04-04-25 Interview - Rockies Radio Network Executive Producer Jesse Thomas on Behind the Scenes of Rockies Broadcast

This is Koa Rockies Opening Day presented by Pellow Windows and Doors of Denver and Northern Coloradopella dot com for more of that. And sitting in between me and Mandy, you are Jesse Thomas. Jesse Thomas, and your title Jesse Thomas would be what.

Executive producer of the Koa Colorado Rockies Radio Network.

I am told by someone who would know that Mandy Connell's favorite segment about baseball is something that you do. And the person who told me is named Mandy Connell. Yes, so it must be true. Then it must be true.

What a bast fangirl for the pioneers of the game segment that Jesse puts together in the pregame show.

I like it.

I like it. Thank you Mandy very much. I enjoy putting them together.

So this started. I mean, how did they say, Jesse, we want you to do something on the history of baseball.

It was historical and to be honest with you, it came down to us being able to fill some time, right, you know, and baseball has such a colorful past and it goes back, you know, mid eighteen hundreds. So there's target rich and virus. It is. It's hard rich environment, and you can always find something entertaining, funny, historical, some sad, some inspiring. But there's countless stories out there. So the thing for me is just figuring out a way to fit it into a three minute segment.

You Know.

One of the things that strikes me when I listen to some of your segments and you talk about some of these insane, over the top characters that have inhabited baseball over all these years, I feel like we don't have that now. We don't have the guys who are outrageous or prone to these kind of crazy things. Why is that?

It's not? People more professional now one hundred percent?

And obviously with social media, you can't get away with anything now, so that's the biggest one. You know, back in the day, you could act a fool on a train trip and you know, smoking the dugout and all those things, but that is frowned upon and now you can't get away with anything. So people are definitely more buttoned up and don't show their true characters anymore.

Who's your favorite colorful character that you have? Uh, they maybe talked about over the years, and.

They all have names like, yeah, like Bob Bust, your.

Legs, skimmitts, there's something you know.

I mean, they're all they're all bizarros.

There's some crazy nicknames, Vinegar Ben Mazelle, stuff like that. You know, stuff that you're thinking, like a John Grisham book or something like your character and a John Grisham book.

I did a story yesterday on Rubot l.

Who was eighteen eighties and he had a tendency to just leave the pitching mound in the middle of a game to go chase fire trucks. You'd go into the stands to pet people's dogs just in the middle of a three te you know. So yeah, people like that, and I like going back in. Some of the old Negro League players I think are amazing too. They have fascinating stories, and I don't think.

That gets enough play. It has. I'd say over the last ten years, we now know more about the Negro Leaves than we've ever known before yep, which is a definite.

Positive one percent.

And their stats are starting to count to which kind of changed the record books and going. You know, some of those stories you like in my books that I use for these or is that I put together? It's hard to tell. I like to think that's ninety percent of those things are true, but it's really hard to tell, you know, So I just try to find something entertaining and get a good chuckle out of.

Them, like, yeah, you know, where do you get your inspiration?

I have a couple of baseball almanacs, and then there's some historical books of those were the Days I think is my favorite ones. I don't know the author off the top of my head. But and then there's a dead legend good website that I go to and there's all kinds of stories on there that pick and choose from. So, like I said, I enjoy I really enjoy doing it in Baseball's, as you said, target rich environment.

Yes, Jesse, why don't you explain to people because I always forget the people that are listening to us, they think what we do is super cool. They don't know what it is the actual job that an executive producer does. Yes, what does an executive producer do?

So, contrary to popular belief, we don't just show up, turn the power on, and get going. So in my particular case, I'm in charge of taking care of all the gear, making sure set up properly, make sure Jack and Jy can hear each other properly, make sure we're

But it's super cool job it is.

I wouldn't for the world. It's not for everybody out of a suitcase for seven months of the year, but I'm used to that. So it gives me an opportunity to see the tree and meets amazing people, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

And it's super different from football.

You know, guy's gonna go cover an away game. You're gone for two days? Yeah, I mean, what's what's a normal amount of time that you're away on a road? If you know, what's the longest time you've ever been away la road?

The longest one we did was fifteen three cities, so it was three cities, twelve games, fifteen days. That's the longest side we've ever been I've been doing with the Rockies. But you're right for the nugget. In the Abs, it was different because you would fly in in the middle of the night, you go to the hotel, you'd sleep, and you went to the arena at three, you played the game, you left. You never really got to see the city you were in, you know, So this way

And how much stuff do you travel with?

So it's about two hundred pounds of gear and it's two Pelican cases basically, And it takes me about ninety minutes to set our booth up from beginning to end game one, and then it takes me about twenty minutes to tear it all down. So testing everything, like setup day is my longest day. It's usually about a twelve

So what is what?

You just had the opportunity you opened up the season this year in Tampa and they're playing in their in the Yankees' spring training facility because of the damage to the trot.

What was that like? It was quite a challenge.

We definitely drew the short straw, but it depends on out you look at it. We're lucky we're not there in July when it's ninety degrees and ninety percent humidity. But unfortunately we were the first visiting team in there after MLB went in after the Yankees last spring training game and flipped everything around, so there was you know.

Years everywhere they did forty eight hours more than that, like.

At least seventy two hours the night that I went the day before our game, they were still cutting holes with power saws and the batter's eye to install camera in center field. Like it was absolute wow wow. And our booth is super tiny. It was very intimate. As I like to say, they meet, Jack and Jerry tolerate each other pretty well, and we're right there on the concourse, so the fans right in front of us. It was a challenge to say the least. But I'm glad we're out of there.

So do you have a favorite stadium that and not so much like the game or whatever, but because of your job, is there a favorite booth?

I'm glad you asked that. So it's yes.

Miami and Anaheim are my favorite. Of Miami because huge, the air conditionings cranky and I have plenty of space. Anaheim awesome because it's like being at Disneylanders.

It's kinds of fake rocks. I enjoy that.

Uh. And then I'm trying to think of least favorite is Cincinnati is up there because all the rain delays.

I've ever been to that town par which.

Another Well, Tampa up there now too, that's challenging.

I give you any idea, like when the trump is going to be back and play?

No, nobody seems to know, mostly because they were putting in some FEMA money to restore and it's.

Getting all commuted with.

Yeah, they're probably to fix it, but a Major League Baseball is also leaning on the owner down there pretty hard just just outright sell it.

So we'll see, Yeah.

Well you know what is sell the trup or sell the team, sell the team, Well, they suck. Their ownership sucks as well, and a stuff for a long time. Why under what justification is the is major League Baseball saying team?

I think it has to do with revenue sharing.

And I don't know exactly what that conversation looks like, like I don't know if they try to strong arm him, if they try to buy him out, like I don't I don't know how that is.

I've just heard though that.

There has been discussions and they're asking him politely to maybe step aside.

So who knows.

I will tell you to your point, they're going to play one season in Tampa, not in a dome, and everybody's going to go, oh.

God, I love the truck.

I can't wait till the tuva is miserable.

Sometimes you don't know what you have until it's gone right. And I can't imagine.

First of all, those Florida rainstorms that pop up at four pm like.

Here, those are no joke.

And the humidity, like the camera operator somebody's they better have medics on standby man, because if you're standing out there in left center field operating a camera, but I mean it's going to be brutal.

And this is why when people make funt of in the field, I'm like, you're you're not Florida area. You don't understand why you because it is awful and it was charming, charming, it had its own sound to.

It, you know.

And the ring the we're above the.

Rules.

If you hit ring a something happened, ring met something else. It was wild.

Yeah, Jesse, when you are are traveling all this time, like what are some of your favorite cities to visit baseball aside? Like whe where do you see it on the schedule? Be like, yes, that's gonna be a.

Great right, So I this all resolves around food for me, it should.

San Francisco food wise, is really tough to beat. I don't really much enjoy the city anymore because it's chaos, but the culinary experience out there is awesome. Chicago is a close second. Yeah. I like Boston because I'm a shellfish guy, so going out.

There and be able to eat.

You can get good oysters here, but you can get really good fresh clams out there, which I really enjoy. And then a sneaky town that really has grown on me is Milwaukee every time. I love it. It reminds me of old Denver. Those are my kind of people out there. They're built like.

Me, they talk like me.

They consume the same amount of beer and sausage and cheese. Those are my people always, Yeah, talk aboutmen. Right, what's up?

So I've always uh marked on.

The list as soon as I see the schedule when we're going to Milwaukee.

Is there any cities don't leave to leave them for more?

Oh?

Yes, I'm gonna that's in my mind.

Yeah, go ahead one of them. Really because of where we stay. It's not really on off beach.

Southeast side, right kind of the Frickle area, and it's I can't I can't.

Do club music throughshs.

What I mean, Yeah, I just assume sounds like yeah, I just assume staying in the hotel.

How about Cleveland in Miami? I love Cleveland.

Yeah, everytown.

Yeah, Cleveland's another sneaky town.

It can be really really cold.

But Jack Corgan is from Cleveland, so he always shows us a good time and shout out to Brunos. We always go to a place called Brunos in Cleveland, which is amazing. So I would look forward to going. We're going here in a couple of months to Cleveland.

I got a question, but I'm not sure what this person means, Jesse. Do you have to break down every game for a series, but you don't have to rebreak down.

So what I do is, once we're set up in a visiting city, once we're done and we sign off the air, I will power most everything down and I will pull all of my laptops, but I will leave all the codex and all the wire and all the matrixes and all that stuff up, and then they lock it behind me, and I just take my laptops. And sometimes I lock up the headsets. But those are the pretty much the most secure places, aren't.

Wait a minute, so you're telling me that even in a press booth, headsets are a hot commodity and you have to walk them up like in a radio station.

Yes, I learned that the hard way.

Oh Dodger Stadium, my first year doing this. Of course, I left my stuff up overnight, and I came back the next morning, Sunday getaway day, and it was all gone, and I had to scramble and my guy and file a police And you know, the cops said to me, he said, Welcome to la I bet I think, sir, what would your walk up song be?

Jack asked us, well, oh.

Man, so it's an old hip hop song from the nineties. Iiny, Camosie, here comes the hot Stepper.

I've thought about that.

You know, when you walk away, I'm gonna expect to see you hot.

Step away from this movie. I wonder if Zach can find that while we're talking.

Sure he can't hit au, Sure he can't. Sure?

Wait, what was yours?

I've actually changed mine because it used to be I wanted that one part of that Reba McIntire song, Here's your One chance, fancy don't let me down?

Okay, like I thought there would be.

But now I'm decided that the greatest walk up songer in the history is Hail to the Chief. Led to the Chief would be fantastic.

Ribas strong too, but nothing hot stepper.

Is this this hit?

I mean it gives the crowd participation.

Right, Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, good job Jack.

Do you guys have like a fraternity of producers?

Yes?

That are like traveling with all these Yes? Did you get to know each other?

So this is my ninth season doing this, and I am the second least tenured guy doing this, So holy on, once you get this gig that I have, there's only twenty nine other people that do it, and they've all been there for over thirteen years other than me and

Did you ever have an old dude give you a piece of advice and you think, oh my gosh, that is brilliant. I need to incorporate that and how I do my job.

Yes, Now, I can't give you an exact example, mostly of who to kind of avoid, you know what I mean, like, hey, that guy over in Baltimore.

Don't cross him, you know, stuff like that.

Yeah, And some of these guys has been doing it for so long that they've seen technology change so much. I mean they've gone from analog phone lines to broadcast to ISDN lines. Now everything's done over the internet. To old copper pairs, like Shannon knows, you know. So it's it's fun to kind of pick their brain about all the stuff that they used to have to do.

My husband when he was a kid, so he was like fifteen, he's sixty now. He got his first radio job was running the board for the Cincinnati Reds games for his little station in Athens, Ohio. And they had the punchboard thing where you had to pull out a cord and put it in another court. Oh yeah, like manually operating like a telephone lines to get the feed in here and then put this in.

I mean, it was just, yeah, it was wild.

And when he took me back there like ten years ago, they still had all that equipment in the station.

I'll tell you, Wrigley, they still have cloth covered wiring in the original press box from when like Kerry Carey was doing his thing. I mean, it's not active or anything, but it's still there. You can still see the old punch blocks and the cloth covered copper pairs.

Like it's wild.

What is the booth like at the cub Stadium, oh Man in Boston? Two Historical Parks?

Boston's awesome.

It's once you're up there, it takes a little bit to navigate your way up to the booth, but there's big windows that are on a switch that open vertically. Now Wrigley is a whole another animal. There used to not be elevators to go up to the top, so you had to haul your cases up the concrete ramps and then there's a straight up vertical staircase about twenty yards that goes up to the press boxes that you've

Breath and sweaty and all the ninth and then it's tiny.

It's kind of like climbing into a submarine.

It's really really.

Tiny for where Jack and Jerry said below me. So once they're down there, they're down there. Like you don't want to move around a whole lot, no sudden movements or you'll kick something out of the wall that gets wild. I know it's.

Blasphemy, but like I've been to the State Stadium in Boston and I walked away go in the stadiums are dump because I'm spoiled and I like nice new stadiums with amenities, history be damn green Monster and all that that's tasty. It is.

It is a dump.

It is a bit of a dump. It has a unique smell to it.

Sinway, it's kind of like saying the New York Subway.

Yeah, yeah, it's ammonia driven ammonia and ethyl alcohol. So yeah, it's But there's lots of history of Finway.

I mean from the.

Elephants they used to march on the field. I like going back and looking at all the events. Some of these ballparks have folsted, like old boxing matches. Yeah, people get shotting out of a cannon. And you know, Wrigley once held a ski jumping event of.

Theirs I mean, of course, Yeah, yeah, Wriglarly.

Some of my most of my baseball experience actually at Wrigley when I lived in Chicago before they put lights in, right, So every game was a day game, and I worked downtown and everybody would get on the l at eleven am and go and the city would empty out. And it was kind of crazy to think of it, especially such a major team in a major city with no lights.

Yeah, well some would argue that, but it used to be one of their biggest advantages was playing all those day games because it would screw up other teams' body clocks, you know. But yeah, sitting down in the center field stands at Wrigley drinking a couple old styles and all bad when you get off work ross, you know what I mean.

Yeah, I mean I used to sing, you know, take Me out to the ballgame with Harry Carey.

That's when I was there. It was pretty fabulous.

If you were talked done that on Pioneers the Game how that started? How the Harry Carey things.

I haven't done Harry Carey specifically.

I did do one on the history of the game or the song itself, right, and it goes all the way back to like the nineteen tens or something.

I've heard that the reason Harry Carey started singing take Me out to the ballgame is it was a bet from the other guy that was in the booth with him, and they were they had been drinking as Harry Carey, and it was like, I bet you can't get all these people to sing take Me out to the ballgame. And Harry Carey was like, game on, and he got up and sang take Me out to the ballgame, and the crowd just went crazy for it, So we started.

That tradition and now they have.

I know, we got a break here, but they will have live You know, celebrities come up and sing take me out to the ball game from the same booth that Harry used.

To do it.

But nobody gets a louder cheer than when they replay Harry actually doing it onboard. People just lose their mind them It's awesome.

Jesse Thomas, executive producer for Colorado Rockies have a tremendous game and.

Creator of creator.

Game best pregame segment, no offense to any other segments, best pregame segment of the show.

Thank you guys very much for having me looking forward to today. So come on down Rockies fans and let's get a win. Yeah.

And if you if you see Jesse, you'll see him in a in a suit and a sport coat and you will never see him wearing that any other day that once a year we like it or not before we berke late.

Yeah, in one out less than one hour. We need listeners down here to play Tournament of the Day against if they want win tickets to the game. So come on down to the corner of twentieth and Blake. We're gonna do this at eleven forty right, ay, right, be here at eleven thirty and somebody's gonna win tickets.

Keep it your on k away