- 3 days ago
Marlins radio voice Jack McMullen joins the show for an update on the Fish and his thoughts on the passing of beloved longtime Yankees Radio Voice John Sterling.
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00:00Jack McMullen is the radio play-by-play voice for the Miami Marlins right here on WQAM.
00:07And the Marlins can split the four-game series against the Phillies with a win tonight at Lone Depot Park.
00:13First pitch, 6.40, and you will hear it here beginning at 6 p.m. on 104.3 FM WQAM.
00:22Stephen Strom will get you started.
00:24Jansen Junk on the mound for the fish tonight.
00:26And Jack is on the Toyota of Hollywood hotline.
00:31That captain's hat is sharp.
00:34Now, we were there on Friday night.
00:36Me and Solana were there on Friday night.
00:38And it was Star Wars night.
00:41Yesterday was Yacht Rock Day.
00:43Yacht Rock, much more my speed than Star Wars.
00:47Which one spoke to you more?
00:50Star Wars night or Yacht Rock Day?
00:52I mean, I don't have a lightsaber next to me in the booth right now.
00:55I have the captain's hat, though.
00:57So I'll tell you which one spoke more to me.
00:59I didn't really understand the concrete definition of Yacht Rock before I learned about this ball game coming up.
01:06And when I dove in, I was like, oh, so Holland Oates is Yacht Rock and Kenny Loggins is Yacht
01:12Rock.
01:12So I learned about that and I was fascinated by it.
01:15And the captain's hat is one of the better giveaways that I've ever seen.
01:18So, you know, I was yelled at from Kyle Seeloff, who was the TV play-by-play announcer.
01:22He was like, Jack, brother, you've got to take that hat off at some point.
01:25I've been wearing it nonstop.
01:27It suits you.
01:28For three days.
01:28I know Strom got me one.
01:30So I'm going to be wearing it nonstop as well.
01:33That's my look.
01:34It's perfect.
01:35This might be yours.
01:36So I'll keep it clean for you.
01:37Oh, okay.
01:38About to say, do you get first swing at the things they give out at the stadium?
01:42You can get them up front?
01:43Occasionally.
01:43So here's the thing, man.
01:45Like, they dropped a hat off for us on, I want to say, Saturday during like the seventh or eighth
01:51inning.
01:51And I lit up like a Christmas tree.
01:53I mean, just for like the audio audience, they have no idea why I was so invested.
01:58But I was so fired up to put that captain's hat on.
02:01So, yeah, sometimes we get first swing.
02:03And it's always great when we do.
02:04It's a great baseball giveaway.
02:08I love unique ones that you haven't seen before.
02:10Now, Yacht Rock, Crowder and Solana know, Yacht Rock is the number one preset in my car.
02:16I've been listening to Yacht Rock.
02:18Sirius XM has a Yacht Rock channel.
02:20Yes.
02:20And I have been listening to it for years.
02:23That's my, I mean, I love Hall & Oates.
02:27Hall & Oates speaks to me.
02:28Rich people.
02:28It should be called rich people.
02:29People who want to be rich.
02:31People who want to have a yacht.
02:34People who love the yacht vibe while they're toiling at work every afternoon behind a microphone.
02:42But it's, you know, I've mentioned this before.
02:44I think, perhaps, and I still own it, the greatest Marlins giveaway ever was my Logan Morrison toothbrush holder.
02:53That's awesome.
02:54Yeah, it's a good one.
02:55That's so cool.
02:55I had no idea they did that.
02:57Yeah.
02:57I mean, who doesn't want Lomo holding their toothbrush?
03:00It's like he's handing it to me every night.
03:01Here you go, Hawk.
03:02Keep those pearly whites white.
03:06So, you know what?
03:08Before we talk Marlins, the baseball broadcasting world, I don't know if you know this, Crowder, lost a legend today.
03:14John Sterling was the voice of the Yankees.
03:17He passed away at the age of 87.
03:20Today, he had, you know, the Yankees win.
03:22The Yankees win.
03:24I mean, just an iconic call.
03:27He did Yankees games for 36 years.
03:31And so we have our Marlins radio broadcaster on with us.
03:34I'm guessing any baseball broadcaster today is probably giving thanks for the 36 years of Yankees games that John Sterling
03:41was able to call.
03:43A hundred percent.
03:44And, you know, I from the Yankees win to it is high.
03:48It is far.
03:49It is gone.
03:50Right.
03:50Like there were so many things for John Sterling that made him so uniquely John Sterling.
03:55And I'm glad you bring him up because, you know, I never got to meet John Sterling in person.
04:01Last year was year one for me with the Marlins.
04:03You know, 24 was his final year with the Yankees, calling games for them on radio.
04:07But even growing up in Chicago, just by being a baseball fan, I feel like I knew John Sterling.
04:13And he was so unique.
04:14He was absolutely the most individual radio announcer that there was in Major League Baseball when he was doing it.
04:21I mean, this guy loved Broadway and he loved showbiz.
04:25And he was an entertainer that happened to be a sportscaster.
04:29And obviously, he was very detail oriented and technically speaking, from a play by play perspective, he was outstanding.
04:34But he's so much more than that, because at the end of the day, what you guys do is entertainment.
04:38What we do with a ball game is entertainment.
04:40And he was an amazing entertainer and showman.
04:44And he was perfect as the voice of the Yankees for so many years and over 5,000 consecutive games.
04:52He did 162 in the postseason.
04:54I saw a nugget.
04:55He has been on the call for like 45% of all Yankee playoff games in the history of that
05:02franchise.
05:02That's unbelievable to think about the staying power and the legacy in that kind of organization from that guy.
05:09There's a few, Crowder, who cut through for me, obviously, growing up in Chicago as well.
05:13But Harry Carey was one of them.
05:15Vin Scully, I remember we talked about him plenty when he passed away.
05:18But the Dodgers boys for so many years.
05:21John Sterling for the Yankees was one as well.
05:24I was going to say, there's a little alliteration in a lot of those guys' names.
05:28What about Jack Mack?
05:29Does anybody call you Jack Mack?
05:30Jack Mack.
05:32Everybody.
05:33Literally everyone growing up.
05:34There was always Jack Mack.
05:36So you got it, man.
05:37Okay, I was just saying, it just sounds cool.
05:39Jack Mack is, you know, going.
05:41Jack Mack on the call.
05:42Like, I just, it popped in my head.
05:45As an athlete, I wanted to be Junior Sayo.
05:47I wanted to be, you know, Ray Lewis.
05:49I wanted to be Mike Singletary.
05:53Didn't achieve it, but I wanted to be them.
05:56As a broadcaster, you have guys that you looked up to like that, that you can't really be them, but
06:01you see what they do?
06:03A hundred percent, yeah.
06:04Yeah, and I think like Channing Crowder, the player, right, always wanted to be like a shade of Junior Sayo,
06:10right?
06:10You always wanted to be like your own unique person and your own unique player, but you wanted to have
06:15shades of the guys that, you know, you grew up idolizing.
06:17And maybe you just wanted to be a carbon choppy at them.
06:20He wanted Junior's paycheck, but he's a hater.
06:24But he didn't want to put in Junior's work.
06:27Yeah, that was so much really good.
06:30You know, I mean, I think the biggest thing, like one of the best pieces of advice that I ever
06:34got as a play-by-play announcer is you're not going to copy someone.
06:39You're not going to be a carbon copy of Kevin Harlan.
06:41You're not going to be a carbon copy of Mike Breen, but you can take what you love from those
06:46guys and put your unique spin on that.
06:47So growing up, like, heck, yeah, I wanted to be John Sterling.
06:51Heck, yeah, I wanted to be Michael Kay.
06:52I wanted to be Pat Hughes in Chicago, you know, Hawk Harrelson, those guys.
06:56But you can take your favorite parts of five to eight announcers and kind of like throw them in this
07:03pot and see what soup comes out.
07:05And that soup might just be the way you call a baseball game.
07:07So for me, it was like listening to John Sterling, that guy was so, I guess, skilled beyond just the
07:15X's and O's of baseball and pitch by pitch.
07:18Like him and his infatuation with Broadway and just belting into song at points throughout a ballgame.
07:25Like that's that unique individual nature that everybody should want to emulate in their broadcast.
07:30And like everybody should want to, you know, try and get a little human aspect of that.
07:34So there were so many things that I know so many darn announcers took from John Sterling.
07:39Paul Carrollson, Crowder, put it on the board.
07:43Yes.
07:44Yes.
07:45Yes.
07:48You nailed it.
07:49So Jack Marlins are second place in the East right now.
07:53A couple of games under 500 on the season.
07:55What are a couple of things that have gone right in the first 34 games of the season?
08:00What are a couple of things that could be better through 34 games?
08:04Yeah.
08:05So gone right, I would say this new trio of bats atop the Marlin leaderboard, right?
08:11I mean, we've talked about Liam Hicks and what Liam Hicks is doing.
08:14He's put up RBI power numbers without strikeouts that we really haven't seen since, guys.
08:19Great note from our Marlins PR staff.
08:22Hicks had, what, 25 plus RBIs in the month of April and he had fewer than 10 punch outs.
08:27I think last guy in the National League to do that was Chipper Jones.
08:30So it's stuff that we haven't seen in years, like maybe decades.
08:34Xavier Edwards, Otto Lopez, that up the middle tandem has just been insane.
08:38They're both hitting right around 340.
08:40It's been excellent.
08:41The starting pitching has been so much fun to watch.
08:45Max Meyer is coming off a seven one-hit innings his last time out over the weekend.
08:49Jansen Junk threw six scoreless against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium last week.
08:53He throws tonight.
08:55And then Sandy Alcantara, he's looking like the best version of Sandy since he was the best pitcher on the
09:00planet in 2022.
09:01And he was the unanimous Cy Young Award winner in the National League.
09:05In terms of like what could improve, I'd say the overall defense, like Otto with how good he has been
09:10offensively.
09:11He has committed six errors at shortstop.
09:14Like you would like to see that shore up a little bit.
09:16And then I think just the maturation of Yuri Perez, too.
09:19Like Yuri, the talent from that 6'8", 23-year-old starting pitcher is utterly insane.
09:26It's just a matter of putting it all together and the maturation and getting through six innings, a two-run
09:31ball or three-run ball literally every night you can.
09:34So I would say those are the two big things that jump out.
09:37And then obviously you want to get a guy like Marcy going.
09:39You know, Marcy's hitting, what, $1.80 right now.
09:41It would be great to get Marcy going.
09:42It would be great to see Kyle Stowers put a couple of balls out of the ballpark.
09:44But it's been really fun and like a mixed bag, which is the way you want the first six weeks
09:49of a baseball season to go.
09:51And is that you kind of brought up the pitching lineup.
09:55Is it overachieving, underachieving, or right on par?
09:58Because it was high.
09:59Yuri and Sandy and Meyer and Junk.
10:02And I know Paddock, you know, there's some questions about Paddock now.
10:05But is it on par with what you thought it would be through 30-some games?
10:08I think so, yeah.
10:09Yeah, and like the nature of the baseball season, because it's 162, like the old adage is every team in
10:15baseball is going to win 50 games and lose 50 games.
10:19It's what you do with the other games that will like define your season.
10:23And I really do think that things are like kind of holding serve right now, pitching-wise, because Sandy has
10:28been awesome.
10:29But he has had some ebbs and flows, right?
10:31Through three starts, he was the best pitcher in baseball.
10:33Then he goes to Detroit and gets roughed up a little bit.
10:35It was like 10 hits and seven runs and six innings.
10:38But then he finds level water again.
10:40With Yuri, he looks untouchable some starts.
10:42He gets a little roughed up some other starts.
10:44Max has been consistent.
10:46Junk has been consistent.
10:47So I would just say like the pitching, based on all the positives and negatives, you always come back to
10:52like this level water.
10:53And same deal with the lineup too, man, with like Marcy struggling and Stowers struggling and Augustine struggling before the
11:00switch-up.
11:00Catching-wise, like you had guys maybe overachieving in Hicks and X and Otto.
11:06So everything, again, just like creates this level water, this equilibrium.
11:11I don't know much about the Marlins prospects, truthfully, Jack, but I do know that Marlins Twitter is in love
11:18with Joe Mack, who's going to make his debut today.
11:21And I watched the interview that you and Strom did with him at, I think it was Marlins FanFest.
11:25Just seems like a good dude.
11:27And I know, obviously, he's been playing well for Jacksonville, which is why he got called up.
11:32But like, what should we know about Joe Mack before he makes his debut tonight?
11:37Yeah, so not to drop like a zone contact on you or anything, but like in terms of pop time
11:42and all that stuff, I know you guys had some fun with that on Friday.
11:46Pop time is really interesting to me.
11:48And by the way, he completely jinxed Liam Hicks going into the game that night.
11:53Because it was Friday that he dropped the zone contact thing, and then we had Liam Hicks in a parlay.
12:00Solana and I both, I think he went, what, 0 for 4, got hit by a pitch maybe?
12:040 for 3, hit by a pitch, yeah.
12:07Tough feat.
12:08But I know your ballpark experience was great.
12:09Was it not?
12:10Were you guys at that bullpen?
12:11Yeah, you guys were in that bar and grill area, right, in left field?
12:14We walked over there just to say, look, we were sitting behind, not behind home plate, but we were sitting
12:18in that area.
12:20But I say it all the time.
12:22Lone Depot Park, to me, is such a great ballpark.
12:25The experience is great.
12:26They actually have great food.
12:28And I'm not any kind of paid shill for the Marlins, because I feel like I've already gotten my captain's
12:34hat.
12:34I feel like it's already size, so I don't have to stroke them anymore.
12:38But I just have a great time when I'm out at the ballpark.
12:41I really do.
12:42You might get a second captain's hat for that.
12:44Let's call him.
12:45Based on the pop time, I will explain it, and then I'll tell you what it means.
12:52So pop time is the pop of a catcher's mid to the pop of the glove of the second baseman
12:57of the shortstop covering second base.
12:59Joe Mack has one of the better pop times in baseball.
13:02So that means when a guy tries to steal a base on Joe Mack, he will shut it down.
13:07He is, I don't think it's hyperbolic to say, he comes up, he's immediately one of the five or six
13:12best defensive catchers in Major League Baseball.
13:14He is the best defensive catcher in Minor League Baseball.
13:17What he can do to limit a running game in terms of stolen bases, what he can do with the
13:22pitching staff, what he can do to frame strikes, is unbelievable.
13:25So we're getting a guy that has an elite pop time where he can get the ball to second base
13:31in a caught stealing attempt as quickly as really anybody in baseball.
13:35And we're talking about a guy that will handle a pitching staff as well as anybody in baseball.
13:38The question is going to be, can this young catcher come up and hit?
13:42He's one of those guys that may strike out a little bit, but he's going to draw his walks and
13:46he's going to hit the ball out of the ballpark.
13:47So it'll be maybe frustrating for like a week at a time, but at the end of the year, we're
13:53probably going to be looking at a guy that hit 15 to 20 home runs over the course of 120,
13:58130 games and played some of the best defense in Major League Baseball from the catching position.
14:03A 33% CS rate in 2025 is just crazy.
14:07Jack Mack.
14:07Yeah, it's awesome.
14:10Jack Mack.
14:12Nobody knows what that is.
14:13What is that?
14:14What's a CS rate?
14:15Caught stealing percentage.
14:16Caught stealing percentage.
14:17Ben, come on, guys.
14:19It's similar to zone contact, but totally different.
14:21Listen, I do three stats.
14:24Average, home runs, RBI.
14:27That's what I grew up looking at.
14:28That's what I'm going to go to my grave with.
14:30I don't need any of the pop time.
14:32I don't need any of that.
14:36Average, home runs, RBI.
14:38Give me the stats once a week.
14:40The back page of the Sunday sports section.
14:42I'm good to go.
14:43It's awesome.
14:44You know who the best players were.
14:47Jack Mack, please just let me know what to look at because Hawks are going to get me on the
14:52Davidson De Los Santos and the Matt Mervises.
14:56Who's coming up first?
14:57Davidson De Los Santos or Augustin Ramirez?
15:00Who's making their return first?
15:04Okay, so I don't know.
15:06It's tough to pick.
15:07Obviously, it's situationally dependent.
15:09But I will tell you, I think Augustin, it's weird and it's tough because I love Augustin, the guy.
15:14And I love Augustin, the player.
15:16Like, he is so much fun to watch when it's going right and he's hitting the ball to the ballpark.
15:20Like, there was a real chance that Augustin was going to hit 30 homers at the major league level this
15:26year.
15:26And it just didn't really work.
15:27Like, it was two homers who were struggling defensively.
15:30There's a chance that maybe they experiment with, like, a new defensive home for him or at least a part
15:36-time new defensive home.
15:38Joe Mack is, again, like, an amazing defensive catcher.
15:42Liam Hicks can hold his own defensively.
15:44Do you need three catchers on the roster?
15:45Maybe not.
15:46So, does Augustin experiment at first base?
15:48Does he experiment in a corner outfield?
15:50Does he DH?
15:51I have no idea.
15:52But, like, you would think with how much talent that guy has and, like, a big league sample of success
15:57that Augustin really finds it and recalibrates in AAA and he's back.
16:02So, you know what?
16:03I know it's going to pain, Hawk, but I do think Augustin is back up next.
16:07And I think Augustin is going to be a better person.
16:09It felt like he was team Davison there for a second.
16:12It felt like he was team Davison for a second.
16:13Because Davison's a big old human.
16:15Like, you said the word recalibrate.
16:17That's what it is.
16:17The guy's having a little funk or a couple errors.
16:20They sent him back down to get his game back together.
16:22That's those last couple guys on the roster?
16:26He's a young dude, man.
16:27Like, I don't even think he's turned 24 years old yet.
16:31So, yeah, it's just a total recalibrating.
16:32Like, that's the beauty of baseball, honestly.
16:35Like, the NBA, you really don't see it.
16:38Football, you obviously have no option.
16:39You're either playing or you're not.
16:41You only have, you know, so many plays that you've got over the course of an NFL season.
16:44You've got 17 weeks that you can do this.
16:46With the NBA, if you get sent to the G League, it's effectively Siberia, right?
16:51Like, you're not coming back from a G League assignment.
16:54Very young guys do occasionally.
16:57With Major League Baseball, it's way more fluid.
16:59Like, guys can go down to AAA.
17:02They can be amazing for two weeks.
17:04And then they're back up and they really hit the ground running.
17:06Like the Yankees, Anthony Volpe, the shortstop for the Yankees.
17:08He's been a punching bag in New York for years at this point.
17:12They found something good right now.
17:14They're riding a hot-handed shortstop, a kid named Jose Caballero.
17:17He's playing short for the Yankees right now.
17:19They optioned Volpe.
17:20So Volpe's going to go play in AAA.
17:22Volpe might be there for three weeks.
17:23He might be there for six weeks.
17:25He might be there for two months.
17:26But Anthony Volpe's going to be back playing shortstop for the Yankees at some point.
17:30Like, Augustine Ramirez is going to be back getting, like, big time at-bats for the Marlins at some point.
17:36This is not a relegation to Siberia.
17:38This is just a chance to right the ship a little bit, get into a groove, get into a hot
17:43run at the plate, and come back up and really help him when he's hot.
17:46Sounds like Matt Mervis might have a chance to make a reappearance as well.
17:50I mean, maybe not in our organization, but someone's going to wise up.
17:54Someone's going to wise up.
17:56Jack McMullen will be on the call tonight.
17:59Marlins, Phillies, game four of the series.
18:02You'll hear it here on 104.3 FM WQAM.
18:06Have a good broadcast tonight, Jack.
18:07I appreciate you guys.
18:09There you go.
18:10Jack McMullen, Marlins radio voice.
18:12And, again, you get Marlins baseball tonight right here on this very radio station.
18:18All right.
18:19We're going to take a break here, and we will come back with more Hockman, Crowder, and Solana in one
18:24minute.
18:24Actually, not one minute.
18:26It'll be, like, five minutes, maybe ten minutes.
18:28But we'll be back.
18:29How many minutes?
18:32About ten minutes.
18:39Can't find my read.
18:42Maybe because you keep it in the photo album.
18:45I'm looking for it right now.
18:46No, but that's my point.
18:48It's, like, who would keep something that they need to find on a daily basis in a photo album that
18:53keeps growing?
18:56Oh, it goes up.
18:57Every time it goes up.
18:59Maybe if you awkwardly laugh a little bit longer, you'll find it.
19:04Or favorite it.
19:05I saw Hock kind of vamp it a little bit.
19:07Just favorite it.
19:08How do you see favorites?
19:13This is crazy.
19:16This is crazy.
19:20This is crazy.
19:27It disappeared.
19:29I mean, could you imagine keeping...
19:31You need a piece of copy, which is written, keeping it in your photo album on your phone.
19:41Is the library the same thing as the other part?
19:45Because this doesn't seem like the same pictures.
19:51I don't know.
19:55Have you tried searching Ed Morse on the photo app?
20:03Can I find it?
20:09Hmm.
20:14I literally am not going to break.
20:16Jimbo!
20:17Jimmy!
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21:41This is Hawk, Crowder, and Solana.
21:44I have a package of frozen corn dogs in my freezer right now as we speak.
21:49I'm sorry to hear that.
21:50I'm sorry to hear that.
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