Two years later, more tears of joy
This week's episode of "Crafting the Call" includes the surreal emotional journey of Wynton Bernard making his MLB debut at age 31
It’s been a little over two years since Wynton Bernard made his Major League debut. I didn’t think revisiting that moment would still get me emotional.
But there I was last week, sitting in an empty press box in Round Rock, Texas, looking into a laptop camera, recording the latest episode of “Crafting the Call” with Jesse Goldberg-Strassler, thinking back on the events leading up to Bernard’s debut.
For new subscribers: Hi, I’m Josh, a former newspaper reporter who is now the play-by-play announcer for the Albuquerque Isotopes (the Rockies Triple-A affiliate). I write essays on baseball, life, and promote my other side projects on this Substack Newsletter.
The quick backstory on Bernard: he was a 35th round draft pick in 2012 who had been released or his contract wasn’t renewed multiple times. He once went to an open tryout and defied the odds by getting signed. He played in Australia, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. When affiliated baseball was canceled in 2020 by Covid, he played for a renegade independent league to keep the dream alive.
Bernard played for the Isotopes in 2021 and 2022, and I got the chance to really learn about him and his family. I met his mother, one of his brothers, learned about his father’s passing, and the sports talk show host who became a second father to him.
Then in 2022, in his 11th year in the minor leagues, Bernard blossomed from a reserve outfielder into the best player in the league. I had a front-row seat for his incredible journey and a responsibility in telling the story properly on the microphone.
On August 11, Bernard was told he was going to the majors for the first time. His teammates celebrated like they’d won a World Series. Bernard made an emotional FaceTime call to his mother that went viral. The next morning, I met him at the airport before his flight to Denver. His MLB debut was that night.
This week’s episode of “Crafting the Call” focuses on MLB debuts. Of course, I had to include Bernard’s as one of our examples. Here’s a clip from the episode:
I’m extremely biased, but I’m still upset the Rockies sent Bernard back to the minors after 12 games. He was playing well for them, a great teammate, and his story is the type that draw the casual fan to become a more devote fan. Sigh.
Bernard is still playing professional baseball at age 33 for the St. Paul Saints, the Minnesota Twins triple-A affiliate.
The story of his debut will always be special, yet I know his career story contains many more chapters.
For this week’s episode, Jesse and I also analyzed the following MLB debuts:
Comparing Dwight Gooden’s debut to Stephen Strasburg’s debut
Jason Jennings pitches and homers in his Rockies debut
Jim Morris, the real guy played by Randy Quaid in “The Rookie”
Wynton Bernard’s debut (start at ~40:49)
Introducing Drew Maggi
Here’s the entire episode:
Crafting the Call is a YouTube series that I developed along with Jesse Goldberg-Strassler. Each week, we examine different aspects of baseball play-by-play announcing, offering our perspective as working professionals for fans, and advice for fellow broadcasters. To help support our work, subscribe, like, comment, or send us a suggestion for a future episode.
Here’s a link to all the prior episodes of Crafting the Call and a screenshot of some recent episodes.
You might also enjoy these following essays from my archives.