Casey At the Bat: How the Magic Happens

In case you are wondering what it is exactly I do for the Orioles Radio Network, here is a behind the scenes look into how the broadcasts come together each night.
 
On the road prior to the first game of the series, I go to the ballpark anywhere from 3-5 hours prior to first pitch. Once inside, I go and locate the radio booth that we will be using, figure out the set up of the room and drop off my laptop and some other equipment. Then I venture down to the Orioles clubhouse to pick up the cases that have our broadcast equipment in them.
 
Once I return to the booth, it is time to set up. I won't bore you with every little detail about setting up the microphones and everything else, but in most ballparks there are two levels in the visiting radio booth. The lower portion is for Joe Angel and Fred Manfra to sit with their microphones, laptops, headsets and TVs to broadcast the games. In the upper portion, my area is where I set up the mixers, headphone amps and other equipment that is needed to make the broadcast happen. I also establish a connection so that MLB has a direct feed of the broadcast, and I plug into the audio of the stadium PA system and the mic that makes you hear the crack of the bat or pop of the glove.
 
After plugging everything in, running all the cords, taping everything down and establishing connections with the studio through the phone lines, it's time to start to get ready for the game.
 
Around 5 pm on the road, I go downstairs to record manager Dave Trembley's pregame press conference. Tom Davis and Dave Johnson use the audio for the pregame studio show, and we also use it in the game broadcast. Once I record it and return back to the booth, I put the audio on a website that is used for the group in the studio back home in Baltimore to edit. I will also edit it to have snippets ready for the pregame show that Joe and Fred do from the booth. During this time, Joe will give me some highlights from the night before, or a previous game against that night's pitcher that he wants to use in pregame.
 
Joe and Fred typically do about a 3-5 minute pregame show before the first pitch, where we will use the previous night's highlights and pregame Trembley sound. Once the game starts, my job is to make sure that everything is running smoothly, and when there is a sponsor ad to be read on the air, that it is read at the right time. While doing that I am also checking the box scores from other games, stats and updates from the minor leagues and for other baseball news on the web.
 
While the game is going on, there is an amazing staff of people back in the studio in Baltimore who are running a board on their end. They communicate with me if something needs to happen, and also edit highlights during the game. I can not tell you how tremendous of a job these guys all do, and they help me out every night. Once they have edited a game highlight, they put it on a website where I can access it, and I have them ready to use for the postgame show. At the end of the game, Joe and Fred do a quick postgame show to recap the action with highlights and scores before turning it over to Tom and Dave.
 
When we are on the road in the final game of a series, organized chaos is the rule. After the final out is recorded and we finish up our part of the postgame segment, I have about 30-45 minutes to tear the setup down, pack it into the proper cases for shipping and take the equipment down to the clubhouse. The clubhouse managers put the cases on the truck, along with the team equipment and luggage, that will go to the airport to be loaded on the team plane. I also have to make sure I have accounted for everything I set up in the booth when we first arrived. It's a tight time period to take everything apart and untape cords that have been in place for a couple of nights.
 
Then it is on to the next city, and we start the process all over again. After the game tonight in Seattle, we will board a plane around 1 am ET, and after a long flight to Boston, we should arrive at the hotel about 8 am ET tomorrow morning for our first "off day" of the season.
 
I am having a blast doing this job, and I enjoy working with Joe and Fred, getting to see the ballparks and tour the cities that we travel to. It takes a cast of many to make the magic happen on the radio, and all of the crew back in Baltimore deserves a ton of credit for how smooth they make everything go, and how they make our jobs easier on the road.

It's a team effort every night to make sure that when you tune into the radio, internet or satellite radio to listen to the Orioles, the familiar voices of Joe and Fred come across loud and clear.