The NCAA Men’s College World Series is underway, and college baseball fans from around the country have been engrossed by the exciting action featuring several Major League Baseball stars of tomorrow. During the weekend alone, five of the six games were decided by one run and included five of the top-eight national seeds. Many of the games were vacillating and decided in the final few innings, including a matchup between Texas Christian University (TCU) and Oral Roberts.
Down 5-3 with one out in the ninth inning, Blaze Brothers hit a go-ahead three-run home run in the ninth inning to give Oral Roberts a 6-5 lead – and the team would go on to win by that score. The issue was that Oral Roberts was the visiting team, meaning the home run could not constitute a walk-off blast. Despite this, ESPN play-by-play announcer Karl Ravech punctuated the moment as if it had decided the game.
“This one is hammered to left field,” Ravech exclaimed. “Did he do it? Yes, sir! Walk-off home run.”
After producers were seemingly yelling in Ravech’s ear to tell him that he messed up the call, Ravech corrected his gaffe by articulating that it was the top of the ninth inning. When the game ended, he took to Twitter to apologize for his mistake before traveling to Boston to call Sunday Night Baseball between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Ravech is particularly busy during this time of year with the college and major league assignments, granting him a sense of understanding from fans and other broadcasters.
Cleveland’s morning radio duo of Ken Carman and Anthony Lima genuinely felt bad for Ravech when he made the mistake and reflected on difficult moments they have endured throughout their broadcast careers. Doing so engendered a feeling of sympathy towards Ravech, who is especially busy during this time of year as his college and major league responsibilities overlap.
“We’re talking about one of your big daddies here,” Carman said Monday on 92.3 The Fan. “I don’t want to upset anybody at the ‘mothership’ over there. I felt bad for people saying he should be fired, [and] I thought that was ridiculous.”
Ravech has been employed by ESPN since 1993 and covered Major League Baseball for the outlet across three decades both as a play-by-play announcer and studio host. The College World Series has been a part of his yearly assignments since 2011, and he had not endured such a transgression in the decade-plus he had called the event quite like Saturday’s ordeal.
“It’s my nightmare scenario,” Lima said. “For everybody in broadcasting, it’s your nightmare scenario when you’re wrong; you’re out of it. It’s not like he obviously wasn’t paying attention [or] didn’t know where he was. I don’t know how Karl Ravech is doing these games.”
The other issue with the call pertains to when Ravech seemingly became aware that the hit was not a walk-off, but proceeded to announce it was TCU who hit the home run to win the game. The third time around, he realized his mistake and affirmed that it was the top of the ninth inning, further accentuating the previous inaccuracy but effectively fulfilling his job. Both Carman and Lima were glad to see Ravech own up to his mistake and do not believe he is going to get relieved of his duties. Instead, it provides consumers an inside look pertaining to the nuance associated with play-by-play announcing and the degree of difficulty associated with the job.
“If you’ve ever heard Marv Albert’s open, he stumbles and bumbles over every open he’s ever had,” Carman said. “When he’d have Bill Parcells, he’s like, ‘The former coach of the – welcome in.’ He always stumbled at the beginning of the games, and he’s a Hall of Famer, well-loved [and] beloved.”
