By SHARON GINN
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 1, 2001
It wasn't as if Joe Magrane didn't appreciate the opportunity. After all, if he wanted merely to call a game involving an unheralded group of players, he could have stayed home.
But Magrane admits that even after a few days of taking in Sydney's breathtaking views, it wasn't until the Opening Ceremony that he caught the so-called Olympic spirit. From there, it only got better -- and more unbelievable.
As major league baseball prepared for the World Series, Magrane, the Rays' TV analyst, was granted an Aussie spring break to call Olympic baseball for NBC. While the Rays struggled through a 10-game losing streak, he teamed with announcer Ted Robinson throughout the Games, wrapping up the fortnight with the United States' improbable and history-making 4-0 gold-medal victory over Cuba.
"It really was very similar to the 1980 hockey team beating (the Soviet Union)," Magrane said. "It just didn't have that amount of fanfare. They were such incredible underdogs. . . . Outside of the pitching staff, (the U.S. team) was kind of a ragtag bunch of guys, a lot of career minor-leaguers.
"It was neat just to be a part of something really great."
Historic, yes. But difficult? No way.
What's hard, he said, are those games where the Rays fall way behind in the first inning, and "you're left picking up the pieces for the rest of the way. But that (the gold-medal game) was the kind of game that did itself. It required no work, it just happened. I tried not to get in the way of it or trip and fall in the midst of it."
His first Olympics experience did change his approach, he said. Magrane, the former Cardinals pitcher, spent only a year with ESPN before joining the Rays in 1998 for their inaugural season. He said calling the Olympics, where much of the viewership is female, is by necessity different from calling major league baseball.
"(NBC) found it very important not to get into a nuts-and-bolts analysis of a baseball game," he said. "They were more into storytelling -- those types of things that people can relate to and identify with -- as opposed to saying there's a hanging breaking ball on the outside corner.
"Did it change me? Yeah. It taught me to be more conscious of those types of things. The pace of the game really lends itself to stories."
The hardest thing, he said, was remaining unbiased. Though NBC has been accused of jingoistic Olympic coverage, Magrane said the network instructs its announcers to cover all sides.
"They told us they didn't want it to be pro-USA, and to give it in a balanced way, but there was a side of myself that was doing backflips and going, 'Yeah!' " Magrane said.
He hasn't had much to cheer about during three years with the Rays, but Magrane said he expects that to change soon. Now that some of the young talents are working their way up through the organization, he said, "you're going to see the Rays reload and restock with some of these players each year from now on.
"Rays fans that waited patiently through some ineptitude -- 'Where are all these great players? When are they going to get here?' -- they're starting to get here now. This year I definitely believe will be an up tick, and it's going to continue to get better from here."
OREL ORATES: Always one to generously share his thoughts as a player, former Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser will put those skills to use in the booth. Hershiser, who retired in July after 18 years in the majors, will provide analysis for ESPN and ESPN2's Wednesday Night Baseball series this season. He'll also work the Atlanta at Cincinnati game on opening day.
FAMILY NIGHT: For the first time, the Fox Family Channel will broadcast a game every Thursday night at 7, beginning April 5 with Boston at Baltimore. The network will debut "Fam Cam," a wireless camera that will accompany a roving reporter in search of fan comments. Kenny Albert and Josh Lewin will do play by play; Steve Lyons and Kevin Kennedy will serve as analysts. The Devil Rays are not on this year's 26-game schedule.