Very good baseball game on ESPN2 right now.

[MicroBob]

I agree it would be stupid if college-hoopes did this...but it would still make for better viewing (live and TV) then college baseball does.


I'm honestly not so sure about Kansas vs. Bucknell 3 out of 5.
Kansas was REALLY reeling heading into the tourney.

bucknell's chances would not have been as strong in a 3-out-of-5 format obviously....but I still think there would be upsets out there.

Just my own views on how the public is ALWAYS surprised at the number of mid-majors that pull off 'upsets'.

some of those teams with 25-6 records are pretty damn good...and some fo the 5th and 6th place teams from the power conferences don't exactly blow me away
....even though Bucknell would not go 25-6 in the ACC obviously....whereas Maryland would clearly clean-up in whatever conference Buncknell is in I still think the difference between some of those teams is not as great as is often assumed.

[Dead]

Vermont would not have taken Syracuse 3 out of 5. SU had their worst game of the season that Friday night. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[MicroBob]

I have broadcast all of the 4 major sports at various times.


I don't know how much AAA ball-players make. Remember though that they are only 'working' for 6 months.

The average 'salary' might be $4k/mth or something...but even a 1 or 2 week call-up to the major leagues since you get the major-league minimum ($170k/season perhaps?) for as long as you are up there.
So it is still going to be dependant on how much major-league time they get to spend.


They don't get a pay-check in the off-season (unless they are playing winter-ball in Puerto Rico or Venezuela or something).


Single-A ball-players make around $1500/mth I think during the season. Maybe less for short-season A and rookie-ball.


But some of the players had some decent signing-bonuses.
A first-rounder like Damian Rolls or Bubba Crosby would have signed for $800k-$1.5mil or so perhaps (although I don't know what a 25th overall pick would sign for these days because I haven't kept up with it).
Yet these guys still get their same $1500/mth paycheck when they were at single-A (or whatever it is).
And Crosby is probably making the major-league minimum salary I suspect...and I don't even know where Damian Rolls is currently...possibly triple-A.


A 35th rounder who maybe signed for $5k or $10k or so is going to be reliant on his $25/day meal-money (on the road) and $1500/mth paycheck just to get by. A 1st rounder who signed for $1mil will be driving a MUCH nicer car and will not be as reliant on the paycheck obviously.


One year with the Dodgers single-A we had a couple of guys called-up for 2 or 3 days to play in the annual Hall of Fame exhibition game in Cooperstown that weekend. They choose two teams to play it every August and that year it was the Dodgers and Padres....both teams called-up minor-leaguers to play in it because they wanted to rest some fo the major-leaguers.
Adrian Beltre and Onan Masaoka (pitcher) were called-up from our team.

Not only did they love the experience of getting a quick shot at a higher level....they also said that the $3,000 or so that they got for 2 or 3 days up there came in pretty handy too.

[Dead]

Great post man. Thanks.

Hey, that Adrian Beltre sure sounds familiar. I wonder why? [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Hehe, I remember when we had Carlos Delgado playing here in Syracuse back in the early 90s. That was great. And El Duque pitched a rehab start here last year when Columbus came to play Syracuse. It's great to go to see the games when the big names come and sub, but it's just as great to see it when there are no major leaguers rehabbing.

I like how I can sit in the third row for only $7, and get autographs after the game from players. It's great.

[MicroBob]

Beltre was single-A player of the year in 1997 and nobody was surprised. Everyone was expecting him to be the best player at that level that year.
he was freaking 18 (everyone thought he was 19 at the time though).
On opening day that year he hit what is still possibly the longest HR I saw at the minor-league level.


He probably signed for $5k or so as a 16 y.o. (or 15-year-old...uh-oh) out of the DR. By 1997 everyone pretty much KNEW he would be making millions in the bigs....but until then he was trying to survive on his measly minor-league check.
He obviously had Hall-of-Fame potential at the time (and still does...he's only 25).

Didn't even have a car at that time.
He would ride his bicycle back and forth...or sometimes get a ride with someone after a rain-out...but still sometimes would have to bike home 2 or 3 miles in a thunderstorm.


I'm a big fan of minor-league baseball of course.
Might take the GF and her brother to the Memphis Redbirds game tomorrow night. Supposed to be nice weather. Her brother is a big baseball fan...meanwhile she doesn't know the difference between a home-run and a strike-out (she grew up in a country that doesn't have baseball).


I actually don't miss baseball or the broadcasting bit as much as I would have thought. I don't even keep up with the local announcers or how the teams are doing that much.

Wouldn't be opposed to getting back into it at some point but it's a lot of work (albeit fun work) and a LOT of travel (not always fun travel).
poker is fun too...and so is having some actual freedom.

[Dead]

I go to college outside of Rochester(which is pretty close to Syracuse), and grew up in Syracuse of course.

I remember hearing talk about Mike Mussina was pitching for the Rochester Red Wings 15 years ago. I was just a little kid then but everyone was talking about how great a pitcher he was. I'm sure the same was said about Cal back when he was here.

They're a Twins affiliate now, but they used to be the AAA club for the Orioles, but originally they were a Cardinal affiliate.

My friend told me a story of his grandpa going to a Red Wings game and meeting Stan Musial. He said that his grandpa told him that he just KNEW Stan was going to be big from watching him play then.

Great story.

[MicroBob]

Older friend of mine from Ohio grew up in Rochester and went to a lot of games there.

They had the longest running affiliation in baseball when ties were severed between them and the Orioles.


That's really a solid area for sports...and obviously a solid area for sportscasting (syracuse is the top university of sportscasting talent).


Matt Park is the play-by-play guy for the Ornagemen now and just a couple years ago he was doing PBP for the West Tenn Diamond Jazz double-A baseball team in Jackson, TN.

Bob Mcgilligot (something like that) was PBP for the Chiefs and Crunch last I knew....got a gig with the Colubmus blue Jackets I think....but obviously didn't get to call many NHL games this year.


I called college hockey for Miami (Ohio) and we played a holiday invite tourney in Syracuse (the SIT) one year (99 or so I think with Niagara, Colgate and St. Lawrence).

That was the worst broadcast set-up I have EVER been a part of in hockey.
Reasonable arena for the fans (nothing special...but it's okay)...Onadonga War Memorial I think right??

but that press-box is just freaking scary. I'm only 5'6" and even I was almost hitting my head on various angled ceilings and nails coming out of the wall and crap like that.


My last year in baseball was 2002 with the Elmira Pioneers in the Northeast League obviously not too far from you.

[MarkSummers]

man yo am i drunk as hell. but listen, i used to live near rochester and i loved going to the redwings games at silve stadium. that place ruled as a kid. then they built frontier field and i was just not feelin it. its a nice ballpark and all but it just doesn't have the atmospher that silver had. rochester represent.

[Dead]

Yeah the SI Newhouse school at SU is just great for broadcasting. Costas and Albert are the two big names that went there.


I know Matt Park. He's a great guy. He's our "Voice of the Orange". Whenever I'm in town and an SU football or basketball game is on, I always tune to 95x to listen to him do the play by play. He also hosts "Inside Syracuse football".

Yeah you're right, it's the War Memorial. That place is pretty busted. Old building though, so that's why.

The Syracuse Crunch(AHL team) play their hockey games there.

And yeah I'm definitely familiar with the Elmira team. They play in the Can-Am if I'm not mistaken. The Jackals are very strong in that league. They're like the Yankees of it I guess. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

So I guess you lived in Elmira when you were doing the broadcasting there?

[MicroBob]

Remembering from my days in the Florida State League and the record-books.
Musial led the FSL in ERA when he was with Daytona Beach. Something like 1947 or so perhaps??
Yup...he was a pitcher then.
Kind of pulled a Babe ruth on them I guess (went from pitcher to slugger).


It's fairly easy to say "Just knew he was going to be great when I saw him then."
ALL the scouting reports were SUPER high on Beltre so that one was easy.