Pitchers and catchers reporting to Port St. Lucie and placing seven prospects on the Baseball America Top 100 list dominated the Mets-related headlines this week, but there were a few other pieces of news that came out as well.
The first was the announcement that Wayne Randazzo was officially hired to fill the shoes of Seth Everett as the pre- and post-game show host on WOR, and the second was Steve Gelbs officially being announced as Kevin Burkhardt’s replacement as the sideline reporter on SNY.
Gelbs is somewhat of a known commodity because of his fill-in work the past two seasons on occasions where Burkhardt was unavailable. He is a little polarizing with some of the fans, but a lot of that has to do with him being in Burkhardt’s shadow.
He is one of the many bright young talents in the sports broadcasting world, having graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University (known as the best broadcast journalism school in the country) in 2009. In January of 2014, Gelbs was named one of the “Top 30 Sportscasters Under 30” by the Sportscaster’s Talent Agency of America, a well-respected industry resource.
That is one of the things that fans need to keep in mind with Gelbs. He has ascended to this position at an age when Kevin Burkhardt was still broadcasting the New Jersey Jackals and working at 1000-watt WGHT-AM.
What’s meant by that is that Gelbs is still a spring chicken in broadcasting years, so it’s unrealistic to expect him to come in and be at Burkhardt’s level. And that’s fine, because Gelbs as he gets more experience and a higher comfort level he’s sure to blossom and move on to bigger and better things.
Randazzo is another terrific young sportscaster, coming to Mets broadcasts via the Single-A Kane County Cougars, 670 The Score in Chicago, the Big Ten Network, ESPN3/ESPNU and Sports USA. Like Gelbs, Randazzo was tabbed as one of the “Top 30 Sportscasters Under 30.”
His journey to this position has also included stops covering the World Baseball Classic for the MLB Network, three years as the broadcaster for the Double-A Mobile Bears, and fill-in work with the Chicago Sky.
Whenever a broadcaster like Randazzo gets “called up” from the minor leagues to the majors, it is with great celebration from the sports broadcasting family. It is an incredibly difficult industry to make it to the pinnacle in, and Randazzo (along with Gelbs) is now one step closer.
These pre- and post-game show jobs are often considered the best launching pad to a full-time job in the booth. With Howie Rose now 61 years old, if Randazzo sticks around for a few years its easy to see him having the inside track to replace him.
Even if that wildly speculative situation doesn’t end up happening, with Gelbs and Randazzo as full-time members of Mets broadcasts, the tradition of the Mets having the best broadcast teams in the MLB (outside of ones featuring Vin Scully) should continue this year.
Joe Vasile is the voice of the Fayetteville SwampDogs of the Coastal Plain League.
Minor league team, less than minor league broadcasters. Gelb was not very impressive last season. When he came on he knew very little about the team. Which anyone can tell by the questions he asked in interviews.
Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling, Howie Rose and Josh Lewin “less than minor league?”
Are you watching or listening to the same games the rest of us are?
You have no idea how hard it is to fill in on a broadcast in any position. You can do a ton of homework, and have a great plan for how you are going to go about your job, but if you’re not there doing it every single day you’re not going to be as sharp as you can be, or as knowledgeable. Let’s give Gelbs more than a handful of fill-in appearances before we judge his job performance. He’s also 12 years younger than Burkhardt, which means 12 years less of experience.
It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of the sideline reporter.
I want to watch the game — I don’t want to be interrupted with reports that could have – and should have – been delivered in the pre-game show. I don’t care how good the announcer is that’s doing these — he’ll never be more than an intruder in my mind.
We’ll agree to disagree on this one, Brian. I am all in favor of the sideline reporter for a few reasons.
They add feature story-like reports into the game that would be missing otherwise (remember when Cotter, or maybe KB went into the Humidor in Coors, that was pretty cool).
They have the ability to quickly get info from the coaches mid-game that would be missing if they didn’t exist (this applies more to football and basketball, though).
It’s another job for sports broadcasters, and I’m in favor of anything that creates more positions that I could eventually work in my life. Selfish reason? Absolutely, but in terms of getting an MLB job, that’s an extra 30 positions, and an extra 30 guys that I’m not competing for an MiLB broadcasting job for. I’m already going up against 150 guys, I want to keep my odds as high as possible.
To your point that those feature-type stories should be left to the pregame show, I see your point, but people don’t really watch the pregame show in nearly as high numbers as the actual broadcast, so any interesting things like that that can be whittled down to 60-90 seconds are good for air.
With a TV broadcast you can afford to do that kind of stuff because you can still watch the game and see what is happening as the report is going on. That’s one of the reasons why TV guys have the leeway to talk about non-game related things more than radio guys, where that possiblity doesn’t exist.
Let’s go over your list:
1. Why can’t you do this in pre-game? Why do you have to cut away from on-field action to show this story?
2. This is the only reason this position should exist. And this should be voice only and be done in under 15 seconds.
3. That’s fine for the 1,000 people looking for work. It takes away from the viewing experience for the 1,000,000 fans who tuned in to watch the game.
4. If it’s a strong enough story, the regular announcers can talk about it and promote the pre-game show at the same time. Hey, want this extra information? Make sure you watch the pre-game.
5. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. I want to watch the game, not view KB or Gelbs’ mug when action is going on and have to suffer a last-second cut-away to a ball in play. If I wanted to listen to a radio broadcast, I wouldn’t be watching TV.
I totally agree Brian. The in-game stuff is just waste of time. I couldnt care less who they assign to this job. I get that KB was good at small talk filler, but listening to him call a game was a different story, and not good story. Anyways, here’s hoping we dont have too many in-game distractions. I met Gelbs in passing at a Mets game last season in ATL (the last series that we swept). Seemed like a genuinely nice guy.
Living out of market I did not see the SNY games with Mr. Gelb so I can’t speak to his ability. I have been listening to the radio broadcast via MLB.com for that time and did not like Seth as pre game host so I’m glad he has been replaced. I found some samples of Mr Randazzo’s work he sounds like he should be a welcome addition.
don’t misunderstand me I’ve always liked seth coverage of baseball nationally I just did not think him suited to cover a team full time he is better suited in his other rolls.
I am in a position that should allow me to watch SNY more going forward so I hope Gleb is better than I’ve heard. I generally agree though that mets broadcasting is in good shape
In any case nice informative article with an interesting perspective thanks for sharing it.
I knew Seth (not very well, but a little bit through a mutual contact) before he got the job, and he’s a nice enough guy and very knowledgeable about baseball as a whole, but I think the whole pre- and post- thing just wasn’t for him. He’s a family man and I suspect the schedule didn’t work for him either.
IMO he’s much better suited to be a Buster Olney/Tim Kurkjian baseball insider type, which is what he primarily did before the Mets job. He’s also the type of guy who just has a high motor and has 14 different jobs at once, and I think this job demanded more attention than he had the ability to give it because of his other commitments.
Um, 61 is not “old.” How long has Vin Scully been doing Dodgers games?? Considering how much he loves what he’s doing (and how much we love him), I would expect Howie Rose to be on the job for a loooong time…
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