Rohr of the Crowd - May 12

Rohr of the Crowd is the official blog of Nate Rohr, the play-by-play announcer for Husker softball. Nate has called Nebraska softball games since 2004 and will call every game of the 2010 season. Nate is not employed by the University of Nebraska and the opinions and content of this blog are his own. Look for new blog entries weekly.

Last Dance in OKC

The Loudest Roars
From Saturday, Ashley Guile's monster three-run homer
to give Nebraska a 3-0 lead against Missouri. Then in the
third, Gabby Banda hit a two-run single to give the Huskers
a 5-2 lead.

The 2010 Big 12 Softball Tournament in Oklahoma City will be the final one. Starting next year, the regular-season champion will receive the automatic bid from the Big 12 to the NCAA Regionals. The Big 12 joins the Pac-10 (which hasn't had a tournament) and the Big Ten (which recently eliminated its tournament) as BCS conference-leagues without a tournament. The other three BCS Conferences, the ACC, Big East and SEC, all stage single-elimination tournaments.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

 

I'm ambivalent about the end of the Big 12 Tournament. From the pure on-the-field standpoint, eliminating the conference tournament makes total sense. Trying to win three games in two days taxes a pitching staff the weekend before regionals in a way that is unnecessary for a team that has already wrapped up a regional bid. Unlike a basketball postseason tournament, a softball postseason tournament doesn't bring in enough revenue to justify its existence solely from the revenue it would bring in. From a personal standpoint, I won't miss getting blown around on the side field in Oklahoma City.

 

But I would be lying if I said that I won't miss the Big 12 Tournament. It's mainly for personal reasons. My first gig as the play-by-play voice for Nebraska softball was the 2004 Big 12 Tournament. I was the public-address announcer for the home games that year, and when none of the broadcasters who had called the regular-season games could make it to Oklahoma City for the tournament, I was there to take the mic.

 

Just the idea that I was calling games for the Huskers was big enough, but then that team made a magical run through that tournament, beating Texas when Jessica Yoachim hit a little flare down the left-field line to score two in the first round. Next, Peaches James threw a perfect game against an Oklahoma team that ended its season in the Women's College World Series. After a blowout of Baylor, James again allowed the Huskers to hang on and beat Missouri to win the Big 12 Tournament Championship.

 

The tournament also is a Court of Last Resort for Big 12 softball teams. It gives teams whose regular season has gone poorly one more opportunity to play well. A team that gets off to a poor start can at least look toward the tournament as one more chance to get to regionals. I shudder to think how drab the last few games of Nebraska's 2008 season would have been had there not been a tournament to play for at the end.

 

Had the league gone to three-game conference series (instead of staying with the two-game sets it currently schedules), the end of the Big 12 Tournament would be easier for me to deal with. But axing the tournament without adding a game to each conference series seems a little hollow.

Farewell to a Legend

Stat of the Week
Nebraska has won the Big 12 Tournament three times
(1998, 2000, 2004), tied for second-most in the conference.

Legendary Detroit Tigers announcer Ernie Harwell passed away last week from cancer at the age of 92. Harwell was noted not only for his great work behind the microphone, but also his kindness to almost everyone, especially aspiring announcers. I was incredibly fortunate to benefit from that kindness.

 

I was working at KWBE during my junior year of high school, 2002. I was working the church shift one February or March Sunday, where my duty was simply to connect with a church service somewhere in the Beatrice area, introduce it, turn up the service on the sound board and let it play for the next hour. This led to a lot of sitting around bored. To pass the time this particular morning, I decided to write to a few big-league announcers, including Ernie Harwell, who had recently announced that he was going retire after over 40 years of calling Tigers baseball and nearly 60 calling MLB games. I wrote him that letter, sent it to the Tigers, and waited.

 

A couple months later, I decided to go for a jog in the morning before school. I hardly ever jogged period during high school, let alone in the morning before school. But I did this particular morning. As I completed my jog, I started wheezing. My mother decided to keep me at home with the minor ailment. She left for work about 9 a.m. Soon thereafter, the phone rang. I checked the caller ID, but didn't recognize the area code, let alone the phone number. I picked up the phone, and heard a strong, southern voice on the other end. It was Ernie, advising me and encouraging me. He even left his number at the end of the call, if I wanted to make contact again.

 

Later that year, my dad called Ernie and set up a meeting between us later that year at Comerica Park before a game. Harwell met us on the walkway behind the press box and visited with us before the game, signing a book about him and taking a picture with my family.

 

From Harwell, I have picked up valuable tips that I use in every broadcast. At the core of Harwell's philosophy was the idea that a broadcaster could not give the score too often during the broadcast. After all, what meaning does the action have if you don't know what the score is? Especially in an era in which most fans are brought up watching sporting events on TV and those events have the score bug somewhere on the screen basically at all times, fans need to have the score repeated often so that they're ready for what's next. Because of that emphasis by Harwell, I try to give the score once every two minutes, and have a 90-second sand timer in my booth to remind me to repeat the score.

 

Another tip Harwell gave to broadcasters (this one I got from the book) regarded balls in play. Harwell advised young broadcasters to give the position the ball was hit toward rather than just say who the ball was hit toward, so instead of saying (in our case) "Ground ball to Barrett, she grabs and throws to first...in time", a broadcaster should say "Ground ball to short, Barrett grabs it and throws to first...in time". This makes the action easier to picture. Even when a defense is pretty well set (as Nebraska's infield is), it still takes an extra moment to compute that a grounder to Barrett means a grounder to short and that translation makes the action more difficult to picture.

 

Harwell's last piece of advice was that broadcasters should use the names of the pitchers and batters more in calling the action. Many times during any number of baseball and softball broadcasts (even mine), you'll hear, "2-1 pitch...fastball, high, now 3-1." But that leaves out the most important people in the drama: the batter and the pitcher. What if a listener just tuned in, and didn't know who was at the plate? They may tune away, unless you let them know that the big slugger is standing in there, and something big could be about to happen. Harwell didn't leave that to chance, and advised broadcasters to not leave that to chance either.

 

Harwell's life was about service, both on-the-air, when he structured his broadcasts to make it easier for the listener to picture and enjoy the game, and off-the-air, when he showed incredible kindness and caring to everyone that crossed his path. The stories that have come out since his passing have illustrated his remarkable kindness. The fact that he called me back made me feel special. But the more I've heard about Harwell routinely reaching out to people like me, the more that I've realized that he was the special one. If you happened to hear and see the news about his passing and wondered what the big deal was, acts of kindness like the ones he showed me were routine for him, and the reason why the city of Detroit mourned the loss of him so deeply when he died.

 

Bracketology: The Final Chapter

The NCAA Regional brackets will be released Sunday at 9 p.m. CT on ESPNU, and entering the Big 12 Tournament, Nebraska is still a part of the at-large conversation. ESPN.com Graham Hays tweeted Sunday that Nebraska was among his top four teams to just fall short of regional selection (The other three were NC State, Houston and Baylor, while Florida International, Tulsa, Illinois State and Northwestern were his last four in as at-larges into the tournament). Other projections have Nebraska similarly on the bubble, just barely getting a bid or just narrowly missing a bid.

 

A win Saturday against Texas A&M would be a giant boost for the Huskers' at-large bid resume. It would also help if the upsets around the country are kept to a minimum. Every time a team like Alabama or Georgia Tech needs to use at-large bid, it chews up a potential spot for a team like Nebraska.

 

A team to keep an eye on is Arkansas. The 28-28 Razorbacks beat NU earlier this year, and host the 2010 SEC Championshps. They are the No. 8 seed in the tournament and face SEC Champion Alabama in the first round. If the Hogs win that game, they have a good chance to earn an at-large bid. The SEC received eight bids to last year's tournament. If Arkansas loses, they will be ineligible for an at-large bid since they will have an under-.500 record, and that will open an at-large bid that wasn't available last year.

 

We'll keep posted during the broadcast Saturday (and hopefully beyond) as to how the picture is looking for Nebraska in its pursuit of a regional bid for the 15th time in the last 16 years.

 

Big 12 Tournament Warmup

The Huskers open Big 12 Tournament play against Texas A&M on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. Nebraska split with the Aggies when the two teams met in a doubleheader in early April. Texas A&M is ranked 20th and surged into the third spot in the Big 12 with a weekend sweep of Oklahoma State, stretching its regular-season-ending winning streak to six games. The Aggies are 11-4 in the 15 games they have played since losing game two of the doubleheader in Lincoln, with losses coming to nationally-ranked Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma (two games). Melissa Dumezich threw both games for the Aggies Saturday, giving up two earned runs in 14 innings pitched. Dumezich has thrown five of the six games during the winning streak, throwing a complete game each of the five times. On the year, Dumezich is 16-1 with a 2.03 ERA. Meagan May closed her first regular season with the second-best average in the Big 12 at .412 while leading the Big 12 with 21 home runs.

 

Also in Nebraska's half of the bracket is No. 2 seed Oklahoma, which will play the winner of the play-in game between No. 7 seed Texas Tech and No. 10 seed Kansas. The Raiders and Jayhawks square off Friday night, while the winner will take on the Sooners at 11 a.m. Saturday at the main stadium field while the Huskers and Aggies do battle on the alternate field. The Big 12 Tournament is single elimination.

 

That's all for now...we'll talk to you Saturday morning from Oklahoma City...

 

Husker Power!

Nate