Interview with Miami Marlins Glenn Geffner: Part II

The following is the second installment of a two-part interview with Miami Marlins radio broadcaster Glenn Geffner.

If you’re just coming to the party on this one, earlier in the weekend we sat down with Miami Marlins broadcaster Glenn Geffner to pick his brain on all things baseball and broadcasting. You can check out the first installment of that interview here.

Below we wrap with Glenn. Hope you enjoy.

MM:  Favorite Marlins broadcast you’ve been a part of?

GG: One of these days I’d like to call some post-season games in Miami, and they’ll shoot to the top of the list. Until then, the first one that comes to mind just came up recently when we faced Alex Wood in Los Angeles.

In 2014, Jose Fernandez and Wood matched up in an incredible pitchers duel in Atlanta. The Marlins won the game 1-0 in 2 hours, 8 minutes. Jose was absolutely electric that night. He worked 8 scoreless innings, didn’t walk anybody and struck out 14. Wood went 8 and allowed one run on a Casey McGehee RBI single in the 5th. He didn’t walk anybody and struck out 11.

Both pitchers were working fast. I was just talking with Fredi Gonzalez about that game the other day. He was managing the Braves at the time. It was one of those games where the innings were so fast, there was no time for anything. I don’t think I used anything I’d prepared for the game. It was all we could do to get our promotional reads in.

I know some feel differently, but I’m one who would rather watch a pitchers duel than a slugfest, so that one was a lot of fun for me. Most of Jose’s starts were a lot of fun to call. The anticipation of what he might do going in, then the pure electricity of watching him do his thing on the mound.

The first game after Jose’s passing is also one I’ll never forget. You asked about “favorite” broadcasts, and there was certainly nothing fun about that night. But being able to help describe what was happening at the park that night is something I’ll never forget. And we heard from so many fans who said we helped them come to grips with what had happened over that final week of the season.

That sort of thing reminds you how impactful what we do can be to some people in some instances. 

MM:  Certainly will never forget that first game back. Feels like Dee Gordon could steal home to win the World Series this year, and fifty years from now, that home run off of Bartolo Colon would still be the first thing I think of. Any advice for any young fans looking to break into the sports journalism/broadcasting biz? How about older, freelance amateurs?

GG:  If you’re in school, get all the experience you can. Write for your school paper. Take advantage of any radio or TV opportunities that might be available to you. If you want to do play-by-play specifically, you’ve got to do games. Seek out opportunities at your high school or college.

If none exist, create them via webcasts. If you’ve got to go to a high school game or a Little League game and call a game into a recorder, do that. This isn’t something that you learn how to do in a classroom. You’ve got to call games. Then you’ve got to go back and listen to yourself, see what you like and what you don’t like.

Then you’ve got to go call more games. Get an internship at a radio or TV station. Meet as many people as you can. And do more games. Whatever the sport, whatever the level, get as much experience as you can. When you reach the point where you have a decent amount of work you feel really good about, reach out to people in the industry you respect and see if they’ll listen and offer some feedback.

The other thing I’d say is when you reach the point where you’re actually doing games somewhere, don’t  try to be Vin Scully. Don’t try to be Jon Miller. Be yourself.  

MM: Lastly, do feel I’d also be remiss if I were not to ask you about Jose Fernandez. However, all that really seems appropriate and worthwhile to me to ask would be just to ask you what your favorite memory of Jose is, and what you feel is the most important part of his legacy?

GG:  The fact that I’ve mentioned Jose’s name already in answering a couple of your questions that had nothing to do with him shows how much a part he remains of this team and how much his presence is still felt by those of us who were lucky enough to spend some time around him.

My favorite Jose memory, and I tweeted this story out the day he passed, comes from July 2, 2015. That was the day Jose finally returned from his Tommy John surgery. He beat the Giants and even hit a home run off Matt Cain.

But the part of that day I’ll never forget came hours later and 35,000 feet in the air. After the game we flew to Chicago. You think about how hard he had worked to come back over the previous year and how exhilarating it had to be for him to be back on a big league mound, to get a win and even go deep (which, to him, was far more important than what he did on the mound!).

I can only imagine how emotional a day it was for him and for those who stood with him every step of the way during his very long and very lonely rehab. If ever there were a flight where maybe his emotions might have overwhelmed him and he decided to sleep for a couple of hours, that might have been it.

But instead, he told the flight attendants they were getting the flight off. Next thing you knew, there was Jose taking orders and then passing out people’s dinners. When he brought me my food, I told him I had to have a picture of him passing me the tray. It wasn’t a picture I would have ever planned to share. But the day he passed away, I tweeted it out and told the story because I thought it showed a side of Jose not many got to see. The impish grin on his face said so much about who he was. I’ll never forget that moment.

As for Jose’s legacy, the impact he made on so many people in so many different ways in such a short life will never be forgotten. He reminded us every day that baseball’s a game, and it’s supposed to be fun. I think I apply that lesson in my own life more than I did previously to honor Jose’s memory. I hope others do too.

And one of the really sad parts of his legacy is I think he may go down in baseball history as the ultimate “what if.” In Boston they talk about Tony Conigliaro, the young home-grown slugger who had his career short-circuited by a beaning when he was 22 and had already hit more than 100 homers.

I think about Jose the same way folks up there still—50 years later—think about Tony C. What if he’d pitched 15 or 20 years? What records could he have set? How many Cy Youngs might he have won? What would he have done on the October stage? And how many more lives would he have touched? How many more could he have inspired and lifted up. His death was so sad on so many different levels, but the whole “what if” will always be a big part of how we remember Jose.

MM: Great stuff, and thanks so much again for taking the time. Any parting thoughts, requests for our readers?

GG: Thanks for asking me to do this, Sean. I enjoyed it. It’s always great to be reminded that there’s a dedicated community of passionate Miami Marlins fans out there. I see you guys on Twitter and Facebook and love talking with fans at the ballpark. You guys have been through a lot of ups and downs over 25 years. Hopefully there are some great days ahead for all of us soon!  

Next: No plan past Nicolino

Hope everyone enjoyed this as much as I did. If you did, even more importantly than starting every day by checking out the latest Marlin Maniac content, pass along some thanks to Glenn on Twitter via his handle @GlennGeffner. And of course, be sure to tune in to 940 WINZ to follow the Miami Marlins as they were meant to heard.