Sherman's Road to the Regional: Part 1

Jesse Sherman

This is Part one of a three-part series following one of the lead broadcasters for Cornell Big Red baseball.

Hopping aboard my 12:55 PM flight from New York JFK en route to the Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, I had no idea what to expect. During the Spring semester, I had the pleasure of broadcasting a few home games for the Cornell Big Red baseball team on our home turf at Hoy Filed. I even got to be in the press box when right fielder Chris Cruz launched a walk-off home run in the 11th inning to clinch the Ivy League Championship Series for the Red, sending us to the NCAA regionals. But I felt like I was entering a new world while walking onto that flight.

Just a few days prior, I was sitting at home on Long Island, New York watching the selection show that revealed that the Cornell Big Red, making its first NCAA appearance since 1977, would be traveling to the Chapel Hill regional to face off against the nation’s sixth ranked team, the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At that moment, it hit me: not only was our baseball team about to have the opportunity of a lifetime to showcase their skills at a world-class facility in North Carolina, but so did the Cornell At Bat broadcast team that I was so lucky to be a member of. The plans were finalized, and upon arriving at the hotel in Raleigh North Carolina, the awe factor had to be set aside and it was time to get down to business.


Having two days to prepare for the Big Red’s showdown with the Tar Heels, my colleague Alex Gimenez and I poured over an immense amount of statistics, interviews, and matchup previews that required hours of focus to comprehend and consolidate into an understandable story for the broadcast. Despite the amount of time it may take to review all of the materials available to us, it is necessary to know as much information about the teams and players as possible because that is the only way to deliver an effective and interesting broadcast for our listeners. Perhaps what helped us most, however, was the hour and a half batting and fielding practice that the Big Red took at North Carolina’s Boshamer Stadium just one day before the big game.

After traveling on the bus with the team and watching them interact in the hotel and on the field, it was quite clear that this team epitomized a ball club with top-notch camaraderie. There was no fear in the eyes of anyone on this team, which, despite having to face one of the country’s top teams, had tied a school record with 31 wins and was confident about its chances in the regional.

The first minute of batting practice consisted of the wide-eyed Cornell team and staff admiring the impressive facilities of Boshamer Stadium, but from there it was business as usual. Batting practice and fielding practice commenced and it was clear that the team knew that they belonged here, as player after player launched balls into the gaps and into the trees that sat beyond the outfield walls of the beautiful ballpark.

Meanwhile, I, along with the rest of the Cornell athletic staff, was taken on a tour of the stadium that got us accustomed to our surroundings for the weekend. The tour included a visit the UNC baseball Hall of Fame, a stroll through the clubhouses, batting cages, weight rooms, and, most importantly for our purposes, a view from the press-box and radio booths that we would have access to throughout the weekend.

Batting practice ended and we knew that the next time we would return to the stadium would be the next day just hours before it was time for the players to take the field and for us to broadcast live from the NCAA regional. In the mean time, we went back to the hotel to finish up our preparation and to get ready for a team dinner that was only fitting for this Cornell team. Everyone with the team for the weekend, including players, parents, coaches, staff, and alumni, gathered and enjoyed a huge Italian family-style dinner, which I found to be appropriate style for this group of people that embraced each other as family. We were in it together, and the team knew that they would not be in the position they were in without all of the people around them picking each other up along the way.

The Friday afternoon game was drawing near, and after what felt like the longest two days of waiting for game time, the scheduled start time (to the delight of most everyone) was moved to earlier in the afternoon because of expected rain storms later in the day. Taking a seat behind the microphone in the booth that gave us a bird’s eye view of the game right behind home plate in the second deck, an adrenaline rush kicked in for the Cornell At Bat broadcast team.

Friday June 1st, 2012, 2:45 PM: it was time to go on-air.

Check out Part 2 of this adventure next week!