How minor-league radio broadcasters are surviving without sports (2024)

Zoom meetings. Netflix. Book clubs. Dusting off old baseball cards. Naps.

That’s how (not unlike the rest of us) minor-league sports radio broadcasters are passing their days until live sports return from the forced hiatus of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When not with family, the broadcasters are practicing their craft, with some even calling simulated games in live online broadcasts for fans. Most have day-to-day duties such as social media and sales calls.

Four broadcasters shared by phone with The Athletic how they’re going about their days until they can return to the broadcast booth.

Some are still on the team payroll. Some are not. No one lives lavishly in the minors. All share the game goal: to become a broadcast play-by-play voice of a major-league franchise.

‘Fauxpening Day’

Dan Hasty, 35, has been the play-by-play man for the Single-A West Michigan Whitecaps since 2015.

With MiLB on lockdown, the Whitecaps and their Midwest League rivals, the Lansing Lugnuts, staged a simulated Opening Day broadcast April 9 using best-guess rosters and a dice game to generate results, Hasty said.

Using Zoom teleconferencing chats from their homes, Lansing’s broadcasters did the top half of each inning, and Hasty and his color partner, Mike Coleman, called the bottom half for the imaginary game broadcast on Facebook. Crowd noise and effects were added as part of the broadcast.

About 25,000 people on Facebook listened to the Lugnuts win 7-4, Hasty said. It was also broadcast live over local radio.

“It was a riot. It was super fun. It was a big success. We were happy with it,” he said.

The simulated game was also part of Hasty’s repertoire to help improve as a broadcaster. He’s using the downtime to make himself better at real games.

“It’s reading books about the profession; it’s basically listening to anything I can get my hands on from people who have gone through those experiences and have had success in their careers,” Hasty said. “I’m able to trade emails with the likes of Dan Dickerson in Detroit and Tom Hamilton in Cleveland, or Robert Ford who is the voice of the Astros or Chuck Swirsky of the Chicago Bulls.”

The Whitecaps are a Detroit Tigers affiliate and Hasty has done occasional radio fill-in work for the team at Comerica Park, and hosts a podcast about the club’s minor-league prospects. He was named the 2017 Midwest League Broadcaster of the Year and continues to work with a voice coach and listens to his old games for critiques.

Hasty also is part of a group chat with fellow broadcasters exchanging shop talk.

“This is going to have to do at least in the short term,” he said.

Hasty is an independent contractor, so he’s not paid when not working live games or doing team events for the Whitecaps or his other job, calling games for the University of Detroit Mercy men’s basketball team.

Amid the lockdown, Hasty also is preparing to become a dad. He and his wife, who is an emergency room physician assistant in Grand Rapids, are expecting a baby in July.

Without baseball, he has time to be more closely involved in the day-to-day work of being a new parent, particularly in the summertime.

“To be able to spend time with my wife, to get a nursery ready, has been turning a negative into a positive,” Hasty said. “People in our line of work experience summer in a vastly different way than the rest of the world. We don’t get summer vacation.”

Learning new technology

Josh Suchon, 46, should be in his eighth season as the play-by-play voice of the Pacific Coast League’s Albuquerque Isotopes, the Triple-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies.

Unlike Hasty, Suchon is a full-time employee of the club and has other duties beyond the broadcast booth: corporate sales, writing commercial spots, assisting with travel and public relations, giving ballpark tours, and speaking to groups.

These days, a lot of his job is trying to keep fans engaged.

“I’m trying to create content, interviewing former players on Zoom and posting online, trying to span the globe with players in Asia and around the United States,” Suchon said.

He’s rebroadcasting popular games on Facebook, twice a week, using technology that allows him to talk right into the camera, to pop in a smaller window and show graphics over the old broadcast, he said. The recycled games are trimmed to about 90 minutes to two hours.

He also puts together highlight compilations to air, such as the Isotopes’ seven walk-off victories in 2017.

“I’ve gotten respectable enough at it that I haven’t made any catastrophic mistakes,” he said of using new technology. “I’m staying really busy, but I am glad that I have something to do.”

His days remain full even in isolation. There are team and league calls and Zoom meetings. Editing work. Brainstorming ideas. Tracking down ex-players and setting up interviews for the multiple weekly podcasts he hosts.

“I had never heard of Zoom. It was teaching myself these new programs so I can be helpful and relevant for our team,” said Suchon, who also calls University of New Mexico women’s basketball.

Suchon, who is single, lives in a one-bedroom apartment – which is ideal in normal circ*mstances because his baseball job keeps him so busy.

“When you travel over 100 days a year, a bigger place doesn’t make much sense,” he said.

To fill off hours, he recently pulled his old baseball card collection from a closet.

“I thumbed through all of them and realized all the cards I had are the same ones everyone else had in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s and are worthless,” he said, chuckling.

A former newspaper reporter in Oakland, Calif., where his duties included baseball coverage, Suchon also wrote books about the 1988 Dodgers and the 2001 Giants.

He left print for radio in 2007.

“What I am doing now is what I always wanted to do,” Suchon said. “I’m extremely grateful our ownership and front office continues to pay us and hopefully we’re contributing content that helps us connect to our community.”

Living in New Mexico, he gets the chance to take walks into the mountains and experience the scenery. But he misses the daily grind of baseball and the ballpark.

“The main thing I miss is the interaction with a wide variety of people, coaches, players, other media, fans,” Suchon said. “You end up bonding with people quite a bit when you’re sprawled out in an airport waiting for a flight, or when you’re on a long bus ride.”

Suchon also had made a point to check in with colleagues and old friends.

“I’m reaching out to people I haven’t talked to in a while, and talking to coworkers about non-work, and making sure we’re helping each other out,” he said. “Most people who work in minor-league baseball are single without kids. Many people are in small apartments, not in their home city. There’s a lot of us that are basically home alone with no interaction with anybody. A lot of my colleagues have been good about looking out for one another.”

Home but not alone

Jill Gearin is spending the pandemic in her childhood bedroom in California.

That’s not surprising: Like the players whose games she calls for the Visalia Rawhide, she’s in the infancy of a promising career.

Gearin, 23, only last season became the play-by-play broadcast voice of the Rawhide, the Advanced-A California League affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Gearin is a team employee and still on the payroll. Her other duties include marketing, social media, media relations and helping with events.

“It’s typical minor-league baseball stuff where you do a little bit of everything,” she said.

When baseball was put on ice to help stanch the pandemic, she returned to her parents’ home in Hermosa Beach, Calif.

“This is the longest I’ve been home since I was 19, so it’s an interesting dynamic. I enjoy it. I’m saving money because my parents handle most of the groceries. I feel like I can breathe a little bit more at home. It’s a nice change of pace. I don’t think I’d be as productive (in Visalia, where the team offices are closed and her apartment is tiny),” Gearin said.

Off the clock, she said she works out and her Bible study group from Visalia has turned into a book club to help pass the down time.

“I’m staying pretty busy,” she said.

That also includes Zoom gatherings with her old college softball teammates and the occasional meet-up with friends at a nearby Costco parking lot – they stay apart in their vehicles to practice social distancing.

Gearin isn’t a surfer but does walk the beach.

“I try to get as much fresh air as possible,” Gearin said.

To keep fresh, she critiques her old games, asks for advice and criticism from other broadcasters, and takes notes.

“I know what stuff I want to work on for the next baseball season,” Gearin said.

She’s been watching the live Korea Baseball Organization games at night, along with old softball games.

“My mom and I are obsessed with college softball, so we’ll watch that,” Gearin said.

She played first base for four years for the Emerson College softball team. Emerson is in Boston, where her dad is from. She’s a lifelong Red Sox fan despite living her entire life in California.

“My dad brainwashed me from birth to be a Boston fan,” Gearin said.

She’s only two years removed from her own playing career, so the loss of baseball has been acute in an almost physical way for Gearin.

“I miss the guys, the players, talking with them, being on the field during BP,” she said. “It’s nice to feel part of the team. I miss telling their stories. In minor- league baseball, it’s mainly the players’ family and friends you broadcast to, and you get to meet them (at the ballpark).”

On furlough

Everett Fitzhugh has been the play-by-play voice of the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones since June 2015.

He was furloughed last week.

He has no complaints.

“Like a lot of my colleagues, you’re still a member of the team and keep your insurance. The second we’re back on the ice, the GM said, ‘You’re the first call I am going to make,’” he said. “It’s always been a great, transparent, upfront and honest organization.”

Fitzhugh, 31, got a taste of his ultimate goal when he had the chance to call a Washington Capitals-Boston Bruins preseason game on radio in 2018. So, he’s passing the lockdown era by patiently working on his skills and keeping his eye on the prize.

“You’re always trying to get better. You’re listening to old tape, things you did well, things you could have done better,” Fitzhugh said. “You don’t get a whole lot of time in season to take a break and step back.”

He’s in a group chat with other ECHL broadcasters.

“That thing is blowing up every single day with topics,” Fitzhugh said.

With the furlough, he’s also had the chance to catch up on sleep and to binge some TV, he said, but just below the surface is a burning urge to get back in the booth. Like everyone else in the Cyclones organization, there was an urgency to get back to the playoffs. The club, a Buffalo Sabres affiliate, had locked up a postseason berth before the season was halted.

“We had 10 games left in the regular season. We were just about to go on a long road trip down south. That was our opportunity to come together as a team before the playoffs. I am going to miss being able to go on that run,” Fitzhugh said.

Cincinnati lost in last year’s division playoff round, and hopes were high for this season. The ECHL canceled the season on March 15, so the thrill of a championship run was squelched.

“That’s the one thing that left a real sour taste in my mouth, and I’m just a broadcaster. I can’t imagine what it’s like for our players, coaches and fans. That’s my one regret: We had a whole lot of unfinished business,” Fitzhugh said.

The metro Detroit native lives in downtown Cincinnati with his fiancée. They’ve slipped away briefly to visit and check in on family in Michigan and New Jersey, he said.

While he’s enjoyed calling games on radio – and he’s a pioneer as the only black play-by-play announcer at any level of North American hockey – he’s also come to enjoy the other aspects of his gig.

“I’ve really grown to love the PR side, the press releases and game notes and the video editing. That’s 80 percent of the job,” Fitzhugh said. “Marketing, team services, there’s a whole bunch of different hats you have to wear in minor-league sports. You name it I’ve probably done it over these five years.”

While the season ending early was a disappointment, what it had done was to accelerate his normal offseason work by a couple of months.

“A lot of this is pretty typical of a normal offseason but it just happened a bit earlier,” Fitzhugh said. “After the initial shock wore off, you begin turning your attention to next year – the schedule, planning for promo nights, ways of enhancing the game experience for fans. All the stuff you’d talk in summer, it’s now in May.”

While he’s helping plan his fall wedding, which could end up delayed, his calendar has another critically important date in the future: Oct. 17, which is the Cyclones’ 2020-21 opening night.

“That’s the main focus, planning for next year and making sure we stay relevant and helping in the community,” Fitzhugh said.

(Top photo of Gearin: Ken Weisenberger)