Unhappy Anniversary, Everyone!

It was one year ago today that Major League Baseball followed several other sports leagues in shutting things down. COVID-19 and the ensuing pandemic caused panic, chaos and closed facilities across the country. It’s a day that many of us will not forget. Now, a year later with signs of hope that things will get back to normal, so much has changed in sports, broadcasting and life. 

The word normal seems weird to say. Zoom calls have replaced actual time in locker rooms and clubhouses. Limited access has become a way of life for broadcasters and journalists, almost getting used to what is happening. Mainly it all comes down to just doing the best you possibly can under the current circumstances.

The challenges were immeasurable from the broadcast side, yet the good ones knew how to overcome the obstacles. Kevin Kugler, who calls games on Fox, The Big Ten Network and Westwood One, shared one of those hurdles he and some others needed to jump over. 

“The biggest challenge has been giving the viewer or listener everything they need for a quality broadcast.” Kugler told me. “We’ve lost a little of the ‘relationship’ aspect of calling the games this year without actually being in practice or shoot arounds and having a chance to interact one on one with players and coaches. Doing video calls has helped some, but it’s not the same as actually developing those in person relationships. We’ve all done the best we can, but I do think the audience is missing out on some of the info we might glean in person.”

I can relate. Without that real one-on-one time with athletes or coaches, you do lose a little touch with the team you’re covering. 

Hall of Fame baseball broadcaster, Eric Nadel who handles the radio broadcast for the Texas Rangers agreed with Kugler.

“There is so much time to fill and the best, most interesting information is the stuff we get from those interactions with the people in uniform,” Nadel said via email. “The inability to talk to players, get to know them so they trust me and tell me stuff that the average fan can’t find on line, has been devastating.”

Another play-by-play guy that agrees with the assessment is Judd Sirott who handles the radio call for the Boston Bruins.

“First off, we are incredibly fortunate to be working this season. The pandemic has wreaked havoc: hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives, and many more have seen their livelihoods disappear.” Sirott told me. “To survive, businesses have had to be agile and adapt.  Calling Boston Bruins games is no different. The biggest challenge is not being able to “be there”, that’s not just the games (road games now), but morning skates, dressing room scrums, the coach’s office and everything we’d normally have access to.”  

Access is clearly a roadblock during this time, something unavoidable for the safety of the players, coaches and media members. Chicago Bears radio play-by-play announcer Jeff Joniak points out it isn’t easy to replace actually being on site. What you lose is more than just access to players. It is the ability to set the tone and feel of game day for your audience.

“I would say like all play-by-play announcers and analysts, we want to be where the action is, and there is nothing entering the stadium on game day that can replace that.” Says Joniak. “From the smells of the tailgates, to walking into the booth and seeing the green grass, and the anticipation of what is to come. It revs the engine in a way nothing else comes close to matching in my life. I love gameday and all that comes with it. From kickoff to the final whistle, it’s an adrenaline rush and it’s something I crave. I feel we as a crew did the best we could, given the circumstances.” 

Kugler agrees that atmosphere matters to the audience and fans in the seats matter for atmosphere.

“I cannot wait until everyone is back, because the art of doing a broadcast hinges so much, in my opinion, on the fans.  Playing off the emotions, the highs and lows, the music of the crowd.  I miss that so much, and had really just been delving into that more when the shutdown came along.”

Professional broadcasters want to get their calls right. That’s a fact. That was much harder to do when looking at a game on a monitor not even in the same building as the game that was being called. Sirott says this is where patience had to rule the day. 

“Accuracy is king. Trying to decipher tipped pucks in front; altercations behind the play; injured players hobbling off the ice; coaches barking at something on the bench when you can’t see the game from the perch you normally occupy is difficult.”, he said. “Taking some extra time for the picture to develop on screen and working with my partner Bob Beers (who’s keenly aware and has a great feel for the game) has helped. The conditions lead to more mistakes.  You have roll with it.  And when the time is right, have some fun with it.”

He even took the route of tailoring and refining his approach to these broadcasts. “To get the content, meant being more resourceful. I’ve jumped on the phone, sent an email, fired off texts or delved into some different sites online to collect material for our broadcast.” 

The highest compliment a broadcaster can get during these crazy times is from the fans, is when they can’t tell the difference. 

“Many listeners didn’t realize we were not at the road games”, said Joniak. “So, the payoff is that we maintained the integrity of our broadcasts and reliably served our listeners with the same thoroughness and passion as we’ve also delivered over the past two decades.”

Even those that knew what was actually going on, gave the broadcasters the benefit of the doubt.

“I will say this, fans have been very forgiving with the broadcast hiccups. I really have been pleasantly surprised with how little people have yelled at us for some of those things.”, said Kugler. “I think that everyone has just been so happy to have the events on TV or radio that they have been able to overlook some of the things that would have created angry tweets a couple of years ago!”

So, did anything positive, other than the fact the games were actually played? I know from my perspective working baseball, I became acutely more aware of what I was doing as a play-by-play announcer. Lessons to myself about slowing down and other details that I feel made me a little better under the circumstances. I’m a harsh critic of my own work, so that’s saying something. Seems like everybody figured out something along the way here. 

“I think I’ve learned a little bit about what’s important and what’s not.  I’ve really worked this year on trying to provide what is most crucial for the viewer or listener,” said Kugler. “Sometimes, I think we all get wrapped up in our prep and we can forget that we are doing this broadcast for someone else.  Not for us, but for the fans.  I have started to go into each game prep really thinking more about that, what would I want to see or hear as I’m tuning into this game?  Sounds simple, but it’s something I’ve become really aware of over the past year.”

Joniak found some things that made him a better announcer under tough conditions.

“My senses were keener, my concentration deeper. The circumstances force you to pay deeper attention.”, he said. “There were times in games, and I think back to the Bears-Falcons game in Atlanta, where it was so dramatic of a finish it felt like I was there even though I wasn’t. I got absorbed in the moments. I also had crowd noise pumped in my headset by our engineer Paul Zerang so that was significant. I thrive in a loud stadium and calibrate my emotions accordingly with the rise and fall of the chatter.”

Sirott on the other hand found he could change things up and still have a successful broadcast.

“I’ve been more flexible with my time. Hockey players are creatures of habit.  Lots of broadcasters are the same.  We like a routine.  To keep everyone safe and healthy, we’ve all had to change our schedules.” 

For Nadel, who’s been at this a long time, he learned something too, don’t take the simple things for granted. “It (the result of the pandemic) hasn’t made me a better broadcaster. It has made me a broadcaster just trying to survive and do the best possible job given the current conditions.” Nadel told me. “But when and if we ever have access again to the people in uniform, I will be sure to use that access even more than I did before. If there is any way that I am better, it’s that I have to lean more on personality, perhaps making the broadcasts more entertaining even though I am less informative.”

The common theme, these conditions were not ideal, but in the grand scheme of things, we learned a little about ourselves. We learned to adapt to an ever-changing environment and provided fans with a quality broadcast under the circumstances. It was actually quite remarkable to see all the different “set ups”. Where the monitors were placed and so on. 

I also think along the way, many of us, including those that I talked to for this column, appreciated things a little more. We were more aware of the stresses that were being placed on the ‘behind the scenes” folks, those in the television trucks and the camera folks that provided our pictures. That’s not to say we didn’t appreciate them before, because we did. This pandemic just made it much more obvious. 

Unhappy Anniversary pandemic, we won’t miss you one bit, but thank you for helping all of us to see what was important through these crazy tough times. 

Andy Masur

Andy Masur is a columnist for BSM and works for WGN Radio as an anchor and play-by-play announcer. He also teaches broadcasting at the Illinois Media School. During his career he has called games for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He can be found on Twitter @Andy_Masur1 or you can reach him by email at Andy@Andy-Masur.com.