(March 26, 2013) STAA client Jake Donnelly has been hired as the play-by-play broadcaster for East Texas Pump Jacks baseball. He’ll broadcast at least 60 games in the Texas Collegiate League.
A former minor league baseball bullpen catcher, Donnelly spent last summer as a broadcast assistant with the Lake Erie Crushers. “I have yet to get a full season of lead play-by-play under my belt and the Pump Jacks gives me that chance,” says Donnelly. “It’s something I sorely needed for a variety of reasons.”
According to Donnelly, the job came about in surprisingly easy fashion. “After spending about two years doing various internships and other odd jobs and realizing I was getting nowhere, I finally bit the bullet and signed up for STAA,” he says. “I got one of the job opening e-mails while I was at work and replied in about 10-15 minutes from it being posted. I had a Skype interview for the job later that week.
“I wasn’t sure if signing up with [STAA] was the right move, but I’m pretty sure this means I was a jackass for not doing it two years ago,” Donnelly grins. “Oh well, live and learn right?”
Donnelly believes his experience as a bullpen catcher two summers ago provides him a unique perspective behind the microphone. “I spent a week and a half bullpen catching for the New Britain Rock Cats before spending about two months bullpen catching for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. I think my time with both of those teams allowed me to see the inside of a locker room in a manner that few can, and experience the physical and mental toll these players go through. I was a ballplayer in college, but the main difference is that in the minor leagues, the toll of day-in and day-out travel really does start to wear on you. There is nothing like a game on Sunday night, followed by a 10-hour bus ride, followed by a night game the next day.
“People always complain about a player needing a day off or looking fatigued, and most audience members lament, ‘oh, these guys are just being soft.’ Well, at about hour six of a ten hour bus ride, I don’t care how comfortable a coach bus can be, those seats stop being soft and starting wearing down your body.”
STAA doesn’t do anything to make long bus rides more enjoyable, but Donnelly says it does make the job market easier. “The thing I like most about the STAA services is simple. When a job is posted, now, instead of having to wade through all of the muck, I get a nice straightforward e-mail with contact information and I can send in my application almost immediately, which I am now well aware is a major factor in being considered for a job.”
(Visit Jake’s STAA Talent Page).