Since taking over the television play-by-play job for the New York Islanders on MSG Networks in 2016, Brendan Burke had been enjoying summers off. The only exceptions were 2019 and 2021 when he was calling Premier Lacrosse League games for NBC and 2020 when the National Hockey League returned to play during the pandemic and held the Stanley Cup Playoffs in a bubble.
So, when the 2021-22 NHL season ended, Burke figured he was going to have plenty of time on his hands. He did, but not as much as he originally thought.
“This was going to be my first summer with I had absolutely nothing to do and of course, I went and found something to do,” said Burke.
He wound up filling in for legendary broadcaster John Sterling on some New York Yankees radio broadcasts on WFAN. Sterling, who is now 84 years old, wanted to significantly cut down on his travel. So, the Yankees and WFAN lined up several fill-in broadcasters to work with Suzyn Waldman on Yankees road games and that list included Burke along with YES Network and ESPN broadcaster Ryan Ruocco, Yankees Spanish-language radio broadcaster Rickie Ricardo and Yankees Digital Host and Reporter Justin Shackil.
For Burke, it was a part-time summer job to remember.
“It’s an awesome experience,” said Burke. “It means something to me in a sentimental way…the Yankees radio job specifically. To actually sit in that chair and call Yankees games and just call baseball…it’s something that I had a passion for and I did a long time again and haven’t done in a long time so it was great to fill some of the down months in hockey with baseball.”
That brings us to the romantic portion of this story.
Brendan’s father Don Burke is a long-time sports writer having worked for The Record and The Star-Leger and is now the Sports Copy Editor for The New York Post. Brendan would spend a lot of time with his father at work and that put a thought in his head.
“I always thought I would be a baseball broadcaster,” said Burke. “That was always the idea when I was a kid just because that’s what I was around. I followed my dad around and I was exposed to baseball and the media aspect of baseball. At the same time, I had played hockey my whole life, and then when I got to college and started broadcasting hockey, hockey kind of took me with it.”
Burke, who grew up in Fairlawn, New Jersey, is a graduate of Ithaca College and began his sportscasting career as a broadcaster for the Batavia Muckdogs minor league baseball team. He went on to call minor league baseball for the Lakewood BlueClaws and then was hired by the Wheeling Nailers, a minor league team in the East Coast Hockey League. With Wheeling, he was named the 2008 ECHL Broadcaster of the Year and called the 2008 ECHL All-Star Game.
Then came five seasons calling games for the Peoria Rivermen, the St. Louis Blues affiliate in the American Hockey League. It was during his time in Peoria when Burke had the opportunity to get his first taste of the NHL by filling in on some Blues radio broadcasts. In 2013, Burke was named the play-by-play broadcaster and head of public relations for the AHL’s Utica Comets.
So much for calling baseball games as Burke was climbing the ladder faster doing hockey games.
“I was advancing a little quicker through hockey than I was advancing through baseball,” said Burke. “I became a hockey broadcaster that way but when I set out originally it was to be a baseball broadcaster.”
There’s certainly a fundamental difference in calling a baseball game as opposed to a hockey game. The pace in baseball is a lot slower than hockey and that can present a challenge to a broadcaster that that does both sports. There’s a lot of “dead time” that a broadcaster has to fill during a baseball game, but during a hockey game, the action is non-stop.
Burke does his homework before calling hockey games, but it’s the action on the ice that takes over a broadcast.
“I certainly prepare and know as much as I can and try and be entertaining but I can probably get by with just telling you who has the puck for the whole game,” said Burke. “Baseball doesn’t work that way so there’s certainly more of an emphasis on those other things.”
And as a Yankees fill-in announcer, Burke had to prepare for the broadcasts a bit differently than getting ready for Islanders games or national NHL telecasts because he’s not around the team all of the time.
“I have followed the Yankees as a casual observer for a long time but not the way you follow it as a full-time broadcaster for the team so to just kind of parachute in and do games without that kind of background is challenging,” said Burke.
Burke’s work on the Yankees games this summer drew rave reviews and there was even a story in the New York Post back in July that indicated he is the leading candidate to take over the full-time Yankees radio job when Sterling decides to retire.
That led to a nervous reaction on social media from Islanders fans who adore Burke and would be heartbroken if he left the Islanders job. It’s a reaction that Burke also gets when he does a national game on TNT during the hockey season because Islanders fans can be a little paranoid at times.
“It seems to be a common theme with Islanders fans that are just afraid that they can’t have nice things,” said Burke. “I’m just happy that people have such a positive reaction to what I do and that’s something that crosses their mind. It’s a compliment that they think I’m good enough to basically go wherever they think I’m going to go.”
If Burke does get the Yankees job down the road, he could still do the Islanders games because there has already been a precedent for that in New York.
When Burke was named the Islanders television broadcaster, he replaced long-time Islanders television voice Howie Rose who doubled as the Islanders television play-by-play announcer and a Mets broadcaster from 1995 to 2016. Rose had decided to step away from the Islanders so that he could spend more time with his family while still retaining the Mets job.
Rose held both positions for two decades.
“I still marvel at him being able to do that for as long as he did,” said Burke. “For someone who has done that at the minor league level for a few years and somebody who does now half of that and does just one hockey season, it’s hard to imagine doing an entire baseball season on top of an entire hockey season and then just flipping it around and doing it again and keep going for 20 years the way he did. I was amazed that he was able to pull that off.”
Barring a scheduling change, Burke has completed his fill-in assignments for the Yankees and is getting ready for the 2022-23 NHL season, his seventh campaign with the Islanders and his second with TNT after a run of calling NHL games for NBC.
Burke is enjoying the remainder of his summer spending time with his family and having some time off, but hockey training camp is right around the corner.
“I’m always excited when hockey season rolls around,” said Burke. “The summer is fantastic and I enjoy every second of it, but it’s getting to the point where it’s time to go back to work. I’m sure there are kids at home, whether they admit it or not, that are ready to go back to school. I’m kind of like that where I’ve enjoyed my summer, I’ve enjoyed my time off and I’ve enjoyed the time with the family but I’m also at that point where I’m excited to get back to work.”
And when he arrives at New York Islanders training camp later this summer, he’ll be able to tell everyone in the organization and all of the other broadcasters and reporters what he did on his summer vacation.
Brendan Burke can say he spent a lot of time with family, enjoyed some time off…and oh yeah…he did some New York Yankees games on WFAN.
Peter Schwartz writes weekly sports radio features for Barrett Media. He has been involved in New York sports media for over three decades, and has worked for notable brands such as WFAN, CBS Sports Radio, WCBS 880, ESPN New York, and FOX News Radio. Peter has also served as play by play announcer for the New Yok Riptide, New York Dragons, New York Hitmen, Varsity Media and the Long Island Sports Network. You can find him on Twitter @SchwartzSports or email him at DragonsRadio@aol.com.
