposed to go on the air. You know, launch in a month, and then it was two months or seven months before they actually launched so I'm just making this money on this Christian music station, you know, and it was like, oh my gosh, this is great. I'm like. So now baseball season rolls around and they're about to launch. You know, like, coming up on launching, I said, hey, I'm with these guys and I'm going to have a talk show You're going to want me to talk about, you know, the Jacksonville Suns. So I tried to leverage that and they said, all right, well, you can do the middle three, stop it. So they brought me back because they hired a young kid to do the games.
Speaker 1:Back to do the middle three.
Speaker 2:And they gave me three quarters of what I was making before to do the middle three of home games only After they fired you after three years After.
Speaker 1:they fired me after three years.
Speaker 2:They brought me back, gave me about three quarters what I was making to do middle three home games and I was still getting paid by the radio station. Good for you. So now I'm like, well, that worked out great. I'll say, yeah, so. But now radio station, they sent me to nights. They cut my salary in half and I said, well, well, I'm going to leave. And I left immediately and I was still doing that website I was telling you about. That was the last year of it.
Speaker 2:And the Great Falls Montana team said our broadcaster, he was doing NBA games. He quit at the last second and the season starts in a week and they said can we put an ad on your website? I said you can ad on your website. I said you can, but you got a guy. If you, if you want him right now and they're like you want to come up here, I go yeah, sounds fun. I've never been to montana, you know. So literally in a span of a week I went from doing this talk show, uh, in jacksville, got my pay cut in half and then I said I'm gonna go do the, do the games in in great falls. So wow, because I wasn't doing jacksville suns games anymore that year.
Speaker 2:They didn't give me a second year of that crazy deal that I somehow worked on. So I I took off and went to montana in my dodge stratus. Actually, no, my dodge stratus died right before the day before I left. That's right, I had to rent a car to go out there. Oh man, how long were you out there, by the way, for just and my Dodge Stratus? Actually, no, my Dodge Stratus died the day before I left. That's right, I had to rent a car to go out there. Oh man, how long were you out there, by the way? Just for that season? Just for that season. Two and a half months season.
Speaker 1:And then you get the Dodger gig Talk show. That was four years after that. What did you do in the meantime? I went to New New. Orleans, I got a job in New Orleans for the NBA team.
Speaker 2:They're the Pelicans now they were the Hornets, and that came up through that website right before. It was a week before I was. The season ended in Great Falls and I'm like I got to go back to Jacksonville. I still have all my stuff in Jacksonville. I had a roommate. I just said, well, I'll pay you the rent. It was still next to nothing. You know, I'll pay you the rent so I can leave my stuff there and you can have the place to yourself. I'll pay my share of it and I was going to just come back to jacksonville. I go. I've burned every bridge in the city.
Speaker 1:I don't know where I'm, you know how can I? How can I do?
Speaker 2:anything in jacksonville, I'm gonna have to find a place to work. And then the new orleans thing came out of nowhere, like the last week of the baseball season. But did you burn bridges in Jacksonville? Well, I mean, I quit the radio station. I've been fired twice now from the baseball team.
Speaker 1:Everybody gets fired from that one station all the time.
Speaker 3:You can't count that.
Speaker 1:That was the three-year expiration date.
Speaker 2:The Jaguars weren't going to hire me, but the Hornets did, and I ended up meeting my wife in New Orleans. So it was a great deal.
Speaker 3:That's incredible, but you went from baseball to basketball. How was that transition? Well, I didn't know, because they're not similar.
Speaker 2:Well, I didn't know a tenth as much about basketball.
Speaker 3:So there was a lot of pressure.
Speaker 2:Some may say I may not know anything about baseball so you can imagine how the audience was listening to those things. But I worked with great guys. The late Jerry guys, the late jerry valencourt was the color analyst and he would join me on post game and and talk basketball because he knew you know I'm here to I can edit audio. So here's what I you know because I ran the, the radio network, um, kind of like what our boss does and and did like about all the production and everything you know commercials and show elements and things like that. So they knew I could do all that stuff. So you can also host the pre and post so you just kept holding on to that part yeah, so it was.
Speaker 2:That was to me. I said this is a big step, because now I'm in a major league sport. You know, it's one of the things. I'm sure you say the same thing. Whenever somebody asks young broadcaster, okay, what do? What advice do you have? I said, well, give people as few reasons to say no to you as possible, good advice. And so like, all right, well, I'm a minor league announcer. Well, I got to do something in a major league sport. Otherwise I'm a minor league announcer, so at least maybe I'm not doing play-by-play but I'm doing the pre and post game show, and so that was another step forward for me. And plus I, I got to live in New Orleans, which, by the way, happy Mardi Gras. Yeah, oh yeah, when we're filming this sorry, I just dated it you can edit.
Speaker 1:That's something that I think is really really neat it's like no, it'll be 2025 by the time.
Speaker 3:All right, but you guys seem to wear a lot of hats. I mean I know you got into PR and marketing and different things.
Speaker 2:Otherwise I get sunburned.
Speaker 3:yes, yeah, yeah, amen. But like, is that the greatest advice? Just kind of learn the entire industry so you have the ability to help in any way you can, so you don't have to say no, because, yeah, it's hard to move up the ladder, but if you are able to do more things, it obviously is going to give you a chance to show hey, I have this ability, this ability, I'm willing to do this. So there's a willingness and then there's a continued growth.
Speaker 1:I mean how did you start with the Pirates? Well, same thing, it's very similar. When I went up to Buffalo, I thought I was just going to be doing baseball.
Speaker 1:Three innings, that's crazy and set the radio network up Because they're middle relievers it's not a handful of stations to carry the Buffalo games. And then it morphed into sports talk and news and everything, and then the bills and that's what put for me it might. I've never talked to anybody about this. I think it's true because I I got rejected the final. If I've ever told you that I applied for the job the first time of the pirates did you know that, oh wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They John Sanders was doing play by play, and he went to Cleveland, then the Indians, so the job opened up after I was up in Buffalo for a year, having been in the front office, and I was told that that move was probably coming, and I thought put a year up in Buffalo, here I go, I'll be right back doing Pirates baseball, but it got turned down. Then, though, when I got the Bills gig, I think that put me on, just just like you're saying, I was doing minor league baseball. Then, all of a sudden, I'm an NFL announcer going to Super Bowls. I think they go like whoa, maybe this guy is legit, yeah, so I think it sounds like a similar.
Speaker 2:With all the baseball experience. Yeah, you kind of just all right. Check the box.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, the only reason you can say no, now is you don't like me? Yeah, it's not. Experience great advice, you know. So, yeah, that's so good, you guys, you can't complain about the starter ever again, you know the opener because you guys originated it.
Speaker 2:Well, we were, we were the full nine, michael now you do.
Speaker 3:Now you do. But originally you guys had an opener.
Speaker 1:True, but you know there are guys, there are pitchers that can't go full nine right away.
Speaker 2:They go a few innings. You have to work your way up, I get it. They build up, I get it. You know, what they're doing now is the opposite.
Speaker 1:Actually, now it's like we were doing and are doing nine. Now it would be like saying Good point, they're going backwards. Joe Greg, do the lineup once and then we're going to change broadcasts.
Speaker 2:That sounds like our color analyst.
Speaker 3:Maybe get you through two broadcasters.
Speaker 2:Line up once and then don't talk again. That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:Hey, by the way, what did you think of doing sports talk, and do you think you were any good at it? No, I was terrible. Come on, hey. By the way, you don't have to, that's just a problem.
Speaker 2:but you know, I, uh, my style, like I knew that and I knew this at the time, and I, I, I just was like here's information, here's like, I just like being middle of the road. Here's you know, I'm not going to create this like drastic, take phony, take on something. I just wanted to tell you what I. You know, I went to Jaguars camp today and here's what they're doing and here's some sound from some of the players and here's what Jack Del Rio said. So I was kind of like a reporter, more than a, you know, but I wanted the other guys and gals that I had on with me to kind of comment on that. So I liked being like the anchor. So I wasn't really a talk show host.
Speaker 1:That's interesting because you're very opinionated Off the air. So that's why I thought I bet he's pretty good. He didn't let that talk show guy I don't know why I just couldn't let.
Speaker 2:maybe you know why Because I didn't know what I was talking about.
Speaker 1:Like I was talking about the NFL, you know again that's what I'm saying, that you'd be a really good talk show host, that's my point Believe me, I get it too. I was no expert, but I was successful talk show host and many are that aren't experts at their field, yeah, so anyway, I just wondered, that's wild.
Speaker 2:I thought I was bad. That's funny, but we did a lot of game shows oh, you're good at that. We had a lot of game shows oh, you're good at that. We had a password. You know that's great. Yeah, we had fun with that.
Speaker 1:So you do the game now. So now you're in new orleans and then you go from there to la yes, how'd that open up? You did, you did talk like dodger talk.
Speaker 3:You realize nothing you're doing is close. Oh yeah, so in my basement I have now.
Speaker 2:I didn't get a license plate from every some places. I wasn't there long enough to get a license plate, but I went back and get a license plate from every some places. I wasn't there long enough to get a license plate, but I went back and bought a license plate from every state I lived and worked in and there's 10 of them up there. Isn't that cool? Which is really crazy and it's like I love that. You know Pennsylvania, that's it, and there's no more room. By the way, it fits 10 perfectly. Oh, wow, it's a little ledge. By the way, it fits 10, this little ledge. And then so it's like very clear, that's the end.
Speaker 3:And so it's funny that we're going through all this stuff.
Speaker 2:Cause I'm like, wow, I really did all this stuff. I forgot I'm very comfortable, Um, but yeah, uh. So yeah, it was living and working and having fun in new Orleans. I met my wife there and, um, in, I spent one, uh one summer where I didn't try to do baseball, I wasn't trying to kill it, I was just like I'm just gonna party and have fun, and that was the summer that I really got to know my wife, just coincidentally you know, largely coincidentally um, and that we started dating and then um, and that's that that.
Speaker 2:But but right before that, right before that, that spring in 09, the Dodgers Vin Scully had pulled off the air to the point where they couldn't just have a hodgepodge of guys I guess I can't use that word around here, but it had to be.
Speaker 1:Sorry, yak, that's a reference to Dennis Eckersley An ode to Yak. Yes.
Speaker 2:Yak man yes.
Speaker 1:For you Bucko fans. Yeah, look that up. Google that yes.
Speaker 2:So, but yeah, so they wanted to bring somebody in to do about 60 games for TV, and Josh Rawich, who now is the president of the Hall of Fame, he, um, he was their main guy and I went back to Jacksonville with him. He was one of their PR guys when I was working in for one of their minor league teams and we'd correspond all the time hey, I need a headshot of Yancey Brazaban. All right, I'll send it to you right away, you know, or you know, can you get this or that for you? Oh, yeah, sure. So I always helped him out, um, and he in turn, was always really good to me and he said hey, you know, I, I know, I know you enough, I'd like to, you know, bring you out to audition for this. And I was stunned. So we went to.
Speaker 2:I went to um glendale spring training and audition called two games with steve lyons, um, and they were broadcast on the web and everything. So I mean, all the Dodger fans could. This is just as social media starting up to. You know. They could all watch and then comment who they liked, and, and so I was just like so nervous, and one of the games I got to do was against the Korean national team for the world baseball classic. So it was. It was a challenge.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it was challenge Through the pronunciation, Through the pronunciation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was very interesting to do that, but Lions was great to work with and it was a really cool experience. I didn't get the gig, but I guess Josh liked me enough to keep me in mind. So I'm in New Orleans. It's my fourth season there and I'd been interviewing for some big league jobs. There were some opportunities that didn't quite work out, but in close it felt, felt close. And now you know, not only am I dating Beth, but I had just proposed to her and she was living here in Pittsburgh, and she came. She had moved back to Pittsburgh, cause when you grow up in Pittsburgh you want to live in Pittsburgh. You know it's like this. Now I know why. So so she'd come back for a visit. I proposed to her. She's still on the same visit for a week. We're out to dinner with my roommate and her fiance celebrating.
Speaker 3:She had just got engaged my roommate a couple months prior.
Speaker 2:So it's like, hey, we're all engaged, it's a great time in life. And I get a call from the 323 number, los Angeles, don't know what it is. And then I go to the bathroom and listen to voicemail and it's Rawitsch calling me out of the clear blue sky hey, we got an opportunity to host Dodger Talk. Are you interested? I didn't apply for anything. I just proposed to my wife three days ago and we're going to be in New Orleans. This is great. She's told her family she's moving back to New Orleans. So I finished dinner and you know we go back to my place and I say Well, what do you think about Los Angeles?
Speaker 2:Jeez, she hasn't even gone home to like parents the ring or a sister the ring or anything like that, and we're just crying on my bed and just talking about it and it's just like, oh, my God, yeah. And she's like, yeah, you got to do this. I don't know, I guess I guess what we'll do is we'll we get married in pittsburgh and then I'll come out to la and and we'll just stay apart for the rest of the baseball season, because now it's like the baseball season started in a few weeks what a great woman huh we all have a baseball or sports tremendous support, and, and beth is no exception.
Speaker 2:So, um, so we ended up living apart even longer. I did the whole baseball season out in la. Come back, we get married scott township and then we drive out to la and we go out on our honeymoon. We come back and a week later I get let go. No, they switched flagship stations. I was working for the station, not the team.
Speaker 2:So now I've just moved her to la, I've done a, I'm out and Rawich has gone to Arizona. There goes my sponsor with the Dodgers. I don't have anywhere to work and we're 3000 miles from home. So, um, I don't know what we're going to do. I was doing a few basketball games, but I'm just making phone calls. She's like well, we got to figure out something. You know, she wasn't like, she was positive about it, was positive about it, you know. And, um, a month to the day after I got the call saying, no, you're, you're out it's two days before christmas the brewers called me, said you're hired, you're going to be a play-by-play announcer. I'd had dinner with bob euchre Euchre a week before that and I don't know what are the odds of all this stuff.
Speaker 1:All this stuff is true, I swear it really is well, we got to talk more with Joe Block about this unbelievable journey and where he is now, and we look forward to that during our next episode of Hold my Cutter.