Full Transcript for 11 - Darren Chan

became a full-time sports station. 00:05:01 Speaker 2: Sports page 68 was from four to six. That was with Gene Washington, former 49er. And then Ralph was on from six to nine. Giants baseball, Warriors basketball, music on the weekends, Frank and Mike in the morning, Peter B. Collins, Leo Laporte. There was a cooking show at noon. 00:05:18 Speaker 1: I mean, think about where KBR is at all. 00:05:20 Speaker 2: Cooking shows. I know. 00:05:21 Speaker 3: I'm so fascinated by the early days of KBR because Rob Brooks was telling us a lot about that too, about the morphing of 1050 and then you got full-time sports station in the late 90s, early 2000s. It's really fascinating to me because now it's impossible for us to think about this place being anything but wall-to-wall sports. 00:05:39 Speaker 2: That's kind of the market now. Yeah, and when I started at KBR, there was a news department. was six people deep and it was some pretty big names in in bay area news radio and they did morning news and through the night and there were updates at the top of the hour with news and sports updates every 15 minutes on kmbr so uh so this stuff was all it was sports news and music and and When I say Rush Limbaugh was on KNBR from 9 to noon. That was kind of a big deal in the mid-90s. Yeah, that turned some heads. 00:06:16 Speaker 1: Oh, he was the god back then in the mid-90s. 00:06:19 Speaker 2: He had big ratings. 00:06:20 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:06:20 Speaker 2: So say what you want, but the station knew what line Pullen's line there. 00:06:25 Speaker 1: That's crazy, man. 00:06:26 Speaker 3: In the interest of going chronologically, Holler was giving us some nuggets yesterday because we do our research here. And Holler was saying, ask DC about being in the Angels booth. producing Angels broadcasts during the 2002 World Series. So you must have been hurting in the heart. 00:06:45 Speaker 1: Chronologically, how did you go from 1050 to then? 00:06:48 Speaker 2: What happened after that? So I left 1050 in 1999 and I signed with Clear Channel. They're now iHeart. And I was over there doing, of all things, marketing and production and promotions for 910, K101, as well as CNET Radio, 910 AM, which was the first tech radio station. 00:07:12 Speaker 1: CNET, I remember CNET. 00:07:14 Speaker 2: CNET, 910, the old KNEW callers. I remember the website. 00:07:18 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:07:18 Speaker 2: So it wasn't what I wanted to do, but I liked who I worked with, and I was still on radio. And then the Giants producer-engineer at the time, Raul Velez, called me in the beginning of 2001. I think it was literally like end of January. He said, hey, DC, Raul that I had known since the beginning of my career. He says, hey, what's going on with you? And I kind of filled him in. He goes, hey, the Angels are looking for a producer engineer down south, and they need somebody now. I said, Raul, I've done remotes with a couple people on shows, but I've never fully engineered them. I've

been on the on-site producer. He goes, Darren, you can do it. 00:08:00 Speaker 1: He goes, it's the Angels. Yeah. 00:08:01 Speaker 2: You can do it. 00:08:02 Speaker 1: It's not that big of a deal. 00:08:03 Speaker 2: Now, so he goes, well, if you're interested, contact so-and-so. So I contacted so-and-so. And by this time, Disney owned the Angels. 00:08:12 Speaker 1: Right. 00:08:12 Speaker 2: So I dealt with some representatives of Disney. And then literally six weeks after that. Yes, exactly. Yes. We were discussing it after we were the Matterhorn together. 00:08:22 Speaker 1: The meeting was inside the Matterhorn. Yes. 00:08:24 Speaker 2: It's in that basketball court that's hidden inside there. I've heard all about it. You want to freeze your head. Okay. So within six weeks after that initial phone call, that heads up by Robin Velez, I was going and driving down to Tempe, Arizona. And to be honest with you, I looked at that stuff. Yeah. I drove down there. I was like, oh my God, what am I getting myself into here? I don't even know anything. I knew three guys on the team by name, obviously. I knew Darren Erstad, Garrett Anderson, and Tim Salmon. Those are the only three household names I kind of knew. But I knew nothing about the organization. I knew nothing about the announcers I was about to spend the next year with. What year is this? 01. It's 01, okay. So this is 01, and boom, it was great. It was the last year that the Angels wore their periwinkle jerseys, as seen on Angels in the Outfield. 00:09:10 Speaker 1: Cool jerseys. 00:09:11 Speaker 2: Well, it was hated at the time by Angel fans. 00:09:15 Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, everything becomes retro later on. 00:09:17 Speaker 2: Exactly. 00:09:18 Speaker 1: It becomes cool. 00:09:18 Speaker 2: And everything is cool now, you want to wear that. And then 02 rolls around, and the Angels go on this miraculous turnaround of the season. Just like the gritty come from behind team that just took everyone by surprise. The A's win 20 games straight and the Angels win something like 15 of 20 as well, just to stay in pace with the A's. And they go into the playoffs as the wild card. It was a lone wild card back then in each league. And so meanwhile, I'm keeping tabs on the Giants. I'm a lifelong Giants fan. Grew up in high school having Giant's Vision, the pay-per-view service. My mom and I had season tickets. at Pac Bell in 2000. So, you know, one year later, I'm abandoning that thing. And you're going, there's no way the Giants and the Angels are ever going to... No way. 00:10:10 Speaker 1: My faith is never going to have to be tested. 00:10:12 Speaker 2: The Angels have to get past the Yankees in the first round. They do. And then they have to... beat the Twins in the ALCS. Great ALCS. Yes. And they win it in five games. And meanwhile, I'm keeping an eye on the Giants. And it's like crazy because now I'm noticing they're about to get into the playoffs. And boy, oh boy, what if the Giants and the Angels

met each other? Wow. And sure enough, I was witness to all seven games. uh, as, as a giants man, as an angels employee. 00:10:47 Speaker 1: Oh man. 00:10:47 Speaker 2: That was weird. 00:10:48 Speaker 1: So going into that series, how, how are you approaching it? Were you like, I'm obviously I'm rooting for the giants, but like, I can't show that. 00:10:57 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. I'm like secretly rooting for the giants, but at the same time, like you had, I'd grown so kind of attached to this angel. Sure. Yeah. 00:11:05 Speaker 1: Yeah. I get it happens. 00:11:06 Speaker 2: There were so, yeah, there was such a gritty bunch of guys and likable, uh, play of baseball. Mike Socha had them on a roll and there were so many great players. And if I rail out a name or two and then like, you know, it's funny in hindsight, to this day, if I tell Angels fans that the O2 World Series still hurts Giants fans, they're dumbfounded. Despite the three World Series victories in 10, 12, and 14, O2 still bites. 00:11:38 Speaker 1: And yeah, I guess they don't get it because... they're not this historic franchise that has won a lot. Like they've won their one world series. So they're like, you guys should be happy that you won the three world series. But I don't, you know, it's, we wanted it so bad for that team specifically. We wanted it so bad for Bonds, for Dusty. The Bay was very attached to that specific team. 00:11:56 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:11:57 Speaker 1: And the way they got upset, like the way they broke their heart was. 00:12:01 Speaker 3: The way my dad described it is because I was too young, but he described it as 2010, 12 and 14. 00:12:06 Speaker 2: Made it a lot better, but like you never, it'll never. 00:12:09 Speaker 1: Didn't cure it. 00:12:09 Speaker 2: The scar will always be there for O2. 00:12:12 Speaker 3: And like you said, it's a completely different cast. 00:12:13 Speaker 2: Like Bonds never got one. Yeah. 00:12:15 Speaker 3: And they were, what, was it five outs away or something? 00:12:18 Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. They're 5-0 in the seven. 5-0 lead in the game six. That's unheard of. 00:12:23 Speaker 1: And we wanted it for Bonds, but we also, there were so many lovable guys on that team. We wanted it for Russ Ortiz, Kent, JT Snow, Rich Aurelia, all these guys, Benito Santiago, Kenny Lopp, like there was such attachment to that team. So up 5-0, Bottom of the seventh. They're down in Anaheim. What are you thinking? You're up in the booth. 00:12:42 Speaker 2: Oh, this is over. This is going to be done. And then the Angels, sure enough, rallied. And it didn't surprise me, the way they played all year. And they came back, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I was like, wow, this is amazing. And then by the end of game six, it was like, they're going to get game seven. 00:13:03 Speaker 1: There's no doubt. 00:13:03 Speaker 2: The momentum is just. 00:13:04 Speaker 1: The wind was blowing too hard. 00:13:05 Speaker 2: Yeah, and I've never seen Southern California like that. You know, jump on the Angels bandwagon. 00:13:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, that stadium was rocking, man. Like, I was 11 years old at the time, so I didn't really know the history of the Angels and fan base. I was like, oh, this must be a huge Angels. Like, SoCal must be all about the Angels. 00:13:21 Speaker 2: Yeah. No, it was amazing because we left here... When I say we, when I was with the Angels, we left Game 5... uh, three, four, five here at, uh, then AT & T park Pacific pack. They all can't remember. And we flew down and there was news copters covering our landing at SF at LAX. And then the Trek down the four Oh five. And this in our parade of buses was covered by like just a mass of media. And we get into the big a and there's just throngs of people out there waiting to greet the team, uh, despite now being one away from another elimination. from post-season. They were just, it was amazing. And then I remember leaving also game five from here, and I think it was a pretty bad beating that the Giants gave the Angels that game. Yeah, and they were just, I was getting on the bus, and. 00:14:14 Speaker 3: I remember just the throngs of Giants fans just. 00:14:18 Speaker 2: Giving us the business, yelling at me. And they were like, I'm one of you. No, no, yeah, I'm on the, please. 00:14:25 Speaker 1: You already knew. Like nice try. 00:14:27 Speaker 2: Oh man. I'll never forget that. It was like walking into the, uh, the belly of the beast there. 00:14:32 Speaker 1: So that must be wild. You're going into your, like your home that you have season tickets to, and you're like the enemy now. 00:14:37 Speaker 2: I'm the enemy. And one thing I will never forget is, uh, at the end of game seven, we're about 15 minutes after the game and the place is just, you know, the field is just a mess. They've done the on-field ceremonies and, um, and, uh, The door opens behind me and who walks in but Dwayne Kuyper. Foreshadowing. Kuyper was, he came in, came over to me, stuck his hand up, said, congratulations. Thank you very much, man. So he knew where my roots were. But he also wanted to congratulate me on that. And I could see. 00:15:18 Speaker 1: You guys kind of knew each other. 00:15:21 Speaker 2: Yeah. To advance the story, when I took the Giants job, of the four guys, when I say Dave, John, Kruk, and Kipe, I knew Kruk and Kipe probably the most. I knew Dave from all the years he was doing ESPN games, coming down to the Big A to do Angels games. And so I knew Dave, I knew crew Kipe. And then probably the one person I was least familiar with was John. I met him a couple of times, but never really knew him that well. Yeah. So, but I remember seeing that, that I thought that was amazing how Kipe came over to congratulate us, me and offer that handshake and seeing also the pain on his face because I knew that one, that one to really hurt. Wow. 00:16:09 Speaker 3: So moving on to some, some crew can type stuff because that's why you're

here. 00:16:12 Speaker 2: Let's be honest. 00:16:13 Speaker 3: It's just Kruko mania. The last couple of weeks we said goodbye. It was incredibly emotional. Talk a little bit about your relationship with those guys because you have a very unique point of view on their progression and the end of their tenure, the end of Kruko's tenures. What is your personal relationship and professional relationship with those guys? 00:16:31 Speaker 2: Well, I started obviously watching Mike pitch in the mid-80s as well as Kipe playing. And, you know, I watched Kipe kind of retired from baseball before Mike did. And Kipe was doing Giant's Vision with Joe Morgan. I remember a lot of Dwayne doing that. And then with Mike, as he transitioned from that to the broadcast booth. And I remember at the time in the early 90s, I was like, wow, they have two ex-players doing play-by-play in color. 00:17:03 Speaker 3: Very rare. 00:17:04 Speaker 2: Yeah, that doesn't happen a lot. And usually there's just a play-by-play that's rooted in broadcasting that kind of handles the play-by-play duties. But this one was different. but they clicked and they clicked and it was because of the chemistry they had. And as you're watching games, you're like learning stuff with, with crew can type. And I think that's part of the love affair that fans have with these guys, because not only are there your teachers, but they're also kind of like your uncles. They're the ones, your coaches, they're all encompassing and they have a great sense of humor. They know the game like no other credibility out the wazoo. There's so much fun to do, but, The great thing I loved working about with these guys was we did a pregame show. And most people know there was a Krukenkite pregame show that runs for about five minutes. It starts half hour before every first pitch. And Krukenkite would come into the booth and we'd record a show per day. We wouldn't stack the shows. Actually, there's a story about that later on, too. It's about stacking shows. But we would do a show, a fresh show every day. And this back then, Mike and Dwayne were traveling with us full time. And so we do crew can type shows on the road, whether we're in Milwaukee or Miami. And after the game, obviously this is the wrap. So crew can type would come over to our booth and we'd set it up. And that was obviously at that time, all simulcast on NBC sports Bay area. And so that was the kind of thing, but the thing I liked about crew can type from the beginning was they took me in and I didn't come in there thinking I was some hotshot producer or engineer. I'd known them for years, but I certainly knew my place and they never treated me like someone who, well, he's got to earn his way in there. They treated me like a peer since day one. And I can't be thankful enough for the way they took me in like that and invited me to sit, have dinner with them on the road or in the media dining. Uh, and I'd sit there and I'd listen to the stories. The two guys would just, and I was like, this is really cool. Even so the last week, uh, I'd sit there and like, I'm very lucky individual to be listening to being part of this group and listening to the story. These guys have to say off the air. Yeah. 00:19:25 Speaker 1: Let's talk about the road a little bit with those guys. Um, not crook and kite. Well, I guess we can, you want to, talk about Krook's last day or should we go talk about. 00:19:34 Speaker 2: The road stuff? It's keeping chronological. All right. Keep talking about the road stuff. Yeah. 00:19:37 Speaker 1: So, I mean, you're on the road traveling with not only Krook and Kai, but John and then like this iconic or Dave and then iconic John Miller. 00:19:44 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:19:44 Speaker 1: What was it like being on the road with those guys? 00:19:47 Speaker 2: Well, um, back then it was, it was, it was when I joined the, the giants in 2017, uh, it was, let's put it this way. Um, there may not have been four more famous broadcasters and maybe all of sports. Yeah. that were well known around the league. And boy, oh boy, that was so much fun for them to always be around. I mean, that's the thing, as the health issues have went along through the years, we got less and less of that. But to be with, you know, Krook and Kipe would sit next to each other on the plane And sometimes I'd be sitting across from them or sometimes I'd be sitting in front of them. And they would never stop razzing you. And it was all founded in love, too. Because if they didn't raz you, then they didn't like you. So that was just great. And everywhere we went, people were always coming in the booth asking for other broadcasters from the home teams when we were on the road. We'd come in and they would always be talking to Mike, always talk to Dwayne. And I'd have to pull them away because we need to record our pregame show. So they are so beloved and so respected around Major League Baseball that I can't quite put it into words. 00:21:11 Speaker 1: And just going from city to city, going to dinners and stuff like that with them, did you just kind of feel like you were like, fly on the wall with these celebrities, just like people coming up to them and saying hi. And you're like, what am I doing here? 00:21:22 Speaker 2: Yeah. And I had to wait for the invite too, as well. It was like a mafia thing, but it was like, I sure as heck wasn't going to invite myself. And you know, the guys would go out to dinner sometimes. And that's the thing, maybe a misconception that people have about traveling with a baseball team, that everyone hangs out with each other for dinner or drinks or whatever. That's not true. It's just like, you know, you have a traveling party of about 75 and sometimes even more, you know, people are just going to naturally gravitate towards smaller groups. 00:21:50 Speaker 1: Of course, yeah. 00:21:51 Speaker 2: But Dwayne, Mike, John, Dave, they always love to go out and have dinner. And I'll never forget,

we were in Philadelphia in 2017. He goes, DC, we want to take you out to dinner. We've got this great steakhouse. We want to go. Let's do it. Got the call. I got the call. I got the call. No, it was great. 00:22:08 Speaker 1: You're becoming a made man. 00:22:09 Speaker 2: Yeah. And they were sitting around almost, and they were asking me questions about the Angels. They were asking me questions about, oh, they're everything. It was like, you know, doing this and Mike Socha, Disney and all that stuff. So and they were asking about my background and it was it was really cool. That was I could still visualize sitting at dinner with those guys. And for the first time. 00:22:31 Speaker 3: So by and large, you'd say they're pretty much the same like off camera, off mic than they are than what fans see when they're. 00:22:36 Speaker 2: Listening and watching. Oh, man. A hundred percent. That's good to hear. 100%. That's really good to hear. They are the complete, genuine... Meet your heroes. Yes, meet your heroes. Those guys, absolutely, 100%. And to circle back to how we talked about stacking those pregame shows, where they did their fresh show every day because they wanted to be talking about the day before or maybe something that came up before the game that they wanted to address and tell stories. And I thought the best Krook and Kipe shows were the ones that were evergreen, the ones that you could play at any point because they told stories back when they were players. Kipe used to tell this one story about how when NBC was doing the game of the week back in the early 80s, and back then there wasn't a lot of baseball on television. You got the big national game on Saturday and then a couple of regional games, you'd only get road games. But Giants fans grew up watching Channel 2 and you probably got maybe 40 road games a season and sure as heck weren't going to get any home games. There was no pay-per-view. There was no NBC Sports Bay Area. A lot of people got the Braves game. I remember that. Yes. That's a big, like Turner was. 00:23:43 Speaker 3: Such a massive, like a lot of Braves games, like the entire Midwest was. 00:23:48 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:23:49 Speaker 1: I remember sitting at home and TBS would come on and be like, why are we watching the Braves like brewers right now? 00:23:55 Speaker 2: Right. But that whole thing that Ted Turner did with America's team, there was a segment from probably the early 2000s to late 2000s where I noticed through interviews with a lot of players around Major League Baseball that didn't grow up in a metropolitan baseball area. Say, like, someone didn't grow up in Los Angeles or New York, but maybe grew up in, like, Iowa and grew up playing baseball in Oklahoma. That their team was the Atlanta Braves. Yeah. Because of that national exposure. 00:24:24 Speaker 1: And for some reason, like, as a kid, I knew all the roster of the Braves for some reason. Like, I knew Andrew Jones. 00:24:29 Speaker 2: They were really good, too. 00:24:30 Speaker 1: Well, they were really good, yeah. But, like, they were probably, like, the third or fourth team where I knew them from top to bottom. 00:24:35 Speaker 2: Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah. So, um, and I forgot how we. 00:24:40 Speaker 3: Transitioned into the track there, but yeah, what. 00:24:42 Speaker 1: Were we saying? 00:24:42 Speaker 3: You were talking about stock and pregame shows. 00:24:44 Speaker 2: Oh yeah. So, uh, we would be fresh available on the road. Yeah. Pandemic hits in 2020 and now the season's on hold and now the season's resolved and we're now playing a 60 game schedule. So how do we do these games where, where sometimes we need to record the Kuk and Kipe show. Well, we'd record it sometimes via Zoom. And so Mike would be in his condo, Kipe would be at a Starbucks in the East Bay, and I would be in the studio or at home, and we would literally record a four and a half minute Zoom show. for the pregame show. And that's how we kind of did it because there was also that distance thing too. We, we, we weren't allowed to be in the same room together. 00:25:28 Speaker 3: Imagine being in a Starbucks and you see Dwayne Kuyper at a table doing the pregame show. 00:25:32 Speaker 2: He's like, welcome. We got the giants and the Astros. 00:25:35 Speaker 1: Not only is it Kuyper, it's Kuyper doing the show. 00:25:38 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. We did that. And we did the Gabe Kapler show the same way too. Yeah. Matt Chisholm would set it up so that we'd have to record via zoom and And Cap would sometimes be in his office and John would be in his house overlooking Half Moon Bay. So it was like, it was pretty unique in that sense. That's cool. 00:25:56 Speaker 1: Baristas in the back like, latte for smoothie? 00:25:58 Speaker 2: Latte? That's insane. 00:26:00 Speaker 1: Smoothie for smoothie? You're talking about getting like, they love to razz you and they love to razz everybody. 00:26:05 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:26:05 Speaker 1: Did you, did any particular like the worst razzing you ever got from them or like an ongoing joke they had? 00:26:10 Speaker 2: Solid riffs. 00:26:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, solid riffs they had. 00:26:12 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well the Angels thing was always a hanging thing for them. They were able to relate to me being excited over the Angels. Okay. The Angels would be the giants. They'd be like, oh, DC must have been feeling pretty good about this. 00:26:22 Speaker 1: Big Angels fan over there. 00:26:23 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that was always the go-to as well. So yeah, it was always, in fact, they're just like my friends. They do the same thing. My friends that know I'm a deep Giants fan will always give me shit for that. 00:26:37 Speaker 1: Sure. 00:26:37 Speaker 2: DC's halos. 00:26:38 Speaker 1: Big rally monkey. 00:26:39 Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. What are your favorite. 00:26:42 Speaker 3: You said it's been 2017 that you've been in the booth pretty much routinely? 00:26:45

Speaker 2: Yeah. What are some of your favorite moments, like. 00:26:47 Speaker 3: Calls, where you're looking at Krook and Kipe or John or Dave and you're going like, that is what a legend does and that's why they're in this position? 00:26:56 Speaker 2: Man, I'm telling you, when I watch... I still marvel at John calling games because, and this is not hyperbole, I think, you know, he likes to say that Vin Scully is the best that's ever done it. 00:27:11 Speaker 1: Nah. 00:27:12 Speaker 2: I'm not going to necessarily argue that. 00:27:13 Speaker 1: Sure, he was amazing. 00:27:16 Speaker 2: I listen to the way John does games, and he's such a student of broadcasting. He's a poet. He really is. Yeah. And I think he is in the conversation with Vinny as the best ever. 00:27:28 Speaker 1: I think he'll go down when it's all said and done. 00:27:30 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:27:31 Speaker 3: Absolutely. The way, uh, the way he calls a game paints the picture. 00:27:37 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:27:38 Speaker 2: He has a really good sense of when to talk, when not to talk, the voice inflections, the calls, the prep work that he puts in. Um, I am just literally sometimes in awe that he's calling some of the wackiest plays, uh, You know, when there's a double error play in the infield and guys are scrambling over and I'm listening to it and I'm like, how does he call this? Because I listen back to it when I'm editing the highlights and I'm like, I can follow exactly where the ball is. I know exactly what he's talking about. So it just doesn't surprise me of how amazing he is. And then with Dave, I really truly believe Dave is one of the best overall broadcasters in the United States. Yeah, I would second that. He is so versatile, so funny, so thorough. He is like, put a calci on Dave Fleming, invest now. Because you might be already too late. No free ads. 00:28:39 Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. He's probably already pretty expensive. 00:28:41 Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. I mean, he does college football. He does basketball. You turn like a St. Mary's basketball game. 00:28:46 Speaker 1: I feel like I've seen him do like a water polo game at one point. 00:28:49 Speaker 3: He really can do it all. And he does it at a top level, too. 00:28:54 Speaker 2: Yeah. Day in the life. Those two, home and away game. All right. 00:28:59 Speaker 3: So it's a Giants game day, and what's your start to finish? Let's say it's a night game. It's a 6.45 first pitch. 00:29:07 Speaker 2: So for 6.45 first pitch on day one of a homestand, I'll show up about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, make sure we have our dugout mics all set up, make sure all our video feeds are underway. We have microphones upstairs in the upper deck that are pretty hidden for the crowd, so... You all don't know where they are, but we hide them pretty well. We'll edit that out. And then we have microphones behind home plate in the backstop that are for the pop of the glove, bat crack. That's my most important effect mic. We double check our amp mics, our PA feed mics. And then after all the technical stuff is originally set up, I have to go through all the live reads of the commercials that we have to read and organize them in a particular order, knowing Dave does these, John does these. And then that takes probably what I've just described, maybe about two hours. And then about for 6.45 game, about five o'clock, Krug and Kipe come in and we record the Krug and Kipe show. And there's some editing going on after that is done. And then meanwhile, John is recording the manager show down in the dugout. So he'll do that. And our pregame show is live on the air at 545. It's a live talkback segment at 550. We've recorded a pregame tease. Copes is in there. There you go. Exactly. 00:30:37 Speaker 3: A 10-minute live segment for the live hit with either John or Dave or whoever's in there. 00:30:44 Speaker 2: And that'll take us through the pregame in a nutshell. We get through the game. Postgame, sometimes it's go time. We have from the time John says, stay tuned for the postgame show next. We have a four and a half minute window. And that's when Krug and Kipe come on over. Everyone gets in position. And we do the wrap. The wrap can be as short as 10 minutes sometimes. Depends on what type of game it is. Or sometimes it can go 20 minutes. Beautiful product. 00:31:14 Speaker 3: We do that. And the wrap is so unique to baseball. Great segue to the wrap. We've got to talk wrap. Nobody else in Major League Baseball does the wrap. 00:31:24 Speaker 1: We do the wrap. 00:31:25 Speaker 2: Good luck trying to get announcers from the TV side to stick around after the game. For the radio side, yeah. 00:31:31 Speaker 3: Well, that's what I think it was Kuyper was saying during Kruko's ceremony a couple weeks ago that Bob Euchre poked his head in and said. 00:31:38 Speaker 2: Man, you guys must be getting the big bucks to do this. 00:31:41 Speaker 1: Yeah, Scully as well said the same thing. He's like, you guys are still here? 00:31:44 Speaker 2: Yeah, you must be getting the big bucks to do this. Make a fortune, yeah. And they're like, we're doing this for the leader. 00:31:51 Speaker 1: Should we be asking for more money? 00:31:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, we're doing this for these sports leaders. 00:31:54 Speaker 1: They just love baseball. They love each other. They'll stay there all night if they could. 00:31:59 Speaker 2: That's the thing. If you, if the four guys did not care for each other, or we're not friends, this wouldn't work. And because of the personalities, it's just gel. Because I can tell you, doing this for 26 years, not every broadcast booth or broadcast team gets along with their colleagues. Ours do. And it's an amazing thing to think about. 00:32:26 Speaker 1: They're like legitimate friends. 00:32:29 Speaker 2: They've all got beers, right? That's the... Is that supposed to be mubs, the word? Not anymore. There was a period where I think there was actually a keg of Guinness in

the back of the booth. I've heard about this. And there was actually a tap. So sick. And I used to think, where did this thing go in the back counter? Is that where our microwave is now? So it is quite amazing that there was a tap in the back. And I'm kind of glad there isn't now because. 00:32:57 Speaker 3: Man, that could, that could- Trying to make a few errors in the third inning, all of a sudden you're turning around. 00:33:05 Speaker 2: Yeah. The rap is so awesome. 00:33:07 Speaker 3: I mean, like my, I remember my, when I was a kid, My dad, we'd be at the game, and after the last out, we'd be weaving and sprinting to the car because my dad would be like, we've got to get to the car before the rap starts. 00:33:18 Speaker 2: Because you're going to hear the rap. 00:33:19 Speaker 3: And then it's right after the back part of the rap, you're hearing John Miller is going to go through all the highlights and set it up. 00:33:25 Speaker 2: And in the seventh inning, up came Buster Posey. 00:33:27 Speaker 3: And they launch into the call, and I'd be like, the Giants won, and I'd be sitting in the backseat like, life's good right now. 00:33:34 Speaker 2: So important. The highlight segment is, especially when John does it, is– It is truly an amazing recap of the game because sometimes what the behind the scenes little thing on this is I have a notebook where I log highlights. I log every run scoring play. I record defensive gems. I record crucial moments of the game. I also will do, if a pitcher does, if Logan Webb has pitched seven and two thirds, two hit shutout innings and he gets pulled, I will highlight the manager taking Logan out of the game. And John will lay out and let the crowd tell the story. And we will use that as a highlight. So I will give this notebook of highlights, which sometimes can run up to 20 a game. And I will give it to him in the middle of the ninth inning. And he'll look it over and he'll X him which highlights he wants to use. And then when we do the highlight segment, I will have those highlights already loaded into my system. And I follow along And I'm constantly amazed that John can not only recollect the game by looking at his scorebook, but recollect and tell the story of the Viet Bats in such detail off the top of his head. Seamless. Yeah. 00:34:55 Speaker 1: With such poetry. 00:34:56 Speaker 2: Right. It really is. I'm in awe sometimes myself. Yeah. And you got to follow along because sometimes John would say like, that up brought up Bryce Eldridge to the plate. And then you think like, that's a highlight. No, that up brought up Bryce Eldridge to the plate with a full count. 00:35:12 Speaker 1: That's the setup. 00:35:13 Speaker 2: Yeah. So you have to kind of be into it. An Oracle Park on it. 00:35:16 Speaker 1: He tells it like it's like a story, like he's telling a story. 00:35:19 Speaker 3: That's a great look behind the curtain too of how you're kind of just waiting. You've got them loaded up and you're waiting for. Miller to finish his poetry. Like I said, his narration. 00:35:27 Speaker 2: Yeah. That's so cool, man. 00:35:28 Speaker 1: That's so cool. 00:35:29 Speaker 2: We have, we have a good chemistry going and the same thing when Dave's doing the post game highlights, we have that same, same kind of feel for each other. And it's really quite a, it's a lot of fun. And one funny thing that, that I'll tell you that at the end of the wrap, which is two segments before the highlight segment, when Kipe leaves, he used to have this running joke with me. He'd be like, let's John, let's do plenty of highlights. Okay. Because type wanted to take a dig and have me come home an hour later. And he'd say like, uh, get me to my driveway. This is off the air. He'd say like, get me to my driveway. In other words, John, go as long as it takes for me to drive to the East Bay and get into my driveway. And I'm like, out, beat it. I don't want to hear it. 00:36:17 Speaker 3: It's going to be sports owner Lasky by the time you're pulling in. 00:36:20 Speaker 2: That's great. 00:36:22 Speaker 1: We should be socialing the John Miller highlight segments. We should be like taking those and putting. 00:36:28 Speaker 2: Them to video. That's a good idea for next year. What are we doing? Off-air is the hotbed of event. 00:36:36 Speaker 1: It's a workshop. 00:36:36 Speaker 2: Seriously. We've been really positive. Let's talk a little bit about some negatives. Uh-oh. 00:36:43 Speaker 3: I saw it a little bit a month or so ago when you guys were in St. Louis and there was a bit of a scramble like 20 minutes before first pitch where there wasn't a signal or. 00:36:50 Speaker 2: Something like that. 00:36:51 Speaker 3: Has there ever been like real like, disasters where you're like, we're off the air right now, or there's no signal coming through. 00:36:57 Speaker 2: I can't get the studio. You're mostly on the road, I assume. 00:36:59 Speaker 1: And just as an example, I know before your time when Lee Hammer was doing your job, the infamous, what was it, Bonds' 714th or something? 00:37:07 Speaker 2: 715th. 00:37:07 Speaker 3: Yeah, he kicked the wire or something like that. 00:37:09 Speaker 1: He kicked the wire, so the call did not go out over the radio. 00:37:12 Speaker 2: The call went out, but they didn't get saved, I think is what happened. Well, in all fairness to Hammer, it was never determined that he had kicked a wire or anything like that. it's still on. It was a metaphor. 00:37:25 Speaker 3: We don't know what exactly happened to this day. 00:37:31 Speaker 2: Wasn't Fleming really pissed about that for a while? Cause he was still young. Actually wasn't like, I asked Dave about that and it does come up in conversation. Cause in the beginning I thought like, well, maybe I shouldn't bring this up with Dave because maybe this is a sore spot, but I did ask him about this. And, and we did talk extensively about The fallout from that moment. Obviously, it was like he

couldn't believe when he started getting calls saying like, your call wasn't on the air. And he's like, what are you talking about? Yeah. 00:38:00 Speaker 1: And then the moment that he hit it, like it went out or something like that. But then it went back on like 30 seconds later or something. 00:38:08 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:38:09 Speaker 1: Yeah, so we sometimes play that non-call. 00:38:12 Speaker 2: I thought it did go out and it just wasn't safe. 00:38:14 Speaker 1: I think we posted it online on socials before, the non-call call. 00:38:17 Speaker 2: Oh, really? Yeah. 00:38:18 Speaker 1: Finley runs, the payoff pitch, a swing. 00:38:20 Speaker 2: And a drive. It became such a big story, a new story nationwide, that a historic home run was somehow missed. On the radio. By the home team, by the radio. And what exactly happened? And I remember Dave told me that the positive that came out of that story was it kind of got a lot of national exposure for the right reasons. Dave told me he was on Good Morning America the next day. 00:38:52 Speaker 3: Whoa. 00:38:53 Speaker 2: They were like, yeah. Oh, this was huge. So he got a lot of coverage on this. And Dave rolled with it because Dave's a pretty even keeled guy. He had every right to probably be furious. Of course. Even though you don't know exactly 100% what happened. But you wouldn't blame him if he was like just going to lose his mind over that once in a lifetime moment. 00:39:15 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:39:15 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:39:16 Speaker 1: So you never made a mistake that big or else we would know about it. 00:39:19 Speaker 2: I don't even jinx about that. I don't even joke about it. I don't joke about that moment at all. I'm kind of superstitious in that way. sure like players running on the field and not touching the line yeah i'm the same way i don't like to uh but i always start you always have to back to your original question jack it was about the um having always having a backup in case something something goes wrong and we do have a well that day we just happen to have two connections that were, the backup went down as well. So we got around that, we repaired it. Yeah, we always had to have some kind of plan because you never know if I've had mixtures die on me, I've had microphones or headphones die, they do have a shelf life. And sometimes that could happen right in the middle of a game. So you kind of have to have a plan for that. And most importantly, you can't panic. You have to act quickly, but you can't, start stumbling over yourself and fumbling because that's a tendency when something goes wrong like all that going crazy yeah it's a mariah carey so that's all october 8th oh yeah check the so you know there hasn't been like a legitimate like five alarm fire while you've been no there hasn't we got a knock on wood okay yeah yeah yeah don't don't bring that up no Thankfully not. 00:40:39 Speaker 3: And that's the most important. 00:40:41 Speaker 2: Thing, too. 00:40:41 Speaker 3:

That's a testament to, like, the production staff, too, and everyone who works on your broadcast. 00:40:45 Speaker 2: Yeah. And I always need good, you know, what we call network coordinators back at the station to kind of help me to work. The network coordinators, in case anybody don't know, a.k.a. the board ops, are the ones that play the commercials. They help my timing. 00:41:00 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:41:00 Speaker 2: They help run things from the back end, which is the radio station side. And that's a very integral part of the broadcast and very important. They help me keep tabs of the game on the timing side of things with commercials and commercial inventory. Otherwise, it would be a one-man operation. That's way too much for someone to handle just on the front end. I'm thankful for the guys that we have here because they do such a great job. Raphs, the Tim Webs of the world. Fantastic. Danny Dunn, Walter, you know. Vialante. Even Jacob, yeah. 00:41:33 Speaker 3: Even Jacob Vialante. He's going to be a future off-air guest. You're going to have some great stories, man. We're treating you really nicely because we want you to hook us up with Kirk or Kipe to come on here. 00:41:44 Speaker 2: Oh, boy. So I'm just going. 00:41:46 Speaker 1: To plant that seed now. We're not counting on it. 00:41:49 Speaker 2: We're not counting. One's definitely not counting on it. You got anything else? 00:41:55 Speaker 1: We're going to have like a stadium ranking. So you've been to all the stadiums. 00:41:59 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:42:00 Speaker 1: And frequently. Top five. Let's go top five stadiums. I'm sure Oracle's probably number one, right, for you? 00:42:07 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:42:08 Speaker 1: Let's take out Oracle. 00:42:10 Speaker 2: Okay. 00:42:10 Speaker 1: Top five MLB stadiums. 00:42:12 Speaker 2: Have you been to all of them? Yeah, I've been to all of them. I think I've been up to 42 now. Yeah. The retired ballparks. So here's the criteria. If anybody's wondering... if they counts whether or not you've been to a ballpark. For years, I grew up and I was a teenager. I never went to any other ballpark except for Candlestick Park. And so I didn't travel to Chicago, but I did go to Chicago when the Cubs were out of town. And I did walk into Wrigley Field because I really wanted to see what it looked like. But it was like, it was during the off season. I kind of just walked in through a service door. And I used to say to myself, does this count as me being in a ballpark like Wrigley Field? I think it counts. 00:42:51 Speaker 1: It's half. I think it's half. 00:42:54 Speaker 2: It's about half of the environment. You've got to specify that you didn't see a game. Yes. 00:42:58 Speaker 1: And also part of what makes a stadium great is how good the environment for a game is. So that's a very important part. 00:43:04 Speaker 2: All right. So using that criteria, which I think to me, I think you can chalk up, you've been to a ballpark, so to speak, is if you have

seen a major league game in that ballpark. Yeah, I like that. Maybe a ballpark tour, you can make a disclaimer on that if you didn't see a game. But if you saw a game, like I count when the Angels played the Montreal Expos. This was when the Expos were playing some of the games in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I went to San Juan and we played a game, a three-game series at Eram B. Thorne Stadium. I count that as a major league park. I count Mexico City a couple years ago when the Giants were down there against the Padres. That is a major league ballpark. And all the retired ones that are long gone, demolished, those all obviously count. So I always, people ask me which of the best ballparks. So you have to have two categories. Category number one, the unbelievable gem museums. Those are Fenway and Wrigley. That's in their own category. You gotta go, you can't include those, okay? Now, if you ask me which one you like better between Fenway and Wrigley, They both have great surrounding areas, food, tons of bars, lively atmosphere, music. Both places are great. I like Fenway just a tad over Wrigley because Fenway looks like a warehouse and it looks even older than Wrigley. Because Wrigley looks beautiful. It's the Ivy, depending on what time of year you are, and it's just beautiful in that sense. I was there in June when the Giants were there. And what did you think? It was incredible. 00:44:44 Speaker 3: It was the same feeling I had when I walked in Fenway, where you feel like you're in a cathedral of baseball. 00:44:48 Speaker 2: And Fenway is so. 00:44:51 Speaker 3: gosh, some of the seats down the right field line are so old and they're pointing towards center field. 00:44:55 Speaker 1: And you're like, yeah, there's a big pole in front of you. 00:44:58 Speaker 2: At one point. Oh, it's, it's, it's incredible. And you're like, wow, this ballpark is shaped like a rectangle. How can they, uh, so anyway, and plus the, you know, the a hundred plus years of history, the both teams have it. So that's in their own category. So now you have the new ballparks, the others that you would rank top five. Boy, oh boy. You take an Oracle out of the equation, okay? It's inferred number one. 00:45:21 Speaker 1: It's default number one, yeah. 00:45:23 Speaker 2: You know what? It's easy for me to say PNC Park in Pittsburgh because even this summer we were there. And we were looking. I was looking out. 00:45:30 Speaker 3: I was like seeing the yellow bridges, the Clemente Bridge, and the beautiful sunset that. 00:45:34 Speaker 2: Was going on behind us. And I was like, this is really, really gorgeous. And I can see why people put that number one because the view is just beautiful. It's just you can't believe it. So you would be hard-pressed not to say that's number one, but my favorites are T-Mobile Park in Seattle. I love that place. The weather's great. Summertime, the sun doesn't go down until after 10 o'clock at night. Great atmosphere. I love Seattle. The weather's

always crisp up there. 00:46:05 Speaker 1: Good location, too, by the water. 00:46:06 Speaker 2: Great location, and you're going to get a game in if it rains because the roof will slide over. San Diego, Petco Park. San Diego's great. It's in the gas lamp. The energy there is fantastic. The weather is phenomenal. There's so many Giants fans roaming around there. They sell out every game. There's food stands everywhere you go. Microbreweries all over the place. 00:46:34 Speaker 1: It's a really fan-centric park. 00:46:36 Speaker 2: That's great. And, you know, another, actually a sleeper ballpark is Target Field in Minneapolis. It can be hot and humid, don't get me wrong. And sometimes the rain outs will drive you crazy or the rain delays, but they've got limestone walls at Target Field. And I think it's just sets them apart from the others. It looks so different. And the people there that work at Target Field whether from the Twin Cities, that area, they're always like some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. It's just so great and hospitable. So those are my top three non-Oracle Park, non-classic. No Coors Field love? No, and I'm going to bash them right now. All right. Yeah, let's do it. I don't like Coors Field. I think if you were to transplant Coors Field and maybe move it to like Long Beach, California or something like that, you'd be like, okay, that's nice. That's a nice place. The weather changes on a dime at Coors Field. The altitude not only gets the athletes, it gets the producer engineers when they're pushing equipment and you're moving it. You're pushing 250 feet of gear and you're like out of breath. Games are long because of the high offense there. Plus the Rockies aren't very, they haven't been good for a couple of years. So you're going to have long games, bad weather. Denver itself is fine. It's a good city to visit. 00:48:12 Speaker 3: I only ask because that one gets its flowers a lot. 00:48:15 Speaker 2: I think it's awesome. Yeah. The airport is super far from the ballpark. It's like a 45 plus minute drive. And it's just, it drives me. It's kind of one of the stops that I'm like, you know what? In realignment, I hope the Mariners and the Rockies trade places. I'll take the Mariners and the NL West all day. 00:48:37 Speaker 1: How do you rank Dodger Stadium? 00:48:40 Speaker 3: So I respect the history of that ballpark. 00:48:49 Speaker 2: From an audio engineer's standpoint, it's the bottom of the barrel. Yes. Interesting. They have a speaker system out in center field. That blasts at 140 decibels where you can't even hear yourself. 00:49:01 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:49:02 Speaker 2: It's a rock concert. It's a rock concert. 00:49:05 Speaker 1: Terrible place. 00:49:07 Speaker 2: You're like almost numb. You're kind of deaf at the end of a broadcast because now you have to crank your headphones up because you have to compete with the rally music from that speaker system out in center field. Yeah, the organ. It just drives me nuts. And having said that, I'm good friends with the Dodgers broadcasters. They're all great, friendly. Heck, the organist, Dieter Ruhl. I've known Dieter for 20-something years when I did... Laker games when I was down there. He's fantastic. 00:49:39 Speaker 1: He was also working for Laker games too? 00:49:42 Speaker 2: Yeah. So on a side gig in 2001, when I took the Angels job, I didn't know what I was going to do after the season. I literally thought maybe I was single. I wasn't married, no kids. And I was thinking, well, what am I going to do? Go back up to San Francisco in October? Or I could do something like pretty crazy is– maybe be the Jungle Cruise director at Disneyland. 00:50:08 Speaker 1: We got to get into this. Do you have another 20 minutes? 00:50:11 Speaker 2: It's 12 to 4. 00:50:13 Speaker 1: I have a lot of questions. Okay, keep going. 00:50:15 Speaker 2: I kind of thought, oh, that's kind of fulfilling. And my job is mainly doing the Angels. So I kind of get my yearly salary from working those seven months, seven grueling months. I'm sure you live right down there in Anaheim. And I was down in the Anaheim, Irvine area in Orange County. And so I was thinking maybe I can do that, work at Disneyland, kind of fulfill this kind of childhood dream. 00:50:38 Speaker 1: TC, when I was a kid, I had dreams of being the Jungle Cruise tour guide. 00:50:42 Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah. Let's talk. 00:50:44 Speaker 1: You fulfilled it. 00:50:45 Speaker 2: Well, I did not fulfill it. Oh, you didn't do it. Because in August of 2001, the Angels were on KLAC AM 570 in Los Angeles. And the executive producer calls me in August of that year as the season is winding down. He says, what are you doing in the off season? I said, I really don't know. Maybe I'm going to work at the Jungle Cruise. I heard it's kind of hard to get. It is. 00:51:06 Speaker 1: It's like a lot of like stand, like amateur comics and stuff. 00:51:09 Speaker 2: It's a talent job. There's script. You're not supposed to go off script. There are lines that have changed over the decades. 00:51:17 Speaker 1: They kind of put their own twist on it. 00:51:18 Speaker 2: You can do that. Yeah. But I thought that would be a fun gig to do. 00:51:21 Speaker 1: Oh, that'd be so fun. 00:51:22 Speaker 2: That'd be so fun. Telling the corniest dad jokes in the world. And you're riding a ride. And you're riding the ride and you're controlling the boat. I thought it was so great. He goes, my executive producer at KLAC goes, well, do you want to do Laker home games? I said, sure. He goes, well, you're going to do about eight to 10 games a month at Staples Center. And you're going to be working with the legendary Chick Hearn on the broadcast. And that's when the Lakers are in the middle of their Oh, my gosh. What year was this? From 01 through 16, I saw Lakers basketball. Went through the championships. I was there. Shaq and Kobe years. I was there during Kobe's criminal stuff. I was there when Kobe

scored 81. You were in the building for that? Oh, yeah. I want to talk to you on the side about this stuff. Saw the A-listers of A-listers running around. Jack Nick? Oh, constantly. Hey, what's up, D.C.? No, he was... D.C. I never met Jack. 00:52:34 Speaker 1: What is it, D.C.? Pretty good, right? 00:52:37 Speaker 2: That was really good. We'll cut that out. One of my good stories is one time we saw Stevie Wonder sitting courtside. And people will joke about that. It's like, oh, it's Steve, a blind person sitting courtside. But to a lot of our blind listeners, and I've heard this through baseball, that attending a game is also about the atmosphere. So it's not, don't poo-poo on that idea of doing that. But Stevie Wonder was down there with one of his assistants, and he was sitting there, and one of our producers on Lakers radio said, DC, do you have one of your extra wireless IFBs? I said, yeah. She goes, let's give it to Stevie Wonder so he can listen to the game while he's down there. So we brought it down there and they happily accepted. And Stevie was listening with one ear to our broadcast. So this is phenomenal. I've never, amazing. Yeah. So that night I get all the equipment back, packing up. And I go to the men's room on the concourse right before I'm about to leave. And this is a good 45 minutes to an hour after the game. Place is mostly empty, except for workers. And I hear, I see somebody in the stall and there's the guy that Stevie Wonder's assistant that's standing outside the stall. And I hear singing. And I am not joking you. It was Stevie Wonder using the restroom, singing to himself. That's awesome. In an empty bathroom. So I speed out of there and I'm like, I gotta get him to sign something. I got to get him to sign something. This is like, this is unbelievable. Toilet paper. 00:54:20 Speaker 3: Anything. 00:54:21 Speaker 2: I grabbed a red Sharpie and I have a giant mixer and I'm like, I'm plugging everything. And I'm like, I want Stevie Wonder to sign my audio mixer. 00:54:31 Speaker 1: And you rush into the stall. 00:54:33 Speaker 2: Now I'm walking out there like, yeah, like an idiot walking in there, running in there. Look what this fool doing. 00:54:37 Speaker 1: With your audio mixer? 00:54:38 Speaker 2: I have my audio mixers in my hand and I come out and now he's walking out of the bathroom right now. Okay. So I go to him, he goes, I go, um, Oh, Mr. Wonder, Darren Chan, I'm the Lakers radio engineer. We gave you the body pack so you were able to listen to the game. He goes, thank you very much. Thank you very much. And I go, it would be an honor. Would you mind signing this mixer for me? The side of this mixer with a Sharpie? So he kind of turns to his assistant because he wants to know what to do. And the assistant kind of looks at the console and he goes, like, he probably thought I was going to sell it or something like that. So he goes, no, but I'll take a picture of you guys. And I'm like, done. Put the mixture down, give them, it was the early days of the iPhone. I gave him my iPhone and I have a picture of Stevie Wonder and myself at Staples Center. And there it is. And that's one of the biggest A-listers we've had. That's incredible. 00:55:33 Speaker 1: So he was singing while on the job. 00:55:35 Speaker 2: What was he singing? Isn't she lovely? Must have been a good experience for him in there, yeah. 00:55:42 Speaker 1: Was that actually what he was singing? 00:55:44 Speaker 2: No, I have no idea what he was singing. He was humming something that was off. 00:55:50 Speaker 1: That's amazing, man. Yeah, absolutely. 00:55:52 Speaker 3: Before the last kind of bit here, I feel like we'd be remiss if we didn't ask you about the future of the broadcast. I know there's probably things you know that you probably can't say yet, or maybe you don't, but what should Giants fans expect from the Giants broadcast going forward in the post-Mike Kruko era? 00:56:06 Speaker 2: Boy, you talk about some tough shoes to fill. I really don't know. I have guesses as to might what happened, but they would be pure guesses. And I don't even want to speculate out loud because then somebody might be saying like, whoa, you might have some inside information on that. And I really don't. I don't think the Giants 100% know where they're going to go with this because there's a lot of stuff that needs to be determined here in the next couple of months with the CBA, but they have to plan ahead as if things are going to happen and start on time. I really don't know. Dwayne's going to want to be with somebody that he's obviously very comfortable with, even that he likes. He's ultimately going to have a big say in this whole thing, as he should. And so that's going to be a thing. But we have a slew of color commentators that could easily start into a position, whether it's one of them or if it's a new person from the outside. I don't know. So it's still to be determined, I think, even at this point from my perspective and I'm sure from the team's perspective. 00:57:09 Speaker 1: You'll be there. We can count on that. 00:57:11 Speaker 2: I hope so. Maybe it'll be you. No, you want me in spurts. You don't want me doing play-by-play. 00:57:16 Speaker 1: Pretty good on the wrap last week. 00:57:18 Speaker 2: Two weeks ago. I was honored to be able to do that. The Thursday before Mike's last game, David called me. And because Dave was on the road to Penn State for NBC Peacock. Right. And he said, would you like a chance to say something on the rap? And I said, yeah, I would love to. Thank you so much for this. And so I wanted to write something down. I didn't want to read it. I wanted to come from the heart. I jotted down a couple of notes. I think I wrote that thing in like less than 10 minutes. It was like, this is what I want to say. 00:57:51 Speaker 1: It was great. 00:57:51 Speaker 2: And it was a tribute. Totally was. Thank you. It was kind of an homage to me watching Mike through the years as his career went from an all-star pitcher to a legendary broadcaster. And the one thing I really wanted to get in there was his next stop was going to be in Cooperstown for the Baseball Hall of Fame with his best friend. Yep. And I thought that was the most important thing I wanted to get out there. And I wanted to thank him for all the years and taking me in and becoming his friend. Amen. It needs to happen. 00:58:21 Speaker 1: Um, yeah, it's, I think I have a good feeling. I think it's going to happen. 00:58:24 Speaker 3: And you will, and you will have witnessed almost all of it. 00:58:27 Speaker 2: Almost all of it. And that's part of, you know, personally, I do have a little regret and it's not really my, my regret. I should say that's probably the wrong word. Lee Jones, who did this, my job for a long time, as far as I'm concerned is the number one guy. And Lee Jay and I used to communicate, uh, in, during the world series years. And we talked in, Lee Jay how many more years are you going to do this because when you retire I would love for the opportunity to step in and take over for you he'd always we'd talk every year he'd say like maybe this year maybe he'd call me in 2016 spring training he goes this is it this is my last year and so I said Lee Jay I can't appreciate you telling me that enough so Lee Jay wasn't in charge of the hiring process Hammer was but Lee Jay gave me the heads up for that and so yeah the other Lee so so Lee Jay and I I have a lot I have a lot a lot to thank for that because I really wouldn't be doing this without you know the guidance from Lee Jay and him doing it for all these all these years as the Giants radio engineer. 00:59:30 Speaker 1: I think that's a good place to leave it. 00:59:31 Speaker 2: Absolutely. 00:59:32 Speaker 3: As the great Mike Kruko said as he left the field, God bless Darren Chan. On KMUR Off Air, episode 11. 00:59:39 Speaker 2: We'll see you next time.