Milestone moments in Major League Baseball don’t happen every day. The lead up to such an occasion is usually stressful. There is a nervousness in the organization, the fan base, of course the player is feeling it and so are those getting set to call the big event. There is a tremendous amount of pressure on the team broadcasters because, these moments live forever. This call will be a part of history, just as the accomplishment by the player will be.
I started thinking about these incredible moments, when hearing that John Sterling would return to the booth for Yankees road games. The long-time voice of the New York Yankees said he was cancelling some scheduled days off, so as not to miss Aaron Judge’s pursuit of Roger Maris’ team record for home runs in a season. Judge is also flirting with a chance at the Triple Crown. I can’t say that I blame Sterling. Seems like he should be there and now he will to witness some possible history.
There have been many huge moments in the game in my lifetime, that have also been etched in my mind thanks to the call of the broadcaster. I’m going to focus on a few of them here. Each broadcaster had a story about the lead up to the moment and some shared advice for future play-by-play announcers, who may find themselves in a similar situation.
HANK AARON 715
There are two calls of Hank Aaron’s memorable home run in 1974 that are the ones best associated with the moment. Milo Hamilton’s exclamation of “There’s a new home run champion of all time, and it’s Henry Aaron.”, resonates with many, as Aaron passed Babe Ruth that night on baseball’s all-time home run list. Hamilton’s call nailed the action as it was happening in his own style.
The other call people think of, was the one by Vin Scully, who was the Dodgers announcer when Al Dowling delivered the pitch that Aaron hit over the left field wall. Scully’s style was more eloquence than fluff. He would take the historic action on the field and make it hit home to baseball fans and non-fans alike. He put things into perspective, gave them context beyond the field.
“There’s a high drive into deep left-center field, Buckner goes back… it is gone!” Scully said. He then said nothing for about 25 seconds, as Aaron rounded the bases and joined his teammates at home plate. Scully felt that hearing the crowd cheering and fireworks going off told the story better than he could. When he broke his silence, he put the moment into the proper context of the times.
“What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world.” he said.
“A black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol. And it is a great moment for all of us, and particularly for Henry Aaron, who was met at home plate, not only by every member of the Braves, but by his father and mother.”
Scully says he never had anything scripted for that epic home run call. “I never do that,” Scully said during an interview in 2014 on WFAN in New York. “I really concentrate on the moment… I’m afraid that if I tried to prepare, I’d be so eager to get my marvelous words out onto the air [that] I might do it prematurely and be wrong.”
With that frame of mind, there was really not a lot of pressure on the great and iconic announcer. He just let his instincts take over.
MARK McGWIRE 62
The Summer of 1998 was one of home runs. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were battling it out to see who would break Roger Maris’ single-season home run record. Each would pass the mark, but it was McGwire that got there first.
Joe Buck, was the young lead play-by-play announcer on Fox’s baseball coverage. The network was set to cover the game between the Cardinals and Cubs on September 8, 1998. McGwire had already tied Maris and was looking for the record.
Buck was asked repeatedly, for months about what he would say if he was fortunate enough to be behind the mic for the record breaker.
“I had come up with, ‘There it goes. Here it is. A new single-season home run champion with 62. Mark McGwire as he floats around the bases and into the history books.’ I even had it written on my score sheet to make sure I wouldn’t mess it up,” said Buck after that Tuesday night game.
The best laid plans theory took over, because the 62nd home run was not a majestic, ‘no-doubter’ like many expected it to be. It barely cleared the left field wall at Busch Stadium and barely stayed fair. That’s a tough home run call any day of the week, but it was so magnified that night. Even Buck, who was only 29 at the time, adapted to the situation and scrapped the script.
“Down the left-field line, is it enough? Gone! There it is, 62. Touch first, Mark, you are the new single-season home run king.” Buck then laid out to let the pictures tell the story his words couldn’t.
“That home run shot was the old script-buster. Any long, drawn-out call that you had drummed up someday away from the ballpark, you could forget it,” said Buck. “That’s one of those you watch. You keep your head up, and you hope you got it right.” He did.
BONDS 756
The 2007 baseball season had its share of moments, but maybe none bigger than one swing of Barry Bonds’ bat. Put aside whatever feelings you may have about the legitimacy of the record, instead put yourself in the position of Jon Miller who had the opportunity to call one of the biggest moments in baseball history.
He was asked about what he might say when Bonds hits No. 756?
“That’s about the 1,000th time I’ve been asked that question,” he said to the LA Times. “It all depends on the circumstances — where he hits hit, the crowd reaction. A lot of things will come into play.” Miller said at the time.
Here’s the call: “Bonds one home run away from history. And he swings! And there’s a long one, deep into the right-center field, way back there. It’s gone! A home run, into the center-field bleachers, to the left of the 421-foot marker. An extraordinary shot to the deepest part of the yard. And Barry Bonds, with 756 home runs, he has hit more home runs than anyone who has ever played the game.”
The unrehearsed call worked for him. Television voice Duane Kuiper only prepared for one aspect of the milestone home run.
“I write the number of the home run in big letters on either a piece of paper or on the counter,” he told The Oklahoman. “I always felt like the only thing you can really do to look bad is get the number wrong. If you get the number right, at least you’re off to a good start. If you get the number wrong, you can’t put that bullet back in the gun.”
PETE ROSE 4192
September 11, 1985. That was the night that Pete Rose became baseball’s all-time hits leader. He broke Ty Cobb’s 57-year-old record at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium. On the call, Marty Brennaman, the long-time voice of Reds’ baseball and his partner Joe Nuxhall.
Marty: He levels the bat a couple of times. Show kicks and he fires. Rose swings…
Joe: There it is! There it is! Get down. Get down. Alright!
Marty: And there it is. Hit number 4192. A line drive single into left-center field. A clean base hit. And it is pandemonium here at Riverfront Stadium. The fireworks exploding overhead. The Cincinnati dugout has emptied. The applause continues unabated. Rose completely encircled by his teammates at first base. Bobby Brown of the San Diego Padres coming all the way from the third base dugout to personally congratulate Pete Rose. And the kind of outpouring of adulation that I don’t think you’ll ever see an athlete get any more of.
Brennaman told the Athletic in 2018 how he got ready for that call. Again,there was no scripting involved.
“I know guys that try to plan what they are going to say and make it clever and memorable,” Brennaman said. “I was never that good. I could never plan something like that and make it sound anything other than contrived.” Brennaman added, “We knew it was going to happen. It was just a question of when. I never gave it any thought as to what I was going to say when it happened. The only thing you hope for is that whatever you say captures the moment and you don’t stumble over your words because you know you’re going to hear it ad nauseam for the rest of your life.”
The vocabulary alone in the call made it memorable for sure.
CUBS WIN WORLD SERIES
This one was bound to happen, eventually, right? As former Cubs’ broadcaster Jack Brickhouse once famously said, “any team can have a bad century.” That was the Cubs, suffering from 108-years of championship drought. But things would change in early November 2016 in Cleveland. The Cubs and Indians (now Guardians) were going to a Game 7 to decide it all. Think about the enormity of the final call of this game. For Cleveland it would also end a drought, not quite as long as the Cubs’, but still in the several decades range, 68 years to be exact.
Pat Hughes is the longtime Cubs play-by-play announcer. He told Sports Illustrated on the precipice of the series, how he would handle a final call with the Cubs winning it all.
“Here are two different conclusions to a ballgame: One has the Cubs leading 11–0 and they win the game, the other has Kris Bryant belting a game-winning three-run home run for the victory,” Hughes said. “Those are two completely different feelings and our call will be dictated by how the game finishes. You don’t want to plan out something because it may not feel the actual feeling of the moment. You always have a few thoughts that go through your mind, and if the Cubs win the World Series, I will say something about them being the World Champions. But you don’t want to script it out word for word.”
Here’s how it turned out. “A little bouncer slowly toward Bryant. He will glove it and throw to Rizzo. It’s in time. And the Chicago Cubs win the World Series! The Cubs come pouring out of the dugout, jumping up and down like a bunch of delirious 10-year-olds. The Cubs have done it! The longest drought in the history of American sports is over, and the celebration begins.”
All the elements are there. The energy, the realization that the Cubs actually won a championship can be felt. One for the ages.
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.
