TBS and Brian Anderson Meet Shohei's Moment

When you walk into the booth to call a game - you never know what you're going to see. You're either ready for it or you're not. TBS was. Big time.

The TBS “A” Booth (along with Lauren Shihadi)

When you do what I did for a living you know something you don’t talk about much but it’s always there.

What am I gonna see tonight? Will I be ready for it when it comes?

Most nights it’s a game like most others. You’re prepped and ready, you’re experienced and have a bag full of tricks, and you’ve seen and called thousands of routine dump ins, foul balls, long threes, and screen passes. You can do this in your sleep most nights, because most games are like that.

You get a big or decent moment or two every game and a play or an effort each night that causes your voice to jump and challenges your vocabulary and readiness. And you get duds. More than you’d like. In my brain someplace is this melange of bad nights and poor efforts, tedious wins and blowout losses that give me no cause for reflection.

I did hockey mostly. But I’ve called every sport there is and some you never heard of. In hockey - you’re on the play - until the game doesn’t merit your complete concentration. Hockey is sometimes a series of endless odd bounces and ricochets, with the puck haphazardly tossed about until out of a pile - WHOOPS BANG IT’S IN THE NET - WHAT HAPPENED??? Calling hockey is different.

Baseball provides constant moments of isolation, and we can plan for what we might say when it happens - when whatever it is happens - because we know he’s in there and he can make it happen at the plate.

Baseball is unique this way - there isn’t a puck deflected off two bodies and in the net in a millisecond - leaving even guys like me stick-handling to make quick sense of it and provide you the narration.

No - baseball is unique - and provides unique individual moments. Baseball puts a man on an island. Alone in a batters box. Or on a pitching mound. Nowhere to hide.

And above all of it a guy or gal like me sits and waits, headset on, notes on cards and pads, a stat guy on my right or my left, a stage manager, and broadcast partners all watching and waiting for me to call it.

Yeah - you’re watching the play - but you’re also listening to the call - to the track - to what we provide.

What you got last night was a very unique performance by an athlete - an unheard of performance - and the booth elegantly stamped the events of the night in a way that perfectly complimented what was happening.

Layouts - are overrated.