Atlanta Braves’ radio update from Wednesday

Sometimes we do a few more things around here than just writing about the Braves from a keyboard.  Today I thought I’d share one of those ‘other things’.

The Atlanta Braves are our primary passion here at TomahawkTake.com.  It does take some considerable time to work these posts and try to make sure we pass along the right information so that we can give you our opinions based on the best guesses we have at the time.

But doing this has also afforded some of us additional opportunities from time to time.

For example, I was contacted several weeks ago with the request to provide some input for a fantasy baseball preview of the Braves over at RazzBall.com.  That report is slightly dated at this point, but it’s generally still good.

During the season, I have been honored as well to provide a weekly segment of info on the Braves for listeners of my local Sports Talk radio show here in North Alabama.

This station is WUMP – “The Ump”, which is a Cumulus broadcaster based in Athens, Alabama that covers most of the Tennessee River Valley region of N. Alabama and into southern Tennessee.

They are locally on the air at 730AM and 103.9FM and can be streamed online here.

I think this may be starting my fifth season doing these updates for the Thom Abraham show (2-6pm Central Time weekdays)… and let me tell you:  it’s not what you might expect!

First off, there’s a link to this week’s report (I started around 20 minutes into it)… but I’ll add a bit more.

How This Happened

In January of 2014, the Braves’ Caravan finally found its way to my home turf.  Given the number of people that show up for these events, I had not opted to dedicate an entire day to travel, stand in line, wait, and then finally get maybe 15 seconds with each player.  Sorry, but I need a little more… because I want to write about it.

For 2014, though, they brought home to Huntsville one of their own local heroes:  Craig Kimbrel.  He was the headliner for a trip to Academy Sports.

Now I had to scheme a way to get there.

I wrote the Media Relations department.  No answer.  Frankly, they’ve not been terribly helpful to the internet media sites over the years.

Okay, Plan B… and I didn’t want to get to Plan C, which was standing in line for multiple hours and dedicating the full day (sans the travel part).

So I contacted WUMP.

Turns out they were going to be on site… and were themselves hoping to get a chance to chat with the players as well.  Except the only one they really knew was Kimbrel.  So maybe I could piggyback on to their efforts?

They agreed.

I did my homework.  I prepared a notebook of photos, stats, and questions for Kimbrel… but also for Gus Schlosser, Christian Bethancourt, and Aaron Northcraft.  I was ready.

As it turned out, Thom Abraham could not get the Braves’ people to let him interview anybody either… as it was, I believe they even had to disappoint some folks in line since at least 500 people showed up for autographs… so to take several minutes away from the fans would not have been in good form.

So Abraham called an audible – and he put yours truly on the air to help him fill half an hour or so.

I don’t even remember what I said other than recalling that ‘if Aaron Northcraft never does anything in the majors, he can always tell his grandkids that he once threw a professional no hitter‘.

Well, after being traded a year later to the Padres – with Kimbrel – he hasn’t made the majors, but according to his twitter bio, he hasn’t given up yet.

But that was how this guy with the face for radio and a voice for blogging got started – and The Ump has been gracious (or desperate) enough to keep calling me back.

A Bit Nerve-Wracking

Podcasts are at least somewhat thought out in advance.  Some more than others. Podcasts also can be edited.  Live radio?  Not so much.  How about live radio without a rehearsal or advance knowledge of the questions?  That’s when it gets fun.

Thom Abraham never communicates to me the things he wants to talk about.  But he’s always amazingly prepared, too.  He knows the NFL, College Football, NASCAR, the NBA, Hockey, baseball – even wrestling and bass fishing (no kidding).  That forces me to really be on my toes about current events in baseball – and not strictly about the Braves, either.

For example, if you do listen to the link above, you’ll note that the first topic this week was about the city of Madison, Alabama and minor league baseball.

Now I did have a feeling that this topic would be covered – an agreement was just put in place between the new owners of the (AA Southern League) Mobile Bay Bears and the city of Madison that should bring that team to the North end of the state for the 2020 season.  So I did make sure I prepared some numbers to make it sound like I knew what I was talking about (I actually did, in this case).

After all, the number one rule for these gigs is this:  make the host look good.

This time out, I was able to circle back to Madison on the next topic, noting that while Atlanta had lost 12 players to the Coppolella scandal, one of them was Kevin Maitan… would could end up playing for the new Madison team as property of the LA Angels.

That was a nice bit, but not everything always goes that well… thinking on your feet is tricky sometimes!

But that’s how this radio thing got started, and for all of you writers out there who want to branch out… I would encourage engaging your local sports radio folks.  After all, it’s better for them if they can ask you to help them fill time!

Next: Acuna is Ready... he said so.

But in the meantime… get your own credentials established:  and writing for TomahawkTake.com might be a good place to start (wink).