Play-by-Playcast

Steve Jones is the longtime voice of the Penn State Nittany Lions, first their men's basketball voice and now their football voice as well.  In addition Steve calls baseball for the State College Spikes and has a talk show.  In this episode he talks about making big calls under pressure, calling games in Happy Vally, working with Joe Paterno and more.

Aside from being a tremendous mini-golf player and huge fan of both Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen (discussed), Kevin Brown is a tremendous broadcaster.  The '11 Syracuse grad is in his first full year as a full-time ESPN PxP voice after having worked in Triple-A with the Syracuse Chiefs and various other freelance gigs.  We get into his career path, taking improv classes, being mentored by Jason Benetti and more this week.

Named Co-MiLB Broadcaster-of-the-Year by Ballpark Digest, Mick Gillispie is the voice of the Tennessee Smokies, AA affiliate of the Chicago Cubs.  Not only that, he also calls Cubs Spring Training games, runs his own production house, calls games on the SEC Network and more.  On this episode Mick talks his influences, broadcasting super powers, Will Ferrell, his climb in the minors and more.

David Crane suddenly found himself without a football broadcasting job.  He had a job and he hadn't changed his job, his job just changed.  When UAB dropped football in 2014 its impact was more far-ranging than just the play on the field.  Crane talks about what it was like without work on Saturdays, his excitement to have it back and more - like calling a 2015 NCAA Tournament upset.

Chris Denari has the best penmanship known to man.  So we obviously started this week talking about his charts, which he makes by hand.  Then we dive into calling football on TV...as he did last week...and, of course, we talk about working in the NBA and the WNBA and for the Butler Bulldogs and on TV in Indy.  Chris has had a wide-ranging career and we cover it all in episode 65!

Sean Grande has done a ton of things in his broadcasting career. A veteran of the NBA and the Boston Celtics for the better part of this century, Grande has also called college football on TV, been the voice of the Boston College Eagles football team, called Bellator MMA on TV and more.  It's one of the wonkier episodes of the podcast where we dive deep into how Sean does what he does and all the various aspects of his career.  Find Sean on twitter @SeanGrandePxP.

Allen Bestwick's name is synonymous with racing broadcasting.  A veteran of NASCAR and Indy racing alike, Bestwick most recently worked with ESPN and called this past year's 101st Indy 500.  He talk the dynamics of a racing broadcast on TV, adapting to start doing other sports with ESPN, the ESPN layoffs in April and more.

Dave Jageler didn't take the traditional route to Major League baseball.  But what is the traditional route really?  He didn't call baseball full time until 2005 when he was hired by the Pawtucket Red Sox and surged into the Washington Nationals booth in 2006.  Jageler talks all about prep, his talk background informing his baseball calls, moving to TV for a bit this year, his time as a student as Syracuse and much more.

Tony Caridi doesn't go by the name "Voice of the Mountaineers."  That's a title forever held by Jack Fleming.  But Tony is the guy that call the Mountaineers on radio, and he's as synonymous with West Virginia fans today as the country roads that take them home.  Tony talks about growing roots in WV, learning from the great Jack Fleming, his time as a student at WAER radio in Syracuse and what it's like working with Bob Huggins.

Jared Sandler made it the Majors in his early 20's. It was hard work, persistance and prep meeting opportunity when he joined the Rangers crew. Sandler talks about the chance he took on himself and how that gamble paid off.