Opening Day memories
Another Joshumentary -- Reflections from my 24 years in baseball as a fan, newspaper reporter, talk show host and play-by-play announcer
The launch of this Substack wasn’t intended to be filled with so much nostalgia. But nostalgia becomes contagious. I enjoy the process of remembering things now, before I can no longer remember them, and it fills me with gratitude to reflect on both the good times and the bad times.
My Dad reads this Substack and if the nostalgia help him remember events we did together, or he learns more about my life when I was an adult, that alone makes this worth it. If the stories inspires my readers to remember events of their life, especially if it involved me, that’s a double win.
Since today is the start of the Minor League Baseball season, and in the spirit of a post trying to remember where I watched every Super Bowl, here is a post where I try to remember something from all the Opening Day’s of my life.
1973-78
Too young to remember anything.
1979-81
Our family lived in the Denver suburb of Littleton, Colo. The Rockies didn’t exist for another dozen years. We went to a few minor league games of the Denver Bears, but usually in the summer and never for Opening Night. Games were never on TV.
1982-86
My family lived in Pleasanton. I don’t recall attending any Opening Nights or even watching any on TV. Back then, the NCAA men’s basketball championship game was usually on the same day as MLB’s Opening Day and that was the priority. Besides, it was a school night and I still really young. Not every MLB game was even on TV either. I do recall many years of attending the pre-Opening Day exhibition games the A’s and Giants played against each other the weekend before the season began at the Coliseum and Candlestick. Those were fun.
1987
The year my baseball fandom exploded. I attended 41 games, usually arriving 5+ hours early with friends to get autographs and shag balls in batting practice. I have a decent memory of sitting in the right field bleachers on Opening Night, but it might have been part of Opening Week.
1988
Fairly confident I was at the Coliseum for the A’s opener, sitting in Section 123, Row 2, Seats 12-13 with my Dad. I’d attended spring training with my dad and grandparents for the first time. Excitement for that season was an all-time high. I know Stew started, Jose homered, and the A’s won. We knew the A’s were destined for greatness.
1989
I vividly remember watching the A’s opener from the center field bleachers with my friends. In his first at-bat in the majors, Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a ball that I thought for sure was a home run. I sprinted down the Coliseum steps to get it. It ended up being a double and my buddies made fun of me for not judging the flyball better. I’ve watched the grainy video of this hit dozens of times, trying to pause it to see myself, but I’m just a blur.
1990-91
I don’t remember watching in person or on TV. I was still a huge baseball, but priorities were shifting. Chasing players for autographs was losing its appeal. I was a busboy at Chili’s, the Editor in Chief of my high school newspaper, and focusing much more on Journalism and future college plans.
1992
My freshman year in college. I remember driving with my friend, Garrett Overheiser, to Point Loma University to watch San Diego State’s opening game. Our friend from the dorms, Benji Grigsby, was starting for the Aztecs. We cheered super loud, like idiots, and had a blast. I don’t recall watching a MLB opener, but I also didn’t have a TV either.
1993-94
Both years, I’m still at San Diego State and didn’t attend the Padres opener. It’s likely I just watched highlights, but I can’t say for sure if I even had cable TV.
1995
The season began a few weeks late, due to a labor dispute, but I distinctly remember attending the Padres opener in person at the Murph with a crew from The Daily Aztec. I even remember making a sign and constantly trying to find a cameraman to put me on the videoboard. I was dumb.
1996
It felt like I had three different Opening Days this year.
The Padres played an exhibition game against San Diego State at The Murph and I did play-by-play for KCR College Radio with Coby Ginsburg. Padres announcer Ted Leitner joined me for an inning. Aztecs pitcher Brian Basteyns joined Coby, in uniform, for an inning. One of the best days of my collegiate experience. Wish we had taken photos.
A few days later, it’s spring break, and I’m in Las Vegas with Ferris Shahrestani and Sean Colclough. The A’s opened the season at Cashman Field, a minor league ballpark that was their temporary home for one week, because of renovations to the Oakland Coliseum. Claw stayed at the hotel to watch the NCAA Final. I convinced Ferris to go watch baseball with me. It was super cold and windy and mostly miserable, but hey, we saw Opening Night in a unique place. Also wish we had taken photos.
Later in June, after graduation ceremonies, I drove across the country to start a job with the short-season Watertown Indians of the New York-Penn League. I did a very wide variety of tasks, including re-organizing the merchandise stand and re-painting the white edges of the outfield fence signs. We didn’t broadcast on Opening Night, but did for about 20 games that summer. This is a photo with my grandmother a few weeks into the season.
1997
I was hired by the Modesto A’s to do play-by-play, media relations, and the infamous “other duties as assigned.” The day before the season, the GM told me the radio contract fell through. No radio. This was before games were broadcast on the internet. To this day, I think he lied and never tried for a radio contract. To be fair, the stadium was undergoing massive renovation to save its existence and radio was a low priority. Delays to the renovations spilled one month into the season. The team played “home” games on the road. The technical home opener was moved to an old minor league park in Lodi, Calif. About a week later, I summoned the courage to resign. I came to Modesto to be a broadcaster and there was no games to broadcast. My last day was the actual home opener in Modesto. I remember outfield fence signs were still being installed when the gates opened and the game started about 30 minutes late because the on-field host kept rambling.
1998-99
I’m back in the Bay Area working for The Oakland Tribune and my beat was high school sports, so I didn’t get to watch any openers in person or on TV. One of my favorite things to do though, after finishing my shift at the Jack London Square newsroom, was listen to the A’s game on the radio driving home. If it was after the sixth inning, I’d pull off at the Coliseum off-ramp to watch the rest of the game. Why the sixth inning? That’s when they stopped selling tickets and anybody could enter for free.
2000
My first year on the San Francisco Giants beat. After six weeks of spring training, I returned to the Bay Area to cover the “soft opening” of Pacific Bell Park, an exhibition game against the Brewers. The next day I drove to Tahoe for my mom’s wedding. The next day I flew to Miami to rejoin the team. At the rental car counter, I was asked if I wanted to upgrade to a convertible. “Heck yes!” I said, oblivious to the travel budget for The Trib. A week later, the Giants opened Pac Bell Park for real. I picked up my friend Eric Winter in Oakland on the way to the game. Here’s a photo Eric took of me before I went to work.
2001
The Giants opened at home against the Padres. I really have no memories of that game, except that Barry Bonds probably homered, and finding my game story on newspapers.com doesn’t trigger my memory. A week later, the Giants were in San Diego for the Padres opener and I remember that one. It wasn’t my first time back at The Murph; I covered games there the previous season. But I remember getting quite emotional during the pregame festivities about how recently I was in college at this same location, hoping this would be my career. Here’s a picture I took.
2002
The Giants were in Los Angeles. My book about Barry Bonds was published a few weeks earlier and I was constantly promoting it. It felt like I was doing two radio interviews every day and a couple TV interviews each week. On the heels of a record 73 homers in 2001, Bonds hit two on Opening Day. I remember stopping multiple times while typing up my postgame stories to do interviews. Bonds hit two more homers in the second game of the year. I remember after the three-game series in LA, I flew into SFO, took a cab to Pac Bell Park, and literally sprinted from the parking lot to the field to do a live interview on KTVU-TV before the Giants home opener. It was the last segment of their morning show. It made for dramatic TV as they filmed me running. I did the interview trying to catch my breath.
2003
The Giants opened in San Diego again. It’s now my fourth year on the Giants beat. What I remember about this year was being really proud of a feature story I wrote about Joe Nathan leading into the season. Nathan was a bona fide big league starter in 2000, but a shoulder injury took a long time to heal. He spent two years back in the minors getting very humbled, but never gave up, and returned to the majors in 2003 as a reliever. Nathan had a starring role on Opening Day and the other reporters followed my storyline with their recaps. The home opener was also against the Padres. This was my view from the press box.
2004
My first year on the A’s beat. They were at home against the Rangers at the Coliseum. Every game, I’d walk through the exact location where my friends and I posted up as teenagers to get autographs. I paused at our old location on Opening Night and smiled. By this year, security was tighter on where autograph seekers could hang out and very few were around. The main thing I remember about that Opening Night was then-A’s owner Steve Schott complaining about the Coliseum and how much the A’s need a new stadium.
2005
The A’s opened in Baltimore and I remember thinking how dumb the schedule makers were. Why send a team from California across the country to a cold city? Well, it was a glorious warm day in Baltimore and it poured rain all day in Oakland. I remember how cool the orange carpet the Orioles rolled out for their VIPs on Opening Day was, and how it seemed like the entire city was celebrating the start of a new season. Day game openers are far superior to night game openers, by the way.
2006
The A’s opened at home against the Yankees. It’s now my third year on the A’s beat and seventh covering baseball. The grind was taking a toll. A lot of relationships suffered because I was gone so often. One of the pregame storylines was new tarps covering the third deck at the Coliseum. The Big Three were broken up, only Barry Zito remained, and he got bombed by the Bombers. I remember thinking I don’t know how much longer I can stay on the baseball beat. My mind was drifting for something new.
2007
Exactly 10 years later, I was back in Modesto, once again hired to be the radio play-by-play announcer. They were now called the Nuts, a Rockies affiliate, had a new front office staff, and the employer was the radio station. No contract issues this time. We opened at home against Visalia. I broadcasted an exhibition game between the Nuts and Modesto Junior College a few days earlier, which was huge, because I was really nervous that night. I was mostly calm for the opener. One night into my new career, the career I always wanted, I knew I was never going back to newspapers.
2008
My first year as the embedded reporter for the Dodgers Radio Network and co-host of Dodger Talk for 790 KABC Radio. I drove from Modesto to LA on a Saturday with my sister Lisa and nephew Kasey in a U-haul. We put my life’s belongings in a storage unit. My first day was a Monday. I filled out paperwork, then flew to Vero Beach, Fla. to join the Dodgers at spring training. Three weeks later, we went to China for 72 hours for a couple exhibition games. Then we flew home and took over the A’s facility for the final week of spring training, as they went to Japan. Then the Dodgers played an exhibition at the LA Memorial Coliseum. I still didn’t have a place to live on Opening Day. I asked to be the host of a between-inning Trivia Challenge on the field, something I’d never done. The echo was terrible. They kept moving me and the contestant to new locations and changing the inning. Then they had me facing away from the scoreboard, so I had to memorize the question. I was already nervous and terrified. I said “Giants” instead of “Dodgers” and the fans booed me. One of the most humiliating moments of my career.
2009
The Dodgers were in San Diego. I don’t remember that much about the day, so I’ll tell a story from spring training. Actress Alyssa Milano authored a book out about her baseball fandom, so we had her as a guest on Dodger Talk. Keep in mind, Alyssa was one of the biggest crushes of my life as a kid. That spring, co-host Ken Levine and I frequently debated if Manny Ramirez should bat third (my opinion) or fourth (Ken’s opinion). We asked Alyssa. She said fourth. I exclaimed “Noooooooo” and started arguing with her. After the interview ended, multiple people asked me, “did you really just get into a fight with Alyssa Milano on the radio?” Yes, yes, I did. I’m an absolute idiot. The rest of the year I told people it was “a lover’s quarrel.”
2010
The Dodgers were in Pittsburgh. This was super fun because it was a day game, our entertaining crew of broadcast personnel and PR staff watched the NCAA tournament final together at night, then we had the following day off. I remember the weather was gorgeous. Here’s a photo of three Josh’s playing tourists.
2011
The Dodgers hosted the Giants. It’s the final year of the radio contract with KABC and the Dodgers kept putting off discussions of an extension. The feeling at the radio station was if we don’t have a contract by Opening Day, that’s a sure sign the Dodgers are going to stall all season and find a new radio partner the following year. Welp, we had no new contract on Opening Day. I spent the whole season dreading the inevitable. Sure enough, the Dodgers switched to Fox Sports Radio in October and I was laid off. That’s show business.
2012
I’m unemployed, trying to survive as a freelancer, still looking for a new full-time job, and working on two books. I was in Pleasanton, staying at my Dad’s house for a few days and interviewing people for a book that became “Murder In Pleasanton.” I didn’t watch any games start to finish. I remember watching highlights of the Dodgers winning on a typically spectacular sunny day game in Los Angeles and it felt really weird to not be there.
2013
My first year doing play-by-play for the Albuquerque Isotopes. We played the Iowa Cubs. The season started on a Thursday. I arrived in town the Friday before. I’m surprisingly low on memories. I know most of my anxiety was if I knew how to work the equipment and how to fill a 30-minute pregame show all by myself. I remember we won the game, Tommy Lasorda was in town and I interviewed him, and I had forgotten to prepare a scorebook. My broadcast was probably not as good as I think it was.
2014
We were in Tacoma and got rained out, forcing a doubleheader the next day. I hate doubleheaders. It’s really tough on your voice to talk for 6-7 hours solo. I did very little freelance broadcasting that offseason, so my voice wasn’t warmed up yet. The doubleheader wrecked my throat. It took a couple weeks to feel normal. This was the first year I really started to focus on protecting my voice.
2015
This was the Isotopes first year as a Rockies affiliate, after previously being with the Dodgers. I remember we were home and Jorge De La Rosa started for us on a rehab assignment. I kept reminding myself, over and over, for months, throughout spring training, to say “Triple-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies.” In the first 30 seconds on the broadcast, I said the Isotopes are, “Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers.” Ooops. Muscle memory extends to mouth memory too.
2016
We were back in Tacoma. I was worried about bad weather again. Instead, it was a balmy 72 degrees on Opening Night and the whole weekend was stellar. The guy who batted third for the Isotopes was an outfielder named Mike Tauchman. He had eight career home runs at the time, over four seasons, and I noted on the broadcast that was not a traditional No.3 hitter. He wasn’t happy about it, and a few days later, he confronted me about the statement. Remember that story.
2017
I don’t remember when my tradition of wearing a suit on Opening Night began. I think it was sometime with the Dodgers. I’ve done it every year with the Topes. In 2017, I coordinated colors with my PR saviors Kevin Collins and Andrew Cochrum. We also all wore our baseball scorebook socks. Yes, we are truly that big of baseball nerds.
2018
The Topes were at Salt Lake. Starting pitcher Yency Almonte departed in the first inning due to injury. We used seven pitchers in the game. It felt like our pitching staff was already in shambles after one game. The Topes third baseman was Josh Fuentes. He went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in his Triple-A debut. I felt for the guy. You wonder how long somebody like that might last in the league. Well, Fuentes won Most Valuable Player that year. He remains one of my all-time favorites.
2019
We hosted an exhibition game against the Rockies 10 days before our actual season began. I got to do play-by-play on Rockies TV for that game, the delightful Ryan Spilborghs was my analyst, the ballpark was packed with fans wearing purple, and the weather was spectacular. I’m pretty sure I floated through the rest of the season on a high, confident that nothing could change my very cool life. And thennnnnnn …
2020
On Friday, March 13, Isotopes GM John Traub called a staff meeting outside his office to announce the ballpark would get a thorough deep cleaning to make sure this coronavirus was not lurking anywhere. We’d work remotely the first two days of the next week, then return on a Wednesday. I knew better. I packed everything I thought I’d need for the next two months. Sure enough, we never returned to the office. Sometime around late April, I knew the minor league season was doomed. The season was officially canceled on June 30. I was told that I was furloughed a few weeks earlier. The abbreviated 60-game MLB season began on July 24 in front of no fans. I remember upgrading my cable package so I could watch more baseball. A few weeks later, I got a text message from a number that I did not recognize. It was a screenshot of the New York Yankees lineup, with Mike Tauchman batting third. The text was from Tauchman, who wrote, “not a three-hole hitter, huh?”
2021
Another year with multiple Opening Days. They were very different.
In February, I was still living in Reno, working part-time for the University of Nevada, and didn’t know if I’d return to Albuquerque. The Wolf Pack baseball team opened at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The press box was under construction. I was on a balcony, way down the third-base line past the dugout, broadcasting with a mask on. I had a terrible view of the field and it was freezing cold. I was grateful to be doing any broadcasting work, but that was not a happy time.
In May, I was back in Albuquerque. The season opened a month later than usual as all the Covid protocols were still getting organized for the minors. I felt proud that I was back on the mic when the Isotopes returned to action. I arrived back to Albuquerque a day before the season started. My booth/office was a time capsule from March 2020, when I was last there. I saw To Do lists and other items, left undisturbed for 15 months. It was eerie. Time stood still in that booth. We still had lots of restrictions: capacity was 50% and we weren’t allowed to be around the players or clubhouse staff. I did Zoom interviews for the pregame show. But at least we were playing.
2022
The Isotopes started at Oklahoma City. The world was mostly back to normal, but we had a lot of changes to the rules in the minors. Bigger bases. A pitch timer. A month later, computers called balls and strikes. Our season increased up to 150 games, the most for the Pacific Coast League in 58 years.
2023
We started in Round Rock. One of the best memories of my life and it had nothing to do with baseball. The season began on a Friday. The next morning, I drove to Houston to watch San Diego State in the Final Four with a dozen of my closest friends from The Daily Aztec. We went ballistic after Lamont Butler’s game-winning shot at the buzzer. We went back to my friend Ferris’ house and kept watching the highlights over and over. The next morning, I drove back to Round Rock to broadcast the third game of the season. After the game, I drove back to Houston. When I got there, my friends were re-watching the Aztecs game. Again. We went to the national championship game the next day. I flew home the following morning for the Isotopes home opener.
2024
Tonight, I’ll be in Albuquerque, the Isotopes are hosting the El Paso Chihuahuas. This is my 11th season calling Isotopes games, my 12th year with the team if you include the lost Covid year. It’s my 24th year with a full-time job involving baseball: Watertown Indians 1 year, Giants beat writer 4 years, A’s beat writer 3 years, Modesto Nuts 1 year, Dodgers pre/postgame work 4 years, Isotopes 11 years. That’s almost half my life.
If you’d have told teenage Josh that he’d work 24 years in baseball, he’d be extremely excited. If you told teenage Josh all the different employers, the zigging and zagging across multiple jobs and states, the minors and the majors, and a global pandemic, he’d be pretty confused and have a lot of questions to ask.
Overall, I can’t complain. I’m very lucky and treasure all the Opening Day/Night/Week memories.
1989- I watched Griffey's double on tv.
1993- Giants home opener, my buddy Daniel Villarreal and I skipped school and sat in the nose bleeds at the 'Stick. Pretty sure Bonds homered, and I kept repeating to Dan "It's gonna be a good year!" Then game 162 happened.
2005- I was living in Maryland and don't know why I didn't make up to Camden if you were there?
2010-2013- One of those years I went to the Nat's opener. Fun tidbit, the '93 Giants opener featured future-Nat's managers Matt Williams and Dave Martinez.
Great article Josh! Enjoyed every word of it!