Well, it might have taken us a while to get to Des Moines, Iowa, but the Nashville Sounds arrived late last night, an hour later than anticipated.
As the excitement builds in broadcasting NOT only my first game with a new team and a new league, but this is also my first broadcast at the Triple-A level.
After toiling in Double-A for so many years, it is nice to have the experience of a new and refreshing ambience and a new and great group of people. I learned that in Triple-A, you have a lot of veterans and just about everyone on the ballclub is capable and ready to play in a major league game now. Of course, due to a numbers game or a few things that players need to work on, they have been assigned to Triple-A Nashville for those reasons.
We arrived at Nashville International Airport around 3:00PM yesterday and check in for a 4:40 flight. I learned immediately that our flight was going to be delayed for one hour due to bad weather in Dallas, where we would make our connection. You are probably wondering why we would fly out to Texas for a connection to a city that seemed closer to Nashville than Dallas. Having said that, that’s the why the American Airlines flight was arranged. We were able to board our plane for the flight that now left at 5:40PM. It was nice that we were finally on our way. I continued to get to know the players and talk a little baseball.
We were able to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport around 7:45PM. We had to take the skyline link from one section of the airport to another. This airport, though, is certainly not foreign terrain to me because as a broadcaster for the Double-A San Antonio Missions, I would connect at this airport. Getting on the skyline was light getting on a New York City subway train, which I experienced as a passenger often, having grown up in the Big Apple. Instead, the skylink train was less crowded
There were times while we waited, we got entertained by a few of the players, who displayed their sense of humor. This is a loose bunch of players and Don Money is one person who has a great sense of humor himself. Money had a very good career as a player for both the Philadelphia Phillies and the Milwaukee Brewers. Since he’s been with the Brewers’ organization as a manager for so long, he knows what to do to make the players click and you can tell that he knows the game inside out.
We had a slight delay on the connecting plane and discovered it was an American Eagle plane, a much smaller plane than the normal DC-3. I felt like I was in the Continental Basketball Association again, not only because of being on the plane and traveling with a bunch of very tall men, but I also felt for two of the tallest guys in Pitching Coach Rich Gale and pitcher, Kameron Loe, who will be starting in tonight’s opener against the Iowa Cubs here in Des Moines. Somehow, they were able to get to their seats without any problems. Veteran Erick Almonte entertained the guys during the delay with his jokes and stories. I felt like I was on a chartered flight because almost every passenger, including myself, was the team.
Anyway, we finally arrived at the Des Moines airport and we got our belonggings and went outside. I anticipated a bus but instead we had a couple of vans from the hotel to pick us up. I didn’t mind that at all since it would be quick to get in and quick to get out. We loaded our bags in the back and jumped in.
The hotel where we stay is in downtown. As soon as I checked into my room, it was close to midnight. I looked out the window and saw a nice and illuminated view of the State Capitol. Yes, Des Moines is the capitol of Iowa and going through downtown was real nice.
I hope that sometime tomorrow, I will try to tour the town more and get into the environment. One of the joys of being a sportscaster is traveling to the many cities around the country and trying to take in the culture of these particular towns. To me, life is more than just being at the hotel and the ballpark. You like to look around.
Tonight is the night we start at the Iowa Cubs will host the Sounds and will do so for the next three days. Lefthander J.R. Mathes is scheduled to start for the I-Cubs. He won 12 games for the I-Cubs a year ago. They have some pop with the likes of Micah Hoffpauir and Jason Dubose. These two have also been in Iowa for quite some time, but are ready to be in Chicago at any given moment. However, they’re not the only team with some pop. Sounds returnees Brendan Katin and Joe Koshansky are back with the club and those two can jack one out with one swing of the bat at any given time. Going back to Kameron Loe, he’s had experience at the big league level in the past with the Rangers and with his versatilty as a starter and a reliever, I know he will be a big asset to the Sounds.
Tonight’s pre-game show is at 6:20PM and the first pitch is at 6:35PM. Tonight’s broadcast will be via webcast only at www.nashvillesounds.com. As a matter of fact, the first 7 games of this road trip will be on the webcast with our debut with the new radio station, 104.5 The Zone, taking place on Thursday night, April 15th against the Omaha Royals at Rosenblatt Stadium. It’s hard to believe after 76 years, this will be the ballpark’s swan song since the stadium will be no more aftre this year. I will fill you in on the details about the first radio broadcast later on.
I look forward to not only having all of you tune in tonight, but every single night. 75 of the games will be on 104.5 The Zone and all 144 regular season broadcasts will be onwww.nashvillesounds.com. On Friday night, April 16th at 7:05PM, the Sounds have their home opener against the very same Iowa Cubs. I urge all of you to make your plans for that night since we are giving away 5,000 Magnetic Schedules and on display, there will be an excellent fireworks show afterwards.
Thank you for tuning and and stay tuned for my first game report after tonight. It will also be exciting to see HOFer Ryne Sandberg, in his first year as manager of the Iowa Cubs. Enjoy tonight’s game. LET’S PLAY BALL!
- Posted on April 8, 2010 at 10:21 am
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