MLB on TBS play-by-play voice Brian Anderson doesn’t take for granted all he’s been able to do in his career, and he said that the moment he stopped letting outside influence matter was the moment he was really able to get ahead. Doors opened for bigger opportunities in the process.
Anderson spoke to Rob Bradford on a recent edition of the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast, and he said part of what helped him get over that mental hump came from a combination of his own athletic background and in the years he spent calling minor league San Antonio Missions games.
Brian Anderson said he also learned some mental toughness from his brother who spent some time as a player in the minor leagues. He took those same principles and applied them to his broadcasting career.
“There was a major turn at one point in my career where I stopped being so tuned in outside in,” he said. “So worried about what people think, what do I sound like as I’m speaking, and you just go inside out.”
“After four years of minor league baseball and probably at that point, four years of 140 games a year, throwing BP before games for the team, catching bullpens, doing the broadcasts,” Anderson added. “Then it was like, ‘Wait, I can just be me, do me, and if that’s good enough, then that’ll be fine. If not then I’ll go do something else. But they will let me know. They will tell me if my skills are good enough as myself.'”
Putting in the work, honing his craft, and being around great people really helped take Anderson’s career to the next level.
“Generally, it was that eureka moment where I’m better if I just get fully in the process. Put the tube in the river,” he said. “In Texas, we grew up tubing down the river. Put the tube in the river and get on the river and go.
“That was really the big piece for me,” he added. “When I started doing that, it was like chains fell off me. Shackles fell off me. And I was really able to let it go.”
