PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Visalia Rawhide broadcaster Jill Gearin talks being the third female MiLB broadcaster ever

Episode Date: May 5, 2020

Visalia Rawhide broadcaster Jill Gearin is the third female Minor League Baseball broadcaster ever. She discusses her first season on the job in 2019, what it was like being a part of a championship team and more. 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 in to another episode of our weekly interview series here on the Rattle podcast. Here in this edition on this Tuesday, we are honored to be joined by Jill Garan. She is the radio play-by-play voice of the Vysalia Rahai, the Diamondbacks Single A Advanced Affiliate out in Vysalia. Jill, thank you so much for the time today. We really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. So for those of you who do not know, Jill is the third female broadcaster in minor league history. She's the first ever in the California League.

And Jill, I want to just start right there. There are not very many women obviously represented in this industry, particularly behind the microphone for baseball games. What has your journey been like to get to the position that you are in today? Yeah, I mean, it's wild to think about how few. women there are in baseball in general. And then specifically just behind the microphone, it really is a wild statistic. For me personally, it's been a very interesting journey. I feel very fortunate to be where I am. I guess the big part of my journey kind of started when I was 13 years old. And at my eighth grade graduation, I gave a speech and I told everyone I was going to be the play-by-play

broadcaster for the Boston Red Sox. And the entire audience laughed at me. And, you know, I really didn't do anything broadcasting in high school. I just kind of knew that's what I wanted to do, but I really focused on sports and I really honed in on softball. Went to school at Emerson College in Boston, played softball there. And, you know, I did take advantage of opportunities there. I got really close with my professors.

But, again, I didn't get a lot of play-by-play reps just because I was so dedicated. to softball. And I was lucky enough, you know, I had a few internships in terms of journalism and sports, whether it was at Channel 7 in the sports department in Boston. But the big internship that I had for my career was the Boston Red Sox internship. And it was specific to Emerson students because Tim Neversett, who's now broadcaster with the Dodgers, he went to Emerson. And I was lucky enough to get that internship.

and I was the boot statistician. I was in the clubhouse getting sound from players. I was looking up statistics during the game for Tim and Jogi Stiglione, which was awesome to work with him. So that was really my saving grace because not only was I in a professional setting, I was with the Boston Red Sox in 2018 when they won it all, but also Tim Everett, his brother is a manager for the National Silver Knights, who's a summer collegiate wooden baseball league in Nashville, New Hampshire.

And he got me a gig doing, I only did maybe 10 or 15 games there. But because of that, I was able to get a decent enough reel to send a round. And the Vysalia job kind of fell into my lap. I found out that their broadcaster, Vinnie Longo was leaving. And I actually knew someone who was in the Vizalia Braheid front office because he was a senior on the Emerson baseball team. when I was a freshman on the softball team and I emailed him and he connected me with the general manager at the time and the rest is history. So again, I feel very fortunate where everything just

kind of worked out perfectly for me despite me spending a lot of time on softball instead of broadcasting in college. Yeah, I want to jump into that. I believe you were like your team captain when you were at Emerson College with the softball team. So obviously you know the game pretty well. What were your playing days like? Do you look back? on that fondly? Is it maybe good to be behind the microphone watching the game instead, or do you kind of miss being out there on the field yourself? Oh, I miss it so much. It's, oh gosh, I wish I could still be playing. Actually, two years ago yesterday, a post came up on my Instagram feed of like two years ago, and it was the picture of

my last game of softball ever. So I got really emotional yesterday and texted all my girls. but I think the playing days is really the team aspect that I miss the most. I mean, obviously, I, you know, who doesn't love hitting home runs and everything, you know, that feeling of that or having a great scoop at first base. But I miss my girls. And we, we zoom every week right now, every Friday during this pandemic. But, you know, I really do miss that connection, especially because when we graduated, everyone went to different parts of the country.

We have some in Seattle, San Francisco, a lot are in New York, Boston, and I'm in the Central Valley in California. So I think that's the part that I miss the most is the connections I made with my girls. Do they ever let you take batting practice or anything along those lines in Vysilia? Yeah, I got to actually because on pitcher BP days, some of the staff we do it to, the coaching staff. And so they said, Jill, get out there. And hitting a baseball is so much different than hitting a softball. I'm pretty sure I lost some respect from some of the guys because it was so,

bad. One of them came up to me and said, I thought you played softball. I'm like, that was softball, not baseball. Okay. You know, it's the, the trajectory of the ball is very different. And eventually, I got a few into the outfield at least, but, yeah, yeah, it is slightly embarrassing. Definitely a washed up athlete at this point. Yeah, well, when I played one year in high school as a freshman, and I pretty much just instantly gave up because I really couldn't hit the ball to save my life. so I'm sure you were far better than I was. But I want to jump into kind of the landscape of baseball right now. Obviously, there's all sorts of, you know, some doubts about whether or not baseball will be able to begin.

At some point here, it seems like things are a little more optimistic on the Major League side. The Minor League side seems to be a little bit more in question. I want to just talk about your opinion, though, because frankly, none of us really know any concrete details about this. what kind of an effect has this had on just you personally? You know, you'd normally be in the booth day in and day out. But right now this is kind of a weird, bizarre time for everyone. Well, we're just not really sure when things are going to continue, if they will continue. And I imagine for, you know, someone who's used to baseball, which is a sport that's played

basically every day, it's got to be difficult to not have that, you know, creative outlet for you every single day. Yeah, it's been really hard for me personally. You know, last year is my first professional season. And now here I am. I have my reel ready. I've been sending out to people asking for their advice and critiques. And I get these awesome feedbacks from people and I can't go practice.

I think that's the hardest part for me right now is I know what I need to work on. I know what my goals are for the 2020 season. And that's on pause right now. And that's hard. Another part for me is because I did play softball in college, I've been a part of a team every year of my life since I was six years old. And you know, you are still a part of a team as a member of the front office. But I'm currently separate from my front office. I'm actually down in L.A. with my parents. That's where I decided to stay at home with them. But I don't have

that team. I don't have the camaraderie aspect right now. So that's another difficult part for me. Yeah, I'm curious from a player development side, this is also got to be difficult for, you know, the players that you're used to interacting with on a daily basis. Obviously, the Diamondbacks have a very talented young farm system. I know they went very, very far this last year when you were there, which I'm sure was a lot of fun to watch with the California League championship. What do you think this whole situation, how do you think this is impacting those players who, you know, are obviously, I'm sure, aching to get out on the field every day? Definitely. And I've been lucky enough to be able to speak with some of them. I do weekly interviews, but they're kind of in the same

as me, honestly. It's a different craft that we do, obviously, with broadcasting and actually playing the game, but they want to get better. They're trying to get it, they're trying to get to the major leagues, too, just like I am. So we can kind of lean on each other in that aspect, but, you know, being able to hit a ball with a tee or even a pitching machine or taking ground balls from a family friend or a teammate that you're rooming with, it's not the same as seeing a ball off a bench. that or a game situation actually having a lefty trying to throw a 96 mile an hour fastball by you.

It's not the same thing when you're just getting it off the pitching machine. And I know that personally from playing too. So I think from that aspect, it's difficult for them. And, you know, I have no idea what's going on with baseball or when that's going to start. But, you know, just in terms of everyone's happiness, literally everyone's happiness, whether the players, broadcasters, workers for the team, and just fans in general, we want to get it back as soon as possible. But, you know, safety definitely comes first, and everyone that I've spoken to gets that. I mentioned it just briefly with the California League Championship last year.

I mean, that being your first season on the call, that must have been pretty exciting. I mean, I guess coming from the Red Sox, you've already kind of experienced the championship atmosphere before. But what was that like for you in your first season on the job having a team that went all the way? Yeah, I joke with the boys that it's all me, that I'm the reason that they won the championship. I joined a team and, you know, a 41-year drought broke and came with the Red Sox. So the joke was that if we won again in 2020, I was going to start applying for, you know, like the Mariners, the Mets position, things like that. But no, in all seriousness, it was amazing. I mean, this team, not only did they win the championship, they were so.

good. They had a 14 game win streak in April that broke a franchise record. They won the first half on June 4th and then went on to win the second half. It just dominated. And we had so many transactions. I believe we had 50 different guys play for us at one point in the season. And just the fact that they still were able to mesh together so well. And again, like how you said, the DeBax Farm System is so good. I mean, there was three championships this year. in 2019 in the farm system. It's awesome. I'm curious, just some specific players that they came through Vaisalia this year. You got Alec Thomas toward the end of the season. Heraldo Pardomo was there for a while, definitely some bigger name guys around the farm system. I'm sure, obviously, there are plenty of other ones, you know, given any kind of championship team, you know, there's going to be a lot of names contributing. Josh Green had an excellent season. A lot of guys on the pitching side. What are, you know, what are maybe some, some different names that really stood out to you that maybe Diamondbacks fans may not know a whole lot about just yet? Yeah, I mean, obviously,

like you said, Greenie, Pardomo, Thomas, they're all really good and they have such great work ethic. One that off top of my head is Macklemaud. He's a left-handed release pitcher and he was actually the championship series MVP. And it's rare for a release pitcher to get an MVP. Yeah. award. He did really well. I think he saved the game twice during a championship series. He came in with runners on first and second or first and third with one out and he got a double play ball twice and the inning. The two different times. Yeah, I mean, just the kid's so good. I think his, I don't remember his area off the top of my head, but he only had one or two bad outings and just so happened to be when his family was in town. So we joked that his family's not.

allowed back. But yeah, he's so good. Other people, I mean, we have a very, we have a very athletic team. Everyone was really good. Jean-Carlos and Shrone is really fun to watch just on the field. He's, he played shortstop a little bit, and then Pardomo came up. He moved over to second base. He's a lot of fun to watch, just his work ethic. And he was called the captain of the team. You know, they didn't have an actual naming of the captain, but everyone just called him that. So he's, He's a lot of fun. He was fun to watch, too. Yeah, I'm looking at Maclemae's numbers.

He had a 1.54 ERA over 52 and two-thirds innings during the regular season. So that is very, very, very impressive. He's so good. He's so good. It was so much fun watching him. When his curveball is on, no one can beat him. It's amazing. Wow.

Wow. Well, that certainly gives Diamondbacks fans something else to be excited about. That's a name I myself was not super familiar with. Jill, we really appreciate you taking the time today. Yeah, thanks so much for spending some time with us and good luck with the rest of the season. Hopefully there is a season. But, you know, we're all kind of in the same boat here just waiting around for baseball because that's what we baseball fans do.

So, yeah, thanks for hopping on with us. We really appreciate your time and good luck with the rest of the year. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much for having me on. And Edwin, stay home so we can have baseball back soon. Amen to that, amen to that.