The 2022 edition of MLB The Show has a new voice doing play-by-play with Jon “Boog” Sciambi taking over for Matt Vasgersian.
This year’s game should have a familiar sound for baseball fans as Sciambi is paired Chris Singleton, his Sunday Night Baseball broadcast partner on ESPN Radio. And for those who don’t usually listen to the duo, commentary should still be comfortable and smooth.
Sciambi appeared on 670 The Score’s Parkins & Spiegel to talk about the new gig, which has been two-and-a-half years in the making, thanks to the pandemic. The broadcaster said that he recorded over 200 hours of audio to get in all the player names, types of plays, and other sorts of commentary that might typically be in a game broadcast.
Parkins noted all of that sounds tedious. While Sciambi said he enjoyed the people he worked with, he eventually agreed that recording all sorts of calls, which can vary based on the score or the situation, did require many reps.
“I was blown away by how many permutations of a call that I had to do, and how many versions,” said Sciambi. “You know, low-leverage, medium-leverage, high-leverage. They wanted me coming out of my shoes. I gotta call a home run in a World Series game and a 10-1 game. And a 10-7 game, and a 10-9 game.
“Most of it was done with a script or with my ability to change the script… We did 200 hours and they clipped some of our broadcasts. Some of it is from Chris Singleton and Jon Sciambi calling games together. Most of it is 200 hours that is generally scripted, but if I said I wouldn’t say that, they said ‘Don’t say it.'”
Sciambi also demonstrated the many different ways that he would have to say a player’s name. For instance, saying a name during a basic play versus telling a story. Or in an exclamation on a major play.
Being the voice of a sports video game is a prestigious gig. A whole contingent of fans and gamers who might not follow Major League Baseball closely, but enjoy playing MLB The Show will identify Sciambi’s voice with the sport. Possibly for years to come. But there’s certainly a whole lot of work that goes into it that fans and gamers might not fully appreciate.
Ian Casselberry is a sports media columnist for BSM. He has previously written and edited for Awful Announcing, The Comeback, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation. You can find him on Twitter @iancass or reach him by email at iancass@gmail.com.
