Minneapolis – The Minnesota Twins are shaking things up in the broadcast booth for their series against the Chicago Cubs. Play-by-play man Cory Provus is taking the series off and handing the reins over to Justin Morneau, Trevor Plouffe, and Glen Perkins for an all-players broadcast.
The retired teammates will also be joined by Twins starter Pablo López, who is still on the injured list with right shoulder inflammation. It’s a first for the veteran right-hander and a new experience that has a lot of nerves going into it.
“Petrified, I’m scared,” López said about his feelings before Tuesday’s game. “I know it’s going to be fun, I know we’re going to have a good time, I know it’s going to be very lighthearted. I know it’s going to be like we’re just talking about baseball. We’re talking about what’s happening in the game, but it’s live television.”
Fortunately, it’ll be an easier transition with the three veterans in the booth, who have a combined 14 seasons of broadcasting experience. The three teammates, who were all part of the Twins from 2010 to 2013, still spend a lot of time discussing baseball via text. For them, it’s also a nervous endeavor without Provus’ presence. However, they simply think about it as if it were any other time they’re catching up outside the booth.
“I’m excited,” said Plouffe. “I talk to Justin about the game a lot, still. I talk to Glen a lot still. We’re very much in tune with what’s going on, and we all have our opinions, but I think the thing I said before the series is it’s about the game, not us. We make sure that happens, so that’s kind of like where my focus is.”
“Well, our first hope is that it isn’t a disaster because Cory’s the grown-up in the room, no matter how many of us are up there,” Morneau said half jokingly.
“But I think we all know each other pretty well. We know how to give each other a lot of grief. We were there for a lot of big moments, not only in each other’s career, but also in life. So I think there’s a level of excitement, but also nervousness to it to see how it’s going to turn out, what it looks like, and hopefully people are able to enjoy it.”
When Rocco Baldelli learned before that López would be joining the retired Twins veterans, he knew who’d truly be filling in Provus’ role without him at the ballpark.
“Well, you need an adult in the room,” Baldelli said. “I’m sure they’ll find a way to have a good time. I bet everyone at home will enjoy this as well.”
The quartet of players is all known to be analytically driven in their approach to the game and in their broadcasts as color commentators. While it has been an asset for drawing in a younger audience, Morneau acknowledged that they might need to change their approach to how they normally broadcast to ensure they’re keeping every type of Twins fan engaged.
“I think it’s hard because as Dick [Bremer] told me when I first got up there, it’s called broadcasting, not narrowcasting,” Morneau said. “So we’re trying to appeal to as many people as we can, and there’s people that have been loyal Twins fans since this team moved to Minnesota. So there’s a balance there that you need to have.”
Still, if the opportunity presents itself to jump in on an analytical breakdown during any of these three broadcasts, they don’t plan to shy away from it.
“It’s going to feel more like a podcast kind of thing than a broadcast,” said López. “But if there’s a moment, we can analyze a sequence, analyze any pitch movement where they have to dive in, probably with Perkins. Which I know he’s always good at, diving into Baseball Savant and looking at movement and efficiencies, and things like that.”
Morneau, Plouffe, and Perkins had the opportunity to ask Provus for some play-by-play pointers. Plouffe also consulted with longtime broadcaster Chris Rose through Jomboy Media. They all agreed to take this in from their perspectives, rather than following the play-by-play broadcasters’ book.
“I’m much more of an unscripted guy. I talk a lot behind the microphone, so I feel confident in doing it, kind of, no matter the situation,” said Plouffe. “And I think that when you don’t script things, it comes out more natural and it’s a little bit more fun.”
“We’re not trying to do play-by-play, we’re not trying to replace what they’re doing,” said Morneau. “We’re just trying to do it our way, and hopefully, we give fans enough of what’s going on, but also we’ll go down memory lane a little bit. Tell some stories and all that sort of stuff.”
They don’t want to overlap with what their man, Provus, does for almost 150 games a season. Still, they expect that by the end of this series, they’ll have a newfound appreciation for the Provus, Kris Atteberry, and so many other broadcasters with the excellent work they put in on TV and radio over the years for the Twins.
“There’s no way we could compare to how good those guys are,” said Morneau. “We’re probably going to have a newfound respect for those guys, too, when we get done with this, of how difficult their job is.”
“Even though my dream was to play on the field, I really admire announcers and that part of the game,” said Plouffe. “Obviously, I grew up in LA, so Vin Scully was a huge part of my childhood. And to think that I get to do something like that is always fun, it’s not lost on me.”
The broadcast featured the players reminiscing about the highlight moments of their careers, with López chiming in about some of his teammates’ experiences he’s witnessed up close.
If Twins fans weren’t able to tune in Tuesday night, they will be back on Wednesday night with Morneau as the captain of the broadcast and Thursday afternoon with Plouffe at the helm.
