(upbeat music) Hi Im Aikem and today I'm here with Jesse.

Hi, Jesse.

Can you tell me where we are and what you do?

Hey Aikem.

Welcome into Jackson Field, home of the Lansing Lugnuts.

I'm the broadcaster for the Lugnuts, and I'm in charge of all media relations.

How did you become interested in sports broadcasting?

Grew up loving sports.

I grew up very close to the DC area where we have baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer.

And I thought, sports is great.

And I also love theater and I love storytelling.

And when you combine theater storytelling with sports you get broadcasting.

I grew up going to bed each night listening to baseball on the radio, and I thought I want to become a baseball radio broadcaster, just like this person I'm listening to.

And here I am.

What does a typical game day look like for you?

Wake up in the morning an come over here to the ballpark.

Create some stats to make sur that the coaches, the managers have all the stats that they need when they first arrive.

Put together the starting lineups and the graphics.

Maybe do some pre-game interviews Do the game notes.

Which is who has reached base in 19 consecutive games?

Which pitcher in his last te games is only allowed one run?

All those fun kind of things.

And then come up to the broadcast booth, get ready and call a baseball game.

Do you ever get nervous before a game?

If so, what do you do?

The answer is yes because it's exciting.

So that whole feeling of the butterflies it's about to be a broadcast.

We're about to go in there.

He's about to thro the first pitch of the ballgame.

That's great.

And I found that I can turn my nervousness into a really kind of positive energy by smiling.

Do you guys talk to the players here On a daily basis.

I like to say good morning.

When I see them, I connect with their families because I get to talk right through the broadcast to their friends, family, sitting at home and let them know how they're doing.

Would you like to talk with one of the guys?

Oh, 100%.

Okay.

Let's go down there to the field.

Hi what's your name and what's your position here at the Lansing Lugnuts?

My names Jake Reinisch and I play outfield.

What does an outfielder do?

I just run out to my position.

I usually play left or right and tonight I'm playing right field and I just try to catch it if its hit to me and throw it into the guy that has his hands up.

What's your favorite par about playing for the Lugnuts?

I love the city.

I love the staff.

I love the guys on the team.

Just like the lifestyle.

You get to kind of sleep in a little bit and go out and play a game, which is a blessing.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Alright absolutely.

Thank you I appreciate it.

What's on piece of advice you would give someone who's dreaming o working in sports broadcasting?

I think that the first thing to do is to shadow.

To reach out to your local broadcaster.

To me or whomever it might be and say, can I sit in the booth with you?

I think it's so important to see what that person does and to take away the curtain.

And just to say, what is it actually when you're there with that person?

Shadowing is such an important step along the way to achieving your dream.

You make all of this sounds so exciting.

Can I try it out?

Yes, absolutely.

Weve got the audio board set up, we've got the stick microphone.

We've got the headset.

Aikem let's see how you do as a baseball broadcaster.

This is an honor.

Yeah.

(laughing) So a broadcaster, we have to paint the picture.

So here's a challenge for you.

Looking down on the Lake County Captains how would you describe the colors of their uniforms?

Well it seems like they have like a baby blue kind of going on.

I would say that red is pretty bright.

It's like a Ferrari.

Ferrari red.

See, that's vivid.

That's perfect.

I hear Ferrari red.

I can visualize it.

So now we're broadening the senses.

So it's what you see what the color and what the players are doing.

And by doing that, by describing what you're feeling and seeing and smelling, you're putting your audience right here with you.

Here is going to be a grounder.

Watch this.

Wait.

Now.

Okay, so he kind of hi it out towards the third plate.

And you know, our catcher picked it up off the ground.

Since you're right back to home plate for him to catch it.

There's so much of broadcasting where the brain needs time to process.

And that's what you just did.

So we've put it together all the senses.

We know where we are.

We're at the ballpark.

We know, we see, we know only smell.

We know what we're feeling.

And you just did some baseball play by play.

Thank you so much for the tips too.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

What did you wish you knew when you were starting out?

I wish I knew that I could, and I would like to tell everybody else that you really can.

I thought that the whole idea of being a broadcaster was something that you were either born to be or not.

And that is not true.

You get better with practice, the same way that the players are practicing every single day.

Take your time, see how it goes, see if you enjoy it.

Practice some more and you ge surprised how good you can be.

The more you do something.

The only way to get better a anything is to actually do it.

I remember being a kid listening to the game and so I love the fact that there's someone out there listening to me the same way that I was in their spot and I want to d just as good of a job for them as the person did for me as I was growing up.

I had a ball with Jesse Goldberg-Strassler and he told me home plate is where the heart is.

Explore your possibilities.