photo: Larry Larson (Northwest Quarterly)
Manager of Media Relations and Play by Play Broadcaster of the High-A Peoria Chiefs Larry Larson gives TCN’s Steffen White a look inside his varied assignments, both public-facing and behind the scenes.
For this Q-and-A session, I was lucky enough to be joined by Larry Larson, Manager of Media Relations and Play by Play Broadcaster of the High-A Peoria Chiefs.
If you’ve tuned in to a Chiefs game this year, you’ve heard Larry’s voice. He has also helped me tremendously as I’ve navigated covering a professional team live for the first time. Larry shared a lot of great material, and I think you will all really enjoy this interview.
Q: Was there a specific moment when you realized this could become a career?
A: I think there are a lot of moments where it’s felt like it might go back to being a hobby rather than a full-time career over the last few years, which I think everybody’s kind of had some crossroads moments for sure. I don’t know if I can point to a specific moment. Just doing it, you know, all through college, I knew this was kind of what I wanted to do. I also knew that it was super competitive to be able to do it long term, so I just did everything I could to make sure that it was even a remote possibility. I would say probably when I got my first job out of school, with the Sky Carp in the league up in Beloit, that was interesting because it wasn’t like a traditional process to get that job. But when I got it, it was a sense of relief, but also a feeling of, ‘OK, I guess I’m okay at this’, and here we are still plugging away.
Q: Was it always baseball for you?
A: Baseball’s always been my favorite for sure. I fell in love with the broadcasting side of it, just listening to Cubs games and White Sox games. Growing up, that’s how I got hooked on it, just because the broadcasters for those teams, that almost felt like they were so closely associated. with the teams and with the fans, and that connection was so strong, I think it set a good example of what broadcasting at its best should be. So, baseball sucked me in first and then the other sports kind of came along.
Q: Walk me through your preparation for a typical game.
A: Tuesday is definitely the most intensive day, especially this time of year. I try to take Monday to just be like, okay, I’m not going to do much. I’ll do a little prep on Monday.
Sometimes I’ll try and get a head start, but Tuesdays are the day where I really slam into it, pour heavy into the other team. I try to come up with obvious statistical notes, but also a few personal notes for each player. You’re not going to find them on every player and that kind of is what it is. That takes a few hours for the other team, and then throughout the week I’ll prep on starting pitchers.
And with the Chiefs, obviously, being around them every day, it’s a little bit easier. So, the prep overlaps with the (media) Game Notes. Thankfully, it saves some time. And it’s gotten to the point where I’ve kind of tailored the Game Notes to what notes I want to find for my own prep. So, I’ll just include those in the Game Notes and then I have them for the rest of the day. Then after the game notes are done, I’ll do a lot of synthesizing of them. I’ll try and break the notes down into bullet points on my computer just to have them in a little bit more of a digestible format for when they come up on the broadcast.
And then I also do a fair amount of prep. This is something I’ve added this year. It is more baseball and headlines and things going on at the big-league level, things going on with the Cardinals, in the organization just because I think if you listen to a big-league game, that’s a big part of it is that’s how a lot of fans keep up with the game of baseball. You know, they’ll sit down and they’ll listen to their team’s broadcast that night. And they probably don’t have any other time to follow or sit down and watch MLB Network or listen to a podcast.
So, I think trying to keep the fans up to speed on what’s going on in baseball is another point of prep for me. It takes a while, but once you get into the routine of a season, it doesn’t feel like as much for sure.
Q: When prepping, how are you able to account for the frequent change that occurs with minor league rosters?
A: You just have to roll with the punches. I wish I could say I had time to do advanced scouting or prep on guys that are in Single-A, but nope, no real time for that. Before the season, I’ll come up with a list of guys that I think will be here and then prep on them.
But beyond that, once you get into the throes of the season, you really don’t have a lot of time for guesswork. So, once you hear, okay, a guy’s going to be on the roster. And do some prep on them as we go, and if that’s in the middle of the week, if that’s on a Sunday, if that’s on a Tuesday, it is what it is. So, yeah, I wish I could say I’m a little more prepared, but sometimes procrastination gets in the way.
Q: How have you been able to develop relationships with the players and coaches?
A: In minor league baseball, it’s a unique relationship because you’re with the team so often. You’re traveling with them, you’re around them during batting practice, you see them pretty much every day, all summer, and so really you just want to help them where you can, and if you help them enough, a lot of the time, coaches and players want to help you out.
So, that’s first and foremost, I try to get them the other team’s rotation, keep them updated on roster moves throughout the week. And even though that’s kind of bare bones stuff, it is definitely appreciated by them, I think. So trying to help them where I can, but then also just kind of being a friendly face and being a good conduit between the fans and the players is important because these guys are professional athletes.
Because we’re around them every day, we see them as people, but I think there’s a tendency in sports where athletes are kind of seen as these superhuman people and they’re just kind of normal guys. So, I think they appreciate it when you just treat them like normal guys and can have a conversation about just normal everyday stuff. You know, beyond just the, ‘Hey, you had a good game last night. What did you see on that home run?’
Don’t get me wrong; that stuff is important for the broadcast and for stories, but I think just treating these guys and respecting them as people is really how you get to work with these guys the best for sure.
Q: How do you balance describing the action with telling stories?
A: Ideally, if we have a good game, like we did last night, 2-0, the game went pretty quick. You really don’t have to use any of your extra bonus prep or anecdotes or whatever, and you can just talk about the game. Obviously, those are the best games.
One thing that I’ve adjusted my focus on broadcasting versus when I first started was I was thinking about, ‘Oh, I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to entertain, I’ve got to tell these stories’, but fans are tuned in to watch the game. They’re not tuned in for the broadcast realistically. So, the more you can focus on the game, the more you can deliver an entertaining call of the game, the better. So, if the game moves fast, then so be it.
If it’s a little bit slower and the game is less entertaining, that’s where all that really comes into play. I don’t know if this is the best term, but you have to carry the broadcast in terms of keeping people tuned in. But yeah, with the pitch timer, it has honestly been great. I’d much prefer 2 ½-hour games to three-hour games. It adds up on you for a long season. I mean, just kind of how it goes. but yeah, you get into a flow of it.
It’s interesting because it honestly depends a lot on the starting pitcher. If the starting pitcher is working super quick, you don’t have a lot of time to squeeze stuff in between pitches. But if it’s a little bit slower and a guy uses most of the clock, then you can be a little bit looser.
I try to tell at least a story or two every game, even if it’s just a very short and kind of snappy thing. Even during those close games. But yeah, I always try to focus on, ‘Hey, people are watching the game. They’re watching for their son, or their nephew or whatever, and they’re not really focused on hearing about what Joe Schmoe had for dinner.’
Q: What’s the hardest type of game to broadcast—a blowout, a rain delay, or something else?
A: I would say it’s getting to the point in the year where it does get harder just because we’ve had most of our roster this year. We’ve had some turnover here lately, for sure. But the hardest type of game to broadcast is when the team is playing poorly, and they start to play poorly again. And you kind of know where it’s going.
We unfortunately had another one of those games the other night, and granted, the team has played just a little bit up and down, a little less consistently winning than they have throughout the season here lately. But earlier this week where there were some errors, kind of kicking the ball around. You’re out of it early. The offense just doesn’t really have it. The other team’s starting pitchers are really good.
Those are really the hardest games to broadcast because I try not to be too critical. Again, it goes back to the human element of it. You want to be fair, in some criticism, and there are some games where it feels like you pile on, even if you’re just being honest. So those are the hardest games for me. It is, you know, those games where things are obviously going poorly, things are going bad, and they’re trying not to pile on.
I don’t mind a blowout because you can lean into some of that more blowout prep and have some fun with the game, especially if we’re winning. You can have more fun. If you’re losing, you have to toe that line a little bit more. But I would say it’s a bigger picture if you’re having a bad stretch and then you have a bad game, and that bad stretch, it’s like, “Oh, man, it’s tough.’
Q: Has a broadcast ever gone off the rails?
A: We haven’t really had one with the Chiefs yet. Knock on wood. We’ve had some memorable games this year for sure. I mean, last week in Beloit, we started the game at I think it was 8.45 p.m. after a rain delay. And then it went 12 innings. So, we played until 1230 in the morning. And, we were winning, going into the late innings, and then, we took the lead in the 11th inning, and then the tying run scored on a balk in the bottom of the 11th inning. So, it’s just kind of one of those deals where it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s next?’, one of those full moon type of games. That’s one that I’ll remember from this year.
There were a number of them from Beloit where it’s one of those games that we were talking about where the team was just playing horrifically over a long stretch and you blow a lead. It’s a miserable game. You give up 20 runs.
I’ve definitely had those, but you remember the more fun ones. in your mind more, like the game earlier this year where (Jalin) Flores had a walk-off homer, you know, came back from three runs down, three separate times, to beat Beloit.
Anytime you have a walk-off homer, those are memorable. One that always comes to mind for me is July 3rd, 2023. I was with Beloit, and Khalil Watson, who’s now with Cleveland in the big leagues, stole home against a right-handed pitcher to tie the game with two strikes in the bottom of the ninth inning. Not a good baseball decision, but it was an incredible play. And the crowd was going crazy. One of those moments you’ll probably never forget for sure.
Q: Have you ever broadcast a future star before they became a household name? What stood out, both on and off the field?
A: They’re all kind of similar, just in the sense of, I think those guys, it’s different for every guy specifically, but a lot of these guys are super routine-focused, routine-based, process-oriented guys, and they can come off as a little robotic in that sense, but it’s what makes them successful.
A guy like Rainiel Rodriguez, even though he’s only 19 years old, just watching him work and go about his business, he is kind of a quiet, level-headed guy. But the results speak for themselves.
The biggest name I’ve ever been around on one of my teams is Joey Votto. I was with the Dunedin Blue Jays in 2024, and that was when he was trying to come back with the Blue Jays, before he eventually retired. He didn’t make it all the way back, but he was with us for two or three weeks, and that was wild. Watching what he did for his routine every day. I mean, it was regimented, it was dialed in. It was at this time, this amount of flips, this amount of swings off the tee, and it’s super easy to tell why he was so good throughout his career.
But then seeing how he went out of his way to treat the players on that team, Single-A players, like his true teammates. Not like, he was just there rehabbing. He 18 years in the big leagues on these guys. That will always stand out to me, just seeing how he went out of his way to work with some of those guys. Definitely one of the coolest stretches I’ve seen in my career.
Q: What’s the best behind-the-scenes story from this season that fans probably don’t know?
A: I mean, there’s just so much that goes on throughout a season, let alone like in a homestand. You know, there are a lot of times where you feel like you’re part of the team as the broadcaster, and then there are moments where it’s like, yep, you’re definitely not part of the team.
When I was with the Blue Jays in 2024, we were in Daytona, and there was a tropical storm rolling into the other side of the state. Dunedin is by Tampa. So, we just had to drive across the state, and we had a 5:00 game scheduled. But based on the weather, there was no way we were going to get it in. So, we’re sitting around at the hotel. I’m in my room. It’s like 10 AM, and I text our video guy. ‘Hey. If you hear anything about the game, just let me know.’ He texts me right back. ‘Oh dude, sorry, the bus is already at the ballpark. Yeah, they banged the game.’
I’m at the hotel. ‘Are we going to go back to Tampa without me?’ So that was one of those moments where it was like, oh my gosh, sometimes there are communication lapses that are a little frustrating, and it’s kind of a humbling moment. Yep, I’m the broadcaster and nothing else, kind of low on the priority list. That’s a negative one.
Some positive ones. There’s one from this year. We got back from a trip a few weeks ago to South Bend. I apparently left one of my car doors cracked open and so I got up to my car and I’ve got one of those fobs that just unlocks the car. The door’s not unlocking. Fob’s not working. I’m like, great, the car battery’s dead. So, I unlocked my car, and what should I do?
So, I called AAA, but they’re not getting back to me. The last guy here was Tre [Richardson III] because he just got called up to Double-A. He’s packing up all his stuff. So I asked him, ‘Hey, do you have jumper cables?’ And he says, ‘Yeah, you need a jump?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, dude. I do.’
So, he jumped my car the night before he left to go to Springfield to get his call up in Double-A. That was awesome. And that sums up what kind of a guy Tre is. Super nice guy, one of the best guys I’ve been around in the minors. So probably the best story off the field from this year was Tre helping me out on his last day in Peoria after a pretty long time here.
Q: You’re in a packed stadium, what’s one obscure topic you know more about than anybody there?
A: You know, this feels applicable. The weather. I used to want to be a meteorologist. And so I was really dialed into that stuff when I was a kid, watches, warnings, how fronts move, formations, things like that. Now I’m not an expert by any means, but it amazes me how few people can know what the difference is between a watch and a warning.
So I think about that a lot during the summer in the Midwest because, you know, there’s a bunch of random weather that can happen.
And airplanes might be another one. My dad’s a pilot, and so I love watching the planes fly on the radar tracker apps, and that flyover last night was pretty cool. So, those are the two.
Q: Give me a non-baseball-related hot take.
A: My hot take is I hate hot takes. I’m not a take guy. I think that’s one of the reasons why I’m in this play-by-play thing – we don’t really have to come up with takes. You know, it seems like it’s a ‘take race’ online all the time where people are trying to outtake each other and come up with these outlandish opinions, and I’m a very opinionated guy.
Don’t get me wrong, but I hate having opinions just for the sake of having opinions. I feel passionately and strongly about a lot of different things, but nobody cares about my opinion. So why should I thrust that on somebody else?
I think this take-a-fication of our business, of journalism, of broadcasting, is nothing short of a disaster. And when you talk to people, in high school or in college and ask, ‘What do you want to do?’ ‘Oh, I want to be Stephen A. Smith.’ Oh my god, you want to be Stephen A. Smith? What a terrible answer. I mean, it’s ruined journalism.
That’s my take, is takes have ruined journalism, because it’s taken, it’s injected ego into everything. This is my opinion. This is my take. I’m going to stand by it just because this is mine and nobody else’s. Believe it or not, there’s fact, and then there’s fiction, in real life, and I think the lines between those t things have completely blurred. So, that’s my hot take.
What is next?
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