Mike McCann: Vin Scully 2.0

All Things Baseball

            Roger Hornsby could have summed up my interviewee’s life with one quote: “People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball.  I'll tell you what I do.  I stare out the window and wait for spring.” The man staring me down with his orange (Syracuse themed) polo shirt tucked into his khaki shorts, was more than ready for the interview that I was going to conduct. Mike McCann, a 22-year old Broadcast Digital Journalism graduate student from a small town outside of Detroit, answered every single question flawlessly.

Right off the bat Mike talked about his first experience with sports. The first sport he played was soccer. He hated it because of the fruit that was given out during games. He despised oranges. Mike was meant to be the poster boy for sunflower seeds and Big League chew. He quickly learned America’s passed time was his time. He adored baseball and every single aspect of the game. Mike wanted to let me know, “from the time I could walk I had Tigers gear on. It has been a love affair ever since.”

Mike just finished his last year of competitive baseball, playing at a Division III school. I wanted to throw him a changeup. I asked him what his worst memory was playing in college. His answer seemed as if it was straight out of a movie. He told me that he was given the bunt sign in the last inning of a very important game. He just went three for four prior to that at bat. He ended up bunting into a double play to end the game. He redeemed himself by going four for four the next day.

Lastly, Mike told me his lifelong goal and where he sees himself in ten years. Mike says he hopes to be an announcer for a Major League baseball team. Coincidentally throughout the whole interview, I kept picturing his face plastered on the Baseball Tonight Show ready to give out the box scores for the night. 

The Interview

Max: Where are you from Mike?

Mike: From just outside Detroit Michigan. It is called Northville, about twenty miles West.

Max: Have you always lived there?

Mike: I have never moved. I have always lived there since I was born, until now.

Max: Do you miss it?

Mike: Yes and no. I miss the people. As far as the city goes it is a pretty average town. But, I do miss the area at times.

Max: What was the first sport you played?

Mike: The first sport I ever played was baseball and then I played soccer as well. But, I didn’t like oranges. So, keeping up with soccer was tough when you couldn’t eat the food the parents brought to the game. Baseball since I was four or five with T-ball. Played till last year, my Senior year of college.

Max: Isn’t that weird that you are going to Syracuse, where it is the Orangemen?

Mike: I found it a little ironic, yeah.  I sense now. I eat them now. I was a picky little eater when I was young. I wanted grapes, and I didn’t get grapes.

Max: I am guessing you favorite team is the Detroit Tigers?

Mike: The Detroit Tigers is correct. From the time I could walk I had Tigers gear on. It has been a love affair ever since.

Max: It probably was tough for your first fourteen years being a Detroit Tigers fan, and now they are great again.

Mike: I was young so it was different in a sense that it was important for me that they would win when I was there. I don’t think watching them on TV it was as much as a priority. You have other priorities. When you are young you want to be outside with your friends. As you get older you pay more attention. It has been good that they have been competitive for the last 7 or 8 years they have been competitive. It has been a joy to watch.

Max: What was your favorite memory?

Mike: The 2006 American League Championship series. Magglio Ordonez hit a homerun that sent them to the World Series. I remember being grounded for reasons unspecified. I remember watching it in my living with my whole family. It was a surreal moment when your team is going to this pinnacle, the World Series.

Max: Was your dad a baseball player?

Mike: He wasn’t. He played a little bit when he was younger. He was a big hockey player. He played in college. I think it was easier for me to fall in love with baseball, because he didn’t put any pressure on me to play anything. I played hockey growing up and I remember having to tell him that I  wanted to stop and play basketball. He said it was fine. From then on it in, it sort of became whatever I wanted to do was good. I wanted to play baseball. I have had the same group of friends because of baseball. Everything that baseball has done for me, it is the reason I have gotten into college and the reason that I am here.

Max: What was your worst memory playing in college?

Mike: My worst memory was a very vivid game playing against Alvet College, and we were down a run in the seventh inning. We play seven innings in college. Not nine like the pros. There was a runner on first base and I was up, and I was three for four and I had the bunt sign. I was not happy about it. I did not want to bunt I wanted to hit. I think I took that with me and I bunted into a double play and we lost the game. It was tough. But, I turned it around and went four for four the next game.  So, we won that won. And we won the last two. It was one of those things that stick with you. You want to be the teammate that gets the job done. And I didn’t get the job done that time.

Max: Would you ever one want to be a coach?

Mike: I don’t think I have the patients for it. It is an honorable profession and there is a lot to do within it. But, for me I am too inpatient. I don’t think I could do it.

Max: Lastly, because you came to Syracuse you want to be in sports. Who is your favorite sports announcer?

Mike: I grew up listening to Ernie Hardwell. He was the voice of the Tigers from the time that I was born till I was twelve or thirteen. Another thing that I think stemmed from my dad and his love of Ernie Hardwell. I just picked it right up. The way he was revered by sports fans and the community. The way he carried himself made a tremendous impact on me.

Max: Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Mike: I see myself calling baseball games somewhere. I am not sure where. I say for a Major League team. That is ambitious. But, you got to be ambitious.