Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Koa Rockies Opening Day presented by Pellow Windows
and Doors of Denver and Northern Coloradopella dot com for
more of that. And sitting in between me and Mandy,
you are Jesse Thomas. Jesse Thomas, and your title Jesse
Thomas would be what.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Executive producer of the Koa Colorado Rockies Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I am told by someone who would know that Mandy
Connell's favorite segment about baseball is something that you do.
And the person who told me is named Mandy Connell. Yes,
so it must be true. Then it must be true.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
What a bast fangirl for the pioneers of the game
segment that Jesse puts together in the pregame show.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I like it. Thank you Mandy very much. I enjoy
putting them together.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
So this started. I mean, how did they say, Jesse,
we want you to do something on the history of baseball.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
It was historical and to be honest with you, it
came down to us being able to fill some time, right,
you know, and baseball has such a colorful past and
it goes back, you know, mid eighteen hundreds. So there's
target rich and virus. It is. It's hard rich environment,
and you can always find something entertaining, funny, historical, some sad,
(01:06):
some inspiring. But there's countless stories out there. So the
thing for me is just figuring out a way to
fit it into a three minute segment.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
You Know.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
One of the things that strikes me when I listen
to some of your segments and you talk about some
of these insane, over the top characters that have inhabited
baseball over all these years, I feel like we don't
have that now. We don't have the guys who are
outrageous or prone to these kind of crazy things. Why
is that?
Speaker 4 (01:34):
It's not? People more professional now one hundred percent?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
And obviously with social media, you can't get away with
anything now, so that's the biggest one. You know, back
in the day, you could act a fool on a
train trip and you know, smoking the dugout and all
those things, but that is frowned upon and now you
can't get away with anything. So people are definitely more
buttoned up and don't show their true characters anymore.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Who's your favorite colorful character that you have? Uh, they
maybe talked about over the years, and.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
They all have names like, yeah, like Bob Bust, your.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Legs, skimmitts, there's something you know.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
I mean, they're all they're all bizarros.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
There's some crazy nicknames, Vinegar Ben Mazelle, stuff like that.
You know, stuff that you're thinking, like a John Grisham
book or something like your character and a John Grisham book.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
I did a story yesterday on Rubot l.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Who was eighteen eighties and he had a tendency to
just leave the pitching mound in the middle of a
game to go chase fire trucks. You'd go into the
stands to pet people's dogs just in the middle of
a three te you know. So yeah, people like that,
and I like going back in. Some of the old
Negro League players I think are amazing too. They have
(02:41):
fascinating stories, and I don't think.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
That gets enough play. It has. I'd say over the
last ten years, we now know more about the Negro
Leaves than we've ever known before yep, which is a definite.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Positive one percent.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
And their stats are starting to count to which kind
of changed the record books and going. You know, some
of those stories you like in my books that I
use for these or is that I put together? It's
hard to tell. I like to think that's ninety percent
of those things are true, but it's really hard to tell,
you know, So I just try to find something entertaining
and get a good chuckle out of.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Them, like, yeah, you know, where do you get your inspiration?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I have a couple of baseball almanacs, and then there's
some historical books of those were the Days I think
is my favorite ones. I don't know the author off
the top of my head. But and then there's a
dead legend good website that I go to and there's
all kinds of stories on there that pick and choose from. So,
like I said, I enjoy I really enjoy doing it
in Baseball's, as you said, target rich environment.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Yes, Jesse, why don't you explain to people because I
always forget the people that are listening to us, they
think what we do is super cool. They don't know
what it is the actual job that an executive producer does. Yes,
what does an executive producer do?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So, contrary to popular belief, we don't just show up,
turn the power on, and get going. So in my
particular case, I'm in charge of taking care of all
the gear, making sure set up properly, make sure Jack
and Jy can hear each other properly, make sure we're
going to air properly. The most importantly that I don't
take a lot of realize my main job is to
make sure we make money, to make sure that we
(04:13):
get on the air, number one, number two, meeting all
our sales, fulfillment all patients, and then my baseball knowledge
and all that other stuff. I'm second, So I'm basically
big at Sure, it's policy. It gets traveling country to
admit sure that we make some money.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
But it's super cool job it is.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
I wouldn't for the world. It's not for everybody out
of a suitcase for seven months of the year, but
I'm used to that. So it gives me an opportunity
to see the tree and meets amazing people, and I
wouldn't trade it for the world.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
And it's super different from football.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
You know, guy's gonna go cover an away game. You're
gone for two days? Yeah, I mean, what's what's a
normal amount of time that you're away on a road?
If you know, what's the longest time you've ever been
away la road?
Speaker 2 (04:58):
The longest one we did was fifteen three cities, so
it was three cities, twelve games, fifteen days. That's the
longest side we've ever been I've been doing with the Rockies.
But you're right for the nugget. In the Abs, it
was different because you would fly in in the middle
of the night, you go to the hotel, you'd sleep,
and you went to the arena at three, you played
(05:19):
the game, you left. You never really got to see
the city you were in, you know, So this way
baseball is awesome. We set up, we played game one,
and then there's usually a three game set. Occasionally you'll
have a one off, two game set, but you always
get a chance to see a little bit of the
city you're in, which makes it awesome.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
And how much stuff do you travel with?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So it's about two hundred pounds of gear and it's
two Pelican cases basically, And it takes me about ninety
minutes to set our booth up from beginning to end
game one, and then it takes me about twenty minutes
to tear it all down. So testing everything, like setup
day is my longest day. It's usually about a twelve
(05:59):
hour day. I'll get there six hours before first pitch,
usually on a typical Game one experience, and then I
usually come on the first bus for games two and three,
so we're always there three hours before first pitch and
it's never less than a ten hour day for me.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
So what is what?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
You just had the opportunity you opened up the season
this year in Tampa and they're playing in their in
the Yankees' spring training facility because of the damage to
the trot.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
What was that like? It was quite a challenge.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
We definitely drew the short straw, but it depends on
out you look at it. We're lucky we're not there
in July when it's ninety degrees and ninety percent humidity.
But unfortunately we were the first visiting team in there
after MLB went in after the Yankees last spring training
game and flipped everything around, so there was you know.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Years everywhere they did forty eight hours more than that, like.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
At least seventy two hours the night that I went
the day before our game, they were still cutting holes
with power saws and the batter's eye to install camera
in center field. Like it was absolute wow wow. And
our booth is super tiny. It was very intimate. As
I like to say, they meet, Jack and Jerry tolerate
each other pretty well, and we're right there on the concourse,
(07:12):
so the fans right in front of us. It was
a challenge to say the least. But I'm glad we're
out of there.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
So do you have a favorite stadium that and not
so much like the game or whatever, but because of
your job, is there a favorite booth?
Speaker 4 (07:25):
I'm glad you asked that. So it's yes.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Miami and Anaheim are my favorite. Of Miami because huge,
the air conditionings cranky and I have plenty of space.
Anaheim awesome because it's like being at Disneylanders.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
It's kinds of fake rocks. I enjoy that.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Uh. And then I'm trying to think of least favorite
is Cincinnati is up there because all the rain delays.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
I've ever been to that town par which.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Another Well, Tampa up there now too, that's challenging.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I give you any idea, like when the trump is
going to be back and play?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
No, nobody seems to know, mostly because they were putting
in some FEMA money to restore and it's.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Getting all commuted with.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yeah, they're probably to fix it, but a Major League
Baseball is also leaning on the owner down there pretty
hard just just outright sell it.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
So we'll see, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Well you know what is sell the trup or sell
the team, sell the team, Well, they suck. Their ownership
sucks as well, and a stuff for a long time.
Why under what justification is the is major League Baseball
saying team?
Speaker 4 (08:34):
I think it has to do with revenue sharing.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
And I don't know exactly what that conversation looks like,
like I don't know if they try to strong arm him,
if they try to buy him out, like I don't
I don't know how that is.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
I've just heard though that.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
There has been discussions and they're asking him politely to
maybe step aside.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
So who knows.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I will tell you to your point, they're going to
play one season in Tampa, not in a dome, and
everybody's going to go, oh.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
God, I love the truck.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I can't wait till the tuva is miserable.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Sometimes you don't know what you have until it's gone right.
And I can't imagine.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
First of all, those Florida rainstorms that pop up at
four pm like.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Here, those are no joke.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
And the humidity, like the camera operator somebody's they better
have medics on standby man, because if you're standing out
there in left center field operating a camera, but I
mean it's going to be brutal.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
And this is why when people make funt of in
the field, I'm like, you're you're not Florida area. You
don't understand why you because it is awful and it
was charming, charming, it had its own sound to.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
It, you know.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
And the ring the we're above the.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Rules.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
If you hit ring a something happened, ring met something else.
It was wild.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yeah, Jesse, when you are are traveling all this time,
like what are some of your favorite cities to visit
baseball aside? Like whe where do you see it on
the schedule? Be like, yes, that's gonna be a.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Great right, So I this all resolves around food for me,
it should.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
San Francisco food wise, is really tough to beat. I
don't really much enjoy the city anymore because it's chaos,
but the culinary experience out there is awesome. Chicago is
a close second. Yeah. I like Boston because I'm a
shellfish guy, so going out.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
There and be able to eat.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
You can get good oysters here, but you can get
really good fresh clams out there, which I really enjoy.
And then a sneaky town that really has grown on
me is Milwaukee every time. I love it. It reminds me
of old Denver. Those are my kind of people out there.
They're built like.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Me, they talk like me.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
They consume the same amount of beer and sausage and cheese.
Those are my people always, Yeah, talk aboutmen. Right, what's up?
Speaker 4 (10:46):
So I've always uh marked on.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
The list as soon as I see the schedule when
we're going to Milwaukee.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Is there any cities don't leave to leave them for more?
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yes, I'm gonna that's in my mind.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Yeah, go ahead one of them. Really because of where
we stay. It's not really on off beach.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Southeast side, right kind of the Frickle area, and it's
I can't I can't.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Do club music throughshs.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
What I mean, Yeah, I just assume sounds like yeah,
I just assume staying in the hotel.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
How about Cleveland in Miami? I love Cleveland.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, everytown.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, Cleveland's another sneaky town.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
It can be really really cold.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
But Jack Corgan is from Cleveland, so he always shows
us a good time and shout out to Brunos. We
always go to a place called Brunos in Cleveland, which
is amazing. So I would look forward to going. We're
going here in a couple of months to Cleveland.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
I got a question, but I'm not sure what this
person means, Jesse. Do you have to break down every
game for a series, but you don't have to rebreak down.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
So what I do is, once we're set up in
a visiting city, once we're done and we sign off
the air, I will power most everything down and I
will pull all of my laptops, but I will leave
all the codex and all the wire and all the
matrixes and all that stuff up, and then they lock
it behind me, and I just take my laptops. And
sometimes I lock up the headsets. But those are the
(12:07):
pretty much the most secure places, aren't.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Wait a minute, so you're telling me that even in
a press booth, headsets are a hot commodity and you
have to walk them up like in a radio station.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Yes, I learned that the hard way.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Oh Dodger Stadium, my first year doing this. Of course,
I left my stuff up overnight, and I came back
the next morning, Sunday getaway day, and it was all gone,
and I had to scramble and my guy and file
a police And you know, the cops said to me,
he said, Welcome to la I bet I think, sir,
(12:40):
what would your walk up song be?
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Jack asked us, well, oh.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Man, so it's an old hip hop song from the nineties. Iiny, Camosie,
here comes the hot Stepper.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
I've thought about that.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
You know, when you walk away, I'm gonna expect to
see you hot.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Step away from this movie. I wonder if Zach can
find that while we're talking.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Sure he can't hit au, Sure he can't. Sure?
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Wait, what was yours?
Speaker 3 (13:02):
I've actually changed mine because it used to be I
wanted that one part of that Reba McIntire song, Here's
your One chance, fancy don't let me down?
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Okay, like I thought there would be.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
But now I'm decided that the greatest walk up songer
in the history is Hail to the Chief. Led to
the Chief would be fantastic.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Ribas strong too, but nothing hot stepper.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Is this this hit?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I mean it gives the crowd participation.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Right, Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, good job Jack.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Do you guys have like a fraternity of producers?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (13:30):
That are like traveling with all these Yes? Did you
get to know each other?
Speaker 2 (13:33):
So this is my ninth season doing this, and I
am the second least tenured guy doing this, So holy on,
once you get this gig that I have, there's only
twenty nine other people that do it, and they've all
been there for over thirteen years other than me and
another guy. So yeah, And every year at a spring
training down in Scottsdale, the first couple nights that were
(13:54):
in there, we always have a get together with all
the producer engineers and it's good to see everybody when
we talk shop and tell people about the you know,
the cities we hate and the booch we hate and
all those things. So yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Did you ever have an old dude give you a
piece of advice and you think, oh my gosh, that
is brilliant. I need to incorporate that and how I
do my job.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yes, Now, I can't give you an exact example, mostly
of who to kind of avoid, you know what I mean, like, hey,
that guy over in Baltimore.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Don't cross him, you know, stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, And some of these guys has been doing it
for so long that they've seen technology change so much.
I mean they've gone from analog phone lines to broadcast
to ISDN lines. Now everything's done over the internet. To
old copper pairs, like Shannon knows, you know. So it's
it's fun to kind of pick their brain about all
the stuff that they used to have to do.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
My husband when he was a kid, so he was
like fifteen, he's sixty now. He got his first radio
job was running the board for the Cincinnati Reds games
for his little station in Athens, Ohio. And they had
the punchboard thing where you had to pull out a
cord and put it in another court. Oh yeah, like
manually operating like a telephone lines to get the feed
in here and then put this in.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
I mean, it was just, yeah, it was wild.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
And when he took me back there like ten years ago,
they still had all that equipment in the station.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I'll tell you, Wrigley, they still have cloth covered wiring
in the original press box from when like Kerry Carey
was doing his thing. I mean, it's not active or anything,
but it's still there. You can still see the old
punch blocks and the cloth covered copper pairs.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Like it's wild.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
What is the booth like at the cub Stadium, oh
Man in Boston? Two Historical Parks?
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Boston's awesome.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
It's once you're up there, it takes a little bit
to navigate your way up to the booth, but there's
big windows that are on a switch that open vertically.
Now Wrigley is a whole another animal. There used to
not be elevators to go up to the top, so
you had to haul your cases up the concrete ramps
and then there's a straight up vertical staircase about twenty
(15:52):
yards that goes up to the press boxes that you've
had to hump your cases up there. It was brutal
and by the time you got your cases up there,
you're out of.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Breath and sweaty and all the ninth and then it's tiny.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
It's kind of like climbing into a submarine.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
It's really really.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Tiny for where Jack and Jerry said below me. So
once they're down there, they're down there. Like you don't
want to move around a whole lot, no sudden movements
or you'll kick something out of the wall that gets wild.
I know it's.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Blasphemy, but like I've been to the State Stadium in
Boston and I walked away go in the stadiums are
dump because I'm spoiled and I like nice new stadiums
with amenities, history be damn green Monster and all that
that's tasty. It is.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
It is a dump.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
It is a bit of a dump. It has a
unique smell to it.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
Sinway, it's kind of like saying the New York Subway.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah, yeah, it's ammonia driven ammonia and ethyl alcohol. So yeah,
it's But there's lots of history of Finway.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
I mean from the.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Elephants they used to march on the field. I like
going back and looking at all the events. Some of
these ballparks have folsted, like old boxing matches. Yeah, people
get shotting out of a cannon. And you know, Wrigley
once held a ski jumping event of.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
Theirs I mean, of course, Yeah, yeah, Wriglarly.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Some of my most of my baseball experience actually at
Wrigley when I lived in Chicago before they put lights in, right,
So every game was a day game, and I worked
downtown and everybody would get on the l at eleven
am and go and the city would empty out. And
it was kind of crazy to think of it, especially
such a major team in a major city with no lights.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, well some would argue that, but it used to
be one of their biggest advantages was playing all those
day games because it would screw up other teams' body clocks,
you know. But yeah, sitting down in the center field
stands at Wrigley drinking a couple old styles and all
bad when you get off work ross, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, I mean I used to sing, you know, take
Me out to the ballgame with Harry Carey.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
That's when I was there. It was pretty fabulous.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
If you were talked done that on Pioneers the Game
how that started? How the Harry Carey things.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
I haven't done Harry Carey specifically.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I did do one on the history of the game
or the song itself, right, and it goes all the
way back to like the nineteen tens or something.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
I've heard that the reason Harry Carey started singing take
Me out to the ballgame is it was a bet
from the other guy that was in the booth with him,
and they were they had been drinking as Harry Carey,
and it was like, I bet you can't get all
these people to sing take Me out to the ballgame.
And Harry Carey was like, game on, and he got
up and sang take Me out to the ballgame, and
(18:21):
the crowd just went crazy for it, So we started.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
That tradition and now they have.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
I know, we got a break here, but they will
have live You know, celebrities come up and sing take
me out to the ball game from the same booth
that Harry used.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
To do it.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
But nobody gets a louder cheer than when they replay
Harry actually doing it onboard. People just lose their mind
them It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Jesse Thomas, executive producer for Colorado Rockies have a tremendous
game and.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Creator of creator.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Game best pregame segment, no offense to any other segments,
best pregame segment of the show.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Thank you guys very much for having me looking forward
to today. So come on down Rockies fans and let's
get a win. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
And if you if you see Jesse, you'll see him
in a in a suit and a sport coat and
you will never see him wearing that any other day
that once a year we like it or not before
we berke late.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Yeah, in one out less than one hour. We need
listeners down here to play Tournament of the Day against
if they want win tickets to the game. So come
on down to the corner of twentieth and Blake. We're
gonna do this at eleven forty right, ay, right, be
here at eleven thirty and somebody's gonna win tickets.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Keep it your on k away
This is Koa Rockies Opening Day presented by Pellow Windows
and Doors of Denver and Northern Coloradopella dot com for
more of that. And sitting in between me and Mandy,
you are Jesse Thomas. Jesse Thomas, and your title Jesse
Thomas would be what.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Executive producer of the Koa Colorado Rockies Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I am told by someone who would know that Mandy
Connell's favorite segment about baseball is something that you do.
And the person who told me is named Mandy Connell. Yes,
so it must be true. Then it must be true.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
What a bast fangirl for the pioneers of the game
segment that Jesse puts together in the pregame show.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I like it. Thank you Mandy very much. I enjoy
putting them together.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
So this started. I mean, how did they say, Jesse,
we want you to do something on the history of baseball.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
It was historical and to be honest with you, it
came down to us being able to fill some time, right,
you know, and baseball has such a colorful past and
it goes back, you know, mid eighteen hundreds. So there's
target rich and virus. It is. It's hard rich environment,
and you can always find something entertaining, funny, historical, some sad,
(01:06):
some inspiring. But there's countless stories out there. So the
thing for me is just figuring out a way to
fit it into a three minute segment.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
You Know.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
One of the things that strikes me when I listen
to some of your segments and you talk about some
of these insane, over the top characters that have inhabited
baseball over all these years, I feel like we don't
have that now. We don't have the guys who are
outrageous or prone to these kind of crazy things. Why
is that?
Speaker 4 (01:34):
It's not? People more professional now one hundred percent?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
And obviously with social media, you can't get away with
anything now, so that's the biggest one. You know, back
in the day, you could act a fool on a
train trip and you know, smoking the dugout and all
those things, but that is frowned upon and now you
can't get away with anything. So people are definitely more
buttoned up and don't show their true characters anymore.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Who's your favorite colorful character that you have? Uh, they
maybe talked about over the years, and.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
They all have names like, yeah, like Bob Bust, your.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Legs, skimmitts, there's something you know.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
I mean, they're all they're all bizarros.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
There's some crazy nicknames, Vinegar Ben Mazelle, stuff like that.
You know, stuff that you're thinking, like a John Grisham
book or something like your character and a John Grisham book.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
I did a story yesterday on Rubot l.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Who was eighteen eighties and he had a tendency to
just leave the pitching mound in the middle of a
game to go chase fire trucks. You'd go into the
stands to pet people's dogs just in the middle of
a three te you know. So yeah, people like that,
and I like going back in. Some of the old
Negro League players I think are amazing too. They have
(02:41):
fascinating stories, and I don't think.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
That gets enough play. It has. I'd say over the
last ten years, we now know more about the Negro
Leaves than we've ever known before yep, which is a definite.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Positive one percent.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
And their stats are starting to count to which kind
of changed the record books and going. You know, some
of those stories you like in my books that I
use for these or is that I put together? It's
hard to tell. I like to think that's ninety percent
of those things are true, but it's really hard to tell,
you know, So I just try to find something entertaining
and get a good chuckle out of.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Them, like, yeah, you know, where do you get your inspiration?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I have a couple of baseball almanacs, and then there's
some historical books of those were the Days I think
is my favorite ones. I don't know the author off
the top of my head. But and then there's a
dead legend good website that I go to and there's
all kinds of stories on there that pick and choose from. So,
like I said, I enjoy I really enjoy doing it
in Baseball's, as you said, target rich environment.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Yes, Jesse, why don't you explain to people because I
always forget the people that are listening to us, they
think what we do is super cool. They don't know
what it is the actual job that an executive producer does. Yes,
what does an executive producer do?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So, contrary to popular belief, we don't just show up,
turn the power on, and get going. So in my
particular case, I'm in charge of taking care of all
the gear, making sure set up properly, make sure Jack
and Jy can hear each other properly, make sure we're
going to air properly. The most importantly that I don't
take a lot of realize my main job is to
make sure we make money, to make sure that we
(04:13):
get on the air, number one, number two, meeting all
our sales, fulfillment all patients, and then my baseball knowledge
and all that other stuff. I'm second, So I'm basically
big at Sure, it's policy. It gets traveling country to
admit sure that we make some money.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
But it's super cool job it is.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
I wouldn't for the world. It's not for everybody out
of a suitcase for seven months of the year, but
I'm used to that. So it gives me an opportunity
to see the tree and meets amazing people, and I
wouldn't trade it for the world.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
And it's super different from football.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
You know, guy's gonna go cover an away game. You're
gone for two days? Yeah, I mean, what's what's a
normal amount of time that you're away on a road?
If you know, what's the longest time you've ever been
away la road?
Speaker 2 (04:58):
The longest one we did was fifteen three cities, so
it was three cities, twelve games, fifteen days. That's the
longest side we've ever been I've been doing with the Rockies.
But you're right for the nugget. In the Abs, it
was different because you would fly in in the middle
of the night, you go to the hotel, you'd sleep,
and you went to the arena at three, you played
(05:19):
the game, you left. You never really got to see
the city you were in, you know, So this way
baseball is awesome. We set up, we played game one,
and then there's usually a three game set. Occasionally you'll
have a one off, two game set, but you always
get a chance to see a little bit of the
city you're in, which makes it awesome.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
And how much stuff do you travel with?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So it's about two hundred pounds of gear and it's
two Pelican cases basically, And it takes me about ninety
minutes to set our booth up from beginning to end
game one, and then it takes me about twenty minutes
to tear it all down. So testing everything, like setup
day is my longest day. It's usually about a twelve
(05:59):
hour day. I'll get there six hours before first pitch,
usually on a typical Game one experience, and then I
usually come on the first bus for games two and three,
so we're always there three hours before first pitch and
it's never less than a ten hour day for me.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
So what is what?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
You just had the opportunity you opened up the season
this year in Tampa and they're playing in their in
the Yankees' spring training facility because of the damage to
the trot.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
What was that like? It was quite a challenge.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
We definitely drew the short straw, but it depends on
out you look at it. We're lucky we're not there
in July when it's ninety degrees and ninety percent humidity.
But unfortunately we were the first visiting team in there
after MLB went in after the Yankees last spring training
game and flipped everything around, so there was you know.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Years everywhere they did forty eight hours more than that, like.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
At least seventy two hours the night that I went
the day before our game, they were still cutting holes
with power saws and the batter's eye to install camera
in center field. Like it was absolute wow wow. And
our booth is super tiny. It was very intimate. As
I like to say, they meet, Jack and Jerry tolerate
each other pretty well, and we're right there on the concourse,
(07:12):
so the fans right in front of us. It was
a challenge to say the least. But I'm glad we're
out of there.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
So do you have a favorite stadium that and not
so much like the game or whatever, but because of
your job, is there a favorite booth?
Speaker 4 (07:25):
I'm glad you asked that. So it's yes.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Miami and Anaheim are my favorite. Of Miami because huge,
the air conditionings cranky and I have plenty of space.
Anaheim awesome because it's like being at Disneylanders.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
It's kinds of fake rocks. I enjoy that.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Uh. And then I'm trying to think of least favorite
is Cincinnati is up there because all the rain delays.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
I've ever been to that town par which.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Another Well, Tampa up there now too, that's challenging.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I give you any idea, like when the trump is
going to be back and play?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
No, nobody seems to know, mostly because they were putting
in some FEMA money to restore and it's.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Getting all commuted with.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yeah, they're probably to fix it, but a Major League
Baseball is also leaning on the owner down there pretty
hard just just outright sell it.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
So we'll see, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Well you know what is sell the trup or sell
the team, sell the team, Well, they suck. Their ownership
sucks as well, and a stuff for a long time.
Why under what justification is the is major League Baseball
saying team?
Speaker 4 (08:34):
I think it has to do with revenue sharing.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
And I don't know exactly what that conversation looks like,
like I don't know if they try to strong arm him,
if they try to buy him out, like I don't
I don't know how that is.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
I've just heard though that.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
There has been discussions and they're asking him politely to
maybe step aside.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
So who knows.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I will tell you to your point, they're going to
play one season in Tampa, not in a dome, and
everybody's going to go, oh.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
God, I love the truck.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I can't wait till the tuva is miserable.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Sometimes you don't know what you have until it's gone right.
And I can't imagine.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
First of all, those Florida rainstorms that pop up at
four pm like.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Here, those are no joke.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
And the humidity, like the camera operator somebody's they better
have medics on standby man, because if you're standing out
there in left center field operating a camera, but I
mean it's going to be brutal.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
And this is why when people make funt of in
the field, I'm like, you're you're not Florida area. You
don't understand why you because it is awful and it
was charming, charming, it had its own sound to.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
It, you know.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
And the ring the we're above the.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Rules.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
If you hit ring a something happened, ring met something else.
It was wild.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yeah, Jesse, when you are are traveling all this time,
like what are some of your favorite cities to visit
baseball aside? Like whe where do you see it on
the schedule? Be like, yes, that's gonna be a.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Great right, So I this all resolves around food for me,
it should.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
San Francisco food wise, is really tough to beat. I
don't really much enjoy the city anymore because it's chaos,
but the culinary experience out there is awesome. Chicago is
a close second. Yeah. I like Boston because I'm a
shellfish guy, so going out.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
There and be able to eat.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
You can get good oysters here, but you can get
really good fresh clams out there, which I really enjoy.
And then a sneaky town that really has grown on
me is Milwaukee every time. I love it. It reminds me
of old Denver. Those are my kind of people out there.
They're built like.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Me, they talk like me.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
They consume the same amount of beer and sausage and cheese.
Those are my people always, Yeah, talk aboutmen. Right, what's up?
Speaker 4 (10:46):
So I've always uh marked on.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
The list as soon as I see the schedule when
we're going to Milwaukee.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Is there any cities don't leave to leave them for more?
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yes, I'm gonna that's in my mind.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Yeah, go ahead one of them. Really because of where
we stay. It's not really on off beach.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Southeast side, right kind of the Frickle area, and it's
I can't I can't.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Do club music throughshs.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
What I mean, Yeah, I just assume sounds like yeah,
I just assume staying in the hotel.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
How about Cleveland in Miami? I love Cleveland.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, everytown.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, Cleveland's another sneaky town.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
It can be really really cold.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
But Jack Corgan is from Cleveland, so he always shows
us a good time and shout out to Brunos. We
always go to a place called Brunos in Cleveland, which
is amazing. So I would look forward to going. We're
going here in a couple of months to Cleveland.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
I got a question, but I'm not sure what this
person means, Jesse. Do you have to break down every
game for a series, but you don't have to rebreak down.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
So what I do is, once we're set up in
a visiting city, once we're done and we sign off
the air, I will power most everything down and I
will pull all of my laptops, but I will leave
all the codex and all the wire and all the
matrixes and all that stuff up, and then they lock
it behind me, and I just take my laptops. And
sometimes I lock up the headsets. But those are the
(12:07):
pretty much the most secure places, aren't.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Wait a minute, so you're telling me that even in
a press booth, headsets are a hot commodity and you
have to walk them up like in a radio station.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Yes, I learned that the hard way.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Oh Dodger Stadium, my first year doing this. Of course,
I left my stuff up overnight, and I came back
the next morning, Sunday getaway day, and it was all gone,
and I had to scramble and my guy and file
a police And you know, the cops said to me,
he said, Welcome to la I bet I think, sir,
(12:40):
what would your walk up song be?
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Jack asked us, well, oh.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Man, so it's an old hip hop song from the nineties. Iiny, Camosie,
here comes the hot Stepper.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
I've thought about that.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
You know, when you walk away, I'm gonna expect to
see you hot.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Step away from this movie. I wonder if Zach can
find that while we're talking.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Sure he can't hit au, Sure he can't. Sure?
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Wait, what was yours?
Speaker 3 (13:02):
I've actually changed mine because it used to be I
wanted that one part of that Reba McIntire song, Here's
your One chance, fancy don't let me down?
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Okay, like I thought there would be.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
But now I'm decided that the greatest walk up songer
in the history is Hail to the Chief. Led to
the Chief would be fantastic.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Ribas strong too, but nothing hot stepper.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Is this this hit?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I mean it gives the crowd participation.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Right, Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, good job Jack.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Do you guys have like a fraternity of producers?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (13:30):
That are like traveling with all these Yes? Did you
get to know each other?
Speaker 2 (13:33):
So this is my ninth season doing this, and I
am the second least tenured guy doing this, So holy on,
once you get this gig that I have, there's only
twenty nine other people that do it, and they've all
been there for over thirteen years other than me and
another guy. So yeah, And every year at a spring
training down in Scottsdale, the first couple nights that were
(13:54):
in there, we always have a get together with all
the producer engineers and it's good to see everybody when
we talk shop and tell people about the you know,
the cities we hate and the booch we hate and
all those things. So yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Did you ever have an old dude give you a
piece of advice and you think, oh my gosh, that
is brilliant. I need to incorporate that and how I
do my job.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yes, Now, I can't give you an exact example, mostly
of who to kind of avoid, you know what I mean, like, hey,
that guy over in Baltimore.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Don't cross him, you know, stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, And some of these guys has been doing it
for so long that they've seen technology change so much.
I mean they've gone from analog phone lines to broadcast
to ISDN lines. Now everything's done over the internet. To
old copper pairs, like Shannon knows, you know. So it's
it's fun to kind of pick their brain about all
the stuff that they used to have to do.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
My husband when he was a kid, so he was
like fifteen, he's sixty now. He got his first radio
job was running the board for the Cincinnati Reds games
for his little station in Athens, Ohio. And they had
the punchboard thing where you had to pull out a
cord and put it in another court. Oh yeah, like
manually operating like a telephone lines to get the feed
in here and then put this in.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
I mean, it was just, yeah, it was wild.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
And when he took me back there like ten years ago,
they still had all that equipment in the station.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I'll tell you, Wrigley, they still have cloth covered wiring
in the original press box from when like Kerry Carey
was doing his thing. I mean, it's not active or anything,
but it's still there. You can still see the old
punch blocks and the cloth covered copper pairs.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Like it's wild.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
What is the booth like at the cub Stadium, oh
Man in Boston? Two Historical Parks?
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Boston's awesome.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
It's once you're up there, it takes a little bit
to navigate your way up to the booth, but there's
big windows that are on a switch that open vertically.
Now Wrigley is a whole another animal. There used to
not be elevators to go up to the top, so
you had to haul your cases up the concrete ramps
and then there's a straight up vertical staircase about twenty
(15:52):
yards that goes up to the press boxes that you've
had to hump your cases up there. It was brutal
and by the time you got your cases up there,
you're out of.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Breath and sweaty and all the ninth and then it's tiny.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
It's kind of like climbing into a submarine.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
It's really really.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Tiny for where Jack and Jerry said below me. So
once they're down there, they're down there. Like you don't
want to move around a whole lot, no sudden movements
or you'll kick something out of the wall that gets wild.
I know it's.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Blasphemy, but like I've been to the State Stadium in
Boston and I walked away go in the stadiums are
dump because I'm spoiled and I like nice new stadiums
with amenities, history be damn green Monster and all that
that's tasty. It is.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
It is a dump.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
It is a bit of a dump. It has a
unique smell to it.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
Sinway, it's kind of like saying the New York Subway.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah, yeah, it's ammonia driven ammonia and ethyl alcohol. So yeah,
it's But there's lots of history of Finway.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
I mean from the.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Elephants they used to march on the field. I like
going back and looking at all the events. Some of
these ballparks have folsted, like old boxing matches. Yeah, people
get shotting out of a cannon. And you know, Wrigley
once held a ski jumping event of.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
Theirs I mean, of course, Yeah, yeah, Wriglarly.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Some of my most of my baseball experience actually at
Wrigley when I lived in Chicago before they put lights in, right,
So every game was a day game, and I worked
downtown and everybody would get on the l at eleven
am and go and the city would empty out. And
it was kind of crazy to think of it, especially
such a major team in a major city with no lights.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, well some would argue that, but it used to
be one of their biggest advantages was playing all those
day games because it would screw up other teams' body clocks,
you know. But yeah, sitting down in the center field
stands at Wrigley drinking a couple old styles and all
bad when you get off work ross, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, I mean I used to sing, you know, take
Me out to the ballgame with Harry Carey.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
That's when I was there. It was pretty fabulous.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
If you were talked done that on Pioneers the Game
how that started? How the Harry Carey things.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
I haven't done Harry Carey specifically.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I did do one on the history of the game
or the song itself, right, and it goes all the
way back to like the nineteen tens or something.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
I've heard that the reason Harry Carey started singing take
Me out to the ballgame is it was a bet
from the other guy that was in the booth with him,
and they were they had been drinking as Harry Carey,
and it was like, I bet you can't get all
these people to sing take Me out to the ballgame.
And Harry Carey was like, game on, and he got
up and sang take Me out to the ballgame, and
(18:21):
the crowd just went crazy for it, So we started.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
That tradition and now they have.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
I know, we got a break here, but they will
have live You know, celebrities come up and sing take
me out to the ball game from the same booth
that Harry used.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
To do it.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
But nobody gets a louder cheer than when they replay
Harry actually doing it onboard. People just lose their mind
them It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Jesse Thomas, executive producer for Colorado Rockies have a tremendous
game and.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Creator of creator.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Game best pregame segment, no offense to any other segments,
best pregame segment of the show.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Thank you guys very much for having me looking forward
to today. So come on down Rockies fans and let's
get a win. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
And if you if you see Jesse, you'll see him
in a in a suit and a sport coat and
you will never see him wearing that any other day
that once a year we like it or not before
we berke late.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Yeah, in one out less than one hour. We need
listeners down here to play Tournament of the Day against
if they want win tickets to the game. So come
on down to the corner of twentieth and Blake. We're
gonna do this at eleven forty right, ay, right, be
here at eleven thirty and somebody's gonna win tickets.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Keep it your on k away
The Ross Kaminsky Show News
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