Broadcasters reflect on most memorable calls

Most baseball fans readily acknowledge that the broadcasters who call the games of their favorite teams are almost like members of their family.
A broadcaster's voice is piped into our radios and televisions for at least six months of every year. That's a lot of time to spend together, and as is the case with most relationships, it's easy to become attached.
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Major League broadcasters know this, understand this and appreciate it, and they take their roles seriously. They are perfectionists by nature, storytellers by trade and they spend their workdays focused on getting the calls just right.
That last part can become complicated in big moments, when the stress level is slightly higher as the game inches closer toward an atypically momentous ending. The final six outs of a no-hitter, for example, could surely test a broadcaster's composure. A clincher of any sort -- division, postseason series, World Series -- might give a broadcaster reason to think about it ahead of time -- how will I call this? What will I say?
In a recent episode of the MLB.com podcast "Newsmakers," four prominent broadcasters reflected on some of their favorite calls, greatest moments and approaches to making the perfect call, even on a moment's notice.
Cubs radio announcer Pat Hughes reflected on his call of the last out of Chicago's World Series clincher over the Indians in Game 7 of the 2016 Fall Classic. It was one of the biggest moments in Cubs history, and certainly the most important call of Hughes' career. And he was so caught up in the moment that he didn't even remember the line he used to describe the Cubs' jubilation: "Jumping up and down like a bunch of delirious 10-year-olds."

"I had no recollection of this," Hughes said, amused.
Cubs television announcer Len Kasper offered insight as to what it's like calling a no-hitter. He prefers the spontaneity of such a game over something that he knows is going to happen, like a division clincher, but he is also aware that the more important the game is, the more likely it is that the call will resurface.
"You know that call is going to be replayed over and over again," Kasper said. "The main thing I think all broadcasters want is to get it right. Keep it simple."
"Simple" will never be the word used to describe Ken Korach's call of the "Jeter flip" during the 2002 Division Series between the A's and Yankees. Korach, the longtime radio voice of the A's, brilliantly conveyed the zany nature of a play that had about 10 moving parts and was going, as Korach recalled, "about 200 miles per hour."
The flip, of course, changed the course of the series. Up 2-0 entering that game, the A's eventually lost the best-of-five ALDS. It remains one of the most dramatic calls of Korach's career.
"In the annals of A's history, that stands out as what people don't like me referring to on the air," Korach said. "One would be the 'Jeter flip,' and the other would be [Kirk] Gibson's home run off [Dennis] Eckersley in the [1988] World Series."
As an Astros television announcer for the better part of three decades, Bill Brown called many exciting moments in Houston's history. That includes Craig Biggio's 3,000th hit in 2007.
Brown wasn't planning to prepare anything ahead of time, preferring instead to just go with the moment.

Then, Brown had lunch with his friend Wayne Hagin, a veteran announcer who at one time was the voice of the Rockies. Hagin convinced Brown to adjust his thinking.
"It's one of the biggest moments in the history of the franchise," Brown recalled Hagin saying. "It needs to special."
Mission accomplished. Though Biggio was thrown out trying to stretch his 3,000th hit into a double, Brown didn't slow down as he conveyed the enormity of the milestone hit.
"He arrived 20 years ago from Smithtown, N.Y., with Texas-sized dreams," Brown said to the viewers. "And now, as he's mobbed by his teammates, those dreams have become reality."
Subtle, yet poignant -- a formula that has served many broadcasters well over time.