2024 Ford Frick Award Winner Joe Castiglione Talks Finding His Passion For Broadcasting Baseball Games

2024 Ford Frick Award Winner Joe Castiglione Talks Finding His Passion For Broadcasting Baseball Games #macfarlane

Transcript

00:00When did you realize that you wanted to be a broadcaster?

00:03As soon as I knew I wasn't good enough to play.

00:05Really?

00:06And as Ernie Harwell likes to say, I wanted to be a player in the worst way,

00:09and that's exactly how I played.

00:12But, you know, I think I realized about age 10 or 11 that I wasn't going to be a player.

00:18And Mel Allen was my hero. I hate to admit it, but I was a big Yankee fan

00:23in those days, being from New Haven.

00:25And I think I set my sights on that, and I practiced in the backyard doing play-by-play,

00:33my own fungo games, and people thought I was crazy.

00:37And I tried it.

00:38But you were laser-focused. You knew that's what you wanted to do.

00:42I did. You know, one of the nicest compliments I had when I went to my 50-year reunion at Colgate,

00:49one of my classmates said,

00:51you're the guy who's doing exactly what he said he wanted to do.

00:54That's awesome.

00:55And I realized, wow, that's really a blessing.