Do you know what’s scary? Calling a girl for the first time to ask for a date. Do you know what else is scary? Calling three hours of baseball by yourself.

When our former president Ronald Reagan was a sportscaster in Iowa, he called baseball by himself, and he wasn’t even at the ball park. The news ticker would tell him what each batter did, but it wouldn’t give details of the at-bats. Reagan had to fill in those details using his imagination.

If Ronald Reagan could excel at calling baseball solo, you can too.
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If you’re listening to play-by-play, what sounds better? “Jones passing; Smith running,” or “Jones passes; Smith runs”?

For me and for most listeners of play-by-play, “passes” and “runs” is preferable.

I never knew why until a sportscaster, who was working on his master’s degree, studied it and explained it to me.
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When I was the play-by-play voice for the old Anaheim Piranhas of the Arena Football League, I had a conversation with my dad. He said, “Jon, I listened to your broadcast last night.”

I prepared myself for a bunch of compliments and superlatives.

Instead, Pop blindsided me.

He said, “You scream on your touchdown calls.”
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It once came up in conversation with my friend Tom Boman that I was in charge of making dinner for my family that night. He said, “Oh, what are you making?” I replied, “Probably spaghetti. It’s usually that or some variation of chicken and rice.” He then offered a tip. “Add a little bit of sugar in the sauce,” he suggested.

I hadn’t thought of that. I added the sugar and the sauce was wonderful.

Here are seven “sugar in the sauce” tips for baseball broadcasters — things you maybe haven’t thought of yet.
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When 10-time NCAA basketball champion John Wooden was head coach at UCLA, freshmen would arrive for the first day of practice eager with anticipation. They would gather around this great sage of basketball waiting to learn about how to be winners.

Wooden stunned them when the first thing he taught was how to put on their socks.

The reason was Coach Wooden believed if you didn’t put them on properly, the socks would get wrinkles, you would get blisters, you would be slowed or missed practice, which could impact your performance in the game, which could lead to the team losing.

The point is this: attention to detail leads to greatness.
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Ray Scott and Pat Summerall are among the greatest TV football broadcasters of all-time.

They were masters at talking less.

That’s the first of three keys to great football play-by-play, and for broadcasting any sport on TV:
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