August 22, 2024 • 34 mins
What happens when a high school live streaming program ignites a lifelong passion? Meet Emmanuel Barbari, the radio voice of the New York Yankees and Siena College Basketball, as he joins us to share his incredible journey from Long Island to the big leagues.
Emmanuel recounts his serendipitous introduction to broadcasting during his high school days and the pivotal moments at Fordham University that solidified his path. From a career-launching internship at WFAN to securing his coveted role at Siena College, Emmanuel’s story is a testament to seizing opportunities and following your passion.
Ever wondered what it feels like to be called up to the majors for the first time? Emmanuel takes us behind the scenes of his debut Major League Baseball play-by-play for a Yankees game in Pittsburgh. Feel the excitement and nerves as he prepares for the unexpected call-up, and learn about the overwhelming support from his colleagues, including Suzyn Waldman and John Sterling. With John’s early-season retirement, new doors opened, leading to a more prominent role for Emmanuel and Justin Shackil. This segment is filled with gratitude, anticipation, and the determination to excel as a key member of the Yankees' broadcast team.
Get a front-row seat to the daily grind of a baseball broadcaster. Emmanuel walks us through his meticulous game day routine, from early arrivals to dodge traffic to the thrill of charter travel with the team. He shares insightful anecdotes about preparing for broadcasts, introducing opposing teams’ players, and the unique challenges of working at Yankee Stadium.
Plus, hear about memorable moments like calling Aaron Judge’s 300th home run and the invaluable mentorship from seasoned experts like Suzyn. Tune in to uncover what it truly takes to succeed in the high-paced, exhilarating world of sports broadcasting.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome everybody to Sound Off with Sink
Off.
I'm your host, brian Sinkoff.
Of course, sound Off with SinkOff, sponsored by the Sink Off
Realty Group, full service realestate brokerage right here in
the Capital Region.
Well, you may not know his face, but you certainly know his
voice.
He is not only the voice ofSiena College, but also the
(00:20):
voice of the New York Yankees onthe radio, and I'm pleased to
be joined by Emmanuel Barbari.
Emmanuel, what an awesomeopportunity to have you on.
I really appreciate it.
And how the heck are you?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm doing well.
Brian, great to meet you.
It's nice to not only meetpeople who, hey, I could hop on
a podcast, but I can hop on apodcast with somebody in the
Capital Region who shares thatblood with me, if you will a
little bit.
So great to meet you and greatto be here.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
All right.
So, Emmanuel, your story ispretty well documented.
But for those not familiar,we're going to go back in time a
little bit.
You're 24, is that right?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Just turned 25.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Just turned 25.
You're a puppy, you're a baby.
So you're in the booth, you'rewith Justin Shackle, you're
doing play-by-play for thefreaking New York Yankees.
That's unbelievable.
I have to pinch myself justsaying that to you.
But let's go back, man.
You're from Long Island.
You went to Fordham, much likeme at Maryland.
(01:23):
You did the college radiostation thing.
So take me back to how it is.
You've got.
You even got involved inbroadcasting.
Then we'll get to the Yankees,of course.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah.
So it was all sort of by chancegetting involved with
broadcasting In high school.
Even before my Fordham days oneof my best friends was starting
a live video streaming program,which had never been done at my
high school.
Now it seems like high schoolsacross the country adopt
something similar or at least alot of them but that was foreign
to my school, harborfields onLong Island in the Greenlawn,
(01:57):
huntington area.
And he helped launch that withone of our English journalism
teachers, Mr Ambrosio, and hejust asked me to come and help
out one night.
And you're a high school kid,you want to be involved with
your friends, you don't want toget left out of stuff.
So I figured, why not?
Why shouldn't I go help outwith this live stream of the
Harborfields basketball game?
(02:18):
And they needed an announcerthat night.
It just so happened to be.
It wasn't something I waslooking to do, it wasn't
something that had reallycrossed my mind, but I called
that Harborfields game by chance.
On this live video streamingprogram.
It was just going out to theinternet.
It was called High School Cubeat the time.
I think that's now called NFHSNetwork, but it was High School
(02:40):
Cube as it started and somethingclicked in that moment.
It was that aha of wow.
I've been watching all theseYankee games Nick games, jet
games, any game and I have justas much interest in the
announcers and what they'resaying as the game itself.
And that realization led toeverything else I've done since
(03:03):
then.
At that moment I figured, okay,if I really want to do this,
let me put everything I haveinto doing this and getting
better at it and learning aboutit.
I went to a camp after myfreshman year of high school at
Chaminade, kind of down the roadon Long Island, and the guy who
ran it, a guy named PatReichart, went to Fordham.
He's a Fordham alumnus, so heintroduced me to Fordham and
(03:24):
WFUV, the radio station,everything that had to do with
Fordham.
So the realization of I want todo broadcasting in high school
and meeting Mr Reichart andknowing I wanted to go to
Fordham made me very tunnelvision, like this is how I'm
going to do it.
And then I went to Fordham,just applied myself as much as I
(03:44):
can and got the reps and gotbetter and tried to improve on
the air.
But really, really, what led toeverything now is the
internship at WFAN after myfreshman year at Fordham the
talk shows that came from thatand working at Siena and Hudson
(04:05):
Valley in the backdrop of doingstuff at FAN.
I think the internship was sortof the by skipping a lot of
steps in the story theinternship was the launching pad
for everything else, if youwill.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So you get the internship at FAN.
Obviously, that leads to youdoing some things with the
atlantic 10, uh, things of thatnature.
Um, how did you get the cn andcapital region?
As you know, we're prettypassionate about our saints here
in the uh capital region, soyou get the sienna gig in like
the fall of 21.
How does that come about?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
yeah.
So I saw a job listing thatthat Sienna had an opening for
basketball home road men'sbasketball broadcaster but also
women's TV, and I saw a bunch ofother sports and I'm like what
a great opportunity.
You're not only doing a fullseason of basketball, you're
doing radio and TV, but you havethe opportunity to do all these
different sports.
(05:00):
What a great chance for a youngbroadcaster.
That fit the profile of what Iwas looking for.
But I had no connection toSiena.
I just thought, okay, how couldI go for this and position
myself best for a job when,frankly, in the Northeast region
you don't have a lot of similaropportunities?
(05:21):
You have a lot of schools but alot of them freelance it
together for their fall andspring sports.
Or you have a bigger schoollike a, like a St John's for
instance, where they've had avoice and John Minko on
Learfield for for years.
So those jobs just don't comearound very often in this region
or in this Northeast region.
So I thought, okay, how could Ibest position myself?
(05:45):
And since I was at FAN, thingssort of tying together.
It's neat in this way.
Bob Huesler, who was a longtimeupdate anchor at the fan, is the
voice of Fairfield and Imentioned it to him and said,
hey, I put in for the Siena job,anything you would know about
Siena, having worked in the MAC.
And he said, oh yeah, like Iknow there, I know their sports
(06:06):
information director, I knowsome people there.
Let me call on your behalf.
So between that and I had acouple other references call.
But it was really Bob, who Ijust mentioned to him in passing
, and he went out of his way tobe nice, like I by no means
asked him to put in a word, buthe had listened to some of my
(06:27):
work and coached me on some ofmy basketball tapes over my
Fordham years and he was niceenough to to believe in me at
the time and I think that's whatgot me the interview and then
the interview ultimately got methe job All right?
Speaker 1 (06:38):
So you're doing Siena basketball, then you're also
working at the fan and you weshould point out, you don't live
here in the capital region, youstill live on the island,
correct?
So you're?
You're doing the, you're doingthe commute, you're up and back
and you're sleeping where youcould, you know, sleep in hotels
and friends and and and mediamembers and things of that
(06:59):
nature um, and you're stilldoing updates on on the fan in
new york, right?
Still doing updates.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Still doing fan in New York right.
Still doing updates, stilldoing shows yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
So tell me how the Yankee gig evolves, not even you
being the radio guy, but justeven getting sort of involved in
the broadcast to begin with.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Right and getting involved with the broadcast to
begin with.
None of this happens withactually announcing games and
doing play-by-play withoutgetting a foot in, if you will,
with the Yankees in the firstplace.
So the way that all comes aboutis the basis, and the reason I
called it a launching padearlier was I was internal at
the fan.
I had interned, I'd workedbehind the scenes, I had done
on-air stuff for a few years andthen once I sort of got my
(07:39):
chops and was starting to growas an on-air talent there I
think doing the Siena stuff onthe outside and working for the
Hudson Valley Renegades in minorleague baseball, it still kept
me in mind as a play-by-play guyand the talk shows maybe had my
bosses looking at me asversatile and I would never say
(07:59):
no to any opportunity at a placelike WFAN.
But I ultimately wanted to doplay-by-play and I wouldn't say
that because any opportunitythere, a place like WFAN.
But I ultimately wanted to doplay-by-play and I wouldn't say
that because any opportunitythere was great.
But they saw me doing HudsonValley and Siena and sort of
honing my craft and gettingbetter at it.
So when different play-by-playopenings would come about within
the FAN and Odyssey family,because there are multiple
(08:22):
stations there in New York.
They would put my name in themix for it.
So it wouldn't necessarily meanI would get the job, but my
name was being talked about inthat light and that's what being
internal helped with.
During that search and thenultimately, going into 2023, I
didn't even know if I was goingto go back to Hudson Valley
because the position had reallychanged, where I had to be in
(08:45):
the office around nine in themorning each game day, and the
only reason I could do it in2022, in addition to the fan was
because I had the flexibilityof, hey, let's show up a few
hours before the game, do thegame, then maybe drive back to
the city and do an overnightshow, like that's how crazy my
2022 summer was, but it was somuch fun 2023, I probably
(09:07):
couldn't have done the samething.
So I was wondering for a fewmonths there, like what's my
baseball situation looking like?
And in 23, I was wondering thatinternally.
But just timing and luck, thepre and post opportunity opens
at FAN for the Yankees andJustin ended up doing a lot of
them last year.
He was on TV a bunch doing yes,so I would do a ton of those
(09:29):
post-game shows that led to endof the year John and Susan both
take off, justin and I work aseries together and that put us
both in the mix for doingfill-ins this year, and then
John retired about a week and ahalf into this year.
So this year plus span a lot ofmoving parts, but getting in
the door from being an internalleft-hand guy going into 2023 is
(09:53):
the only reason I'm here todaydoing regular Yankee play by
play.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
All right, so, and I'm sharing it.
You've probably seen some ofthe screens here.
I'm sharing some of the, someof your pictures.
You know, some of your, yourstuff.
There you are with your, yourpartner there, um, justin
Shackle.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah, I appreciate you being prepared with these
pictures.
It is awesome yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Well, you know, hey, I'm an old timer, though you
know what I'm saying I've beenknown.
I've been known, um, so that'syou and and, uh, that's you and
Justin.
So he was also a Fordham grad,much like you.
All right, so let's go back.
You get the call in likeSeptember of 2023.
I think Susan had Russia, shana, right, so she was off that
(10:38):
weekend.
John took the weekend off.
It was, I guess, a trip toPittsburgh.
They call you in, right, muchlike getting called up to the
majors, and they say you'regoing to Pittsburgh and you're
doing play by play.
Did you have to change yourdiaper at that point, Emmanuel?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
I mean seriously.
I got to say.
I got to say, brian, Iappreciate you framing it that
way because it takes me back notthat long ago, but it takes me
back to that moment.
And while a lot of the stuffI've gotten to this year is
surreal and it's been a blast, Idon't take any of it for
granted.
A lot of it has been.
When John retired a week and ahalf into the year it was just
(11:15):
like wham, bam, let's go.
And then I've just been tryingto do the best job I can the
rest of the year.
But last year was different,where I hadn't done a big league
game before play-by-play.
I had a few weeks to preparefor it and think about it and
really digest it and it wasdefinitely a magical moment
where I just got him back fromvisiting one of my friends in
(11:38):
Charlotte.
He lives in Charlotte and I hadthe weekend off and we just had
a fun weekend in Charlotte andwe were hanging out.
And I came back and that week Iwas just supposed to catch up
with one of my bosses at FAN.
I had no idea this was on theradar.
It was just supposed to be ageneral like how you doing,
how's the season going type ofthing I go into the office it's
(11:58):
not just him, but it's my otherdirect boss at FAN, sitting
there together.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
You're like am I handing in the keys?
Is this it?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
I'm like what's going on here?
They're never in the same placeat the same time Do I have on
here?
They're never in the same placeat the same time.
Do I have a box to clean out mydesk?
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
So they asked me had I everbeen to pittsburgh?
And that's when I knewsomething was going on and I
said, oh, I've been there once.
A fordham women's basketballgame.
Back in 2019, the women'sbasketball team won the a10s and
and uh, we talked for a coupleminutes and beat around the bush
(12:30):
, if you will, for a few minutes, but then they broke it to me
that John and Susan were bothoff and they thought it was a
great opportunity for me to domy first three major league
games.
And they also told me howsupportive Susan was of me
getting the opportunity to do it, which, leaving the room, that
made me feel so much betterabout the opportunity, because
(12:51):
there's a certain element of wow, I handle this, can I?
Uh, am I truly?
Is this truly my time to tobreak into the big leagues?
But, uh, knowing that john andsusan were so supportive and
wanted that for me, um, it wasreally between my bosses being
so supportive and knowing I wasworking with justin and knowing
I had the support of john andsusan.
Yeah, those next couple ofweeks getting ready for it but
(13:13):
also keeping everything inperspective was was really
special.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
And obviously here is a picture of of Justin and
Susan there, obviously that youknow this is them doing a game
together let's talk about.
So this season, you know Johnretires, you know, as you said,
about two weeks or so into theseason.
At that point, did you know, ordid you like, how did you find
(13:38):
out this was going to be more ofa quote-unquote permanent thing
in terms of you really having apart of these broadcasts?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, I sort of knew, because Justin and I were each
supposed to do 25 games fillingin for for john when he didn't
travel this year.
So I knew I had those games asas a baseline, but I didn't know
when john retired like younever take this for granted,
they could go in any direction,you know this is a legend
retiring and and vacating thatseat.
(14:05):
So they could have doneanything.
They could have done any plan,they could have brought in
anyone but the second.
They started to give me andjustin more games on the
schedule when john retired and Ithink they scheduled initially
through memorial day and therewere a ton of games for me and
justin to split and then, oncememorial day came around, they
(14:26):
scheduled more.
And then they scheduled moreand and ricky ricardo has done a
few games, our spanish languageannouncer and and brendan burke
, the islanders announcer, hasdone a couple as well, but it's
mostly outside of that.
Justin and I have tag-teamed itand gone back and forth, back
and forth.
So once they continued using us, that was sort of the indicator
that I would have more of aheavy load.
But I was ready for anything.
(14:48):
It could have been the baselineof 25 that I was scheduled for
going into the year.
It could have been the baselineof 25 that I was scheduled for
going into the year.
It could have been 40.
It could have been 35.
It could have been 50.
It could have been 80.
It was just a matter of takewhat you're given and they
started to show a lot of faithin us, initially just by handing
us those original games, and Ithink that's when I started to
(15:10):
know.
But the rest has been touch andgo.
It's sort of been month bymonth this year.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
All right, Emmanuel, you grew up in Long Island.
Were you a Yankee fan growingup?
Yeah, which?
Speaker 2 (15:19):
makes this extra cool .
Speaker 1 (15:20):
All right.
So you're a Yankee fan growingup.
You're 25 years old.
You're one of the radio voicesfor the New York Yankees.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Pause for a minute and think about that and then
tell me what that means to you.
Yeah, it's a great question.
I reflect on it a lot.
It means everything.
Honestly, it's everything Iwanted when I decided this is
something I wanted to do.
(15:52):
You set lofty kind ofunachievable goals.
When you think about it,because the odds are just so
slim, people will tell you dreambig or nothing's impossible,
but the reality is it's probablynot going to happen.
Like, the odds are just not inyour favor.
It's a very big world.
A lot of people want to do this.
A lot of people are really goodat it.
That's never lost on me either.
There are people who could do italmost as good, as good or
better than me probably outthere, and I was lucky enough to
(16:14):
be in the right place at theright time.
Now I'm not taking anything awayfrom my ability to do this, but
like you have to believe inyourself to be able to do this,
but you don't, you should neverbe naive enough to think there
isn't somebody else who can.
So it means everything thatthey took a shot on me and
they've continued to show faithin me throughout the season and
(16:35):
when I set those lofty kind ofunachievable goals, this was
right there at the top and Ithought, wow, if I could call
Yankee baseball at some point, Icould be 40 years old, 50 years
old, 60 years old.
It would be a dream come true.
So the fact that I could do itnow, however long it lasts, the
fact that I could do it now isreally, really surreal and means
(16:55):
everything, because it's all Iever dreamt of doing in this
business.
And now I could always say,regardless of where it leads, I
could always say, hey, I didcall, I did call Yankee baseball
, and I could always look backon this season very fondly.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Have you?
Have you interacted much withthe team?
Team like, how does that sortof work from your perspective?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
obviously you're traveling with them and and and
things of that nature, soexplain how that has worked for
you yeah, I think one of thethings when you are, when you
are broadcasting regularly, youyou get more access to the team.
Now, if you're covering theteam here and there, it's it's
tougher.
Or if you're just in theclubhouse for home games, it's
tougher.
But when you're on the teamcharter and you're flying with
(17:37):
them to different cities, it'snot like you have mega access
where you're just talking to theteam right every second of the
day.
It's nothing like that.
But the players know who youare, you're identifiable.
The the coaching staff is goingto give you way more time if you
just want to talk shop withsomebody because you're there.
You're there on a day-in,day-out basis.
(17:57):
You're, you sometimes aretalking to the coaches about
something nothing to do withbaseball, just just life.
Or or you walk back into thehotel and you bump into somebody
as you're about to walk out ofthe elevator and you have a you
know like they call an elevatorpitch, uh but you have like that
level of time to just like talkabout whatever with them.
So you develop and buildrelationships that way and I
(18:18):
think that that helps, like Ithink every little bit helps,
because then you see somebody inthe hotel and then you see them
in the dugout the same day,you're more likely to say hello
to them.
Say hello to them and it leadsto a conversation, as opposed to
if you're more of a foreign uh,foreign face or um, or somebody
they're not, they're not usedto interacting with on on a
(18:40):
day-in, day-out basis orsomebody, uh, they may not trust
as much.
So I think that's the biggestthing with with being with them
and traveling with them is theability to interact with people
that otherwise you would have.
Maybe once every two weeks youwould talk to them, maybe that's
five times in a week, and Ithink that helps every bit and I
(19:01):
remember I go back to my dayswhen I was about your age.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
I was working for the cbs affiliate in baltimore and
I'm an oriole fan.
You know I'm from the, the DCarea Don't hold on that against
me, emmanuel.
So so I remember interviewingOrioles in the locker room in
like the, you know, from like 94to 97, 98 is kind of how long I
did that and you know you'dhave to pinch yourself a little
(19:26):
bit here.
I am talking to Cal Ripken andMike Nusina and Brady Anderson,
but I think and you know this aswell as anybody you want to go
oh my gosh, that's Aaron Judge.
But then you're probablythinking well, this is my job,
right?
How hard is that to toe thatline of being a 25-year-old
super fan and this is my gig?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, I think Fordham and FUV.
They're lucky enough where BobAarons, who is the legendary
sports director there for yearshe set it up, where they had
access to a lot of the localprofessional teams.
They would train reporters togo there and cover the teams
while they were in school, and Iwas fortunate enough to cover
the Yankees in 2019 as a Fordhamstudent and that taught me a
(20:10):
lot about putting fandom asideand from day one it was just how
do I be the most professionalreporter I can be?
How do I interact with otherreporters?
Well, how do I conduct myselfaround a player?
How do I not overstep, if youwill?
So that really trained me well.
But still, there are momentswhere you're like, wow, I'm
walking on a plane and there'sAaron Judge and Giancarlo
(20:31):
Stanton sitting, sitting rightnext to each other and they're
sharing a laugh, or juan soto isright behind them.
So you don't, you can stillfeel it.
I think it's okay to feel it,because if you don't, this is no
longer cool to you and I thinkit should always be cool to you.
So, um, the little fan in youshould always, should always
(20:53):
have a part of you, especiallyif you're a fan of that team.
But balancing it and thinking,okay, I feel this, but I'm not
going to show it or I'm notgoing to express it, because
then all of a sudden they thinkyou're, who is this fan, who's?
Who's riding around with?
Speaker 1 (21:06):
us.
Who got on our?
Who got on our plane?
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Who let him on?
yeah, exactly so I think,feeling it is good, but
balancing it and balancing thoseemotions, it's really important
uh, all right, how do youbecause the baseball season is
so long there, it's so intricate, there's so much going on how
(21:27):
do you sort of prepare, uh, foreach broadcast and and and this
is a shot of your booth we seeyour score and your scorecard
and obviously where the guys arein the outfield and some notes.
So how long?
Because there's games everynight, how do you go about
preparation?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
The prep definitely shortens if it's within a series
or within a road trip, asopposed to leading into it and
preparing a team from scratch.
So you want to get familiarwith everybody on a roster and
the trend lines of a certainteam and the storyline
surrounding a team you're facingahead of time.
But once you're in it, like Idon't think my preparation for
that night's game is much morethan what I'm doing at the
(22:11):
ballpark each day, for thatnight's game is much more than
what I'm doing at the ballparkeach day.
So yeah, I have a regimen ofhow I fill out my scorecard,
what stats I need in there,maybe if there's a story we want
to potentially tell aboutsomebody who knows if you're
going to fit it in.
But you write down a couple ofkeywords on your scorebook so
you can remind yourself hey,this is something we might want
to dive into with this guy.
(22:32):
But outside of that, that, onceyou have the fundamental
preparation on a team, that dayat the ballpark is more so okay,
what is the player saying inthe clubhouse?
What is aaron boone sayingabout the team today?
Because for a yankee fan,unless you're hitting them over
the head with here's whathappened back in may they don't
really care anymore.
It's about that night's gameand they understand the
(22:53):
trajectory of the season.
And that's the differencebetween being, I think, a local
broadcaster and a national oneis you don't have to hit them
over the head with the storylineof the season.
They've lived it.
So you can just tell themwhat's happening that night's
game.
Now for the other team it's alittle bit different, because
the Yankee fan may not know whatthe Marlins have done all year
or who even is on the team, soyou want to introduce that to
(23:14):
them a little bit more as if youwere doing a national game.
So I think a lot of it is whatyou gather at the stadium,
especially when you're in theswing of a series.
But the rudimentary who's thisplayer?
Where is he from?
What's a cool story about him?
Should be done before a series,just because you want to at at
(23:35):
a baseline if it's a 12-2 gamein the fifth inning be able to
tell you something about whothis number five hitter on the
Marlins is.
That that nobody's heard of atthis stage of the season in New
York.
Now other people have heard ofthem, but but this market hasn't
, so I always get that doneahead of time, and then I just
go day by day throughout thecourse of a series and adjust to
that day.
And what could be different?
Speaker 1 (23:54):
So I'm looking at this picture here what a great
photo you took.
I'm pinching myself, dude,looking at and I just called you
dude I'm pinching myselflooking at this and I'm not even
a Yankee fan, that's just that.
That manual.
You need to take this picture,man, I'm serious and frame it
because that is just such anawesome photo and it like you've
(24:18):
made it man.
You're like that's big time andI just look, I just admittedly
we we connected on Facebook andthings of that nature and I'm
just sort of meeting youformally now but I'm telling you
that is just you've made it,man, and that is an awesome
photo and I think you shouldcherish the hell out of that
thing.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
No, I appreciate that man More than you know.
Like that photo reminded me ofsome of the work that you put in
to to achieve a moment likethat.
Just the grand stage of yankeestadium in the backdrop and I'd
done a series on the road atthat point, but that was my
first game at yankee stadium andeverything is flowing through
you like that's not only yankeestadium but you're doing a game
(24:57):
for the yankees, you're in johnsterling's seat, because that's
actually john sterling's seat atthe ballpark.
So a lot hit me that day and Ifigured, okay, let's capture it
best I can with with the prepand the backdrop.
So, yeah, that's probably one.
You're right about framing it.
That's one that'll stick withme, you know, rest of my life
what's it?
Speaker 1 (25:15):
uh, what's it like working with Susan?
I mean, because she is just abaseball encyclopedia, isn't she
?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
she, she really is.
And I can't really beappreciative enough of, you know
, starting the season when I wassupposed to fill in on 25 games
and and we did a couple springtraining games together that was
my first time doing nineinnings with susan because last
year we did a lot of post gametogether.
But that's a five minutesegment give or take and it's
much different than interactingover the course of a full
(25:42):
baseball game.
So she couldn't have been morewelcoming and made it.
She could have made it easieron me in that moment to do the
broadcast effectively and towork with her and be friendly.
So for someone in her positionwho's been around as long as she
has, and somebody as young as Iam, for her to do that really
meant the world and that'scontinued throughout the year
(26:03):
really meant the world andthat's continued throughout the
year.
And I think you learn as you go,like you learn what her
different points are in thebroadcast and how to handle
certain moments in the game andcertain points that she makes,
whether I can add to it or Ican't add to it.
You learn these things as yougo.
And oh, did I maybe talk toomuch in that spot?
(26:24):
Did I not talk enough in thatspot?
So you're always evaluating howyour camaraderie and rapport is
on a broadcast and I thinkthat's something I'm always
trying to get better at.
But she's made it super easy onme and been a great mentor to
where where, after certainstretches of gain, she'll give
me a little nugget on hey,here's something you could think
about, or or I like the way youdid this, or maybe try to do
(26:46):
this a little bit better.
So hearing that from hercarries so much weight because
of who she is and what she'smeant to the game and and how
much she knows and how muchshe's heard.
So, yeah, as a partner and amentor like figure, yeah,
susan's been everything.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Talk a little bit, and I know you got to run here,
what.
What is a typical day for youconsist of?
Like I always see, I was likeyou, man.
When I was a kid, I was likemore enamored with the
broadcasters and I was just asenamored with the broadcasters
as I was with the athletes.
So and and this is you andJustin, by the way, at a game,
(27:25):
so like, when do you get to thepark and how do you battle
traffic?
And I like that's the kind ofstuff I love to hear, man, yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
I try to pick the spots of the day, unsuccessful a
lot, but I try to pick thespots of the day that have the
least traffic.
So after we hop off here I'mgoing to try to head to the
stadium around 1230, give ortake.
Now you might hit some traffic,but not as much as you would
hit at one or two.
So I'm going to try to get tothe stadium around two o'clock
(27:53):
for for a seven o'clock game andthen you have an hour of.
It could be nothing, it couldbe just settling into the booth,
it could be finishing up someprep that you might not have
done that morning and gettingeverything set.
Then three o'clock typically isclubhouse.
Three to four, clubhouseavailability and access with the
players, and then four o'clockis boone and he'll speak in the
press conference room.
(28:14):
Then you could go to battingpractice.
You go to the opposing teamsclubhouse.
You could hear from theopposing teams manager.
The rest is what you make of it.
You could have a bite to eatfor dinner.
You go into the booth, you canpolish off some preparation
before we get on the air at 625for a 705 game.
So it's very regimented, but alot of it is what you make of it
.
I try to get there at 2, 230for a 7 o'clock game always and
(28:39):
try to leave earlier so there'sless traffic on the way in park,
in the garage, and then thebenefit and the perk of doing
postgame is you're not battlingpostgame stadium traffic.
Everyone's left already.
So if you're leaving thestadium 45 minutes after the
game has already ended, I'mflying home.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
I'm flying home to Long Island.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Right right, I do enjoy that.
People ask do you drive?
Do you take the train?
I love driving there becausethe way home is very peaceful
and relaxing.
I would no one on the road inmy way.
After a 40, 45 minute postgameshow.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
That's awesome, Awesome.
And then last question howabout on the road?
Are you on the like?
How does that work?
You're at the team hotel.
Do you guys charter bus over?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (29:24):
We charter everywhere we go, unless it's a super
local road trip.
We charter everywhere we go andwe bus from the charter to the
team hotel and then from theteam hotel.
There are bus times every dayto the ballpark there's an early
bus, there's a players-only busand there's a late bus.
So there are three options, oneof which I can never do the
middle one, but the early orlate I can get on.
(29:46):
So, depending on when theclubhouse is each day, I'll pick
which bus to the ballpark I'mgoing to be on and the rest is
what you make of it.
Sort of like a day at thestadium.
You can walk around the town orthe city that you're unfamiliar
with In my case I'm familiarwith because I'm experiencing a
lot of these for the first timeWalk around in the morning, you
could do some prep, you couldhang out in your hotel room
(30:06):
there's a lot you can do, butit's always regimented around
the bus times and, in the caseof going to and from the city,
the charter times where we'reflying together.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
And are you?
When you get off the hotel andgot off the bus in the city, at
the hotel are fans around.
Are you guys mobbed?
Yeah, that must be cool, right,traveling with the Beatles.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Yeah, yeah, essentially Depending on the
city, but a lot of times there'sa gate right by the hotel.
It's gated off and then thereare a bunch of fans waiting
behind that gate asking forautographs or waiting for a
judge or a Soto or a Stanton ora Cole to walk out of the bus so
they can yell their names asloud as they can and try to get
(30:48):
some time with them.
But that's pretty consistentevery city we go, but some more
than others.
Like I remember Boston becauseFenway Park has a very intricate
setup.
Where you're walking out of thethird base side right to the
bus, it was a mob.
Not even at the hotel outsideof the third base side, right to
the bus, there were.
It was a mob.
Not even at the hotel outsideof the ballpark a mob of fans
waiting for for the players totry to grab them right before
(31:11):
they get on the bus.
That one stuck out to me themost awesome, awesome.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
And and did you call judges 300th?
Right, I did last week.
What was that like?
Speaker 2 (31:21):
that's my last question, yeah surreal Surreal
is the word because you know itcould come.
But we had three days therewhere he was sitting on 299 and
the count was 3-0.
So I thought he was gettingwalked in that spot.
So it had already beenintentionally walked.
Three pitches were pretty faroutside the zone to judge.
(31:44):
We know how much he's beenwalked, so I was surprised they
threw it even close to the plate, or that he swung on the 3-0
pitch and he did.
And the second he swung theball flew off his bat and you
knew this was it.
So the jolt inside of youknowing that, hey, this is it.
But I didn't really expect itin this moment.
It was a pure adrenalinetakeover, which you really
(32:06):
wouldn't want it any other way,but it was pretty cool that it
happened in that fashion.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Do you know what you're going to say before you
say it?
Do you rehearse, like thishappens here, or is a lot of it
just natural, based on yourtraining and experience?
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Good question.
I try to keep a lot of itnatural because I think whenever
you plan it could come off asforced or it may not.
You may.
You're more likely to stumblebecause you have a line in mind.
So I try not to plan it.
But what I will always do isthink ahead of time and if there
is something I think it's wortha thought and exploring it and
(32:46):
you always want even if youdon't think of anything you want
to keep or a key nugget like Idon't, I didn't have a line in
mind, but I had fastest ever inmy in my mind because I knew
that had to be part of the call,because 300 not saying it's not
unique, because only 162players have ever done it, but
300 isn't the same as 400 or 500when we talk about the all-time
greats, but 300, when you'rethe fastest ever do it, that has
(33:06):
to be part of the call becausethat's what makes Aaron Judge so
unique in this moment.
So the call wasn't in mind, butfastest ever was in my mind
awesome.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Well, emmanuel, I want to thank you so much for
joining me, especially here ongame day.
I really appreciate the timefrom everyone here in the
capital region.
You know, know you got fanshere, you got a fan in me, and
we wish you nothing but luck andsuccess in the future.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Really appreciate it, brian.
It was great to chat, great todo this and great to meet you.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
And you know what, when you come up to Albany
during the Siena season, lunchis on me.
Oh, I appreciate that Seriously, it'll be on me though I, lunch
is on me.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Oh, I appreciate that .
Seriously, it'll be on me,though.
I'll try to.
I'll try to fight that checkaway from you.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
I mean you're working for the Yankees.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
You're buying lunch, dude.
All right, my man.
Hey, good luck.
Thanks again, and we reallyappreciate it.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Of course, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
That is Emmanuel Berbari.
He is the Yankee play-by-playannouncer on the radio side of
things and the voice of Siena,and I want to thank everyone for
watching.
I want to thank you for joiningme.
Have a great day, everyone.
Until next time, we'll see you.
Hello and welcome everybody to Sound Off with Sink
Off.
I'm your host, brian Sinkoff.
Of course, sound Off with SinkOff, sponsored by the Sink Off
Realty Group, full service realestate brokerage right here in
the Capital Region.
Well, you may not know his face, but you certainly know his
voice.
He is not only the voice ofSiena College, but also the
(00:20):
voice of the New York Yankees onthe radio, and I'm pleased to
be joined by Emmanuel Barbari.
Emmanuel, what an awesomeopportunity to have you on.
I really appreciate it.
And how the heck are you?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm doing well.
Brian, great to meet you.
It's nice to not only meetpeople who, hey, I could hop on
a podcast, but I can hop on apodcast with somebody in the
Capital Region who shares thatblood with me, if you will a
little bit.
So great to meet you and greatto be here.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
All right.
So, Emmanuel, your story ispretty well documented.
But for those not familiar,we're going to go back in time a
little bit.
You're 24, is that right?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Just turned 25.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Just turned 25.
You're a puppy, you're a baby.
So you're in the booth, you'rewith Justin Shackle, you're
doing play-by-play for thefreaking New York Yankees.
That's unbelievable.
I have to pinch myself justsaying that to you.
But let's go back, man.
You're from Long Island.
You went to Fordham, much likeme at Maryland.
(01:23):
You did the college radiostation thing.
So take me back to how it is.
You've got.
You even got involved inbroadcasting.
Then we'll get to the Yankees,of course.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah.
So it was all sort of by chancegetting involved with
broadcasting In high school.
Even before my Fordham days oneof my best friends was starting
a live video streaming program,which had never been done at my
high school.
Now it seems like high schoolsacross the country adopt
something similar or at least alot of them but that was foreign
to my school, harborfields onLong Island in the Greenlawn,
(01:57):
huntington area.
And he helped launch that withone of our English journalism
teachers, Mr Ambrosio, and hejust asked me to come and help
out one night.
And you're a high school kid,you want to be involved with
your friends, you don't want toget left out of stuff.
So I figured, why not?
Why shouldn't I go help outwith this live stream of the
Harborfields basketball game?
(02:18):
And they needed an announcerthat night.
It just so happened to be.
It wasn't something I waslooking to do, it wasn't
something that had reallycrossed my mind, but I called
that Harborfields game by chance.
On this live video streamingprogram.
It was just going out to theinternet.
It was called High School Cubeat the time.
I think that's now called NFHSNetwork, but it was High School
(02:40):
Cube as it started and somethingclicked in that moment.
It was that aha of wow.
I've been watching all theseYankee games Nick games, jet
games, any game and I have justas much interest in the
announcers and what they'resaying as the game itself.
And that realization led toeverything else I've done since
(03:03):
then.
At that moment I figured, okay,if I really want to do this,
let me put everything I haveinto doing this and getting
better at it and learning aboutit.
I went to a camp after myfreshman year of high school at
Chaminade, kind of down the roadon Long Island, and the guy who
ran it, a guy named PatReichart, went to Fordham.
He's a Fordham alumnus, so heintroduced me to Fordham and
(03:24):
WFUV, the radio station,everything that had to do with
Fordham.
So the realization of I want todo broadcasting in high school
and meeting Mr Reichart andknowing I wanted to go to
Fordham made me very tunnelvision, like this is how I'm
going to do it.
And then I went to Fordham,just applied myself as much as I
(03:44):
can and got the reps and gotbetter and tried to improve on
the air.
But really, really, what led toeverything now is the
internship at WFAN after myfreshman year at Fordham the
talk shows that came from thatand working at Siena and Hudson
(04:05):
Valley in the backdrop of doingstuff at FAN.
I think the internship was sortof the by skipping a lot of
steps in the story theinternship was the launching pad
for everything else, if youwill.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So you get the internship at FAN.
Obviously, that leads to youdoing some things with the
atlantic 10, uh, things of thatnature.
Um, how did you get the cn andcapital region?
As you know, we're prettypassionate about our saints here
in the uh capital region, soyou get the sienna gig in like
the fall of 21.
How does that come about?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
yeah.
So I saw a job listing thatthat Sienna had an opening for
basketball home road men'sbasketball broadcaster but also
women's TV, and I saw a bunch ofother sports and I'm like what
a great opportunity.
You're not only doing a fullseason of basketball, you're
doing radio and TV, but you havethe opportunity to do all these
different sports.
(05:00):
What a great chance for a youngbroadcaster.
That fit the profile of what Iwas looking for.
But I had no connection toSiena.
I just thought, okay, how couldI go for this and position
myself best for a job when,frankly, in the Northeast region
you don't have a lot of similaropportunities?
(05:21):
You have a lot of schools but alot of them freelance it
together for their fall andspring sports.
Or you have a bigger schoollike a, like a St John's for
instance, where they've had avoice and John Minko on
Learfield for for years.
So those jobs just don't comearound very often in this region
or in this Northeast region.
So I thought, okay, how could Ibest position myself?
(05:45):
And since I was at FAN, thingssort of tying together.
It's neat in this way.
Bob Huesler, who was a longtimeupdate anchor at the fan, is the
voice of Fairfield and Imentioned it to him and said,
hey, I put in for the Siena job,anything you would know about
Siena, having worked in the MAC.
And he said, oh yeah, like Iknow there, I know their sports
(06:06):
information director, I knowsome people there.
Let me call on your behalf.
So between that and I had acouple other references call.
But it was really Bob, who Ijust mentioned to him in passing
, and he went out of his way tobe nice, like I by no means
asked him to put in a word, buthe had listened to some of my
(06:27):
work and coached me on some ofmy basketball tapes over my
Fordham years and he was niceenough to to believe in me at
the time and I think that's whatgot me the interview and then
the interview ultimately got methe job All right?
Speaker 1 (06:38):
So you're doing Siena basketball, then you're also
working at the fan and you weshould point out, you don't live
here in the capital region, youstill live on the island,
correct?
So you're?
You're doing the, you're doingthe commute, you're up and back
and you're sleeping where youcould, you know, sleep in hotels
and friends and and and mediamembers and things of that
(06:59):
nature um, and you're stilldoing updates on on the fan in
new york, right?
Still doing updates.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Still doing fan in New York right.
Still doing updates, stilldoing shows yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
So tell me how the Yankee gig evolves, not even you
being the radio guy, but justeven getting sort of involved in
the broadcast to begin with.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Right and getting involved with the broadcast to
begin with.
None of this happens withactually announcing games and
doing play-by-play withoutgetting a foot in, if you will,
with the Yankees in the firstplace.
So the way that all comes aboutis the basis, and the reason I
called it a launching padearlier was I was internal at
the fan.
I had interned, I'd workedbehind the scenes, I had done
on-air stuff for a few years andthen once I sort of got my
(07:39):
chops and was starting to growas an on-air talent there I
think doing the Siena stuff onthe outside and working for the
Hudson Valley Renegades in minorleague baseball, it still kept
me in mind as a play-by-play guyand the talk shows maybe had my
bosses looking at me asversatile and I would never say
(07:59):
no to any opportunity at a placelike WFAN.
But I ultimately wanted to doplay-by-play and I wouldn't say
that because any opportunitythere, a place like WFAN.
But I ultimately wanted to doplay-by-play and I wouldn't say
that because any opportunitythere was great.
But they saw me doing HudsonValley and Siena and sort of
honing my craft and gettingbetter at it.
So when different play-by-playopenings would come about within
the FAN and Odyssey family,because there are multiple
(08:22):
stations there in New York.
They would put my name in themix for it.
So it wouldn't necessarily meanI would get the job, but my
name was being talked about inthat light and that's what being
internal helped with.
During that search and thenultimately, going into 2023, I
didn't even know if I was goingto go back to Hudson Valley
because the position had reallychanged, where I had to be in
(08:45):
the office around nine in themorning each game day, and the
only reason I could do it in2022, in addition to the fan was
because I had the flexibilityof, hey, let's show up a few
hours before the game, do thegame, then maybe drive back to
the city and do an overnightshow, like that's how crazy my
2022 summer was, but it was somuch fun 2023, I probably
(09:07):
couldn't have done the samething.
So I was wondering for a fewmonths there, like what's my
baseball situation looking like?
And in 23, I was wondering thatinternally.
But just timing and luck, thepre and post opportunity opens
at FAN for the Yankees andJustin ended up doing a lot of
them last year.
He was on TV a bunch doing yes,so I would do a ton of those
(09:29):
post-game shows that led to endof the year John and Susan both
take off, justin and I work aseries together and that put us
both in the mix for doingfill-ins this year, and then
John retired about a week and ahalf into this year.
So this year plus span a lot ofmoving parts, but getting in
the door from being an internalleft-hand guy going into 2023 is
(09:53):
the only reason I'm here todaydoing regular Yankee play by
play.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
All right, so, and I'm sharing it.
You've probably seen some ofthe screens here.
I'm sharing some of the, someof your pictures.
You know, some of your, yourstuff.
There you are with your, yourpartner there, um, justin
Shackle.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah, I appreciate you being prepared with these
pictures.
It is awesome yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Well, you know, hey, I'm an old timer, though you
know what I'm saying I've beenknown.
I've been known, um, so that'syou and and, uh, that's you and
Justin.
So he was also a Fordham grad,much like you.
All right, so let's go back.
You get the call in likeSeptember of 2023.
I think Susan had Russia, shana, right, so she was off that
(10:38):
weekend.
John took the weekend off.
It was, I guess, a trip toPittsburgh.
They call you in, right, muchlike getting called up to the
majors, and they say you'regoing to Pittsburgh and you're
doing play by play.
Did you have to change yourdiaper at that point, Emmanuel?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
I mean seriously.
I got to say.
I got to say, brian, Iappreciate you framing it that
way because it takes me back notthat long ago, but it takes me
back to that moment.
And while a lot of the stuffI've gotten to this year is
surreal and it's been a blast, Idon't take any of it for
granted.
A lot of it has been.
When John retired a week and ahalf into the year it was just
(11:15):
like wham, bam, let's go.
And then I've just been tryingto do the best job I can the
rest of the year.
But last year was different,where I hadn't done a big league
game before play-by-play.
I had a few weeks to preparefor it and think about it and
really digest it and it wasdefinitely a magical moment
where I just got him back fromvisiting one of my friends in
(11:38):
Charlotte.
He lives in Charlotte and I hadthe weekend off and we just had
a fun weekend in Charlotte andwe were hanging out.
And I came back and that week Iwas just supposed to catch up
with one of my bosses at FAN.
I had no idea this was on theradar.
It was just supposed to be ageneral like how you doing,
how's the season going type ofthing I go into the office it's
(11:58):
not just him, but it's my otherdirect boss at FAN, sitting
there together.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
You're like am I handing in the keys?
Is this it?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
I'm like what's going on here?
They're never in the same placeat the same time Do I have on
here?
They're never in the same placeat the same time.
Do I have a box to clean out mydesk?
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
So they asked me had I everbeen to pittsburgh?
And that's when I knewsomething was going on and I
said, oh, I've been there once.
A fordham women's basketballgame.
Back in 2019, the women'sbasketball team won the a10s and
and uh, we talked for a coupleminutes and beat around the bush
(12:30):
, if you will, for a few minutes, but then they broke it to me
that John and Susan were bothoff and they thought it was a
great opportunity for me to domy first three major league
games.
And they also told me howsupportive Susan was of me
getting the opportunity to do it, which, leaving the room, that
made me feel so much betterabout the opportunity, because
(12:51):
there's a certain element of wow, I handle this, can I?
Uh, am I truly?
Is this truly my time to tobreak into the big leagues?
But, uh, knowing that john andsusan were so supportive and
wanted that for me, um, it wasreally between my bosses being
so supportive and knowing I wasworking with justin and knowing
I had the support of john andsusan.
Yeah, those next couple ofweeks getting ready for it but
(13:13):
also keeping everything inperspective was was really
special.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
And obviously here is a picture of of Justin and
Susan there, obviously that youknow this is them doing a game
together let's talk about.
So this season, you know Johnretires, you know, as you said,
about two weeks or so into theseason.
At that point, did you know, ordid you like, how did you find
(13:38):
out this was going to be more ofa quote-unquote permanent thing
in terms of you really having apart of these broadcasts?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, I sort of knew, because Justin and I were each
supposed to do 25 games fillingin for for john when he didn't
travel this year.
So I knew I had those games asas a baseline, but I didn't know
when john retired like younever take this for granted,
they could go in any direction,you know this is a legend
retiring and and vacating thatseat.
(14:05):
So they could have doneanything.
They could have done any plan,they could have brought in
anyone but the second.
They started to give me andjustin more games on the
schedule when john retired and Ithink they scheduled initially
through memorial day and therewere a ton of games for me and
justin to split and then, oncememorial day came around, they
(14:26):
scheduled more.
And then they scheduled moreand and ricky ricardo has done a
few games, our spanish languageannouncer and and brendan burke
, the islanders announcer, hasdone a couple as well, but it's
mostly outside of that.
Justin and I have tag-teamed itand gone back and forth, back
and forth.
So once they continued using us, that was sort of the indicator
that I would have more of aheavy load.
But I was ready for anything.
(14:48):
It could have been the baselineof 25 that I was scheduled for
going into the year.
It could have been the baselineof 25 that I was scheduled for
going into the year.
It could have been 40.
It could have been 35.
It could have been 50.
It could have been 80.
It was just a matter of takewhat you're given and they
started to show a lot of faithin us, initially just by handing
us those original games, and Ithink that's when I started to
(15:10):
know.
But the rest has been touch andgo.
It's sort of been month bymonth this year.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
All right, Emmanuel, you grew up in Long Island.
Were you a Yankee fan growingup?
Yeah, which?
Speaker 2 (15:19):
makes this extra cool .
Speaker 1 (15:20):
All right.
So you're a Yankee fan growingup.
You're 25 years old.
You're one of the radio voicesfor the New York Yankees.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Pause for a minute and think about that and then
tell me what that means to you.
Yeah, it's a great question.
I reflect on it a lot.
It means everything.
Honestly, it's everything Iwanted when I decided this is
something I wanted to do.
(15:52):
You set lofty kind ofunachievable goals.
When you think about it,because the odds are just so
slim, people will tell you dreambig or nothing's impossible,
but the reality is it's probablynot going to happen.
Like, the odds are just not inyour favor.
It's a very big world.
A lot of people want to do this.
A lot of people are really goodat it.
That's never lost on me either.
There are people who could do italmost as good, as good or
better than me probably outthere, and I was lucky enough to
(16:14):
be in the right place at theright time.
Now I'm not taking anything awayfrom my ability to do this, but
like you have to believe inyourself to be able to do this,
but you don't, you should neverbe naive enough to think there
isn't somebody else who can.
So it means everything thatthey took a shot on me and
they've continued to show faithin me throughout the season and
(16:35):
when I set those lofty kind ofunachievable goals, this was
right there at the top and Ithought, wow, if I could call
Yankee baseball at some point, Icould be 40 years old, 50 years
old, 60 years old.
It would be a dream come true.
So the fact that I could do itnow, however long it lasts, the
fact that I could do it now isreally, really surreal and means
(16:55):
everything, because it's all Iever dreamt of doing in this
business.
And now I could always say,regardless of where it leads, I
could always say, hey, I didcall, I did call Yankee baseball
, and I could always look backon this season very fondly.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Have you?
Have you interacted much withthe team?
Team like, how does that sortof work from your perspective?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
obviously you're traveling with them and and and
things of that nature, soexplain how that has worked for
you yeah, I think one of thethings when you are, when you
are broadcasting regularly, youyou get more access to the team.
Now, if you're covering theteam here and there, it's it's
tougher.
Or if you're just in theclubhouse for home games, it's
tougher.
But when you're on the teamcharter and you're flying with
(17:37):
them to different cities, it'snot like you have mega access
where you're just talking to theteam right every second of the
day.
It's nothing like that.
But the players know who youare, you're identifiable.
The the coaching staff is goingto give you way more time if you
just want to talk shop withsomebody because you're there.
You're there on a day-in,day-out basis.
(17:57):
You're, you sometimes aretalking to the coaches about
something nothing to do withbaseball, just just life.
Or or you walk back into thehotel and you bump into somebody
as you're about to walk out ofthe elevator and you have a you
know like they call an elevatorpitch, uh but you have like that
level of time to just like talkabout whatever with them.
So you develop and buildrelationships that way and I
(18:18):
think that that helps, like Ithink every little bit helps,
because then you see somebody inthe hotel and then you see them
in the dugout the same day,you're more likely to say hello
to them.
Say hello to them and it leadsto a conversation, as opposed to
if you're more of a foreign uh,foreign face or um, or somebody
they're not, they're not usedto interacting with on on a
(18:40):
day-in, day-out basis orsomebody, uh, they may not trust
as much.
So I think that's the biggestthing with with being with them
and traveling with them is theability to interact with people
that otherwise you would have.
Maybe once every two weeks youwould talk to them, maybe that's
five times in a week, and Ithink that helps every bit and I
(19:01):
remember I go back to my dayswhen I was about your age.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
I was working for the cbs affiliate in baltimore and
I'm an oriole fan.
You know I'm from the, the DCarea Don't hold on that against
me, emmanuel.
So so I remember interviewingOrioles in the locker room in
like the, you know, from like 94to 97, 98 is kind of how long I
did that and you know you'dhave to pinch yourself a little
(19:26):
bit here.
I am talking to Cal Ripken andMike Nusina and Brady Anderson,
but I think and you know this aswell as anybody you want to go
oh my gosh, that's Aaron Judge.
But then you're probablythinking well, this is my job,
right?
How hard is that to toe thatline of being a 25-year-old
super fan and this is my gig?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, I think Fordham and FUV.
They're lucky enough where BobAarons, who is the legendary
sports director there for yearshe set it up, where they had
access to a lot of the localprofessional teams.
They would train reporters togo there and cover the teams
while they were in school, and Iwas fortunate enough to cover
the Yankees in 2019 as a Fordhamstudent and that taught me a
(20:10):
lot about putting fandom asideand from day one it was just how
do I be the most professionalreporter I can be?
How do I interact with otherreporters?
Well, how do I conduct myselfaround a player?
How do I not overstep, if youwill?
So that really trained me well.
But still, there are momentswhere you're like, wow, I'm
walking on a plane and there'sAaron Judge and Giancarlo
(20:31):
Stanton sitting, sitting rightnext to each other and they're
sharing a laugh, or juan soto isright behind them.
So you don't, you can stillfeel it.
I think it's okay to feel it,because if you don't, this is no
longer cool to you and I thinkit should always be cool to you.
So, um, the little fan in youshould always, should always
(20:53):
have a part of you, especiallyif you're a fan of that team.
But balancing it and thinking,okay, I feel this, but I'm not
going to show it or I'm notgoing to express it, because
then all of a sudden they thinkyou're, who is this fan, who's?
Who's riding around with?
Speaker 1 (21:06):
us.
Who got on our?
Who got on our plane?
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Who let him on?
yeah, exactly so I think,feeling it is good, but
balancing it and balancing thoseemotions, it's really important
uh, all right, how do youbecause the baseball season is
so long there, it's so intricate, there's so much going on how
(21:27):
do you sort of prepare, uh, foreach broadcast and and and this
is a shot of your booth we seeyour score and your scorecard
and obviously where the guys arein the outfield and some notes.
So how long?
Because there's games everynight, how do you go about
preparation?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
The prep definitely shortens if it's within a series
or within a road trip, asopposed to leading into it and
preparing a team from scratch.
So you want to get familiarwith everybody on a roster and
the trend lines of a certainteam and the storyline
surrounding a team you're facingahead of time.
But once you're in it, like Idon't think my preparation for
that night's game is much morethan what I'm doing at the
(22:11):
ballpark each day, for thatnight's game is much more than
what I'm doing at the ballparkeach day.
So yeah, I have a regimen ofhow I fill out my scorecard,
what stats I need in there,maybe if there's a story we want
to potentially tell aboutsomebody who knows if you're
going to fit it in.
But you write down a couple ofkeywords on your scorebook so
you can remind yourself hey,this is something we might want
to dive into with this guy.
(22:32):
But outside of that, that, onceyou have the fundamental
preparation on a team, that dayat the ballpark is more so okay,
what is the player saying inthe clubhouse?
What is aaron boone sayingabout the team today?
Because for a yankee fan,unless you're hitting them over
the head with here's whathappened back in may they don't
really care anymore.
It's about that night's gameand they understand the
(22:53):
trajectory of the season.
And that's the differencebetween being, I think, a local
broadcaster and a national oneis you don't have to hit them
over the head with the storylineof the season.
They've lived it.
So you can just tell themwhat's happening that night's
game.
Now for the other team it's alittle bit different, because
the Yankee fan may not know whatthe Marlins have done all year
or who even is on the team, soyou want to introduce that to
(23:14):
them a little bit more as if youwere doing a national game.
So I think a lot of it is whatyou gather at the stadium,
especially when you're in theswing of a series.
But the rudimentary who's thisplayer?
Where is he from?
What's a cool story about him?
Should be done before a series,just because you want to at at
(23:35):
a baseline if it's a 12-2 gamein the fifth inning be able to
tell you something about whothis number five hitter on the
Marlins is.
That that nobody's heard of atthis stage of the season in New
York.
Now other people have heard ofthem, but but this market hasn't
, so I always get that doneahead of time, and then I just
go day by day throughout thecourse of a series and adjust to
that day.
And what could be different?
Speaker 1 (23:54):
So I'm looking at this picture here what a great
photo you took.
I'm pinching myself, dude,looking at and I just called you
dude I'm pinching myselflooking at this and I'm not even
a Yankee fan, that's just that.
That manual.
You need to take this picture,man, I'm serious and frame it
because that is just such anawesome photo and it like you've
(24:18):
made it man.
You're like that's big time andI just look, I just admittedly
we we connected on Facebook andthings of that nature and I'm
just sort of meeting youformally now but I'm telling you
that is just you've made it,man, and that is an awesome
photo and I think you shouldcherish the hell out of that
thing.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
No, I appreciate that man More than you know.
Like that photo reminded me ofsome of the work that you put in
to to achieve a moment likethat.
Just the grand stage of yankeestadium in the backdrop and I'd
done a series on the road atthat point, but that was my
first game at yankee stadium andeverything is flowing through
you like that's not only yankeestadium but you're doing a game
(24:57):
for the yankees, you're in johnsterling's seat, because that's
actually john sterling's seat atthe ballpark.
So a lot hit me that day and Ifigured, okay, let's capture it
best I can with with the prepand the backdrop.
So, yeah, that's probably one.
You're right about framing it.
That's one that'll stick withme, you know, rest of my life
what's it?
Speaker 1 (25:15):
uh, what's it like working with Susan?
I mean, because she is just abaseball encyclopedia, isn't she
?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
she, she really is.
And I can't really beappreciative enough of, you know
, starting the season when I wassupposed to fill in on 25 games
and and we did a couple springtraining games together that was
my first time doing nineinnings with susan because last
year we did a lot of post gametogether.
But that's a five minutesegment give or take and it's
much different than interactingover the course of a full
(25:42):
baseball game.
So she couldn't have been morewelcoming and made it.
She could have made it easieron me in that moment to do the
broadcast effectively and towork with her and be friendly.
So for someone in her positionwho's been around as long as she
has, and somebody as young as Iam, for her to do that really
meant the world and that'scontinued throughout the year
(26:03):
really meant the world andthat's continued throughout the
year.
And I think you learn as you go,like you learn what her
different points are in thebroadcast and how to handle
certain moments in the game andcertain points that she makes,
whether I can add to it or Ican't add to it.
You learn these things as yougo.
And oh, did I maybe talk toomuch in that spot?
(26:24):
Did I not talk enough in thatspot?
So you're always evaluating howyour camaraderie and rapport is
on a broadcast and I thinkthat's something I'm always
trying to get better at.
But she's made it super easy onme and been a great mentor to
where where, after certainstretches of gain, she'll give
me a little nugget on hey,here's something you could think
about, or or I like the way youdid this, or maybe try to do
(26:46):
this a little bit better.
So hearing that from hercarries so much weight because
of who she is and what she'smeant to the game and and how
much she knows and how muchshe's heard.
So, yeah, as a partner and amentor like figure, yeah,
susan's been everything.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Talk a little bit, and I know you got to run here,
what.
What is a typical day for youconsist of?
Like I always see, I was likeyou, man.
When I was a kid, I was likemore enamored with the
broadcasters and I was just asenamored with the broadcasters
as I was with the athletes.
So and and this is you andJustin, by the way, at a game,
(27:25):
so like, when do you get to thepark and how do you battle
traffic?
And I like that's the kind ofstuff I love to hear, man, yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
I try to pick the spots of the day, unsuccessful a
lot, but I try to pick thespots of the day that have the
least traffic.
So after we hop off here I'mgoing to try to head to the
stadium around 1230, give ortake.
Now you might hit some traffic,but not as much as you would
hit at one or two.
So I'm going to try to get tothe stadium around two o'clock
(27:53):
for for a seven o'clock game andthen you have an hour of.
It could be nothing, it couldbe just settling into the booth,
it could be finishing up someprep that you might not have
done that morning and gettingeverything set.
Then three o'clock typically isclubhouse.
Three to four, clubhouseavailability and access with the
players, and then four o'clockis boone and he'll speak in the
press conference room.
(28:14):
Then you could go to battingpractice.
You go to the opposing teamsclubhouse.
You could hear from theopposing teams manager.
The rest is what you make of it.
You could have a bite to eatfor dinner.
You go into the booth, you canpolish off some preparation
before we get on the air at 625for a 705 game.
So it's very regimented, but alot of it is what you make of it
.
I try to get there at 2, 230for a 7 o'clock game always and
(28:39):
try to leave earlier so there'sless traffic on the way in park,
in the garage, and then thebenefit and the perk of doing
postgame is you're not battlingpostgame stadium traffic.
Everyone's left already.
So if you're leaving thestadium 45 minutes after the
game has already ended, I'mflying home.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
I'm flying home to Long Island.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Right right, I do enjoy that.
People ask do you drive?
Do you take the train?
I love driving there becausethe way home is very peaceful
and relaxing.
I would no one on the road inmy way.
After a 40, 45 minute postgameshow.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
That's awesome, Awesome.
And then last question howabout on the road?
Are you on the like?
How does that work?
You're at the team hotel.
Do you guys charter bus over?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (29:24):
We charter everywhere we go, unless it's a super
local road trip.
We charter everywhere we go andwe bus from the charter to the
team hotel and then from theteam hotel.
There are bus times every dayto the ballpark there's an early
bus, there's a players-only busand there's a late bus.
So there are three options, oneof which I can never do the
middle one, but the early orlate I can get on.
(29:46):
So, depending on when theclubhouse is each day, I'll pick
which bus to the ballpark I'mgoing to be on and the rest is
what you make of it.
Sort of like a day at thestadium.
You can walk around the town orthe city that you're unfamiliar
with In my case I'm familiarwith because I'm experiencing a
lot of these for the first timeWalk around in the morning, you
could do some prep, you couldhang out in your hotel room
(30:06):
there's a lot you can do, butit's always regimented around
the bus times and, in the caseof going to and from the city,
the charter times where we'reflying together.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
And are you?
When you get off the hotel andgot off the bus in the city, at
the hotel are fans around.
Are you guys mobbed?
Yeah, that must be cool, right,traveling with the Beatles.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Yeah, yeah, essentially Depending on the
city, but a lot of times there'sa gate right by the hotel.
It's gated off and then thereare a bunch of fans waiting
behind that gate asking forautographs or waiting for a
judge or a Soto or a Stanton ora Cole to walk out of the bus so
they can yell their names asloud as they can and try to get
(30:48):
some time with them.
But that's pretty consistentevery city we go, but some more
than others.
Like I remember Boston becauseFenway Park has a very intricate
setup.
Where you're walking out of thethird base side right to the
bus, it was a mob.
Not even at the hotel outsideof the third base side, right to
the bus, there were.
It was a mob.
Not even at the hotel outsideof the ballpark a mob of fans
waiting for for the players totry to grab them right before
(31:11):
they get on the bus.
That one stuck out to me themost awesome, awesome.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
And and did you call judges 300th?
Right, I did last week.
What was that like?
Speaker 2 (31:21):
that's my last question, yeah surreal Surreal
is the word because you know itcould come.
But we had three days therewhere he was sitting on 299 and
the count was 3-0.
So I thought he was gettingwalked in that spot.
So it had already beenintentionally walked.
Three pitches were pretty faroutside the zone to judge.
(31:44):
We know how much he's beenwalked, so I was surprised they
threw it even close to the plate, or that he swung on the 3-0
pitch and he did.
And the second he swung theball flew off his bat and you
knew this was it.
So the jolt inside of youknowing that, hey, this is it.
But I didn't really expect itin this moment.
It was a pure adrenalinetakeover, which you really
(32:06):
wouldn't want it any other way,but it was pretty cool that it
happened in that fashion.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Do you know what you're going to say before you
say it?
Do you rehearse, like thishappens here, or is a lot of it
just natural, based on yourtraining and experience?
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Good question.
I try to keep a lot of itnatural because I think whenever
you plan it could come off asforced or it may not.
You may.
You're more likely to stumblebecause you have a line in mind.
So I try not to plan it.
But what I will always do isthink ahead of time and if there
is something I think it's wortha thought and exploring it and
(32:46):
you always want even if youdon't think of anything you want
to keep or a key nugget like Idon't, I didn't have a line in
mind, but I had fastest ever inmy in my mind because I knew
that had to be part of the call,because 300 not saying it's not
unique, because only 162players have ever done it, but
300 isn't the same as 400 or 500when we talk about the all-time
greats, but 300, when you'rethe fastest ever do it, that has
(33:06):
to be part of the call becausethat's what makes Aaron Judge so
unique in this moment.
So the call wasn't in mind, butfastest ever was in my mind
awesome.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Well, emmanuel, I want to thank you so much for
joining me, especially here ongame day.
I really appreciate the timefrom everyone here in the
capital region.
You know, know you got fanshere, you got a fan in me, and
we wish you nothing but luck andsuccess in the future.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Really appreciate it, brian.
It was great to chat, great todo this and great to meet you.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
And you know what, when you come up to Albany
during the Siena season, lunchis on me.
Oh, I appreciate that Seriously, it'll be on me though I, lunch
is on me.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Oh, I appreciate that .
Seriously, it'll be on me,though.
I'll try to.
I'll try to fight that checkaway from you.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
I mean you're working for the Yankees.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
You're buying lunch, dude.
All right, my man.
Hey, good luck.
Thanks again, and we reallyappreciate it.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Of course, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
That is Emmanuel Berbari.
He is the Yankee play-by-playannouncer on the radio side of
things and the voice of Siena,and I want to thank everyone for
watching.
I want to thank you for joiningme.
Have a great day, everyone.
Until next time, we'll see you.
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