NEWS

By Don Leypoldt

It isn’t just the players in the NECBL who are “keeping their eye on the dream.”

It’s the broadcasters too.

Every NECBL team is required to have a broadcaster, who often serves as the primary link between the players and their far away parents, friends and significant others who can’t possibly attend every game.  These broadcasters also have dreams of a career in sports media.  Few things provide better experience and training for this type of career than a 44-game NECBL season.

While the NECBL is proud of the nearly 100 alumni who have played in Major League Baseball, the New England League also has friends in MLB broadcast booths.

Joe Castiglione needs no introduction to anyone who knows how to stuff a quahog or who knows where Metro West is.  The tenor has been a Major League announcer since 1979 and the Red Sox radio voice since 1983.   

How far back does Castiglione go?  When he made his Major League broadcast debut for the ’79 Cleveland Indians, the losing pitcher was Rick Wise…a man who once had a teammate who played under Connie Mack.  That’s a lot of experience and stories in the WEEI Red Sox radio booth.  

When the Sox finally shed their 86-year title drought to win the 2004 World Series, it was Castiglione’s words and call- his trademark “Can you believe it?” on the front sports page of that day’s Boston Globe.  Although he grew up a Yankee fan (“I hate to admit that, but it’s true,” confessed the Hamden, CT native) Castiglione is as synonymous with Boston baseball as the Green Monster and Carlton Fisk’s hopping wave.

While Castiglione has seen everything Red Sox from (pitcher David) Aardsma to (OF Bob) Zupcic, he is also well versed in the NECBL.  His son played for the Waterbury White Sox in the NECBL’s first year.  Joe Castiglione emceed the NECBL’s first Hall of Fame dinner in 2010.

Castiglione, who has taught broadcast journalism at both Franklin Pierce and Northeastern in the off-season, recently sat down for a Q and A with NECBL.com.  

NECBL.com: “Joe, can you talk about your early career and how you eventually ended up in Boston?”    

Joe Castiglione: “I always wanted to be a broadcaster.  I went to Colgate University and starting doing college radio- football and basketball.  College is the best way to start because you don’t get fired!  You’re able to do it, but the trouble is that there really isn’t anyone to give you advice so I learned by trial and error.  

“I spent summers doing radio, news and deejaying in New Haven, Ansonia, CT, Westfield, MA and Norwich, NY.  When I graduated, I worked part time in Meriden, CT doing football, having a talk show and selling, even though I hated selling.  

“Then I went to Syracuse’s Master program and worked for Channel 3 and radio doing everything: booth announcer, calling Syracuse basketball, fill in deejay- all of that.  After that, I went to Youngstown, OH and anchored the 6 and 11 news, did high school sports, did Youngstown State play by play and covered the Pittsburgh Pirates in my free time.  I then went to Cleveland as a weekend anchor and eventually got a baseball job on TV in ’79.  I did that for one year, they lost the contract so I filled in on Indians’ radio.  The following year, I went to Milwaukee and did their new cable TV but only got a handful of games in because of the strike.  I went back to Cleveland to do cable and then landed here in Boston in ’83.”

NECBL.com: “How do you prepare for a broadcast, especially with the visiting team?  You see the Red Sox every day but you might only see some opposition clubs for just one or two series.”

JC: “I think you prepare a lifetime really.  You should follow it every day and when you do it every day you’re always preparing.  Your recall is important and if you have a few tricks for your recall, that is good.  

“I think a lot of times you find a go-to source on a team.  Usually there is someone with a Red Sox connection or someone I knew when I was in Cleveland, or there was a relationship that was cultivated.  But there is so much information now on the internet, it is overwhelming.  

“When I first started in Cleveland on TV, I would go to the Public Library to read the newspapers on other teams.  They were always two or three days late by the time we got them.  That was a lot more difficult.  The media guides were a lot thinner.  Today, there is a lot more information out there, not all of which is accurate, so you have to be a good editor: to know what is important and what is not important.  But there is so much out there today, that it is not hard to prepare for the opposing teams.  It’s a lot easier than it used to be.”  

NECBL.com: “Not to cover a semester’s worth of material in a two minute sound byte, but what are your major points of emphasis in your college broadcasting courses?”

JC: “The first thing I teach is preparation- how to prepare.  I think that preparation is critical.  That is something that no one ever taught me.  I thought you just showed up at a microphone and read something.  You try and teach them how to be a reporter, how to cover an event and to be confident that they know what they are doing.  You teach them how to ask a question, how to do an interview and how to listen.  I think one thing that a lot of kids have to understand is that the first rule is not to be a good talker but to be a good listener, because you learn a lot by listening, especially in pre-game, because you’ll get three hours to talk.  Pre-game is your time to listen and to absorb.  

“When it comes to the nuts and bolts of play by play: it’s trying to be descriptive, remembering what your medium is and relating with the people you work with.  It’s getting along with production people and knowing the necessity of working with sales people when they need you.  There are so many different aspects.  

“But basically, I think its how to prepare and then going from there depending on the talent level.  Of course, not everyone has the same talent.  It’s like being a player.  Not everyone can do it.  But they can understand how to prepare to do it and if they have the ability, they can move from there.”

NECBL.com: “Earlier this year, you and your partner Dave O’Brien made some on air comments on audition tapes, and how not to do one.  What can a young broadcaster do to avoid mistakes with their tapes?” 

JC: “We can usually tell.  It’s the quality of their delivery and the quality of their voice.  It’s the natural reaction you have when you meet somebody for the first time, whether you have any interest in continuing or just ending it there.  But I think when they are putting a tape together, they should always have their best work first and right at the beginning: whether it’s a highlight package and then the half inning where you can tell the conversation.  It should be something where people will listen for more than 10 seconds without turning it off.  Put your best foot forward. 

“And put an effort into it.  Don’t just give the third inning of a game where there are five pitching changes and nothing happened.  Try and make it exciting.  Play by play is something where something is developing, where there is some action or something where you can add some personality and some clever repertoire.  But put the best stuff right in the beginning.”

NECBL.com: “Jim Kaat, the long time Twins pitcher and Major League broadcaster, is also a friend of the NECBL.  He told us last year that when he broadcasts, he visualizes speaking to a room of three people- a casual fan, a middle of the road fan and a baseball expert.  How do you visualize your audience when you get behind the mic?” 

JC: “I like that!  I never thought of it that way.   I don’t know if I think of specific individuals.  When I look at our audience, I try to paint a picture so that they can see what is happening.  The name of my first book was ‘Broadcast Rites and Sites: I Saw it on the Radio’, a take off of the Terry Cashman song.  Try to be as descriptive as you can.  

“I envision our audience in general terms: as being Red Sox fans.  I think Kitty hit the nail on the head because you are talking to hard core fans.  You are talking to those who tune in to hear the score and to those so-called Pink Hats who follow them when they’re doing well.  They are all just as important.  Fans are of all ages as well.  You do have to be conscious of that and try to relate.  You don’t talk down to people like they know nothing, but you don’t speak in jargon that they don’t understand.  That’s what it means to be a communicator and I think that is what Kitty does so well.  He may be the best ever ex-player in communicating what he knows to those three different levels of fans.” 

NECBL.com: “One of the things I like about your style is that when nothing is going on, you’re not afraid to have a few seconds of silence.  Can sometimes Less be More in broadcasting?”

JC: “It can be.  The air is not dead because you have background noise.  You have a crowd here that is always over 30,000.  There is always something- a hot dog vendor if your mike is in a strategic location.  It’s such a long time that you don’t have to fill every second.   I think people like that, because it is a relaxed game but most of the time nothing is happening and then all of a sudden something happens and its over.  I think that little ball is in play only eight minutes over three hours.  

“I think if you can fill the air with interesting material, it’s appropriate if it coincides with what is happening on the field or is somehow related to it.  That is what you like to do.  Stats can be a great crutch.  Some people love numbers but for other people, too many stats can be just like being at work.  They’re trying to relax and get away from work.  And you really should be careful.  Every stat should tell a story.  It shouldn’t just be a number.  If you have a chance between a number or an anecdote, always use an anecdote.  Try to personalize players and what is happening.  I think that is important.  But there is nothing wrong with not filling every second.”

NECBL: “Lastly Joe, what advice would you give to a college broadcaster who hopes to have a career in sports media?”

JC: “To be as prepared as they can.  To know something else about the players other than the stats they are given.  If they can personalize them in anyway, and that includes the opposition.  And to be ready for the action when it happens.  To have a system: a system of doing your scorebook, preparing and getting your work done.  Be prepared for the game so when the umpire says ‘Play Ball!’ you’re not distracted by other things like putting the lineup together or picking up stats.  Have all of that done in advance so that you can concentrate on what’s happening.  It all gets down to the basic preparation.”