Sportscaster Bob Carpenter: Will there be a baseball season?

Longtime Tulsa sports announcer, and Washington Nationals play-by-play voice, Bob Carpenter, is spending a lot of time at home this spring doing yard work and playing cards.

I interviewed Carpenter, now in his 15th season with the Nationals, and he said he enjoyed the team’s run to their World Series Championship, however, working for MASN, a regional sports network, meant they only had the rights to broadcast regular season games, while the major networks broadcast the post season.

“I did serve as a host and reporter for the studio shows we did during the post season, right through game seven of the World Series,” Carpenter said. “That was fun to be around the ballpark, to be in the clubhouse after the games, be around the guys and all that, and to see them complete their journey which was a very long one last year. The first 50 games of the season didn’t go well at all. The Nationals won 19 and lost 31 of those first 50 games, so they had to have a major turnaround.”

The Nationals ended up winning 93 games and made the playoffs.

“Then they won the wild card game, they upset the heavily favored Dodgers in the Division Series, swept the Cardinals, and then of course, I think everyone thought the Astros were going to beat the Nationals in the World Series,” Carpenter said. “Based on everything that has come out about Houston, since that time, I’d say for the sake of baseball, it’s a darn good thing the Nationals won that series.”

Carpenter admitted MLB is going to have to do something different this year, in order to play a season.

“I’ve had people in D.C. tell me that there will be no large gatherings of people in the District of Columbia until December,” he said. “Obviously, that’s after the baseball season, even if it’s delayed. In fact, my wife brought this up, and it was an ah-hah moment for me – if you’re not allowing fans into the ballpark, why play in these big mega-stadiums where you still have to run the scoreboard, you still have to turn on the lights, you have all this infrastructure you have to pay for on a per game basis? If you’re not going to have fans, you might as well play those games in minor league caliber or Spring Training caliber ballparks; all of which are a whole lot nicer than they used to be.

“First, we heard all 30 teams might go to the Phoenix area, where all the ballparks are within 50 miles of each other,” Carpenter said. “Then we heard, the Arizona Spring Training teams would be there, the Florida teams would go to Florida, although those are a lot more spread out. I kind of have in my mind that I’ll be spending a couple months in Florida when we get this thing going again. How many changes of clothes do I take? Am I’m going to be staying in a hotel the whole time? Is the team going to arrange apartments for us? I may be getting ready to rack up some serious hotel points in Florida this summer.

Without baseball, Carpenter is finding other ways to spend his time at home.

“This is the first time since 2005, my last year with the Cardinals, that I’ve been in Oklahoma to see the Bermuda grass turn green,” he said. “I’ve spent a lot of time out in the yard, and my yard looks like Cedar Ridge Country Club right now. I’m 67 years old, this was going to be my 37th year as a Major League Baseball announcer, and I don’t know when that’s going to come to an end, but this has given me a little preview of what retirement might be like. It’s not the worst thing in the world. I mean, I miss baseball, I miss working, I miss being around the crew and being around the team, and all that, but I’m not one of those people that’s sitting at home going crazy.

“My wife, Debbie, and I have enough stuff to keep us busy,” he said. “We have played a lot of cards at night, and different games. My advice is, if you ever want to win at cards against your spouse, don’t marry somebody who grew up in Las Vegas. She absolutely destroys me no matter what card game we play. I don’t know what it is, but it’s hilarious. I’m doing yoga to keep things going, and I’ve had limited chances to get out and play golf. It hasn’t been the greatest thing in the world, but it’s not something we’re sitting around crying about. We’re trying to make the most of it, and the bottom line for Debbie and me is we’ve been married 40 years, and we’re spending more time together in March and April than we have in a long, long time.”

Carpenter said he realizes this shutdown effects hundreds of stadium workers, as well.

“A lot of them are older people who really depend on that income and I feel for them,” he said. “There are vendors, people who work behind the concession stands, ushers, security people, the wonderful ladies who work up in the media dinning room who we all know personally and have struck up personal relationships, people running the elevators; all over the ballpark, there are hundreds of people that are employed when the team’s home to play those 81 games. Plus, the fact that team sports bring a community together as much as anything out there, and hopefully from that aspect we’ll get teams back on the field soon, so that cities and states can rally around their teams.”

To hear the entire two-part interview, go to www.jeffbrucculeri.com and click on the “Podcast” page.