You've got to hear this Minor League broadcaster's outrageous calls
Benjamin Hill
@BensBizBenjamin Hill travels the nation collecting stories about what makes Minor League Baseball unique. This excerpt from his newsletter -- which he reported on from Greensboro, N.C., on July 28 -- is one of those stories. Read the full newsletter here, and subscribe to his newsletter here.
Get up, get outta here, gone!
You can kiss it goodbye!
Adios, pelota!
If you¡¯re a baseball broadcaster then it¡¯s likely that, sooner or later, you¡¯ll develop your own home run catch phrase. It¡¯s practically a job prerequisite.
Andy Durham, voice of the Greensboro Grasshoppers, came up with his catch phrase some three decades ago. On paper, however, it seems too commonplace to classify as a catch phrase at all. Just two words, short and simple: Long gone.
But, as with so many things: It¡¯s not what you say, it¡¯s how you say it. The ¡°long¡± in Durham¡¯s ¡°long gone¡± is true to its definition, the "o" elongated past its breaking point until it dissociates from the word itself and takes on a new existence as a piercing, insistent hum. It¡¯s attention-grabbing, polarizing and more than a little surreal. No one else does it quite like Andy Durham.
Durham has been the voice of the Grasshoppers, High-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, since 2004. For a decade prior to that he called games on a fill-in basis, and in this earlier phase of his career he received a piece of advice from Greensboro's play-by-play man, the late Bill Wardle: ¡°You¡¯ve gotta get a home run call.¡±
Durham gave it some thought, cycling through ideas for catch phrases and trying to one-up them. Finally, inspiration struck.
¡°Mine will be, ¡®That sucker is long gone,¡¯ with long gone [going for] as long as you can carry it,¡± said Durham, prior to a late-July Sunday matinee at Greensboro¡¯s First National Bank Park. ¡°Sometimes, I¡¯ll cut it off at second base just to make it different and more outlined. Sometimes, if it¡¯s a real good home run, I¡¯ll bring it all the way around the bases, stretching it out.¡±
It may sound like a contradiction of terms, but Durham relays these anecdotes in a rapid-fire Carolina drawl, seemingly impatient to end the sentence he¡¯s speaking so that the next one can begin.
¡°My strike-three call is pretty interesting too. If it¡¯s a called strike three I say, ¡®Strike three, strike three, strike three, strike three!,'¡± he said, smashing the words together at a staccato clip. ¡°Close your eyes and say it. 'Strike three, strike three, strike three, strike three!'¡±
Durham¡¯s on-air mannerisms aren¡¯t the only thing that¡¯s unique about his broadcast. He only calls home games for the Grasshoppers and is not employed by the team, instead describing himself as an independent contractor.
¡°I don¡¯t exist unless I sell those ads,¡± he said. ¡°So you sell it, you write the commercial, you produce it, you send out the invoice, you collect it and you broadcast. And you just keep going.¡±
The Grasshoppers are just one aspect of Durham¡¯s many-tentacled operation, the extension of a sports media career that began on local radio in the ¡®80s. He runs a constantly updated news website, Greensboro Sports, and streams high school basketball, football and baseball games via Greensboro Sports Radio. Before one season ends another has begun, resulting in a steady blur of local sports the whole year through.
¡°The fun part is doing the games,¡± he said. ¡°You take care of all your business work, it¡¯s almost like your reward is doing a game.¡±
Durham said that he hardly ever mentions his own name while on the mic, but his style and cadence are unmistakable. His 2023 call of a Will Matthiessen inside-the-park home run, featuring an on-the-spot rendition of ¡°Row Row Row Your Boat,¡± could almost be classified as performance art.
That inimitable effort, as well as several of his drawn out ¡°Long gone¡± calls, has attracted attention on social media. You might love it, you might hate it, but one thing is for sure: You won¡¯t forget it.
¡°You gotta be known for something,¡± he said. ¡°If when I¡¯m done ¡®Long gone¡¯ is what they remember, that¡¯s fine with me.¡±