Sound-off with Sinkoff
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Sound-off with Sinkoff
Episode #15: Emmanuel Berbari / Radio voice of the New York Yankees
What happens when a high school live streaming program ignites a lifelong passion? Meet Emmanuel Barbari, the radio voice of the New York Yankees and Siena College Basketball, as he joins us to share his incredible journey from Long Island to the big leagues.
Emmanuel recounts his serendipitous introduction to broadcasting during his high school days and the pivotal moments at Fordham University that solidified his path. From a career-launching internship at WFAN to securing his coveted role at Siena College, Emmanuel’s story is a testament to seizing opportunities and following your passion.
Ever wondered what it feels like to be called up to the majors for the first time? Emmanuel takes us behind the scenes of his debut Major League Baseball play-by-play for a Yankees game in Pittsburgh. Feel the excitement and nerves as he prepares for the unexpected call-up, and learn about the overwhelming support from his colleagues, including Suzyn Waldman and John Sterling. With John’s early-season retirement, new doors opened, leading to a more prominent role for Emmanuel and Justin Shackil. This segment is filled with gratitude, anticipation, and the determination to excel as a key member of the Yankees' broadcast team.
Get a front-row seat to the daily grind of a baseball broadcaster. Emmanuel walks us through his meticulous game day routine, from early arrivals to dodge traffic to the thrill of charter travel with the team. He shares insightful anecdotes about preparing for broadcasts, introducing opposing teams’ players, and the unique challenges of working at Yankee Stadium.
Plus, hear about memorable moments like calling Aaron Judge’s 300th home run and the invaluable mentorship from seasoned experts like Suzyn. Tune in to uncover what it truly takes to succeed in the high-paced, exhilarating world of sports broadcasting.
Hello and welcome everybody to Sound Off with Sink Off. I'm your host, brian Sinkoff. Of course, sound Off with Sink Off, sponsored by the Sink Off Realty Group, full service real estate brokerage right here in the Capital Region. Well, you may not know his face, but you certainly know his voice. He is not only the voice of Siena College, but also the voice of the New York Yankees on the radio, and I'm pleased to be joined by Emmanuel Barbari. Emmanuel, what an awesome opportunity to have you on. I really appreciate it. And how the heck are you?
Speaker 2:I'm doing well. Brian, great to meet you. It's nice to not only meet people who, hey, I could hop on a podcast, but I can hop on a podcast with somebody in the Capital Region who shares that blood with me, if you will a little bit. So great to meet you and great to be here.
Speaker 1:All right. So, Emmanuel, your story is pretty well documented. But for those not familiar, we're going to go back in time a little bit. You're 24, is that right?
Speaker 2:Just turned 25.
Speaker 1:Just turned 25. You're a puppy, you're a baby. So you're in the booth, you're with Justin Shackle, you're doing play-by-play for the freaking New York Yankees. That's unbelievable. I have to pinch myself just saying that to you. But let's go back, man. You're from Long Island. You went to Fordham, much like me at Maryland. You did the college radio station thing. So take me back to how it is. You've got. You even got involved in broadcasting. Then we'll get to the Yankees, of course.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it was all sort of by chance getting involved with broadcasting In high school. Even before my Fordham days one of my best friends was starting a live video streaming program, which had never been done at my high school. Now it seems like high schools across the country adopt something similar or at least a lot of them but that was foreign to my school, harborfields on Long Island in the Greenlawn, huntington area. And he helped launch that with one of our English journalism teachers, Mr Ambrosio, and he just asked me to come and help out one night.
Speaker 2:And you're a high school kid, you want to be involved with your friends, you don't want to get left out of stuff. So I figured, why not? Why shouldn't I go help out with this live stream of the Harborfields basketball game? And they needed an announcer that night. It just so happened to be. It wasn't something I was looking to do, it wasn't something that had really crossed my mind, but I called that Harborfields game by chance. On this live video streaming program. It was just going out to the internet. It was called High School Cube at the time. I think that's now called NFHS Network, but it was High School Cube as it started and something clicked in that moment. It was that aha of wow. I've been watching all these Yankee games Nick games, jet games, any game and I have just as much interest in the announcers and what they're saying as the game itself. And that realization led to everything else I've done since then. At that moment I figured, okay, if I really want to do this, let me put everything I have into doing this and getting better at it and learning about it.
Speaker 2:I went to a camp after my freshman year of high school at Chaminade, kind of down the road on Long Island, and the guy who ran it, a guy named Pat Reichart, went to Fordham. He's a Fordham alumnus, so he introduced me to Fordham and WFUV, the radio station, everything that had to do with Fordham. So the realization of I want to do broadcasting in high school and meeting Mr Reichart and knowing I wanted to go to Fordham made me very tunnel vision, like this is how I'm going to do it. And then I went to Fordham, just applied myself as much as I can and got the reps and got better and tried to improve on the air. But really, really, what led to everything now is the internship at WFAN after my freshman year at Fordham the talk shows that came from that and working at Siena and Hudson Valley in the backdrop of doing stuff at FAN. I think the internship was sort of the by skipping a lot of steps in the story the internship was the launching pad for everything else, if you will.
Speaker 1:So you get the internship at FAN. Obviously, that leads to you doing some things with the atlantic 10, uh, things of that nature. Um, how did you get the cn and capital region? As you know, we're pretty passionate about our saints here in the uh capital region, so you get the sienna gig in like the fall of 21. How does that come about?
Speaker 2:yeah. So I saw a job listing that that Sienna had an opening for basketball home road men's basketball broadcaster but also women's TV, and I saw a bunch of other sports and I'm like what a great opportunity. You're not only doing a full season of basketball, you're doing radio and TV, but you have the opportunity to do all these different sports. What a great chance for a young broadcaster. That fit the profile of what I was looking for. But I had no connection to Siena. I just thought, okay, how could I go for this and position myself best for a job when, frankly, in the Northeast region you don't have a lot of similar opportunities? You have a lot of schools but a lot of them freelance it together for their fall and spring sports. Or you have a bigger school like a, like a St John's for instance, where they've had a voice and John Minko on Learfield for for years. So those jobs just don't come around very often in this region or in this Northeast region. So I thought, okay, how could I best position myself? And since I was at FAN, things sort of tying together. It's neat in this way.
Speaker 2:Bob Huesler, who was a longtime update anchor at the fan, is the voice of Fairfield and I mentioned it to him and said, hey, I put in for the Siena job, anything you would know about Siena, having worked in the MAC. And he said, oh yeah, like I know there, I know their sports information director, I know some people there. Let me call on your behalf. So between that and I had a couple other references call. But it was really Bob, who I just mentioned to him in passing, and he went out of his way to be nice, like I by no means asked him to put in a word, but he had listened to some of my work and coached me on some of my basketball tapes over my Fordham years and he was nice enough to to believe in me at the time and I think that's what got me the interview and then the interview ultimately got me the job All right?
Speaker 1:So you're doing Siena basketball, then you're also working at the fan and you we should point out, you don't live here in the capital region, you still live on the island, correct? So you're? You're doing the, you're doing the commute, you're up and back and you're sleeping where you could, you know, sleep in hotels and friends and and and media members and things of that nature um, and you're still doing updates on on the fan in new york, right? Still doing updates.
Speaker 2:Still doing fan in New York right. Still doing updates, still doing shows yeah.
Speaker 1:So tell me how the Yankee gig evolves, not even you being the radio guy, but just even getting sort of involved in the broadcast to begin with.
Speaker 2:Right and getting involved with the broadcast to begin with. None of this happens with actually announcing games and doing play-by-play without getting a foot in, if you will, with the Yankees in the first place. So the way that all comes about is the basis, and the reason I called it a launching pad earlier was I was internal at the fan. I had interned, I'd worked behind the scenes, I had done on-air stuff for a few years and then once I sort of got my chops and was starting to grow as an on-air talent there I think doing the Siena stuff on the outside and working for the Hudson Valley Renegades in minor league baseball, it still kept me in mind as a play-by-play guy and the talk shows maybe had my bosses looking at me as versatile and I would never say no to any opportunity at a place like WFAN. But I ultimately wanted to do play-by-play and I wouldn't say that because any opportunity there, a place like WFAN. But I ultimately wanted to do play-by-play and I wouldn't say that because any opportunity there was great. But they saw me doing Hudson Valley and Siena and sort of honing my craft and getting better at it. So when different play-by-play openings would come about within the FAN and Odyssey family, because there are multiple stations there in New York. They would put my name in the mix for it. So it wouldn't necessarily mean I would get the job, but my name was being talked about in that light and that's what being internal helped with.
Speaker 2:During that search and then ultimately, going into 2023, I didn't even know if I was going to go back to Hudson Valley because the position had really changed, where I had to be in the office around nine in the morning each game day, and the only reason I could do it in 2022, in addition to the fan was because I had the flexibility of, hey, let's show up a few hours before the game, do the game, then maybe drive back to the city and do an overnight show, like that's how crazy my 2022 summer was, but it was so much fun 2023, I probably couldn't have done the same thing.
Speaker 2:So I was wondering for a few months there, like what's my baseball situation looking like? And in 23, I was wondering that internally. But just timing and luck, the pre and post opportunity opens at FAN for the Yankees and Justin ended up doing a lot of them last year. He was on TV a bunch doing yes, so I would do a ton of those post-game shows that led to end of the year John and Susan both take off, justin and I work a series together and that put us both in the mix for doing fill-ins this year, and then John retired about a week and a half into this year. So this year plus span a lot of moving parts, but getting in the door from being an internal left-hand guy going into 2023 is the only reason I'm here today doing regular Yankee play by play.
Speaker 1:All right, so, and I'm sharing it. You've probably seen some of the screens here. I'm sharing some of the, some of your pictures. You know, some of your, your stuff. There you are with your, your partner there, um, justin Shackle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I appreciate you being prepared with these pictures. It is awesome yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, hey, I'm an old timer, though you know what I'm saying I've been known. I've been known, um, so that's you and and, uh, that's you and Justin. So he was also a Fordham grad, much like you. All right, so let's go back. You get the call in like September of 2023. I think Susan had Russia, shana, right, so she was off that weekend.
Speaker 1:John took the weekend off. It was, I guess, a trip to Pittsburgh. They call you in, right, much like getting called up to the majors, and they say you're going to Pittsburgh and you're doing play by play. Did you have to change your diaper at that point, Emmanuel?
Speaker 2:I mean seriously.
Speaker 2:I got to say. I got to say, brian, I appreciate you framing it that way because it takes me back not that long ago, but it takes me back to that moment. And while a lot of the stuff I've gotten to this year is surreal and it's been a blast, I don't take any of it for granted. A lot of it has been. When John retired a week and a half into the year it was just like wham, bam, let's go. And then I've just been trying to do the best job I can the rest of the year.
Speaker 2:But last year was different, where I hadn't done a big league game before play-by-play. I had a few weeks to prepare for it and think about it and really digest it and it was definitely a magical moment where I just got him back from visiting one of my friends in Charlotte. He lives in Charlotte and I had the weekend off and we just had a fun weekend in Charlotte and we were hanging out. And I came back and that week I was just supposed to catch up with one of my bosses at FAN. I had no idea this was on the radar. It was just supposed to be a general like how you doing, how's the season going type of thing I go into the office it's not just him, but it's my other direct boss at FAN, sitting there together.
Speaker 1:You're like am I handing in the keys? Is this it?
Speaker 2:I'm like what's going on here? They're never in the same place at the same time Do I have on here? They're never in the same place at the same time. Do I have a box to clean out my desk? Yeah, exactly, exactly. So they asked me had I ever been to pittsburgh? And that's when I knew something was going on and I said, oh, I've been there once.
Speaker 2:A fordham women's basketball game. Back in 2019, the women's basketball team won the a10s and and uh, we talked for a couple minutes and beat around the bush, if you will, for a few minutes, but then they broke it to me that John and Susan were both off and they thought it was a great opportunity for me to do my first three major league games. And they also told me how supportive Susan was of me getting the opportunity to do it, which, leaving the room, that made me feel so much better about the opportunity, because there's a certain element of wow, I handle this, can I? Uh, am I truly? Is this truly my time to to break into the big leagues? But, uh, knowing that john and susan were so supportive and wanted that for me, um, it was really between my bosses being so supportive and knowing I was working with justin and knowing I had the support of john and susan. Yeah, those next couple of weeks getting ready for it but also keeping everything in perspective was was really special.
Speaker 1:And obviously here is a picture of of Justin and Susan there, obviously that you know this is them doing a game together let's talk about. So this season, you know John retires, you know, as you said, about two weeks or so into the season. At that point, did you know, or did you like, how did you find out this was going to be more of a quote-unquote permanent thing in terms of you really having a part of these broadcasts?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I sort of knew, because Justin and I were each supposed to do 25 games filling in for for john when he didn't travel this year. So I knew I had those games as as a baseline, but I didn't know when john retired like you never take this for granted, they could go in any direction, you know this is a legend retiring and and vacating that seat. So they could have done anything. They could have done any plan, they could have brought in anyone but the second. They started to give me and justin more games on the schedule when john retired and I think they scheduled initially through memorial day and there were a ton of games for me and justin to split and then, once memorial day came around, they scheduled more. And then they scheduled more and and ricky ricardo has done a few games, our spanish language announcer and and brendan burke, the islanders announcer, has done a couple as well, but it's mostly outside of that.
Speaker 2:Justin and I have tag-teamed it and gone back and forth, back and forth. So once they continued using us, that was sort of the indicator that I would have more of a heavy load. But I was ready for anything. It could have been the baseline of 25 that I was scheduled for going into the year. It could have been the baseline of 25 that I was scheduled for going into the year. It could have been 40. It could have been 35. It could have been 50. It could have been 80. It was just a matter of take what you're given and they started to show a lot of faith in us, initially just by handing us those original games, and I think that's when I started to know. But the rest has been touch and go. It's sort of been month by month this year.
Speaker 1:All right, Emmanuel, you grew up in Long Island. Were you a Yankee fan growing up? Yeah, which?
Speaker 2:makes this extra cool.
Speaker 1:All right. So you're a Yankee fan growing up. You're 25 years old. You're one of the radio voices for the New York Yankees.
Speaker 2:Pause for a minute and think about that and then tell me what that means to you. Yeah, it's a great question. I reflect on it a lot. It means everything. Honestly, it's everything I wanted when I decided this is something I wanted to do.
Speaker 2:You set lofty kind of unachievable goals. When you think about it, because the odds are just so slim, people will tell you dream big or nothing's impossible, but the reality is it's probably not going to happen. Like, the odds are just not in your favor. It's a very big world. A lot of people want to do this. A lot of people are really good at it.
Speaker 2:That's never lost on me either.
Speaker 2:There are people who could do it almost as good, as good or better than me probably out there, and I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.
Speaker 2:Now I'm not taking anything away from my ability to do this, but like you have to believe in yourself to be able to do this, but you don't, you should never be naive enough to think there isn't somebody else who can. So it means everything that they took a shot on me and they've continued to show faith in me throughout the season and when I set those lofty kind of unachievable goals, this was right there at the top and I thought, wow, if I could call Yankee baseball at some point, I could be 40 years old, 50 years old, 60 years old. It would be a dream come true. So the fact that I could do it now, however long it lasts, the fact that I could do it now is really, really surreal and means everything, because it's all I ever dreamt of doing in this business. And now I could always say, regardless of where it leads, I could always say, hey, I did call, I did call Yankee baseball, and I could always look back on this season very fondly.
Speaker 1:Have you? Have you interacted much with the team? Team like, how does that sort of work from your perspective?
Speaker 2:obviously you're traveling with them and and and things of that nature, so explain how that has worked for you yeah, I think one of the things when you are, when you are broadcasting regularly, you you get more access to the team. Now, if you're covering the team here and there, it's it's tougher. Or if you're just in the clubhouse for home games, it's tougher. But when you're on the team charter and you're flying with them to different cities, it's not like you have mega access where you're just talking to the team right every second of the day. It's nothing like that. But the players know who you are, you're identifiable.
Speaker 2:The the coaching staff is going to give you way more time if you just want to talk shop with somebody because you're there. You're there on a day-in, day-out basis. You're, you sometimes are talking to the coaches about something nothing to do with baseball, just just life. Or or you walk back into the hotel and you bump into somebody as you're about to walk out of the elevator and you have a you know like they call an elevator pitch, uh but you have like that level of time to just like talk about whatever with them.
Speaker 2:So you develop and build relationships that way and I think that that helps, like I think every little bit helps, because then you see somebody in the hotel and then you see them in the dugout the same day, you're more likely to say hello to them. Say hello to them and it leads to a conversation, as opposed to if you're more of a foreign uh, foreign face or um, or somebody they're not, they're not used to interacting with on on a day-in, day-out basis or somebody, uh, they may not trust as much. So I think that's the biggest thing with with being with them and traveling with them is the ability to interact with people that otherwise you would have. Maybe once every two weeks you would talk to them, maybe that's five times in a week, and I think that helps every bit and I remember I go back to my days when I was about your age.
Speaker 1:I was working for the cbs affiliate in baltimore and I'm an oriole fan. You know I'm from the, the DC area Don't hold on that against me, emmanuel. So so I remember interviewing Orioles in the locker room in like the, you know, from like 94 to 97, 98 is kind of how long I did that and you know you'd have to pinch yourself a little bit here. I am talking to Cal Ripken and Mike Nusina and Brady Anderson, but I think and you know this as well as anybody you want to go oh my gosh, that's Aaron Judge. But then you're probably thinking well, this is my job, right? How hard is that to toe that line of being a 25-year-old super fan and this is my gig?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think Fordham and FUV. They're lucky enough where Bob Aarons, who is the legendary sports director there for years he set it up, where they had access to a lot of the local professional teams. They would train reporters to go there and cover the teams while they were in school, and I was fortunate enough to cover the Yankees in 2019 as a Fordham student and that taught me a lot about putting fandom aside and from day one it was just how do I be the most professional reporter I can be? How do I interact with other reporters? Well, how do I conduct myself around a player? How do I not overstep, if you will? So that really trained me well.
Speaker 2:But still, there are moments where you're like, wow, I'm walking on a plane and there's Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton sitting, sitting right next to each other and they're sharing a laugh, or juan soto is right behind them. So you don't, you can still feel it. I think it's okay to feel it, because if you don't, this is no longer cool to you and I think it should always be cool to you.
Speaker 2:So, um, the little fan in you should always, should always have a part of you, especially if you're a fan of that team. But balancing it and thinking, okay, I feel this, but I'm not going to show it or I'm not going to express it, because then all of a sudden they think you're, who is this fan, who's? Who's riding around with?
Speaker 1:us. Who got on our? Who got on our plane? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Who let him on?
Speaker 1:yeah, exactly so I think, feeling it is good, but balancing it and balancing those emotions, it's really important uh, all right, how do you because the baseball season is so long there, it's so intricate, there's so much going on how do you sort of prepare, uh, for each broadcast and and and this is a shot of your booth we see your score and your scorecard and obviously where the guys are in the outfield and some notes. So how long? Because there's games every night, how do you go about preparation?
Speaker 2:The prep definitely shortens if it's within a series or within a road trip, as opposed to leading into it and preparing a team from scratch. So you want to get familiar with everybody on a roster and the trend lines of a certain team and the storyline surrounding a team you're facing ahead of time. But once you're in it, like I don't think my preparation for that night's game is much more than what I'm doing at the ballpark each day, for that night's game is much more than what I'm doing at the ballpark each day. So yeah, I have a regimen of how I fill out my scorecard, what stats I need in there, maybe if there's a story we want to potentially tell about somebody who knows if you're going to fit it in. But you write down a couple of keywords on your scorebook so you can remind yourself hey, this is something we might want to dive into with this guy. But outside of that, that, once you have the fundamental preparation on a team, that day at the ballpark is more so okay, what is the player saying in the clubhouse? What is aaron boone saying about the team today? Because for a yankee fan, unless you're hitting them over the head with here's what happened back in may they don't really care anymore. It's about that night's game and they understand the trajectory of the season. And that's the difference between being, I think, a local broadcaster and a national one is you don't have to hit them over the head with the storyline of the season. They've lived it. So you can just tell them what's happening that night's game. Now for the other team it's a little bit different, because the Yankee fan may not know what the Marlins have done all year or who even is on the team, so you want to introduce that to them a little bit more as if you were doing a national game.
Speaker 2:So I think a lot of it is what you gather at the stadium, especially when you're in the swing of a series. But the rudimentary who's this player? Where is he from? What's a cool story about him? Should be done before a series, just because you want to at at a baseline if it's a 12-2 game in the fifth inning be able to tell you something about who this number five hitter on the Marlins is. That that nobody's heard of at this stage of the season in New York. Now other people have heard of them, but but this market hasn't, so I always get that done ahead of time, and then I just go day by day throughout the course of a series and adjust to that day. And what could be different?
Speaker 1:So I'm looking at this picture here what a great photo you took. I'm pinching myself, dude, looking at and I just called you dude I'm pinching myself looking at this and I'm not even a Yankee fan, that's just that. That manual. You need to take this picture, man, I'm serious and frame it because that is just such an awesome photo and it like you've made it man. You're like that's big time and I just look, I just admittedly we we connected on Facebook and things of that nature and I'm just sort of meeting you formally now but I'm telling you that is just you've made it, man, and that is an awesome photo and I think you should cherish the hell out of that thing.
Speaker 2:No, I appreciate that man More than you know. Like that photo reminded me of some of the work that you put in to to achieve a moment like that. Just the grand stage of yankee stadium in the backdrop and I'd done a series on the road at that point, but that was my first game at yankee stadium and everything is flowing through you like that's not only yankee stadium but you're doing a game for the yankees, you're in john sterling's seat, because that's actually john sterling's seat at the ballpark. So a lot hit me that day and I figured, okay, let's capture it best I can with with the prep and the backdrop. So, yeah, that's probably one. You're right about framing it. That's one that'll stick with me, you know, rest of my life what's it?
Speaker 1:uh, what's it like working with Susan? I mean, because she is just a baseball encyclopedia, isn't she?
Speaker 2:she, she really is. And I can't really be appreciative enough of, you know, starting the season when I was supposed to fill in on 25 games and and we did a couple spring training games together that was my first time doing nine innings with susan because last year we did a lot of post game together. But that's a five minute segment give or take and it's much different than interacting over the course of a full baseball game. So she couldn't have been more welcoming and made it. She could have made it easier on me in that moment to do the broadcast effectively and to work with her and be friendly. So for someone in her position who's been around as long as she has, and somebody as young as I am, for her to do that really meant the world and that's continued throughout the year really meant the world and that's continued throughout the year.
Speaker 2:And I think you learn as you go, like you learn what her different points are in the broadcast and how to handle certain moments in the game and certain points that she makes, whether I can add to it or I can't add to it. You learn these things as you go. And oh, did I maybe talk too much in that spot? Did I not talk enough in that spot? So you're always evaluating how your camaraderie and rapport is on a broadcast and I think that's something I'm always trying to get better at. But she's made it super easy on me and been a great mentor to where where, after certain stretches of gain, she'll give me a little nugget on hey, here's something you could think about, or or I like the way you did this, or maybe try to do this a little bit better. So hearing that from her carries so much weight because of who she is and what she's meant to the game and and how much she knows and how much she's heard. So, yeah, as a partner and a mentor like figure, yeah, susan's been everything.
Speaker 1:Talk a little bit, and I know you got to run here, what. What is a typical day for you consist of? Like I always see, I was like you, man. When I was a kid, I was like more enamored with the broadcasters and I was just as enamored with the broadcasters as I was with the athletes. So and and this is you and Justin, by the way, at a game, so like, when do you get to the park and how do you battle traffic? And I like that's the kind of stuff I love to hear, man, yeah.
Speaker 2:I try to pick the spots of the day, unsuccessful a lot, but I try to pick the spots of the day that have the least traffic. So after we hop off here I'm going to try to head to the stadium around 1230, give or take. Now you might hit some traffic, but not as much as you would hit at one or two. So I'm going to try to get to the stadium around two o'clock for for a seven o'clock game and then you have an hour of. It could be nothing, it could be just settling into the booth, it could be finishing up some prep that you might not have done that morning and getting everything set. Then three o'clock typically is clubhouse. Three to four, clubhouse availability and access with the players, and then four o'clock is boone and he'll speak in the press conference room. Then you could go to batting practice. You go to the opposing teams clubhouse. You could hear from the opposing teams manager.
Speaker 2:The rest is what you make of it. You could have a bite to eat for dinner. You go into the booth, you can polish off some preparation before we get on the air at 625 for a 705 game. So it's very regimented, but a lot of it is what you make of it. I try to get there at 2, 230 for a 7 o'clock game always and try to leave earlier so there's less traffic on the way in park, in the garage, and then the benefit and the perk of doing postgame is you're not battling postgame stadium traffic. Everyone's left already. So if you're leaving the stadium 45 minutes after the game has already ended, I'm flying home.
Speaker 1:I'm flying home to Long Island.
Speaker 2:Right right, I do enjoy that. People ask do you drive? Do you take the train? I love driving there because the way home is very peaceful and relaxing. I would no one on the road in my way. After a 40, 45 minute postgame show.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, Awesome. And then last question how about on the road? Are you on the like? How does that work? You're at the team hotel. Do you guys charter bus over? How does that work?
Speaker 2:We charter everywhere we go, unless it's a super local road trip. We charter everywhere we go and we bus from the charter to the team hotel and then from the team hotel. There are bus times every day to the ballpark there's an early bus, there's a players-only bus and there's a late bus. So there are three options, one of which I can never do the middle one, but the early or late I can get on. So, depending on when the clubhouse is each day, I'll pick which bus to the ballpark I'm going to be on and the rest is what you make of it. Sort of like a day at the stadium. You can walk around the town or the city that you're unfamiliar with In my case I'm familiar with because I'm experiencing a lot of these for the first time Walk around in the morning, you could do some prep, you could hang out in your hotel room there's a lot you can do, but it's always regimented around the bus times and, in the case of going to and from the city, the charter times where we're flying together.
Speaker 1:And are you? When you get off the hotel and got off the bus in the city, at the hotel are fans around. Are you guys mobbed? Yeah, that must be cool, right, traveling with the Beatles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, essentially Depending on the city, but a lot of times there's a gate right by the hotel. It's gated off and then there are a bunch of fans waiting behind that gate asking for autographs or waiting for a judge or a Soto or a Stanton or a Cole to walk out of the bus so they can yell their names as loud as they can and try to get some time with them. But that's pretty consistent every city we go, but some more than others. Like I remember Boston because Fenway Park has a very intricate setup. Where you're walking out of the third base side right to the bus, it was a mob. Not even at the hotel outside of the third base side, right to the bus, there were. It was a mob. Not even at the hotel outside of the ballpark a mob of fans waiting for for the players to try to grab them right before they get on the bus. That one stuck out to me the most awesome, awesome.
Speaker 1:And and did you call judges 300th? Right, I did last week. What was that like?
Speaker 2:that's my last question, yeah surreal Surreal is the word because you know it could come. But we had three days there where he was sitting on 299 and the count was 3-0. So I thought he was getting walked in that spot. So it had already been intentionally walked. Three pitches were pretty far outside the zone to judge. We know how much he's been walked, so I was surprised they threw it even close to the plate, or that he swung on the 3-0 pitch and he did. And the second he swung the ball flew off his bat and you knew this was it. So the jolt inside of you knowing that, hey, this is it. But I didn't really expect it in this moment. It was a pure adrenaline takeover, which you really wouldn't want it any other way, but it was pretty cool that it happened in that fashion.
Speaker 1:Do you know what you're going to say before you say it? Do you rehearse, like this happens here, or is a lot of it just natural, based on your training and experience?
Speaker 2:Good question. I try to keep a lot of it natural because I think whenever you plan it could come off as forced or it may not. You may. You're more likely to stumble because you have a line in mind. So I try not to plan it. But what I will always do is think ahead of time and if there is something I think it's worth a thought and exploring it and you always want even if you don't think of anything you want to keep or a key nugget like I don't, I didn't have a line in mind, but I had fastest ever in my in my mind because I knew that had to be part of the call, because 300 not saying it's not unique, because only 162 players have ever done it, but 300 isn't the same as 400 or 500 when we talk about the all-time greats, but 300, when you're the fastest ever do it, that has to be part of the call because that's what makes Aaron Judge so unique in this moment. So the call wasn't in mind, but fastest ever was in my mind awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, emmanuel, I want to thank you so much for joining me, especially here on game day. I really appreciate the time from everyone here in the capital region. You know, know you got fans here, you got a fan in me, and we wish you nothing but luck and success in the future.
Speaker 2:Really appreciate it, brian. It was great to chat, great to do this and great to meet you.
Speaker 1:And you know what, when you come up to Albany during the Siena season, lunch is on me. Oh, I appreciate that Seriously, it'll be on me though I, lunch is on me.
Speaker 2:Oh, I appreciate that. Seriously, it'll be on me, though. I'll try to. I'll try to fight that check away from you.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:I mean you're working for the Yankees.
Speaker 1:You're buying lunch, dude. All right, my man. Hey, good luck. Thanks again, and we really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Of course, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:That is Emmanuel Berbari. He is the Yankee play-by-play announcer on the radio side of things and the voice of Siena, and I want to thank everyone for watching. I want to thank you for joining me. Have a great day, everyone. Until next time, we'll see you.
