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SALT LAKE CITY — There's something about a daytime baseball game and a ballpark packed with kids.
For Salt Lake Bee's radio broadcaster Steve Klauke, games like this one keep him feeling young.
"Here I am again, a 61-year old rookie,” said Klauke with a laugh. “Over 12,000 fifth- and sixth-graders were on hand for Wednesday's game, the 14th annual Prevention Dimension Kids Day game."
After 3,000-plus games behind the microphone, you'd think there was no way Klauke would ever feel like a rookie again.
However, when he received a phone call last week that he never expected, those first-game butterflies came back.
"I think anxious is better because I want to make sure I do a good job,” he said.
It's OK to be anxious when the Los Angeles Angels call asking you to be their radio play-by-play announcer for three games against the Seattle Mariners starting Friday.
Of course, Klauke said yes.
"It's pretty exciting,” Klauke said. “My hours of sleep have cut back drastically over the last week or so."
Klauke knows the Angels could have asked anyone.
In the nation’s second largest media market, there are most likely plenty of former radio broadcasters and ex-major leaguers who would love to fill in; however, when the regular radio broadcaster needed a few days for a family commitment, the big league club stayed loyal to its organization.
"I think a third of my Twitter followers are Angels fans in Southern California because they want to know what's going on with the Triple-A club,” Klauke said. "When the Angels put it out on Twitter, my phone, I think my battery wore out in a half hour because I was getting messages from people I know all over the country."
It's not often the radio guy gets a call up to the bigs. Klauke called a few innings for the Toronto Blue Jays back in 2004 and did a spring training game with the Angels, but never a regular season game as the main guy.
"Fortunately, I've had a pretty good relationship with the Angels broadcast team,” he said.
It's still the same game, balls are balls and strikes are strikes, it’s just… different.
“It’ll be a lot of fun, and now I just hope to live up to everybody's expectations," he said.
Klauke with be back with the Bees Monday night in Colorado Springs, most likely feeling like a kid again.
