Welcome to CATCH IT! — Joe Castellano’s personal observations about what’s going on in the world of sports outside of The Sports Virus Podcasts
I was walking down a street in St. Louis near Busch Stadium last weekend when I ran into Syracuse Orange radio announcer Matt Park. We were both there covering the NCAA tournament.
I hadn’t seen Matt in years so there was a lot to catch up on. Unfortunately, Matt informed me that the former “Voice of the Orange” Joel Mareiniss had passed away earlier this month. (Read story here on Joel Mareiniss)
The news of Joel’s death took me back 20 years, to 1996, when we worked as radio broadcast partners on the Syracuse Chiefs broadcasts. That year the Chiefs were playing their final season at the old MacArthur Stadium. Our booth was either freezing or blazing hot, featuring none of the modern amenities that are in most minor league stadiums today. We were lucky enough to have a phone line that worked to get us on the air.
When I initially worked with Joel it was a major adjustment for me. The first 5 years of my minor league career were spent in Class A in Geneva, NY, Bend, OR and Rancho Cucamonga, CA where I worked alone for every game. That meant that if I wasn’t talking and there was a small crowd with no noise, every time I stopped talking there was dead air. Therefore, I was trained to talk straight through a three-hour-plus, nine-inning-or-more game every day.
With the Chiefs I would be doing road games solo and home games 
with Joel. I had to get accustomed to leaving air time for a partner and it wasn’t easy for me at first. Joel was doing the middle three innings of play-by-play and he loved to talk. It always seems like we were stepping on each other that first month. Plus, he was over 30 years older than me so all of my Seinfeld references were falling on two deaf ears.
Joel was kind of grouchy with me in the first month or so of the season. I think he was hoping to do more innings of play-by-play and was annoyed that he had to become familiar with another new partner. Matt Vasgersian was there the previous season and left after one year for a better job in Tucson.
Somewhere along the line things got better for us. The team wasn’t great, but they had some fun players to watch like CF Shannon Stewart and SS Miguel Cairo, who both had successful major league careers. Our catcher Rich Rowland took it upon himself to teach me the ropes in my first season in AAA. He was the one who told me I needed to wear a sports jacket on our flights (flights with a minor 
league team were a new concept for me since Class A only took busses). Ruben Amaro was one of our outfielders. He eventually became GM of the Philadelphia Phillies. Chris Weinke was our first baseman. It was his last year as a pro baseball player. He decided to return to football and had a scholarship waiting to play QB at Florida State. He eventually won the Heisman Trophy and played in the NFL. I remember him throwing footballs in the outfield one day and wondering why he wasn’t already on a gridiron somewhere. Especially since I think he was hitting about .220.
Richie Hebner was our manager and he was quite a character. I don’t
think he could get through a sentence without using the “F” word. He was fun to be around. I remember our opener in Scranton with Richie coaching third base in 30 degree weather. He looked like a frozen stick. It started snowing and I thought to myself “do I really want to live in this part of the country?”
MacArthur Stadium didn’t draw big crowds and there was not a lot of nostalgia for that last season. The memorable characteristic of the park was the dimensions in center field which stretched out to 434 feet! Legend had it that Carlos Delgado was the only player to hit it over the fence in straight away center.
Shannon Stewart provided the most theatrics that I can ever recall in a two-game span. He started a triple play in Pawtucket with a catch near the fence (it looked like a trap to me) and threw the ball back into the infield to nail two runners who had taken off without tagging up because they also thought there was a trap instead of a catch.
The next day in Columbus, Stewart hit an inside the park grand slam. He lined one down the right field line and flew around the bases in no time on that artificial turf at Cooper Stadium.
As the season went along, I started to getting along better with Joel. We had some good laughs and even went golfing together several times that summer.
We both had to weather an extremely embarrassing broadcast one day when the Ottawa Lynx came to town for a doubleheader. The Lynx had no radio announcer and no PR director to help us with any notes and information. The roster had a few numbers that didn’t match the players on the field. The moment was rife for a major gaffe.
Game one of the doubleheader was supposed to have a kid named Rodney Henderson on the mound for Ottawa. As the game began I noticed that his uniform number wasn’t even on the roster, but we were assured by folks in the press box that Henderson was indeed on the mound.
What a great pitching performance we were seeing from Henderson. “Strike three!” I announced. “Got him with another slider.” “He struck him out!” barked Mareiniss.
Henderson was rolling. Eight strikeouts in the first five innings as I recall.
As we got to the 6th inning, all of a sudden there was a tap on my shoulder. The PA announcer Chris Granozio was trying to talk to me but I was on the air, so I motioned to write it down. That piece of paper provided bad news that I couldn’t believe. All along it was not Rodney Henderson having a great day. Jose Paniagua (who would eventually pitch in the major leagues) was the one dealing. Henderson was around though. He was flip-flopped and getting ready to start game two, all the while listening to us on the radio in the clubhouse and getting a nice kick out of all of it.
A bad day became worse when an AP reporter decided it was a good idea to mention it in his story which circulated all over the country. I felt like we were buffoons. From that day forward, I never trusted a printed lineup card. I would go down before the game and make sure of the manager’s lineup and if the rosters were wrong I was making phone calls before the game to find out why.
It’s funny how a baseball season can be so long, but go by so fast at the same time. I was starting to enjoy my time in Syracuse and developing good friendships with people like Matt Michael, the beat reporter from the Syracuse Post Standard newspaper and others working for the team. By the time August rolled around I was thinking about how much fun the final game at MacArthur Stadium would be and I was looking forward to the next season.
Then, for the first time in my career I experienced what most people 
experience at some point. There would be no next season for me with the Syracuse Chiefs. The team was giving up the rights to the broadcasts and the station would have full control of who the announcers would be. The WSYR station manager asked me to go to lunch and I was thinking that meant I would definitely be staying. Wrong. He took me to lunch to tell me that Ted DeLuca and Steve Hyder would be taking the mic the following season. No more Castellano and Mareiniss. Pretty sad.
Fortunately for me, Glenn Geffner left the radio position just down the Thruway with the Rochester Red Wings and I stepped into a great job there for six seasons, including opening a brand new ballpark (Frontier Field) and a Governor’s Cup Championship, both in 1997.
I’m not sure if Joel ever returned to the airwaves in Syracuse, but there were funny stories about him that will last forever.
The Chiefs had announcers like Marv Albert, Hank Greenwald, Greg Papa, Sean McDonough, Dan Hoard, Ken Levine, Doug Sherman and the aforementioned Vasgersian.
Hoard and Sherman accepted invitations to join us on the last broadcast at MacArthur Stadium. They came prepared with plenty of Joel stories, including two that I always tell.
Hoard (pictured left) was working with Joel and had a game where the trainer came running onto the field with his scissors bouncing off his side. Joel was focused on his scorecard, so when he looked at the field it seemed odd and sudden to him that someone would be running toward the mound who was not in a uniform. For some reason the scissors really stood out to him so he was in fear for the pitcher.
“…two outs in the inning…..and….wait a minute, there’ s a crazed lunatic running on the field! And, and, he has scissors!! He’s headed for the mound. Oh no!!” Hoard held in his laughter for a moment and said, “Joel, that’s just the trainer.”
There was also the story of Joel and Indianapolis radio announcer Howard Kellman. The Indians had a day game somewhere and made it to Syracuse in the evening. The Chiefs were playing another opponent that night so when Howard made it to his hotel room he decided to flip on the radio and see what was going on with the Chiefs.
“….well, tomorrow night the Indianapolis Indians come to town and that means long-time radio announcer Howard Kellman will be here,” said Joel “….folks, Howard has the worst toupee you’ve ever seen!”
Needless to say, it was probably sort of uncomfortable in that MacArthur Stadium press box the next day.
20 years has gone by fast. I didn’t even know that Joel suffered from Parkinson’s disease until running into Matt on that street in St. Louis.
The day after seeing Matt, Syracuse advanced to the sweet 16 with a win over Middle Tennessee. I know somewhere Joel is happy about that. Rest in peace partner and thanks for that one memorable summer.
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Artwork courtesy of: Suzie Armagost.
Welcome to CATCH IT! — Joe Castellano’s personal observations about what’s going on in the world of sports.
moments. No upsets. No buzzer beaters. No cinderella stories. No Sister Jean from Loyola Chicago on TV.
But now as we try to get back to “normal” after dealing with that bad version of a Virus, the 2021 NCAA tournament is upon us with a different look. All of the games from the First Four to the Final Four will be played in Indianapolis, Indiana.
was happy to watch the Trojans perform as the best team in the Pac-12 this season. Maybe it’s time for them to reach the Final Four for the first time since 1954! But, I fear that Oregon might be the team from the conference that makes a deeper run in Indy.
I was the radio play-by-play voice of the Siena Saints from 1998-2002 and had a chance to call two NCAA tournament games. In 1999 under Paul Hewitt, Siena lost to Arkansas in the first round. Then in 2002 under Rob Lanier, the Saints lost to eventual champion Maryland, also in the first round (Siena had the lead for awhile in that one). The Saints are the best team in the MAAC heading into their conference tournament so I like their chances of getting to Indy. Katz predicts a #15 seed for Siena and a matchup with #2 Alabama. Since #15 are 8-132 all time against #2 seeds it seems like a tall order to expect the Saints to advance, but consider some of the recent upsets-#15 seeds have won four first round games in the last eight NCAA tournaments. This might be the season the Saints do some damage: NCAA.COM.
I had the privilege of spending five seasons working alongside Joe in the radio booth covering the Rochester Red Wings (1998-2002). He was a kind soul with an easy going personality. Everyone loved Alto.
days managing the San Francisco Giants. I loved to reminisce about my hometown Giants with Joe, asking him what it was like to manage Jack Clark (my favorite player when I was in high school) or about his memories of Mike Ivie’s grand slam against the Dodgers in 1978. He had the Giants in first place for a while that season.
proud of playing him every inning of every game during his record playing streak.
another title with Alto in that booth. We won the Governor’s Cup in 1997, the year before he started broadcasting with me. Then the team fell flat in the years when we were together. But, that doesn’t diminish the joy we had and the cherished memories I have of that special time in my life.
Well, it’s not like I just realized this today, but the reality of it really set in after my recent experience at Citi Field, where I took in a September game between the Mets and Dodgers.
the feeling of a real ticket in my hand and I remember reading the notice on the back about a rain check. I can still smell the big pretzels cooking outside on a hot barbecue. A vendor yelling “Hey, program here, hey yearbook” was the first sound I remember. Of course there was the 
blaring sound of airplanes flying in and out of LaGuardia airport. Getting a scorecard and sharpened pencil was a huge priority. Gotta buy one of those plastic batting helmets to wear and definitely a mini helmet that holds soft serve ice cream!
I went to several games as a kid many with nose-bleed seats. One time I vividly remember all I could see was the foul pole right in front of us. That didn’t bother me though. The ballpark always felt like home. Shea eventually became a worn and outdated place. It still held its charm for me, but I understand it was time to move on.
You can enter the ballpark in the “Tom Seaver” gate. Very cool. I once had him as a guest during a game when I was the AAA play-by-play announcer for the Rochester Red Wings. He came on the air for an inning and kept playing with the nobs on our audio mixer. He got a real kick out of having the power to turn down my microphone and silence me for a few seconds. Here is this Hall of Famer, one of my childhood idols, playing games with my audio and making me laugh.
view. It only cost $14 for a ticket on the Game Time app and there are plenty of empty seats if I want to move around. I’m a bit surprised. After all, the Mets are in the middle of a chase for a Wild Card berth. However, the intensity of the crowd just isn’t there. No airplane noise either. Did they change the flight patterns for Citi Field? It’s in the same place where Shea was standing and the plane sound used to be deafening.
defensively. At one point I noticed Dodgers third baseman Chris Taylor reaching into his back pocket for one of those cards. He started to study it while walking to his left, then he stopped, studied it some more and turned to his right. Eventually he ended up playing in a conventional spot where third basemen have normally played for over 100 years. All of that data and somehow it seemed like a good idea to play the hitter “straight up.” Chalk one up for old-school baseball.
The most disappointing part of the night on the field came in the late innings of a close game. Mets All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso came to the plate. The kid is a shoo-in for NL Rookie of the year honors. He set the Mets single season home run record and is going to end up with over 50 bombs. An amazing season to say the least.
in the 1950’s. T
Francis Ford Coppola’s Virginia Dare Winery in association with the Sonoma Stompers actively searched for the best women baseball players in the United States to come and join the team.
“My family would play coed baseball games and inevitably the star player would always be an aunt who could run and hit and that made the games so much more fun,” said Francis Ford Coppola. “When watching major league baseball, I always wondered why there couldn’t be a coed team. It’s the one major sport in which weight and strength come less into play. So when my Sonoma winery became involved with the Stompers, I had the opportunity to turn this thought into a reality and recruit these amazing women capable of playing alongside men.”
my first contact with the young lady who would help the Stompers make big news exactly three months later. I made sure she didn’t think this was an “April Fool” joke, explaining that we were interested in coming to watch her play in one of her high school games and there was a good possibly that we would invite her to play some pro baseball this summer. Justine Siegal (baseballforall.com) identified Kelsie as a woman who would probably be interested in playing for us among a group of players from Team USA.
We arrived at the field and watched Kelsie, a senior, interact with her teammates. You could tell they had a lot of fun together despite the rough won/loss record. The first thing I noticed about Kelsie was the handshake – very strong. She was supremely confident and comfortable in her surroundings.
Valley High (she only made one pitching appearance this season, but is one of the pitchers for Team USA). We noticed on a base hit to left field that a runner was held up at third base, not willing to take a risk against her good arm.
High 90-degree temperatures and high humidity made for a sweaty three days at the USA Baseball complex, where we saw the open tryout for Team USA. A team that would compete in the 2016 women’s baseball World Cup in South Korea would be chosen from this pool of under 100 players, the best the United States has to offer.
42-year-old Oakland, California native Tamara Holmes has been playing baseball longer than anyone on the field here. In fact, she was on the Colorado Silver Bullets back in 1996. 20 years ago she hit the first and only home run in Silver Bullets history. That power was still evident in Cary. She was unable to play for the Stompers this season because of her job running a cross fit and Olympic lifting gym.
Stacy Piagno threw a no-hitter at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto for the US against Puerto Rico. She didn’t pitch the first day of the tryouts, but I noticed her excellent and accurate arm playing third base. The next day we saw her pitch with a big-breaking, knuckle-curve that was buckling some knees. Piagno told us she would be interested in playing in Sonoma and it could work out great since she is transitioning into a teaching career and has time to play in the summer. One of her teaching credential tests came on June 30 in Jacksonville, Florida. In order to make our “history-making” game Stacy would have to fly to the Bay Area late that night to be in uniform for the 6 pm game the next day.
Game day was a media frenzy at Arnold Field in Sonoma. A day after Whoopi Goldberg mentioned the game on The View, media members nationally and locally were there to report on the event.
worked 2+ innings allowing 4 runs but only 2 earned. Kelsie started in left field and went 0 for 1 with a walk. The first pitch by Stacy was a called strike. Her scoreless first inning ended with a fly ball to Kelsie in left. Kelsie showed good patience in her first plate appearance, drawing a walk against a pitcher throwing 92 miles an hour.
DEVELOPMENT AND ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN IN BASEBALL
join the team. It was announced today that 17-year-old outfielder/pitcher Kelsie 
Whitmore from Temecula, California and 25-year-old pitcher/infielder Stacy Piagno from St. Augustine, Florida have been recruited and will play with the Stompers beginning on Friday, July 1st when Sonoma hosts the San Rafael Pacifics.
of Professional Baseball Clubs, will be the 
baseball team since the 1950s
USA in the Women’s Baseball World Cup in South Korea. Whitmore, who recently graduated from Temecula Valley High School, will attend Cal State Fullerton on a softball scholarship next season. Piagno, who threw a no-hitter for the United States team when they captured a gold medal at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto, Canada, played softball at the University of Tampa.
let nationally acclaimed baseball writers, Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller, implement a data-driven approach to evaluating and signing players. Lindberg and Miller chronicled their experience in the New York Times best-selling book, “The Only Rule is it Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team.” Also in 2015, the Stompers made international news when pitcher, Sean Conroy, became the first openly gay player to ever play at the professional level.
Veteran announcer Joe Castellano will call the play-
by-play along with reporter Kate Rooney and Stompers broadcaster Tim Livingston. The broadcast will begin at 5:45 pm PT with a special pre-game show prior to the 6:00 pm PT first pitch.
Virginia Dare Winery, American wines since 1835, pays tribute to America’s wine growing heritage. The existence of the 400-year-old scuppernong “Mother Vine,” a variety of muscadine, growing on Roanoke Island, North Carolina is intertwined with the story of one of the first English settlements in the New World, which later mysteriously disappeared without a trace, leaving nothing but a spellbinding story of mythical and mysterious characters – each of which grace the labels of our wines. Crafted with grapes from the finest viticulture regions in California, our wines are rich with characteristics befitting an American legend: Pure. Natural. Distinctive. Learn more by visiting Virginia Dare Winery located at 22281 Chianti Road, Geyserville, CA 95441.
2014 and is a member of the Pacific Asssociation of Professional Baseball Clubs. It plays its home games at Peoples Home Equity Ballpark at Arnold Field, just a block away from Sonoma’s historic plaza. The independent baseball club has had two players in its history signed by Major League Baseball organizations, as Sonoma’s own Jayce Ray was signed by the Boston Red Sox in 2015 and Santos Saldivar was signed by the Milwaukee Brewers shortly before the 2016 season. For more information on the team, visit StompersBaseball.com or visit the team’s Fan Shop located at 234 West Napa Street, Sonoma, CA 95476.
though? Can Hunter Pence have a healthy season? It didn’t start out well for Pence with achilles tendinitis right off the bat. It also was a bummer for Matt Cain to have minor surgery to remove a cyst before he could even throw in a spring game. How is Joe Panik’s back? Andrew Susac’s wrist? I saw Susac hit a bullet to left field for a homer. (
Mac Williamson!” Ok, I’ve seen the kid in San Jose and briefly with San Francisco. Gotta watch this AB before I head to the airport. Well, Mac, I was getting nervous about making that flight. You had quite an AB. I couldn’t just watch one or two pitches. Had to see the whole drama play out. Nasty slider, he lays off, ball one. Blazing fastball, fouled straight back, one and one. Curve, taken outside ball two. Fastball in, and Mac lines a bullet to left field driving in a run. Nice job.
This city has been awash in Warriors fever all winter and with good reason, but now it’s time for baseball too. After my encounter with the even year prognosticator I walked into Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco and there were Warriors and Giants shirts everywhere. They have a Giants Dugout store in the mall filled with Posey, Bumgarner and Crawford jerseys. Even a single Joe Panik jersey hung in the middle of the store. What, no Matt Duffy? (
obsessed with the Giants. Soon enough, the Shea Hey podcasts as part of Inside China Basin will begin again (