Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Gary Hill Jr. Talks Clinch Week For the Mariners, Building a Quality Broadcast and More

Episode Date: September 30, 2022

The Seattle Mariners can clinch their first playoff berth in 21 years with either a win or an Orioles loss on Friday night. Ty caught up with Mariners broadcaster Gary Hill Jr. before Thursday's game to gauge the current vibe at T-Mobile Park, what makes a quality baseball broadcast and plenty more.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Lockdown Mariners, Gary Hill Jr. stops in to talk postseason and clenching scenarios for the Mariners. Let's get into it. Don Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. It is Friday, September 30th, 2022. This is Taday Gonzalez for the Locked on Mariners podcast. Brought to you by Bet Online. Bet Online has you covered all season long with more props, odds, and lines than ever before. Bet Online is where the game starts. Thank you so much for making us your first listen, subscribe, like, and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube,

or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform. If you like what you hear, and if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description below. On the show today, we're talking to Mariners Broadcaster, Engineer, and Podcast. host Gary Hill Jr. As the team looks to clench its first playoff birth in 21 years

tonight. I can't believe I am saying those words. It's a great conversation that I think you'll enjoy immensely. I had a great time recording it with Gary who was gracious enough to have Colby and I on the Mariners pod last week. Be sure to check that out if you haven't already. We talked about

what the feel around the ballpark is like right now. What truly makes a great baseball broadcast and a ton more. It's a lovely conversation. And just a reminder that this is a two episode day for us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Part two of our

What the Mariners ending the drought means to you project is now on our YouTube and on all of your preferred podcast platforms. So be sure to check that out after you're done listening to this if you haven't checked it out already. But let's get into my conversation with

Gary Hill Jr. Joining us from Team Mobile Park is one of the voices you can hear during Mariners ball games on 710 Seattle Sports and the host of the Mariners pod. Gary Hill Jr., thank you so much for joining me here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. We're recording this on Thursday. The Orioles have lost. The magic number is down to two. What's the feeling like in that ballpark right now, Gary? I mean, it's pretty great. It is funny how things have dramatically turned in just a couple of days, right? But that's the nature of baseball. You can feel great one day and not so great the next.

But it feels very real, doesn't it? I mean, it feels so real. We are on the doorstep of something that all of us have been waiting for for a long time. And I can't wait for it. I can't wait. And hopefully tomorrow we'll see the celebration. We'll see how it plays out. But that's what I'm hoping for.

Yeah, I would assume that your preference is the Mariners. Well, maybe not the Mariners lose tonight. But the Orioles win. tomorrow maybe so the Mariners can clench on the field. That's what I think the Mariners went tonight. Baltimore wins tomorrow. The Mariners went tomorrow and there we go. There you go.

Party time at T-Mobile Park. So we've been asking our listeners, you know, what does ending the drought mean to them? We've been doing these special episodes the last few days here with video submissions and all this stuff. I want to ask you the same exact question. What is ending this drought, ending the 20 years of misery and all this stuff mean to you both personally and professionally?

Everything. For those that don't know, I grew up in Tacoma just down the road here. So I grew up a Mariners fan. My earliest baseball memories were in the kingdom, watching Alvin Davis and Harold Reynolds in those 80s teams. So even before I was a broadcaster for the organization, I was a fan. So I've grown up in Mariners baseball forever. all my friends, all my family, everyone here, all Mariner fans.

So I feel like I know, I feel this. I know what this means to Mariner fans. I know in my heart what this means to end this and go to the postseason. This is a great baseball town. It's great. And it really shows when we've seen it this year, it's been magnificent. And we've seen it in years past when the Mariners have made pushes towards the postseason. And we've certainly seen it in the past when the Mariners have been in the postseason.

It's a phenomenal baseball town. And to me, there is nothing like a postseason run, a baseball postseason run, a push like that in postseason games. And, you know, it's funny you think about it. And the Mariners have been so close so many times. and I don't know what that moment's going to be like. Thinking about that moment when it comes to fruition and to look around this ballpark and see people's faces and how they react.

I just can't wait. And I'm hoping more than anything we have postseason games too here because the fans deserve it and the fans have earned it. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. I was going to ask you about kind of what your thought process is, knowing that this is probably going to happen in the next couple of days, you're going to be on the air when it happens.

Like, what do you think your reaction is going to be? What do you think that booth is going to be like when, you know, it finally happens? What do you think those emotions are going to be like with you and your peers there? That's a really great question. I'm really looking forward to just living in the moment because in my mind, I know what this ballpark is going to be like. And it is going to be a wild scene. And that's something I just can't wait to experience and so. in because as we know living through this you never know when it will happen again or what will happen again you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow maybe the mariners make a massive run to the world series and we have a bunch of celebrations maybe they don't maybe they go to the world series next year i don't know what's going to happen so for me after all this time it's really just

enjoying the moment and living in the moment and just trying to experience and remember everything and soak it all in because it's going to be glorious when it happens. And speaking about that booth, you know, Colby and I have on the show have talked time and time again about how much the Mariners are truly blessed with one of the best, if not the best broadcast teams across the radio and television. You know, and that, of course, includes you and Aaron Goldsmith and Dave Sims and Rick Riz, the absolute legend that Rick Riz is and so on and so forth. What is it like working with those guys? What is it like being in the same booth with those guys and just watching them work every day?

It's great. I mean, it's funny during the course of a season, you end up spending more time with the broadcast team that you do with your own family at times. You think about it, we are on the road together. We're traveling together. We're in the ballpark. We're prepping. You know, the whole thing. We're around each other all the time.

And it's really funny for me, especially as someone who grew up with data. and Rick and Dave was the one especially that ignited the broadcasting passion for me. And now to work alongside Rick every day, it's really funny for me how it's become full circle. Yeah, I was a guy as a kid, you know, I want to be a Mariners broadcaster. And then I realized as I was going to college, it's like, well, that can't happen. Dave and Rick have been the only two in my entire life. This is a two-person gig. There's no one else. So from that perspective, I kind of pinch myself every day with how it's worked out. What is, what's your favorite, like, Rick Riz experience moment, what have you,

story that you have about Rick? Oh, boy. That's a really great question. You know, it's funny. I think back to my very first time being in the broadcast booth. I was subbing hosting pre-post. So I was hosting the pre-game show. And this was a number of years ago, like 10, 11 years ago, something like that.

And it was, as it turned out, Dave Nehouse was last year. And I was in the booth. And I had prepped for this game like it was game seven of the World Series. I was so ready for this game. And it was just a random game in May, right? I mean, it was in the scheme of things, just another of the 162. But man, I was ready for this thing. And in our booth, you can probably see it behind me a little bit.

we have the front row and then we have the back row that's kind of up up above us and so i was in the back row and matt hardin who was in the studio was like 10 seconds so i'm like all right here we go getting ready to do the open and i looked down and dave and rick were both in front of me and as i'm getting ready i see them both put their headsets on and in that moment it dawned on me for the first time that Dave and Rick are going to hear everything I'm about to say and I had a moment of pure panic. Like I can't do this now. I can't I was fine until that moment and I did my thing. I have no idea what I said. I blacked out completely and what I remember is after the first segment Dave takes his headset off and he turns around and looks at me and it says way to go kid and I was like well this this is this is a The greatest moment I've ever had. I should just leave now.

It's never going to get any better than this. So that's the thing that pops to mind immediately. More from my conversation with Gary Hill Jr. In just a minute. But real quick, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by BetOnline. Betonline.net is your number one source for football betting info this season. Find all of the latest player developments, team matchups, news, podcasts, and in-depth articles and analysis on every game you can find.

And as always, BetOnline remains your continued source for all your sport wagering information with live betting and up-to-the-minute scores for every sport out there. It is the fastest and easiest way to check in on all your favorite games and events, including MLB, MMA, boxing, and golf. Head to betonline.net or use your mobile device to learn more. BetOnline is where the game starts. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Lockdown Mariners podcast and for making us your first listen, potentially before the clench. Now, let's get back into my conversation with Gary Hill Jr. You know, you've been the engineer for this broadcast for the last few years. You know, as you mentioned, you've done the pre and post, all that.

I want to know, what to you, and this could be an answer that could last, you know, an entire day. But as short as maybe you can keep it, what do you think sets apart a great, a quality baseball broadcast from the run-of-the-mill and even, you know, just flat-out bad baseball broadcasts? It's a really good question and you're right. I could talk about this for a long time. I'll give you some of my pillars and then what I think kind of binds them all together because it's funny. If people are listening, if you think about your favorite play-by-play announcers,

I bet on the surface they're all different. Like Dave Nehouse and Texas is here, Eric Nadell, who's another Hall of Famer, is phenomenal. And two of my all-time favorites. yet style-wise really different. But there's something that I think always binds them together. The fundamentals, I think, are crucial. You know, don't miss pitches. Where's the ball?

What's the score? Recapping. What's significant about today? Some days like today, it's easier than other days with everything on the line. A day in May where you've lost four in a row. It's different. But those are the things that are really important. It's being engaging with the fans, too, which I think is crucial.

But for me, the overriding thing, and it's a tough concept to describe, but it's feel. Feel for what's going on in the game. Feel for when to tell that story. You know, is it 11 to 2? You want to keep people listening, right? That's the time to break out the story from the archives. It's, you know, it's funny. And, you know, Dave was a guy how I looked up to.

And we hear his highlights, which are always phenomenal. But the thing that always stuck in my mind was what was before the highlights, how he was able to grab you in the big moment in the seventh inning in a one run game when everything else gets pushed aside. And you were just living in that moment. And he would draw you in where even if there's a ball, you know, he would go low. You know, you'd get deep and just that's the thing for me. Feel is the most important thing. when to say something, how to say something. That's it for me. And that's, I think, what binds all the great broadcasters together, even though guys are very different in how they go about it.

That's amazing. That's a beautiful way to put that. I really appreciate that answer. I want to circle back to this team. And obviously, you know, while things are kind of at an all-time high right now, the team isn't playing particularly great baseball. There's injuries. Is there something that we can pinpoint here with what's going wrong? And do you, is there an easy fix? We've heard Robbie Ray and Scott Service kind of talk about the energy and kind of overthinking the moment and paying too much attention to what's going on outside of Seattle and all

this stuff. Is it that? Is it the injuries? Is it just all kind of a culmination of these things? And how does this team kind of revert back to neutral? You know, it's a good question. It's probably a few things. How I've looked at it and watching how this past, I guess week and a half, two weeks is played out, for me, injuries have been the biggest factor. When you think about what the Mariners have done this year, Julio, to me, has been the MVP of the offense. And I don't think I'm going out on a limb by saying that with everything he's done for this team.

And I think Swares has been tremendously productive. And in fact, you know, before he went on the IL, you look at his B-War, you look at his F-war, he's been one of the most productive players in the American League. And he has been a rock for the Mariners this year. When you look at the injuries they've had, everything they've gone through, he's a guy that's been in the lineup every single day. And when you pull Julio and Suarez out essentially at the same time, I think if you're a guy that's been in the lineup every single day, and when you pull Julio and Swares out essentially at the same time, I think it really hurt them. It really staggered them. And I think we saw that not only defensively, especially with Swares, because you've had some guys move around to try and cover for that, but also offensively as well. I just don't think there's been the same balance they had in their lineup.

And it's not surprising. And especially with Cal, you know, with an injury too, those three guys were out of the lineup for a few of those games at the same time. That's a ton of production for this lineup. And for a team that was swatting, A million home runs, right, during a few weeks stretch. Those were the three guys mostly that we're doing it. The bullpen, for the most part, has been amazing since the end of June. The rotation has been incredibly consistent. When we've seen this team at its best, we haven't seen them score eight, nine runs a game,

but they don't need to with those other two portions. We've just seen them hit home runs, score four or five, and that's been the difference. But you take them out of the mix, it's just harder for them to be consistent. offensively with the way they're constructed right now. So for me it's that. So Swara's being back. I think Julio coming back, I think that balance comes back. And we'll see if that's it. But I think it is.

And then from the mental side of thing, do you think now that, you know, the magic number is down to two? It's pretty much like it has to be an absolute like historical collapse. Plus the Orioles have to win every single game from this point forward. Like knowing that you're going to get in, do you think? think that does take some of the edge off for these guys, knowing how important ending the drought is for them? You know, I think so, because then that goes away, that portion of it. It's funny because they're still playing for a ton. Like, I still look at the one seat as enormous, the one seat in

terms of the one wild card. Let me be specific as a really big deal. Not only do I badly want to see postseason games in this building, but I think it's the best path to start at home moving forward. So I think there is something to that. And Robbie Ray alluded to that, as you mentioned the other day, just with everything swirling around. And I'm interested to see how they come out the next couple of days. Because you're right. It would, I mean, for them not to clinch at this point, it would be colossal, right? Baltimore would have to go on a ridiculous run.

That would be hard to imagine, especially with games against the Yankees. The Mariners would really have to fall flat on their face, which is hard to imagine, too, given the A's and tigers and how to be. they've matched up there. So, yeah, and there's still a ton. I am really curious to see how this plays out with the next few days. And, you know, where's Tampa going to end up in this? And where's Toronto going to end up in this? And does anyone want the two seed compared to the three seed in terms of the wild card? I mean, there's so much in the air here the next week and a week and a half. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know me. I got a little rooting interest for the wild card. too in case Toronto is hosting but you know

I know where you're from I will say that building in a playoff game will be amazing in terms of best atmospheres like I think Seattle's atmosphere would be phenomenal I think Toronto's atmosphere is phenomenal in playoff games too that's a fun building incredibly terrifying as a visitor incredibly terrifying for the Mariners if they had to go

Yeah. So I want to go back like a couple of questions ago or a couple answers ago. You were, you know, mentioning like things like F-4 and B-Wore. And, you know, when it comes to different stats like that, you know, we obviously talk about those stats, you know, we talk about WRC Plus and all that good stuff, all these new stats that just better help us kind of understand players and help us understand the game. But I'm kind of curious how you and, you know, of course, Aaron, does this a lot on the TV broadcast and on the radio. How do you guys try to balance incorporating those numbers and kind of educating fans on

those numbers and also kind of balancing, you know, what people know, right? Yeah, I think about this a lot, as you can imagine, because we're talking to a really broad audience, right? We're talking to people that, people like you that know everything about WRC Plus and B-WR-WR and F-4, And then other people that are Mariners fans, but maybe casually and know nothing about any of that, right? So I do feel in our role, we do have an education component because people live busy lives. They have a lot going on. I mean, they're not as invested in every new number of coming around, right?

So I think part of our role is to educate people and especially with our organization, the Mariners organization, which is a really smart organization. lot of smart people and they give us a lot of insight on what's going on so i think it's important for us to try and share with people too how decisions are made and what they look at and what's important to them and how that translates onto the field so i'll take w rc plus for example which is my favorite offensive number personally so how i like to use it is when i talk about it on the air and tv has an advantage too because they can show a graphic to go with it so it's different in just an audio format So I like to use it as a comparison. Instead of just saying so-and-so has a 127 WRC plus, right?

To a casual listener, that might not mean a lot. But if I say, hey, Thai France has the 10th best WRC plus in the American League, and I just give a quick description of what WRC plus is, that can be impactful. You know, if you're talking about a Julio, who's since the last two months has the third best WRC plus in baseball. And the two ahead of them, I mean, pick who, pick who you're talking about, Judge Otani, whatever. You know, if you make statements like that, I think that's really relatable for people. And that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to make it relatable to as many people as possible.

Because those numbers are important. And I would like, you know, people to learn about them. And even if you don't, you know, maybe you, that doesn't get you to go to Fangrass every day after, right? But maybe you can at least appreciate them and say, okay. Yeah. And I think the more that you hear about it too, it gets you just naturally more comfortable with it and, you know, as is anything, right? So, well, Gary, I don't want to keep you on here any longer. You got a game to call tonight.

So have a lot of fun with that. Enjoy the hell out of this weekend, man. I'm incredibly jealous of you. You got a front row seat to, I mean, history. So, yeah, like I said, enjoy the absolute heck out of it this weekend. Thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it. Anytime, we'll do it again.

Yeah, it's going to be a fun weekend. And I'll have Mariners fans just soak in every moment and enjoy it because I think it's going to be a great weekend. Well, thank you again to Gary Hill, Jr. for joining us and having that amazing conversation with us. It just gets me even more and more excited for what. could potentially happen tonight or at least this weekend. And this may very well be the last episode of Lockdown Mariners that I and Colby record before the Mariners finally, finally in the drought.

It's crazy to think about. But thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. I've been Ty Dan Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez, this D.A&E, G and ZLZ, and you can follow my co-host, Colby at C-PAT 11. That's C-PAT-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode.

And thank you again for making us your first listen. Now make your second listen in the Lockdown MLB podcast. MLB expert Paul Francis Sullivan brings humor, passion, and unique perspective on every team and the biggest stories around the league. Follow the number one daily league-wide podcast Lockdown MLB on the Odyssey app YouTube and wherever you get your podcast just like us. And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day and a beautiful baseball weekend. And whenever they clenched, we're definitely going to be doing an emergency podcast.

I think that would, uh, that situation would certainly require one of those. So we'll see you whenever that happens. Peace.