Play-By-Play Man: The Shawn Tiemann Interview

Shawn Tiemann is the play-by-play announcer for The Great Falls Voyagers of the Pioneer League.  The Pioneer League is a short season rookie circuit that plays a seventy-six game season from mid-June through early September.  Shawn can be heard all summer long on KXGF 98.3 FM/1400 AM and on the TuneIn radio streaming service.  The Voyagers open the 2019 season June 14th.

CASEY:  When did you first become a baseball fan?

SHAWN: Being a St. Louis native, my love affair with baseball probably began right out of the womb.  It actually started with playing tee ball around four or five years old and that quickly developed into becoming a life-long Cardinals fan.  Growing up in St. Louis, it's a sacrilege to not be a Cardinals fan.  I played baseball in high school and fell in love with the smell of the dirt, the grass, equipment and gloves and all of it. It seeped into the subconscious of my mind.  I tried to emulate the infield moves of Ozzie Smith, Tommy Herr and Terry Pendleton.  I desperately wanted to be as fast on the bases as Vince Coleman.  Of course, my skills were nowhere near the ballpark of those guys.  As a young child of the nineteen-eighties, little did I realize all those nights I turned my radio on to listen to Jack Buck broadcast games on KMOX, that I was also super-charging my batteries.  On my dad's side of the family my Grandpa Tiemann also had a profound influence on my love for the sport.  He grew up in Illinois, not far from St. Louis, and was a Cubs fan! We had some wonderful times.

CASEY: What is your broadcasting background?

SHAWN:  I'm twenty years into my broadcasting career and a

Shawn Tiemann

proud graduate of the University Of Missouri-St. Louis.  I spent my first thirteen years working full-time at radio stations as a news and sports reporter, all the while doing play-by-play for various sports.  I only recently joined the ranks of minor league baseball, serving as an independent contractor the last six years doing football, basketball and baseball. I started doing minor league ball in the independent American Association in 2013.  I worked as a broadcast assistant for the Laredo Lemurs in Texas that season.  I had the same duties in the same league in 2014 for the Sioux City Explorers in Iowa.  My first lead play-by-play job was in 2015 for the now defunct Joplin Blasters in Missouri, also in the American Association. My first affiliated minor league gig is the current one I hold and that's with the Great Falls Voyagers (White Sox-Pioneer League, advanced rookie).  I started with the Voyagers in 2016.  I am also currently the radio voice for Bixby High School football in the Tulsa area and the voice of Rogers State University men's and women's basketball (NCAA Division 2).

CASEY:   What sports broadcasters had an  influence on you?

SHAWN:  I've already mentioned the heavy influence of Jack Buck on me, as far as baseball broadcasters go. I was also a St. Louis Blues hockey fan growing up and Dan Kelly made a major impact on my listening ears until he passed away in the late eighties when he was radio voice of the Blues.  A lot of the old guard baseball radio men have come and gone.  At present, I really like listening to Ted Leitner of the Padres, Bob Uecker with the Brewers and Greg Schulte of the Diamondbacks.  The best play-by-play person on the planet right now does not work in baseball.  It's Doc Emerick doing the NHL on NBC.  His radio style call still resonates extremely well on TV because it's a rapid-fire sport.

CASEY:  How long do you prep before a game and what do you do to get ready?

SHAWN:  I'm also the media relations person during the season

for the Voyagers.  Part of that means I produce stat packs for home dates and daily game notes for home and away games.  The statistics are pulled from the MiLB website portal, so that takes a little bit of time every home game.  Copies of stat packs are made for each team's manager, the press box and visiting radio.  Most MiLB broadcasters or media relations personnel produce game notes which are individually stylized.  My notes for the Voyagers are twelve to fifteen pages in length and include a cover page that has written items and more detailed team stats.  They feature that game's pitching match up and the current/upcoming series schedule.  My notes also include individual trends/stats like hitting streaks along with team trends/stats.  They also have player's and coaching staff bios.  Those duties eat up most of the prep time every game day.  I also field requests for interviews with players, coaches and team staff from TV stations and local newspapers. Part of the everyday prep includes watching batting practice at the cage with the coaches and recording a pre-game interview with random players or coaches. I always find a small amount of time to eat a late lunch as my pre-game meal.  That usually is a sandwich with fruit or soup. I love soup, even in the summertime!

CASEY:  What are some of the most memorable games you have called?

SHAWN:  In the Pioneer League, every season seems to feature, at least, a wild game or two. Last season the Voyagers played a home game against the Orem Owlz where they trailed 10-0 after two and a half innings.  Great Falls came back to win the game 15-10.  Corey Zangari clubbed a career high three home runs.  It was the most exhausting game I've broadcast in my three seasons with Great Falls.  The Voyagers played a 15 inning game at Ogden that lasted just under five hours in August of 2016.  Great Falls had a no-hitter until it was broken up with two outs in the seventh.  It finished 2-1 Ogden.

CASEY:  What is the travel like, do you travel on the bus with the team?

SHAWN:  I do travel with the team on the bus.  We broadcast all seventy-six home and away games on the radio in Great Falls and online, including any playoff games.  Great Falls won the league championship last season.  The Pioneer League features four

Lindquist Field, Ogden Utah

teams in each division.  The North also includes Billings, Missoula and Idaho Falls.  The South features Orem, Ogden, Grand Junction and now Colorado Springs.  The previous Helena team in the North moved to Colorado Springs after the 2018 season.  The league pushed Idaho Falls to the North from the South and Colorado Springs now has rookie ball instead of triple-A.  The triple-A team moved to San Antonio.  The new rookie team in Colorado is called the Rocky Mountain Vibes.  Our travel within the division isn't all that bad.  Idaho Falls is the farthest trip .  That's about a five hour drive from Great Falls.  Ogden and Orem are in the Salt Lake City area and that roadie takes about nine hours.  Grand Junction is a thirteen hour bus ride back to Great Falls.  Add a few hours to that for the Colorado Springs trip.  The league schedule will change with the upcoming season and opposite division teams will only make either the Utah trip or the Colorado trip each season and then alternate going forward.  It's some of the best scenery in the country when you're out on the open road and you see one mountain range after another.  Lindquist Field in Ogden probably has the best ballpark view in all of the minor leagues.  I love being on the road in general but my least favorite part is the body atrophy that sets in when you sit on a bus for an extended period of time.

CASEY:  What is Great Falls like?

SHAWN:  Great Falls is the quintessential Montana town.  I love it.  The Missouri River runs right through the heart of the city and the countryside is breathtaking.  Great Falls gets it's name from a series of waterfalls along the river, which is where the Lewis and

Clark expedition of 1805 rolled through the area.  The falls now have hydro-electric dams and give the city its nickname, The Electric City.  In fact, prior to the Great Falls Giants of the nineteen seventies, the team name was the Great Falls Electrics from 1948 to 1963.  The baseball fans in Great Falls are boisterous and bring a ton of energy.  The die-hards really love their team.  Baseball has a long and storied history in Great Falls.  They've been affiliated with the Dodgers, Giants and the White Sox.  Pedro Martinez mentioned Great Falls in his Hall Of Fame speech recently.  A ton of Major League players have made their way through Great Falls including Bob Brenly and Raul Mondesi.  It's a great place to broadcast baseball in the summer.

CASEY:  In addition to broadcasting games, what are your other duties?

SHAWN:  The work never really ends, even following the final out.  After the post-game show sign-off , I have other duties before I hit the hay.  I write a game recap for the team's website that is also e-mailed out to various media.  Some in the media will post the recap on their websites.  I also handle posting relevant team information and game recaps along with feature stories on the Voyagers social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook.  If I'm not too exhausted, I try to find audio highlights to post on the team's Twitter for fans that didn't catch the broadcast on a given night.

CASEY:  Who are some of your favorite players that you have covered through the years?

SHAWN:  Since I have only worked in the affiliated minor leagues for three seasons at this point it's hard to pin down some of my favorite players.  Most of the guys in rookie ball are still a few seasons away from potentially reaching the big leagues.  I really enjoy learning about the players and coaches and diving into

Centene Stadium. Great Falls, Montana

their backgrounds and lives away from the diamond.  It's been a wonderful experience overall.  I've had the chance to meet some of the White Sox player development staff, as well.  It's cool when you see guys like Joel Booker, Alec Hansen and Bernardo Flores advance in the system.  All three have reached the double-A level in Birmingham after they played for Great Falls in 2016. Outside of first round draft picks, the White Sox typically send high-end picks to start their careers in Great Falls.

CASEY:  What advice would you give someone interested in pursuing a career in broadcasting?

SHAWN:  My advice for aspiring broadcasters is fairly simple, have fun.  Jump into it with passion.  Don't give up on yourself when job openings don't land in your lap.  Don't be afraid to make mistakes.  The best of the best make their fair share of mistakes, as well.  Learn.  Read.  Sleep. Bring energy.  Listen to others.  Study the craft.  Expect to be rejected and frustrated.  It's part of the beast.  Ask for advice.  Seek out criticism of your work.  Criticize your own work.  It's the only way to improve.  Don't have visions of grandeur in terms of income.  If you want to work in play-by-play sportscasting specifically, remember one main point...The game is out in front of you, describe it!

Shawn's Website

The Great Falls Voyagers Website

Baseball A Go Go Facebook Page