The Josh Innes Show - JIS Classic: Astros Broadcaster Bill Brown

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

I haven't heard this in over 8 years. This was from our time at 790. Bill Brown had recently retired from calling Astros games. He came in studio and talked with us for an hour. His life is actually really fascinating. For example, he was a DJ in Vietnam with the guy "Good Morning, Vietnam" was based on. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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All right, Josh, in a show, 352, just talking baseball and broadcasts with the great Bill Brown, who joins us now. How are you, sir? Doing well, Josh. How about yourself? Very good. I love talking baseball broadcasters with anybody,

but you in particular. See, I didn't know you were from Sedalia, Missouri. Yes, tiny little town, and you're a Poplar Bluff guy. I was born in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, but I've lived in Billings, Montana, Mobile, Alabama. My dad worked on the radio. So I lived in about nine towns before I was 10. Like, I mean, nine cities, eight states, but settled in Baton Rouge for the most part, you know. But talking about baseball broadcasters, you grew up listening to Jack Buck and these guys. But Milo, the guy you eventually worked with, people forget and it may have only been one year, but Milo was part of what may go down as the greatest

assembly or semblance of talent with Jack Buck, it was Harry Carey and Joe Garagiola on the same broadcast team. I think it was in 53 or 54. That sounds exactly right, yes. Isn't that amazing? They were there for a short time, yeah. A lot of talent collected at one time. And the one thing they had in common is they all hated Harry Carrey.

That was the, like, have you ever read Jack Buck's book? And I know you've talked to Milo, of course. Yes, yes. And that was the big thing is they all hated Harry Carrey. So for half the year, Jack Buck would go on the road with Harry and then Milo would be at home And then they'd switch off, but they hated hated Harry Carey. I think they eventually got over it I don't know if Milo ever got over it

I've never read but as you're well aware Harry had a rather large ego. Yes But he built a you know his image on that Yeah It's funny because we kind of see Harry Carey as the the kind of cartoonish Character that he became and he was always kind of outlandish like that but people may not realize after he was there for about 15, 16 years I guess with the Cubs maybe a little longer but Cardinals, A's, White Sox, I mean he was with the team across town and like the whole take me out to the ball game started at old Comiskey Park.

Yeah and he could build drama with the best of them. That's, I think, why he was so popular with the fans. He could really get into a dramatic moment and build it and milk it and make it very, very exciting. Not that it wasn't already, but he could add to that. And I think because maybe the radio broadcast, and I think in baseball it's important, because it's the sound of your summer.

You can get in the car, games in in the first inning you go into Walmart for an hour you come out the games in the third it's just in the background so the baseball radio broadcast will never die I think it's stronger than football basketball etc but the thing about that is is those guys were storytellers and then when you learned how they got those jobs like Jack Buck my hero he's in the military he starts out he's like you know 10, 11, 12 smoking cigarettes to selling you know newspapers standing on a milk crate you know and that's how you build the voice and like I don't think guys tell stories like they used to. They can't because they're reading promos all the time which is part of our business

and you can't undo it but there's really not much time to tell stories. They have to be very short and there are some good storytellers now. So hopefully that'll never go away, Josh. Well, no, and I'm with you. And so you did TV for all those years and that's the analyst medium. So you just, you know, Jim Deshaies will do it. He does. And that's one of you guys had one of the great broadcast teams in the league and you kind of just set it up, hey, two balls, two strikes and hey, fly out to center and then boom, it's Jim Deshaes doing what he does. But on radio, you did radio last week. Is it hard to go back to doing radio after doing TV or is it easier to go back to radio?

I think it's hard. Anything you haven't done for a while becomes a little more. It's not riding a bicycle Certainly not it's not as easy as you might think so, you know listening in your driveway or wherever you're listening Yeah, well, you know, I think I was gonna tell you was that I don't know you were if you were ever part of this phenomenon but back before a Television other than the one television game a week on Saturdays the NBC game of the week television other than the one television game a week on Saturdays the NBC game of the week we would sit out in the driveway and listen you know if there was a pennant race going in September and you know Cardinals were off or

something that night well by golly we'd try to get KDKA in Pittsburgh on our car radio in the driveway. You have no idea okay so and you obviously do but when I was a kid growing up in Baton Rouge I was about 11 12 years old of 13 probably and my dad before all the games were on the internet and stuff like that and this is 99 2000 so I'm a young guy but he would let me sit in the car and back it up and down the driveway to listen to KMOX I would listen to WGN I would listen to you know, WOAI in San Antonio, I would listen to as you said, KDKA, WLW in Cincinnati, KTRH here in Houston, where I really discovered that. So we had gone to a ball game in St. Louis in about 99, so McGuire, I think it was opening

day, McGuire hits a home run, we're driving back to Baton Rouge. And at the time I knew the games were on a radio station, the Astros back to Baton Rouge. And at the time I knew the games were on a radio station, the Astros affiliate in Baton Rouge carried the games. So I said, hey, let's flip it over to hear the game on the local station. It was still on KMOX. And I flip it over, it's crystal clear. And it's this miracle of God when you're 13 years old

and you're addicted to baseball and you wanna be a broadcaster when you realize, you mean I can hear Jack Buck, Mike Shannon, Milo Hamilton, all these big names on the radio just from the car. Yeah. I love it. So Bill Brown's with us. We've got to make up a quick break here.

If you want to talk, you got any questions for Bill Brown? 713-212-5790. But we'll talk Stroh's, this great run, some memories, a lot of stuff. Josh and his show. We're back after this. At Desjardins Insurance, we know that when you're a building contractor your company's foundation needs to be strong that's why our agents go the extra mile to

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anywhere along the Go network. And the weekday group passes offer the same weekday travel flexibility across the network, starting at $30 for two people and up to $60 for a group of five. Buy your online Go pass ahead of the show at Gotransit.com slash tickets. All right, Josh, in the show, 402, Bill Brown talking baseball and broadcasters. It's amazing that you talk about the spanning of generations and we're well over 30 years apart, you and I, but we're both talking about like Jack Buck, right? And he's your, your favorite broadcaster growing up and mine, I caught him at the end. And I shared a story with people yesterday because my grandpa, who really got me into

the Cardinalsinals died a couple of nights ago and he was in his early 70s but he got me into watching the games without the sound on the tv and the radio broadcast up and we'd make the trips to St. Louis and go to the ball games at the old ballpark you know and the one time I met Jack Buck so we're at a ball game I caught a home run ball batting practice so Tony Womack hit a home run in batting practice. And I said, Grandpa, I gotta try to meet Jack Buck. He's my hero, he does what I want to do. So we wait outside the press box and Jack comes out.

This is 2000 maybe, so he's got Parkinson's. He's not doing well, but he kind of comes out, you know, and I go, Mr. Buck, Mr. Buck, can you sign my ball? And he puts me in the elevator at the old ballpark that kind of takes you down from the press box. And I, great, he grabs the ball, signs it. And I said, Mr. Buck, I've read your book a hundred times. You're my hero. And he says, did it put you to sleep?

I said, well, wow, that's awesome. So then we were done. We get out of the elevator. I said, Grandpa, I forgot to take a picture with Jack Buck. So we go back the next night and he comes out of the press box. I said, Mr. Buck, can I get a picture? And he goes, I signed yours yesterday. And then walked away.

It's funny. He, I mean, it's amazing how, like you're a voice of summer to people. So when people think of baseball in Houston, they think probably Milo Hamilton, they think Bill Brown. Eventually they'll think Todd Kalis and the guys that do the radio. That takes time.

And I think it's harder for these guys to build a relationship now for the reasons I think you said with endorsements all the time and live reads all the time. I think that the guys on radio do an admirable job. I think they're solid broadcasters but to follow Milo, to follow a great storyteller like that, the captain, to follow you and Jim Deshaies, not an easy job. I would have to agree with you. I think it can take years and years for a broadcaster to get established. It certainly did for me. But I want to tell you one more story about Jack. All right. To show you what a great broadcaster he was. He was well along, you know, a little

bit before the time you're talking about seeing him. You know, maybe five, six, seven years before then. He would typically come down to the Astros bench in Bush Stadium. He'd have his engineer with him with the tape recorder. He'd go up to name any rookie on the Astros he hadn't met and ask him to do a pregame interview. And you didn't normally find that from established Hall of Fame broadcasters going up

to a rookie, but that typically was what he did and just never lost the work ethic you talked about. It impresses me, and I know we've talked about it, but just the old school guys and what it takes to be a broadcaster and what people expect of you. But I know we've talked about it before. How did you get from Cincinnati? Well, first of all, let's go back a little bit. Where were you broadcasting?

Like everybody talks about the big league job. Where was your first broadcasting job? Sedalia, Missouri. And I was doing high school play by play, football and basketball. And I remember the first paycheck I ever got. I went into the general manager's office and I had done a high school football game

and he hand wrote a paycheck for five dollars. That's amazing. A check for five dollars. Yeah, a check. And what year is this? That was about 68 maybe. What does five bucks get you in 1968? Not a whole lot. Still not much? No, still not much. And you did a high school game, huh? Yeah. So you do that on the radio. Do you remember anything about the first broadcast you did? No, other than the fact that I was scared to death,

but that was about it. How did you get the job? Did you go to school for broadcasting or anything, or did it just fall into place? I went to, well, to go back to high school, we had a journalism class. And as a part of the journalism class, some of us got to go on the air on this commercial station

in our small town and do five minutes of high school news. And that was how I got started. And then I just started hanging around the station, getting to know the DJs and news people and everybody I could, because that's what I had been told it would take to get into radio. And that was the old fashioned way to do it. And my dad worked in radio, so I got to be around radio stations.

But a boss once told me that you can go to broadcasting school to do it. And that's my dad worked in radio so I got to be around radio stations but a boss once told me that you can go to broadcasting school and learn it and that's fine but you're not going to learn any better than just hanging out here and talking to people and punching buttons and running boards and and I hear broadcasters now you can't knock a guy for going to Syracuse but I think these types of schools have produced vanilla broadcasters. Very good fundamentally, very sound but they don't have a personality a lot of the time. Not all of them but you feel kind of just a there's a generic almost

mass-produced feel to a lot of those guys. Yeah I think that can happen and I agree with your suggestion and I tell kids the same thing now if they want to know how to get there just yeah start at the grassroots level work your way up. How did you go from Sedalia, Missouri to the Cincinnati Reds? That was a long and winding road Started out after University of Missouri at San Antonio Woai radio and TV. Oh, so what did you do there? Well, I wanted to do sports, but they had me doing news coverage and learning how to shoot 16mm film, Josh.

How did they find you? Did you send a tape to them? What do you do? I actually had been chosen to be an intern the summer before, between my junior and senior years. They came to the campus and they interviewed people and they have Avco Broadcasting owned that station and several others in the Midwest and they chose interns for their stations and I was lucky enough to get chosen. So essentially they had trained me on these things the summer before and at that

time when I graduated from college in 1969, hey if you were healthy you were draft bait and everybody knew that So there were some people reluctant to hire males. What goes through your mind? 1969, draft bait, as you said, you gotta be petrified. Right, so you had that hanging over your head the whole time, and all you could do is just, you know, newly married right after college, so hey, we need a job.

Sure. And my wife, of course, made more than I did, quite a bit more than I did, but that was okay. And so that's the way it started. And then less than a year later, I was drafted and I wasn't draft bait anymore. They had me. So I didn't know that. Yeah. So they draft you. What's it like when you get that notice like, hey, you've been drafted? Well, at that point, that was the beginning of the lottery system. And it was I was at work that night. And so the numbers were being chosen.

The were they based on birthdays? Yeah, birth dates. So, you know, they would be on the Associated Press wire. And I was standing there in the wire room watching the dates being selected. And I watched about the first 20 and then I went on back to work. You feel like you're safe. Yeah, I'm not going to stand here all night. And then my buddy, who was 4F and didn't have a worry

in the world, came in and said, hey, you're number 53. So I was going to be gone quickly. And I was. And less than two years, I was out and went to Cincinnati then after that. So when you get drafted, where do you go? They wanted to. Initially, I was going to go to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri,

which you know about. But there was there was an outbreak of something. I don't know if it was meningitis or what it was, but they weren't sending us guys from Missouri there anymore. We were shipped out to Fort Ord, California for basic training. Then I went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Then I went to Vietnam. So you were in Vietnam? Yes.

Wow. But never fired a shot. I was behind a microphone in Saigon. Oh, so you were good morning Vietnam. Yeah, I was at that station. Yeah. So did you know Adrian Cronauer? Didn't know him because he had been there about three years

before. But did his aura still exist? Did people still talk about that there? Oh, they did. He left a wide swath behind him, and a bunch of rules were put in after. That's great! What were the rules? Well, no ad-libbing. Sure. You know if you're reading a newscast, everything has to be cleared by the officer in charge. Don't add opinions. No opinions. No opinions. What kind of music were you playing? They were playing the regular rock.

So that did stay then? It wasn't Perry Como and that type of stuff. You're playing, you know, like the Beatles and that stuff. Because the troops are out there on fire bases with their transistors, and so the job is to entertain these guys with what they like. And I was lucky because I was just doing sportscasts. So when they draft you, when you go to Vietnam, were you anticipating being in combat or do they tell you like, hey, you're going to get this job?

You don't know until you land in country what you're going to be doing. So you have to be ready for combat. Yes. Wow. Did the guys have any animosity towards the radio guys who were not in combat? I'm quite sure they did. I know I would have. Sure, like you're out there, you know, on the lines and you're playing the Beatles, you know? Exactly. Wow. So, and so what, like, are you relieved? Obviously you're relieved when they tell you, like, by the way, you're just going to be spinning 45s and reading the news.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a relief. And, you know, I mean, it was great training for going back to the way, you're just going to be spinning 45s and reading the news. Yeah, it's a relief. It was great training for going back to the States, getting back into broadcasting. So it really could not have turned out better. Wow. How old are you at this point? It's probably 25, 26, somewhere around in there. So 25, early 70s, and that's just the beginning of your life. I mean, you're going to Cincinnati, then you're going to Houston, then you're, you know, you've stayed in Houston for all

these years. We're going to continue this conversation with the great Bill Brown. If you have any questions, 713-212-5790, and we will get into some of the current Astro stuff, but amazing. Vietnam, you get there and they say, good news, you're the new Adrian Cronauer. Good morning, Vietnam. We're back with more with Bill Brown after this the great Bill Brown is with us. So last we spoke we are in Vietnam and Yes, let's get the hell out of here you're spinning records in Vietnam And so what's it like when you get to find out you get to leave Vietnam? Oh my gosh that couldn't have happened any sooner and did you feel any guilt like the war continued after you left I would have been like do you feel guilt

that there are guys out there and you're the guy spinning the records and then you get to leave? Yes yes there there is a guilt feeling there but hey it's all about returning to your family, right? Absolutely. First and foremost. Sure. So you get to go home. How soon after that do you have the Cincinnati Reds job?

Well, I actually got it pretty quickly because the rule was, the law was that if you had been drafted into the military, your job had to be offered back to you, which was my job in San Antonio. And so I knew I had that, but my wife really wanted to live somewhere else. And so some of the stations in the Midwest included Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Dayton, Columbus. And I said, you know, if you would have an opening at any of those, it would be great.

And they happen to have one in Cincinnati doing weekend sports. So that's why I did that. So was that on WLW? Yes. And that was radio, correct? So we did radio and TV there. It was a combined operation. And you're there at the same time that Al Michaels is there.

And Joe Nuxall is there. He's legendary, played obviously in Color Analyst for all those years with Al Michaels, then I believe with Marty Brenneman for all those years. So you get there. How do you get the job in Cincinnati? Do they pick up the phone and call you? How does that play out?

I didn't work for the Reds. I worked for the TV station, the NBC affiliate, WLWT. I was passed over once for the job and then a few years later I got it and that was my first year was 76, second straight World Series Championship for the Reds. That's awesome. Yeah we moved there in 72 so they were in the World Series that year, lost game seven by one run to Oakland, made it to the playoffs in 73, won the

World Series in 75, won the World Series in 76. That was a great era. Yeah and you saw great teams there obviously. How did you end up being fired in Cincinnati? I wasn't very good Josh. I think my biggest problem was I was trying to be Ray Scott and I wasn't Ray Scott. Yes now Ray Scott of course is the legendary voice of Green Bay Packers. Yes and he did golf and he was in fact he did twins on TV also. Yes. Just a great voice, all this presence and everything. And so I was into this phase of, well, I'll do what Ray Scott does because I think that's really a great way of broadcasting.

And it just didn't work for me. So you're like kind of mimicking the sound and that type of deal? What I was trying to do was not talk very much, but be dramatic when I did talk. Yes. And I think I should have talked more, because the team was losing 101 games. And there was a lot of silence.

The bats weren't making much noise. The fans weren't making much noise. And I wasn't making much noise. Well, I remember I would listen to the old Jack Buck stuff. And I've gone back and listened to the play-by-play I did. When I was, I think, 16, I was doing an independent league team on the internet for like half a year. Ted Williams' kid, one of the guys that,

he's the reason his head is frozen, but his kid was on the team and he kind of was the, he was on the team because he was the main benefactor, I guess, of the team. Like he paid for a lot of stuff. And I would go back and listen to tapes of mine and I'd be like, swinging along one, adios! And that kind of stuff.

Like you mimic guys. It's hard, and you've been at it for so long, but it's hard to not find yourself mimicking the guys that you've listened to your whole life. No doubt, and there would be many a game when I would say something and I would be telling myself, that's Jack Buck. And it was just somehow ingrained in me.

I wasn't trying to copy Jack Buck, but to me, it sounded like him. Sure. What's it like the first time you meet Milo Hamilton? Well, I was pretty intimidated. I had met him a little bit in Cincinnati when he did the Braves. But it was somewhat intimidating,

and I didn't really spend a lot of time talking with him then, but he was already here when you got the job. It was like his first or second year. Yes, it was his second year. No, it was his third year. He came in 85. But you know, Gene Elston had just been fired and Milo was clearly the top dog and we did spend a lot of time together in spring training, riding in the car to games and broadcasting.

And so I got to know him a little bit. Was he ever petty towards you like like that friendly type of you know hey you're coming in you're kind of on my territory now? No no he wasn't he was always very professional and he and I were never really on together because he had an analyst on with him and then I was on TV with an analyst there. Sure so because you hear the stories about Milo and the stories are kind of, he's got an ego, healthy ego. So you would think a guy with a healthy ego, anytime somebody new comes to town,

that guy could be viewed as competition, I guess I would say. But you know Josh, I think that that may have been the previous phase when he and Gene were here and they were both superstars, Ford Frick Award winners in the making. I was really no threat to anybody. And did you expect when you got this job here

for it to be a long-term deal? No, I was just hoping that I could hang on for a few years until I could figure out what to do with the rest of my life. But I really wanted to do this. It just that I was pretty insecure about being able to hold onto it. What did you know about Houston, the Astros, the city when you got the job? You know, the thing that I think was really helpful, Josh,

was having come here so many times with Cincinnati, having been in the same division with the Reds, there were a number of trips to Houston. We would play tennis with the sports writers here who covered the Astros. So I got to know some of those guys in the media, knew Dwayne Stats and the broadcasters, Dirk a little bit. So there was that kind of a little comfort feeling coming into it.

And obviously, last year was the final year for you here. And then Todd Callis has come in. And from everything he's told us, you guys have a great relationship. And you don't force advice on him, but he seeks it out. You said, actually, it's Todd's wife that comes to you looking for more advice than anything. Well, Michelle has been great.

Michelle Allen, she has a nice job here now, so the transition has been very smooth for them. And yeah, I don't have much to do during games. Michelle doesn't have much to do during games, so we've sat and watched a few games together. Do you critique at all? No. No, you just kind of just I see I would I'm a jerk though I'd be like you messed that one up they miss me. Well we talk you know if she comes to the ballpark we'll just have a chat about what's going on

with her and that kind of thing and because I realize it's a difficult transition for the wife or the fiance in this case and she's meeting people so I think the transition is going very well. Bill Brown is with us. You obviously weren't here for 81 and 86 so whenever they finally got good again, which would have been the late 90s, you were here. This team's great. We know that.

What is your favorite team in the years you broadcast the Astros? Is there a particular team that is your favorite? Well I love the Killer B's teams of the late 90s but I also love the Clemens and Pettit era. 04 and 05 those were tremendous so I would say either one of those. You know but to think of what Mike Hampton did here in 99 and you know I like being around Shane Reynolds he was a good pitcher didn't get a whole lot of credit and of course Bidgie O'Bagwell and those guys so there in 99 and you know I like being around Shane Reynolds he was a good pitcher didn't get a whole lot of credit and of course Bidgie O'Bagwell and those guys so there were just a lot of likable people here. Do you remember any particular call of yours and we'll go both ways with this a call that you feel like you blew

and then a call that you say wow I feel like I nailed that one? I you know the ones that I blew are too numerous to to remember and it's always well I came out with a platitude or you know a 15 year old kid would have come out with that so there there are a lot of those. Did you still tell yourself that up until the very end of the games? Oh yeah yeah. Give me an example of what you would consider a you know a plat you know a 15 year old kid could have done it. There's a deep drive the left center field and it's gone. Well, OK. There's nothing special about that.

So what do you expect out of yourself? How should you sell that call? And I know the moment matters, but Jeff Kent's walk-off home run in the LCS 04. And you didn't broadcast that one because it was on network television. So how do you sell that? What would be that moment?

On TV, I think the better way to handle it is not to talk. And so for a big moment like that, a game ending moment, I would hope not to be saying very much at all. On radio you have to be going crazy. Sure. You've got to be describing everything, you have to be screaming at the top of your lungs for it to carry the kind of impact it should carry so so the two are totally different but you know you would hope to put your own little stamp on sure but there's no way Josh to rehearse that and to make sure that it's like you know Joe Buck and I think this just kind of happened because he was sick and that was when he was

having the vocal issue but whenever the home run was hitting the 11 World Series when he just said we'll see you tomorrow night and then just let it breathe to kind of pay homage to his dad. Like I think Joe Buck gets a lot of criticism but he started to take more of a step back and just let the game breathe and that's something a lot of these guys don't do. Well yeah unfortunately in our business as you're well aware some of us think that we're getting paid by the word and that would be me. I would have been really selling those calls I would have been going I like I do we have Milo's call of the Kent home run or any of

those significant home runs Jim I know we've played some of them well like one of the walk-off home runs like Milo could really sell a call well the Chris Burke home run in the 18th inning and the brave series yeah and you appreciate Milo kind of once it's over. Like here's the hard part I guess about getting older as a broadcaster is a younger generation of people start to listen to you and they judge you differently than the people that grew up listening to you. Like I like Mike Shannon. If a 20 year old kid right now is listening to Mike Shannon they probably didn't grow up listening to him. So you're like oh

he missed this call. He's this, that me it's charming because he's Mike Shannon or Ken Hawk, Harrelson, or Milo towards the end of it, you know, like that's gotta be tough because a different kind of criticism comes in. Yeah, understandable. And part of the package and that's what you sign up for. And if you didn't, then you didn't know what you were signing up for. But it's all good. You know, being able to do this job job you have to handle the criticism with the rest of it.

What is your favorite call of yours? I don't know. I don't think I had any really great calls. It's also hard because you do TV and the most dramatic moments happen in the playoffs when you're not working. Sure. Did they ever, and I'm talking before, but did they ever decide to move you to the radio for playoff baseball games?

We did a few games, we being Jim Deshaies and I, when we played the Braves. And I'm thinking 97. And the reason was that they wanted us to do, I think we did the middle three innings, they wanted us to be a part of the radio broadcast in postseason then at some point they discontinued that and we didn't work at all and

Then you know at some point. I think it was an 0405. I might have been involved in pre and postgame studio shows On Fox, but that's gotta be tough because you spin like that's the unfair part the fair part is you're on TV You're the face people see you they watch you more than they listen to the radio but the bad news is when the drama happens you're not there yeah and you're dying you know you are wife and I are sitting there in the stands in the old five World Series and I'm so happy that the team is in the World Series and so sad that I'm not on the air you want to be okay you know that's that was known well enough. Do you call games in your head when you watch them? It's like, oh, ground ball to short.

It's gobbled up by Correa, throws a cross, anything over. Like anything like that? No, I don't really do that. I probably did when I was younger, and trying to hone my skills a little bit. But no, I don't really do that. How much do you miss it? I miss the games quite a bit.

I enjoy doing the games in Arlington, but not the preparation. And for those who don't know, what kind of prep, just for a three-game series like that with the Rangers, and you follow the club, but not on a day-to-day basis where you know every detail like you did when you're traveling 162 games a year with the guys, what kind of prep goes into that?

Well, most of it is before the first game of the series And so what you do is just go over the other club very carefully Make sure you have everything you want to say about that club May make sure you're up to speed on what the relief pitchers throw what the starting pitcher each day throws You look at his history against your team what he's been in general, and the same thing with their hitters. So once you do that prep for the first game, that's finished for the series. And then the other game, like game one, will lead you into having the time to talk about from game two. You'll remember that Correa went two for four with a home run, and that's the talking point the next day.

Yeah, and the great thing is that our analysts are so good here, that you don't want to choke off your analyst and rob things from his amount of time that he has to speak, because he's doing the more important analytical work of describing pitching patterns and things of that nature, Josh. And Blummers has done fantastic. Did you believe that Blum was going to be as good as he became?

And were you in on the decision making process? I wasn't in on it, but I really felt that he would get the job. Having worked with him last year, I knew that he was ready for this and I knew that he really wanted it and I think he's really proved that by taking the next step with his preparation and with his performance on the air. I think Jim Deshaies may be the best analyst, local baseball analyst there is. That's why he got that job. That's a great job to get. It is. It is. But yeah, people used to tell me, Josh, oh I hope for a one-sided game because that's when he starts getting

funny. He just had that switch that would go on and he would shift gears away from this game that you were watching, which was 10 to 1 in the sixth inning and he'd start getting funny and and he is a really rare talent. And you have to be able to do that because not every baseball game is interesting. It's the same as doing a sports talk radio show like you feel what the vibe is and if that topic's not there you move on and some days you talk less sports because it's just a feel that the audience kind of gives you with that and I would imagine it's the same for doing a game on radio or TV. It is and of course in TV you're led by the pictures

so if something's going on in the stands you may revisit that you may get off the track a little bit but if the game is one-sided then hopefully people will allow for that. You were telling me a story about DeShays and the Metrodome. What is this story? He told a story about the World Series, the Twins. I think it was the 91 World Series and the PA announcer, his last name was Casey. I think his first name was Bob Casey. Anyway, an older gentleman and he sat right down, you know, close to the dugout. Really? That's what the PA announcer said? Yeah, which shocked me because usually they're four stories up, you know.

And so he was down there and doing the game and about the fourth, fifth inning, he had to use the men's room. So the only men's room he had available to him was the one up the tunnel in the twins dugout that the players used. And so he ducked out of his booth in between innings and he went up there and Kirby Puckett and Kent Herbeck took it upon themselves to lock him in the men's room. So Herbeck and Puckett locked the PA announcer in the men's room. Yeah. So what happens? Well he's banging on the door trying to get out

and they won't let him out and he's supposed to be announcing the next batter. And this big booming voice probably is the big P.A. Let me out! Like he was probably trying to yell it from inside the men's room. I don't know what he did. Probably, that's fantastic.

That's the other thing, baseball leads to so many great stories because you're with guys for six, seven months out of your life and half of those you're on the road so you make friends. Who were the guys like and you don't want to get too close to players obviously because you do have to be objective and well tell me this how many times have you been approached by a player that felt you had been too critical of something? A few and what my policy was was to say well okay what was

it that I said or what was it that you were told that I said? That's a big one. Yes. Yeah, and if it's you know, I mean frankly Josh if it's coming from a wife or a fiance or a girlfriend It's magnified they amplify what it was you said, can you believe what the guy on TV said this? He said it was the worst plays ever seen right and it may not have believe what the guy on TV said this? He said it was the worst play he's ever seen. Right. And it may not have been what the guy on TV said. So let's first of all determine what the guy said. Correct. And you know, a few times I would say, you know, I don't remember saying it that way. So what I'll do if you want me to is go back and look at the tape and see what I actually said. And usually they say, forget it. They get it. You're right though, it's the parents, it's the wives,

it's the kids that take it way out of context. Because a player knows when he should have made a play. And you know when a player knows he should have made a play. What was the old famous Harry Carrey line? One of the players from the Dominican loses a ball in the sun and it's the sun shines 365 days a year and he loses a ball in the sun. So it's a little bit different than what

you're doing probably, but you get what I'm saying. What happened one time was though that I did apologize to Derrick Bell for a game in the dome. He caught a fly ball with a runner on base for the second out in the inning and then he tossed it up to a fan. And I jumped all over him and I really crossed the line in my opinion. What did you say? Well, I can't believe, you know, he's got to know how many outs there are. This is a stupid player, ridiculous player, something along those lines.

It was over the top. So I went into him the next day and apologized. He was very good about it. Very magnanimous about it. Because he knows. I mean, he knows. It's a professional. You don't want to go that far, but he knows that that's stupid.

I think Larry Walker did that once through a ball in the stands. These guys know when they make a boo-boo, as it were. Yeah. But I have to admit, I've had brain cramps. I've made mistakes on how many outs there are in the inning or what the score is. And one time we were doing a game with the Reds and Pirates

in Pittsburgh. It was a hot July day. People's concentration was not what it could have been. And there was a long rundown involving the second out of a double play. They tagged the guy, the Pirates run off the field. And I throw it to commercial. And it was only two outs.

And the TV truck said, that's the second out. Ooh. It's tough. Mr. Brown, great talking with you, sir. This has been a blast. Thank you, Josh. I love hanging out. Come up any time. I love talking baseball with you. I know that was more about your life. We can get into talking about baseball, of course, in this current team. But it's great talking with you, great meeting you in person. And I know people miss you on the broadcast. The pleasure was all mine, Josh. Thank you. Thank you. That's the great Bill Brown. We're back after this.