When Mike Wilner first rose from the primeval swamp that is Bathurst and Steeles in Toronto 33 years ago, it was far from a foregone conclusion that he would become a fixture in the daily lives of so many Blue Jays fans – including many Bauxites. But now, Mike is a familiar voice to many of us, as the studio host of the Blue Jays broadcasts on the FAN radio network, including the FAN 590 in Toronto.
Many of us at Da Box hope that Mike will one day (in the fullness of time, of course) take over as the Jays' play-by-play man. Until then, we are content to listen to him in between-inning breaks and conducting the post-game show, routinely giving the business to callers who display the less-than-clear thinking that call-in shows sometime attract.
Getting to where he is hasn't been easy. In fact, he's had to fight to get where he is today. Or at least, almost fight. “The closest I got to pro ball,” he says, “was catching in the bullpen of the Hardware City Rock Cats of the Eastern League while I was their pre- and post-game show radio host in 1995. Almost got in a brawl once.…
“There was a slow grounder up to the first baseman, and he fed the ball to the pitcher covering. But the pitcher, runner and ball all got to first base at the same time, and there was quite a collision. They got up, got in each other’s faces, and it looked like they might fight. All the guys in the pen jumped up and started creeping towards the field…. Sadly, cooler heads prevailed and we all sat down again. It would have been a blast to get in there... to take part in one of those great baseball on-field ‘dances.’ Heck, if I needed to get a sucker-punch or two in, I guess I could have. What are they going to do, suspend the radio guy?"
That summer with the Rock Cats (whose roster included Todd Walker, Aaron Fultz and Travis Miller) is the only time in Mike's life that he has lived outside Toronto. "I've lived here my whole life," he says, and he has the Blue Jays bona fides to prove it. "I remember going to a Blue Jays game at the Ex in 1978. I'm pretty sure it was against the Minnesota Twins, and I'm also pretty sure that Roy Howell homered in the bottom of the 9th to give the Jays a 3-2 win.”
(Mike’s memory is pretty good. We looked it up at Retrosheet, and it seems that the game was indeed in 1978 -- August 26 against the Twins, and there was a walk-off home run. But not by Roy Howell; it was Real Canadian Hero Dave McKay who hit the blast in the 10th to give the Jays the 4-3 win.)
Looking back, he says, “I think that [game] was the spark. My first World Series memory is '78, and from that year on, I was good and hooked. I played youth softball growing up, and played league baseball for six or seven years at Bond Park and Sentinel. I caught a no-hitter once, and once threw out five guys on the bases in a League Championship game -- those were the highlights."
Those who’ve heard Mike's broadcasts know his comfort with the principles of sabermetrics. As it turns out, the analytical side of his fandom developed early. "My favourite player when I was younger was [‘80s sabermetric darling] Bip Roberts. He was an on-base machine (at least, from the left side), stole bases with a high success rate, and played almost every position well. His problem was that he was slightly more fragile than your average pane of glass, he only played more than 120 games twice."
Mike is a University of Toronto graduate ("Psychology and Ethics, Society and Law -- a lot of good that's done me") and got his start in the radio business at U of T's campus station, CIUT, as well as at Toronto’s Cable 10, where he hosted a show ("Let's Talk Sports") from 1989 to 1995. "I also did play-by-play for the Welland Pirates and Watertown Indians. Of course, there were a few waitering jobs in there as well."
But he warns wannabe broadcasters against taking a similar route into the industry today. "Although the experience I gained at CIUT and Cable 10 helped me develop as a broadcaster, it didn't open any doors for me as far as moving to a commercial radio station,” he says. “Also, I never took broadcasting in college or university, so that didn't help, either. Almost everyone I have met at 680 and the FAN who is coming into the business has taken broadcasting in college or university, so it seems as though that's a pretty good in. I just got lucky, and worked from there."
Work that has landed him a job where the best part, he says, is "everything. The first game I did was at Fenway Park, Opening Day 2002, and I got to sit down between Tom and Jerry, two local legends to whom I'd been listening for over 20 years. Guys I went to sleep with at night when I was a teenager, with a speaker under my pillow. I watch the game, and I talk about it ... same thing I'd be doing if I was still a waiter, except I get paid to do it and thousands of people actually listen to me. Three-hour rain delays are especially fun, and I mean that sincerely."
In fact, there really isn't anything bad about being a baseball broadcaster. "The bad parts of the job are very minor ... a ballplayer not talking to you, someone getting upset over something you said. The absolute worst part is making a mistake on the air."
And yes, Mike Wilner is an unwavering perfectionist. Many of us will remember him showing up at Da Box a few days ago, to apologize for mistakenly referring to a Roy Halladay fastball as a curve on the postgame show. He even beats himself up over invisible mistakes – seeing "Fox" in a Marlins boxscore and blanking on Chad Fox's recent signing, he says "Fox got the win, Shuey the loss" and can't forgive himself for not using the full name.
So what’s it like working a broadcast? Not nearly as serene and fluid as you might think, Mike says. "You never see the media guides we tear through looking for specifics, the notes we refer to during the game, the discussions between innings about a play that happened or a move that was made the inning previous, the gallows humour. When the microphones are off, it's a different kind of place up there."
He generally arrives 2 ½ hours or so before home games, talks to Carlos Tosca (before every game) and various others. Some players are particularly fruitful sources. "Mike Bordick is a terrific quote; Frank Catalanotto, too,” he says. “Corey Thurman and Ken Huckaby were fantastic when they were here, always ready to talk, and always a good quote." Mostly Mike is looking for background information he can use on the air, as opposed to actual quotes. "J.P. and Keith Law are terrific for that. The coaches are the motherlode, though. Brian Butterfield, Gil Patterson, Mike Barnett, John Gibbons. All fantastic."
After talking to the manager and players, Mike prepares the out-of-town scoreboard, checks out the game notes, does his pre-game research and has his pre-game meal. Road games are different -- "I get into the studio about half an hour to 45 minutes before game time, having done a lot of the prep work at home already." He works until the conclusion of the post-game show, which can be "anywhere between about 26 minutes to about 57 minutes after the game ends." Ah, the precision of the broadcaster. Time is everything to these guys.
The post-game show is an opportunity for Mike to show his analytical strengths and knowledge. And he admits that if his callers don’t take a reasoned or informed approach to the team, they’ll hear about it. "I'm becoming a lot less patient,” he says. “I've let a caller or three (or more) have it recently, more often over the last few weeks. I don't need the callers to agree with me – in fact, it's often better if they don't – but I think the minimum requirement from a caller to my show is that he or she make sense ... make a coherent point and be prepared to defend it.
“Don't just call in and say ‘The Jays are becoming the Montreal Expos,’ or ‘The Jays have to open up their wallets and re-sign players like Shannon Stewart, because they can't win without them,’ or ‘I don't believe in on-base percentage,’ and not expect me to make you defend that point. I'll always defend my position because, obviously, I think I'm right, and I'm sure going to make you defend yours. If you have no idea what you're talking about, you're not going to have a very good time." Sentiments that most of us at Da Box relate to very well.
The one thing that Mike wishes every caller, and every fan, would remember is that "the season is 162 games long. When the Jays got humiliated by the Yankees in the season-opening series at the Dome, I was asked, 'How is this team possibly going to avoid losing 120 games this season?' I held onto my pre-season prediction of 85-88 wins, and I was ridiculed. When the Jays went on their run, and at one time won 12 of 13 games against first-place teams, I was asked, 'How is this team not going to win the World Series?' I held onto my pre-season prediction of 85-88 wins, and I was ridiculed. It's a long season."
Apart from his colleagues at the FAN, Mike has one broadcaster in particular he admires. "Dan Shulman. He does everything so well, combining knowledge of the game with sheer intelligence and wit. He works his analyst into the conversation perfectly, without necessarily deferring to his partner's knowledge. He never talks down to his audience and, of course, he's got those great pipes that I'll never have. The best television broadcaster the Blue Jays have ever had, and ESPN is awfully lucky to have him now."
Hopefully, one day Mike will be able to play the Dan Shulman role, to bring his entertaining analysis to a wider audience. For now, Jays fans who like their game the old-fashioned way are fortunate to have him. Stay tuned tomorrow for more of our discussion with Mike, when he will cast his critical eye over the current Blue Jays management.
BONUS : Mike has supplied us with a trivia question which we will open up to the readership.
In 1990, three players in the majors hit over .300 with an on-base percentage of at least .375 and had at least 100 runs scored, 45 stolen bases and 45 extra-base hits. Two of them were MVPs -- name the other.
Many of us at Da Box hope that Mike will one day (in the fullness of time, of course) take over as the Jays' play-by-play man. Until then, we are content to listen to him in between-inning breaks and conducting the post-game show, routinely giving the business to callers who display the less-than-clear thinking that call-in shows sometime attract.
Getting to where he is hasn't been easy. In fact, he's had to fight to get where he is today. Or at least, almost fight. “The closest I got to pro ball,” he says, “was catching in the bullpen of the Hardware City Rock Cats of the Eastern League while I was their pre- and post-game show radio host in 1995. Almost got in a brawl once.…
“There was a slow grounder up to the first baseman, and he fed the ball to the pitcher covering. But the pitcher, runner and ball all got to first base at the same time, and there was quite a collision. They got up, got in each other’s faces, and it looked like they might fight. All the guys in the pen jumped up and started creeping towards the field…. Sadly, cooler heads prevailed and we all sat down again. It would have been a blast to get in there... to take part in one of those great baseball on-field ‘dances.’ Heck, if I needed to get a sucker-punch or two in, I guess I could have. What are they going to do, suspend the radio guy?"
That summer with the Rock Cats (whose roster included Todd Walker, Aaron Fultz and Travis Miller) is the only time in Mike's life that he has lived outside Toronto. "I've lived here my whole life," he says, and he has the Blue Jays bona fides to prove it. "I remember going to a Blue Jays game at the Ex in 1978. I'm pretty sure it was against the Minnesota Twins, and I'm also pretty sure that Roy Howell homered in the bottom of the 9th to give the Jays a 3-2 win.”
(Mike’s memory is pretty good. We looked it up at Retrosheet, and it seems that the game was indeed in 1978 -- August 26 against the Twins, and there was a walk-off home run. But not by Roy Howell; it was Real Canadian Hero Dave McKay who hit the blast in the 10th to give the Jays the 4-3 win.)
Looking back, he says, “I think that [game] was the spark. My first World Series memory is '78, and from that year on, I was good and hooked. I played youth softball growing up, and played league baseball for six or seven years at Bond Park and Sentinel. I caught a no-hitter once, and once threw out five guys on the bases in a League Championship game -- those were the highlights."
Those who’ve heard Mike's broadcasts know his comfort with the principles of sabermetrics. As it turns out, the analytical side of his fandom developed early. "My favourite player when I was younger was [‘80s sabermetric darling] Bip Roberts. He was an on-base machine (at least, from the left side), stole bases with a high success rate, and played almost every position well. His problem was that he was slightly more fragile than your average pane of glass, he only played more than 120 games twice."
Mike is a University of Toronto graduate ("Psychology and Ethics, Society and Law -- a lot of good that's done me") and got his start in the radio business at U of T's campus station, CIUT, as well as at Toronto’s Cable 10, where he hosted a show ("Let's Talk Sports") from 1989 to 1995. "I also did play-by-play for the Welland Pirates and Watertown Indians. Of course, there were a few waitering jobs in there as well."
But he warns wannabe broadcasters against taking a similar route into the industry today. "Although the experience I gained at CIUT and Cable 10 helped me develop as a broadcaster, it didn't open any doors for me as far as moving to a commercial radio station,” he says. “Also, I never took broadcasting in college or university, so that didn't help, either. Almost everyone I have met at 680 and the FAN who is coming into the business has taken broadcasting in college or university, so it seems as though that's a pretty good in. I just got lucky, and worked from there."
Work that has landed him a job where the best part, he says, is "everything. The first game I did was at Fenway Park, Opening Day 2002, and I got to sit down between Tom and Jerry, two local legends to whom I'd been listening for over 20 years. Guys I went to sleep with at night when I was a teenager, with a speaker under my pillow. I watch the game, and I talk about it ... same thing I'd be doing if I was still a waiter, except I get paid to do it and thousands of people actually listen to me. Three-hour rain delays are especially fun, and I mean that sincerely."
In fact, there really isn't anything bad about being a baseball broadcaster. "The bad parts of the job are very minor ... a ballplayer not talking to you, someone getting upset over something you said. The absolute worst part is making a mistake on the air."
And yes, Mike Wilner is an unwavering perfectionist. Many of us will remember him showing up at Da Box a few days ago, to apologize for mistakenly referring to a Roy Halladay fastball as a curve on the postgame show. He even beats himself up over invisible mistakes – seeing "Fox" in a Marlins boxscore and blanking on Chad Fox's recent signing, he says "Fox got the win, Shuey the loss" and can't forgive himself for not using the full name.
So what’s it like working a broadcast? Not nearly as serene and fluid as you might think, Mike says. "You never see the media guides we tear through looking for specifics, the notes we refer to during the game, the discussions between innings about a play that happened or a move that was made the inning previous, the gallows humour. When the microphones are off, it's a different kind of place up there."
He generally arrives 2 ½ hours or so before home games, talks to Carlos Tosca (before every game) and various others. Some players are particularly fruitful sources. "Mike Bordick is a terrific quote; Frank Catalanotto, too,” he says. “Corey Thurman and Ken Huckaby were fantastic when they were here, always ready to talk, and always a good quote." Mostly Mike is looking for background information he can use on the air, as opposed to actual quotes. "J.P. and Keith Law are terrific for that. The coaches are the motherlode, though. Brian Butterfield, Gil Patterson, Mike Barnett, John Gibbons. All fantastic."
After talking to the manager and players, Mike prepares the out-of-town scoreboard, checks out the game notes, does his pre-game research and has his pre-game meal. Road games are different -- "I get into the studio about half an hour to 45 minutes before game time, having done a lot of the prep work at home already." He works until the conclusion of the post-game show, which can be "anywhere between about 26 minutes to about 57 minutes after the game ends." Ah, the precision of the broadcaster. Time is everything to these guys.
The post-game show is an opportunity for Mike to show his analytical strengths and knowledge. And he admits that if his callers don’t take a reasoned or informed approach to the team, they’ll hear about it. "I'm becoming a lot less patient,” he says. “I've let a caller or three (or more) have it recently, more often over the last few weeks. I don't need the callers to agree with me – in fact, it's often better if they don't – but I think the minimum requirement from a caller to my show is that he or she make sense ... make a coherent point and be prepared to defend it.
“Don't just call in and say ‘The Jays are becoming the Montreal Expos,’ or ‘The Jays have to open up their wallets and re-sign players like Shannon Stewart, because they can't win without them,’ or ‘I don't believe in on-base percentage,’ and not expect me to make you defend that point. I'll always defend my position because, obviously, I think I'm right, and I'm sure going to make you defend yours. If you have no idea what you're talking about, you're not going to have a very good time." Sentiments that most of us at Da Box relate to very well.
The one thing that Mike wishes every caller, and every fan, would remember is that "the season is 162 games long. When the Jays got humiliated by the Yankees in the season-opening series at the Dome, I was asked, 'How is this team possibly going to avoid losing 120 games this season?' I held onto my pre-season prediction of 85-88 wins, and I was ridiculed. When the Jays went on their run, and at one time won 12 of 13 games against first-place teams, I was asked, 'How is this team not going to win the World Series?' I held onto my pre-season prediction of 85-88 wins, and I was ridiculed. It's a long season."
Apart from his colleagues at the FAN, Mike has one broadcaster in particular he admires. "Dan Shulman. He does everything so well, combining knowledge of the game with sheer intelligence and wit. He works his analyst into the conversation perfectly, without necessarily deferring to his partner's knowledge. He never talks down to his audience and, of course, he's got those great pipes that I'll never have. The best television broadcaster the Blue Jays have ever had, and ESPN is awfully lucky to have him now."
Hopefully, one day Mike will be able to play the Dan Shulman role, to bring his entertaining analysis to a wider audience. For now, Jays fans who like their game the old-fashioned way are fortunate to have him. Stay tuned tomorrow for more of our discussion with Mike, when he will cast his critical eye over the current Blue Jays management.
BONUS : Mike has supplied us with a trivia question which we will open up to the readership.
In 1990, three players in the majors hit over .300 with an on-base percentage of at least .375 and had at least 100 runs scored, 45 stolen bases and 45 extra-base hits. Two of them were MVPs -- name the other.
