PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - D-backs broadcaster Mike Ferrin talks empty stadiums and playing in desert heat

Episode Date: April 23, 2020

Arizona Diamondbacks and MLB Network Radio broadcaster Mike Ferrin joins the show to discuss the three proposals for MLB's return that we know of, what changes he'd like to see made in the modern baseball broadcast and his journey from DJ to play-by-play. 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.

Welcome back into a special edition of the Rattle Podcast. As always, my name is Jesse Friedman. And today we are joined by longtime friend of the show. His name is Mike Farron. He serves as the secondary play-by-play announcer and radio pre-and-post game show host for the Diamondbacks. He is also a host for MLB Network on Sirius XM Radio. Mike, thanks for spending some time with us today. We really appreciate it.

Yeah, anytime, Jesse. It's good to talk to you. Mike, I have to start out by asking, I'm sure a lot of broadcasters around the game of baseball are maybe struggling with this. And I know you have the MLB network radio gig to maybe keep you fresh a little bit. But as a broadcaster, as a play-by-play voice, do you have to maybe broadcast the dogs playing with their toys or something just to kind of stay fresh in a time like this? Yeah, I mean, I think fortunately the radio show helps with that to some degree. So I've been up to date on the news. But no, outside of, although I think it's coming out later this week,

the Arizona Animal Welfare League did ask me to do some play-by-play of a couple of dogs, of puppies eating, which was fun. I don't know that I necessarily needed it to stay sharp because it felt more like horse racing or wrestling than it did baseball, but it was certainly fun to do. So, no, I don't know that it's necessarily reps, but it's, you know, we're just all anxious for, Well, one, I think we're all anxious for this virus to be under control. And then beyond that, as baseball fans, and I'm assuming if everybody involved in this podcast, whether as a listener or as a host, is a baseball fan,

and then we're anxious for some form of baseball to come back because it's, you know, it's so much a part of our daily lives for six months that you're right. It's weird not having it right now. I'm curious your thoughts, Mike, on the three different plans. It's now three plans. that have been leached for Major League Baseball, we had the Arizona plan that came out first, which would literally have all 30 teams sequestered here in the desert

using Chase Field as well as all the spring training facilities that are here in Arizona. Then a few days later, we heard about a plan that included Florida in kind of a similar looking plan, but would just split the teams between Arizona and Florida with some very weird ramifications for what the divisions and just kind of the format of the league would look like, since you could no longer really have the league split down the line of National League versus American League.

That would be very interesting to see how that would pan out. And then the most recent development is a plan that was similar, but just through in the state of Texas and kind of had teams split between these three states. Do you see any of these plans as particularly more or less favorable than the others? I don't, one, I don't think that any of them are plans. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing. and Major League Baseball has been pretty clear about that, that they are ideas at this point. And I think we're still, you know,

my guess is that based on the way this new cycle has worked, next Monday we're going to hear another idea on how games could be played and maybe the Monday after that. And then maybe the Monday after that, we'll get a sixth one and finally we'll start figuring out which ones make the most sense. I mean, I think that that's probably the way that it's going to continue to happen. because I think that they're, and I think Craig Calcutera at NBC Sports pointed out a couple weeks ago.

Like right now, everybody in Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association's job is trying to figure out how to best go about putting on a season if they can safely have one. And so there are going to be a lot of ideas that get thrown onto the board that they're going to discuss. So I wouldn't put too much stock in any single. plan or idea I realize and listen to the talk show host, I'm as hungry for news and speculation on what could happen with the season as anybody is. But I think that there's, I think there's,

you know, there are limits to any of these things and they have to be couched as potential ideas. I mean, there's advantage of all of them. There's the advantage of doing everything in Arizona is that everything is controlled in one environment. And so you don't really have to worry as much about the outside world. The advantage to being in Florida and in Arizona would be every team could use their own spring training facilities as their home base. That would be huge. The advantage to the three-state plan is there are a couple of, I think, big advantage is that. One, it's, you know, since we are unlikely to be starting this season with fans in the stands, or maybe even playing the entire season without fans in the stands, it creates, you know, better models for television across

time zones. And, you know, if you think about it, if you're, if you're spreading out what would be, you know, I don't know, between three and five thousand people, between three different areas as opposed to just one, then if there were to be a worst case scenario happen where there would be an outbreak of COVID-19 among that group, it would probably put less of a strain on the resources in those municipalities versus what you would have if everybody was just in one spot. So I think all of those things are possible. But, I mean, again, like, we're still at least, I mean, May 10th is a date that I've had circled for a long time because that's when the CDC's restrictions for groups of people greater than 10 is scheduled to be lifted. Now, it doesn't mean it will be then, but that's what they had said, eight weeks, and that'll be eight weeks and May 10th.

So I think that's a good barometer to start looking at some of these. and the other is going to be the availability of testing because if you look at the situation in the Korean baseball organization, which is getting ready to play, they're insisting that players be tested twice a day. Right now, we don't have that kind of capability for the general public

and until we get capability for more testing for the general public, I don't see it being likely that baseball is going to be back. However, these things are changing rapidly and in two weeks or three weeks, I think we're going to have a lot better idea of and hopefully a better plan for testing for anybody who wants it or needs to get it than what we have right now. Now, that's wishful thinking maybe to some degree, but I do think in the way we've seen all of this evolve over the last six weeks,

it's very easy to say that in the next two to three to four weeks we'll see more evolution in that process. One thing that sticks out to me about these three different plans or I guess ideas is probably the better word to use. they all involve Arizona. All of them would have at least 10, maybe 15, maybe 30 teams in Arizona all at the same time. And Mike, as you and I both well know, as people who live here in the Valley, it is 98 degrees today. On April 23rd, it's supposed to be 105 this weekend. Do you think Major League Baseball players, obviously the journey to become a Major League Baseball player is long and hard and probably takes, has taken all of these players through some pretty undesirable playing locations.

But do you think Major League Baseball is prepared for, you know, going out there and playing when it's literally 110 or maybe even 115 degrees in the summertime? I mean, they're not going to play outside when it's 115 degrees. I mean, that's the thing is that they'll play at night if they have to play outside. You know, we already have the Arizona Summer League that goes through that. For years, we had a PCL team in Phoenix. and we had one in Tucson, too, that played their games at night during the summer. So is it hot?

Yeah, but, I mean, it's going to be after the sun goes down. And I think, you know, we should all be used to playing in hot weather over the course of the summer. I mean, hell, when I was a kid, I played baseball when it was 110 degrees with 900% humidity. That happens to get old as everything starts getting up there. But so I don't necessarily know that that's, you know, the, the, that's going to be the biggest deterrent. I think that there are, one of the major deterrence to the Arizona-only plan would be, you know, more with having to be with television from the East Coast, I think.

And you do have a domed facility here that you could point multiple games in a day theoretically. And I think that that's part of what certainly has been in the discussions. But again, like none of these are set in stone. All of them are still just ideas. And at some point, they're going to decide on one. that makes the most sense. It seems like when baseball does come back, hopefully, if and when baseball comes out. It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that, as you alluded to earlier, there's probably

not going to be fans in the stands. And I think baseball is not used to this. Obviously, we got a little bit of a glimpse of that with the Baltimore incident that happened. But Mike, I'm curious. As a broadcaster, as someone who may be tasked with calling some of these games with empty stands. How does that change your job and kind of what you have to bring to the table as a broadcaster?

Well, I mean, I think it's the same as any performance where you don't have a full house, right? I mean, you're able to draw energy from big groups of people much more than you are from smaller groups. And so you have to create more of that on your own. But you have to remember that your audience isn't just the people that are in the stands. It's the people that, especially for a broadcaster, you know, it's the fans that are at home that are that are really matters so you have to find ways to be able to to you know be mentally

focused to do that and I think that's going to fall on the players too and I think you've already heard a number of players talk about the the you know while playing without fans you know it's not the same energy it's not not any of that but like these guys are really competitive and in the end I think you know as much as it may seem weird they have performed under those circumstances before and most of us have broadcast games where there are no fans in the minor leagues or in, you know, where broadcast games in Miami. So like there's like there are ways to survive it. So I mean, I don't think it's like on the list of things that would be concerns for me over this,

that especially as a broadcaster or what the broadcast environment is like with or without fans, I would put that way down on the list of things that I would even be worried about. it would fall into the J. Cutler don't care category. Like, I just don't, doesn't matter to me nearly that much because, you know, the games are, if we are playing games in empty stadiums, it's for fans to be able to have something at home so that they can enjoy it. And so, like, we'll just do the best that we can to keep the energy and the excitement

level high, because if we don't, then we're not professionals. Well, speaking of playing games with no fans, I know any broadcaster has a, has a, has a, long and hard road, typically, to find themselves broadcasting in Major League Baseball. And I know for you, this has been quite a, quite a journey to get to where you are today. And so I want to jump in to just your story as a broadcaster and how you got to where you are today. I see just looking at your resume, you called some hockey for a few years. You were in high school, basketball, and baseball. So certainly you've had to do a variety of sports to get where you are today. And that's just kind of seems to be the way it goes for in the broadcasting industry you have to be flexible

you have to be willing to kind of take whatever jobs come your way Mike can you just give us kind of a kind of a 10,000 foot view of of how you went from you know being a kid and and and uh how that eventually took you to being a broadcaster with the diamond backs today well I mean I got my start in radio when I was I was working in Dubuque Iowa which is where I went to school and and I started actually it's a classic rock test. tracking. I mean, that was my first job. So I didn't even start in sports, even though I knew that that was what I wanted to do long term. So, you know, and I had other jobs where I was a music director at a country station in Indiana and was the production director there too. And, you know, and just found opportunities along the way at those spots to do play by play. My first play by play gig, as you mentioned, was with the United States Hockey League calling games for the Dubuque Fighting Saints. And I was only doing home games and this was 1998

1999 and these were some of the very first streaming webcasts I think that anybody had were in the USHL so I was not doing the road games which we were carrying on the radio I was just doing streams of the home game so this is a crazy like early

days of streaming technology right that we were doing these but yeah I did when I moved to Indiana I was also doing high school sports I got to call a state championship for La Port High School which through 2000 was like the state power in Indiana for baseball. Everybody there focuses on basketball and high school basketball in Indiana. It's really cool.

But that was that. And that was really unique there. And so that was kind of my first experience, really calling baseball play-by-play was doing that. And then I didn't do play-by-play regularly again for almost 10 years until, you know, I moved back to Chicago and worked at WGN as a producer and reporter for a number of years. and really didn't have many play-by-play opportunities there. And then finally got a chance to do some high school stuff when I'd moved to D.C. to work for Sirius XM.

And that's how I started doing some high school football, basketball, and baseball for a streaming service. Again, one that was a little bit more robust and covered the high school area. And that kind of got me back onto the play-by-play path. But it was a lot of fits and starts. and mine is probably not as traditional of half as most play-by-play announcers have followed because I've spent a lot more time in the studio, whether it be as a host or a producer

or a disc jockey than I have been as a play-by-play guy. I'm curious, were there any moments along the way in that journey where it was easy to get discouraged or it was easy to kind of lose vision of the dream a little bit for you? Or was it kind of a, you know, I'm excited. okay with where I'm at right now and if this is you know where I wound up and stayed for years and years that would be okay yeah I mean I I knew what I always wanted to do and so I was hopeful that I would get those opportunities I mean I think that there are the I have found that the moment that you become okay with living in the moment right like not focused entirely on the future not

not to say that you're settling for what you have, but that you're focused on your current job. That's when the other things seem to happen to you. At least that's been my experience. And so for me, it was, I don't know that I ever got discouraged or anything. I mean, I'm a radio dork. Like, I've been in radio for 20, what, 25 years now. And, like, I, I mean, I love radio. Like, I love, I love the medium.

I love a lot about it. I loved being a disc jockey. I didn't love working in Indiana. but that has a lot to do with Indiana. And I enjoyed aspects of producing. I enjoy digital audio production. And so, like, there's a lot of things that I've done that I really enjoyed, but I also did them knowing that the skills that I was getting was hopefully going to get me to a point to do what I really wanted to do.

So I don't know that I can answer it in a sense of what I've been happy if it had never happened. I mean, I suppose I would have because it was my career and I love what I was doing. But this was always a goal of mine was to be able to get an opportunity to be able to be able to. to do play by play and and I've been fortunate to be able to do that and be around you know great broadcasters like like Greg Schulte and Steve Berthium and Tom Candiotti and Bob Brenley in the in the process. I'm curious when you were a kid what what was it about broadcasting that that appealed to you? Was it just a you know was it just that you were you were a fan of a team and enjoyed listening to their broadcast and thought you know maybe that's what I want to do someday or how did that develop?

Well it's a really crappy baseball player so I think that that probably had a a lot to do with it was that I loved baseball, but I was a really lousy player. So I wasn't going to get the opportunity to keep going, and I wanted to stay around the game. And, you know, I'm from a family of performers. My mother is a classically trained vocalist and musician, and her father was a pit musician. And I have a brother who was an actor as a child and as a videographer and filmmaker. And so, you know, I was around performance my entire life, and I acted all the way through college. And so, you know, both professionally and in a lot more amateur setting. So, like, I think that the performance aspect of it probably appealed to me as such as anything.

So how do you combine things that you really enjoy performing, performing for an audience, and then also their baseball, which is my greatest professional passion? Last question from me, Mike. I'm curious, kind of shifting gears back to where you are today as a broadcaster. I hear a lot of criticism around the league of just how broadcasting and baseball is done. Some people think that some broadcasters are a little bit too archaic, and maybe some broadcasters aren't quite current with the Saber metrics around the game, and they're still making comments that seem more fitting of baseball about 20 years ago

than fitting of how people think about the game right now. What's one change that maybe you would like to see across Major League Baseball broadcasts around the league? I mean, it's tough for me to say because I think it probably varies pretty greatly. I mean, I think everybody needs to be true to themselves more than anything. So, I mean, if you're not a statistically inclined or, you know, advanced statistically inclined, you know, person, and I don't know that you necessarily are going to spend a lot of time investing in the time to know that. And I don't know that you necessarily should because it's going to come across is pretty fake. Yeah.

I think one of the issues I have overall with broadcasting is that there are just an awful lot of people across baseball in particular that just don't sound like they enjoy baseball all that much. And I don't know that necessarily falls solely on play-by-play announcers, but there's an awful lot of kivetching and moaning about it. And that, that to me, drives me nuts because we're extremely fortunate to have these jobs. And you can be excited about baseball without agreeing with everything that baseball does. I mean, Lord knows that I don't agree with everything the Major League Baseball has done or every move that a team makes or every move that the dining backs have made. And I think you can still be critical of those things without losing your passion for it. And I do think that there are a number of ways of broadcasts have either been set up or a number of broadcasters that don't show the passion that you would hope that they would have. because I do think the passion is contagious.

Now, that's not to say that, you know, that's the number one reason why a fan would get involved or want to choose baseball over not choosing it, but I do think that it's an issue that a lot of people want to, to, you know, really be, I don't think accurately critical of the product itself or the way the game is played. And I think some of that shows a disrespect for the players who are playing it now personally.

I mean, I have a great deal of respect for players in the way they play the game because I never could. Like, I never was going to be able to do that. I mean, they have, and I know the amount of hours that they've taken to perfect their crap because I've seen it up close. Like, I really get irritated by that more than anything. And I know I'm not alone in that. I'm not breaking news on that. But I would love to see, you know, future opportunities good at people who really have a passion for baseball overall. Mike, thanks so much for your time today.

We really appreciate it. Anytime, Jesse.