Last night, I was able to listen to both former Red Sox announcer Jerry Trupiano and one of his replacements, Glenn “3 x 5” Geffner. Thanks to Sirius Satellite Radio, I was able to listen to the College World Series from Westwood One’s NCAA Radio Network. Kevin Kugler and Trup were on the call. For about half an hour, the Oregon State-North Carolina broadcast overlapped with the Red Sox-Padres game on WEEI-FM. The College World Series game was in the 7th inning and the Red Sox-Padres game broadcast was just starting with Goofner and Joe Castiglione at the mike.
Trup was doing color and doing his usual corny jokes, but it was like listening to old friend. Trup was comfortable behind the mike. He was able to pick up certain nuances like pitcher’s arm slots (comes with experience). And it appeared that he meshed well with Kugler who usually works for 1620 The Zone in Omaha.
In the first two innings of the Red Sox-Padres game, Geffner was able to bring some insight into the trading of Doug Mirabelli from the Padres to the Red Sox last season. Instead of reading off 3 x 5 notecards (hence the nickname, “3 x5”), Goof actually sounded authoritative, something he had been lacking all season. But to this blogger, Joe Castiglione went on with his call of the game, not really responding to Geffner (lack of respect perhaps?).
Back to the College World Series, Trup was looking into the possibility of a North Carolina comeback. Down 10-3, the Tar Heels got a home run in the 8th inning and had two men on. Trup said the last thing North Carolina needed was a double play and the next pitch was indeed a 5-4-3 twin killing. Kugler and Trup said for all intents and purposes, the night was done for UNC. Both looked forward for Game 2 and discussed what the Tar Heels had to do to remain in the series. And their chemistry made it sound as if they had been working together for several years. In fact, I enjoyed Kugler and I think he has a potential to make it to the bigs someday.
Over to the Red Sox and the 3rd inning, it seemed Joe decided to take it off and let Geffner do the inning solo. This is where any goodwill that I had for Goof left the building. His play-by-play was weak. He was not strong and did not identify pitches. In fact, he was behind several plays. This is where I could see San Diego Padres lead announcer Jerry Coleman not having any respect for him.
By the time I switched back to the College WS, the game was over, but Westwood One was replaying highlights. One was Trup’s call of a Oregon State rally. There were no home runs so I could not hear, “Way back! Way back!”, but maybe tonight. If you don’t have Sirius Satellite Radio or have a radio station near you that carries the CWS, you can listen to live streaming from NCAA Sports.com, so you can listen to Trup once again.
I finally decided to turn on NESN to get a quality call of the game rather than subject myself to listening to the Goof. While the game turned out to be a downer, at least I could enjoy Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy without having to worry whether I would hear information read off a 3 x 5 notecard.
