LANCASTER JETHAWKS: ALL-STAR EXPOSURE VOICE OF JETHAWKS GETS CALL FOR SHOWCASE.Byline: Gideon Rubin Staff Writer VISALIA - Minor-league baseball isn't just a stepping stone for players to make it the big leagues. Umpires, scorekeepers and even media all dream of making it to the show someday. JetHawks broadcaster Dan Hubbard is no exception. Hubbard has called every JetHawks game since the team's inaugural season in 1996. On Tuesday night, his California/Carolina League All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game played by the best players in their sports league. The players are often chosen by a popular vote of fans of the sport and the game often occurs at the halfway point of the regular season, although this is not the case for some all-star games broadcast will be aired before the largest audience of his professional career. The JetHawks are playing host to the game at Lancaster Municipal Stadium at 7:05 p.m. Joining Hubbard in the booth will be Matt Province, the voice of the Lynchburg (Va.) Hillcats. In addition to being broadcast on 1470-AM in the Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley , the game will air in Bakersfield, the Victor Valley area, Woodbridge, Va., and Kinston, N.C. The game can also be heard on the Internet by logging onto the JetHawks' official Web site: www.jethawks.com. ``I'm excited,'' Hubbard said, ``it should be a lot of fun.'' Hubbard decided to pursue a career in sports broadcasting while he was serving a two-year mission for the Mormon church The Mormon Church is a religious body founded in 1830 in Fayette, New York, by Joseph Smith. It is also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or LDS Church. There are 7.7 million Mormons worldwide. in Scotland. Hubbard, who grew up in West Covina West Covina, city (1990 pop. 96,086), Los Angeles co., S Calif., in the San Gabriel valley; settled 1905, inc. 1923. Before World War II, West Covina was a small rural community where walnuts, wheat, and livestock were raised. , said listening to Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, sports-broadcasting legends Vin Scully For the American architecture historian, see . Vincent Edward "Vin" Scully (born November 29, 1927, in The Bronx, New York) is an American sportscaster, known primarily as the play-by-play voice of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers baseball teams. , Chick Hearn, Dick Enberg Richard Alan "Dick" Enberg (born January 9, 1935 in Mount Clemens, Michigan) is an American sportscaster. Enberg is one of the most prominent and respected play-by-play announcers in network television history, with a career spanning more than forty years. and Bob Miller influenced his career path. After taking classes at Riverside Community College In addition to the main campus located in downtown Riverside, there are also satellite campuses located in Moreno Valley, Norco, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center, and the Rubidoux Annex in Rubidoux. , he enrolled at the Academy of Radio Broadcasting in Huntington Beach. He landed his first radio job in 1988 as a DJ playing '70s and '80s music at KDLX in St. George, Utah St. George is a city located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Utah, and the county seat of Washington County, Utah.GR6 It is the principal city of and is included in the St. George, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. , but he had to move back to Southern California because of an illness in the family. He got his first start broadcasting in the California League in the early '90s, when as a public-address announcer for the High Desert Mavericks The High Desert Mavericks are a minor league baseball team in Adelanto, California, USA. Their Major League parent club is the Seattle Mariners. They are a "high-A" class team in the California League, and had been a farm team of the Kansas City Royals since 2005 before the switch. , he was able to work the middle three innings of the team's road games whenever he wanted to. Hubbard took advantage of the opportunity and the approximately 100 innings he logged paid off. Matt Ellis and his father, Mike, of Clutch Play, the ownership group that manages the JetHawks, liked what they heard of Hubbard and offered him the job when they moved the Riverside Pilots team to Lancaster in 1996. ``We knew how good he was going be,'' said Matt Ellis, the JetHawks' vice president and chief operating officer Chief Operating Officer (COO) The officer of a firm responsible for day-to-day management, usually the president or an executive vice-president. . ``You never don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what's happening in the game. He has an easy way of communicating without being in your face.'' In addition to being the JetHawks' director of broadcasting, Hubbard, like many minor-league announcers, also serves as the team's public-relations director. ``It makes my job a lot more challenging,'' he said. ``I have two hats to wear and I have to wear both of them at the same time and independently of each other, but I try not to pull punches and I try not to be a homer.'' But the interests of journalism and the JetHawks do at times cross paths. In one instance last season, a JetHawks player missed the base rounding third and was eventually ruled out on an appeal play. Hubbard saw the runner miss the bag, but he didn't make the call on his radio broadcast, fearing that an opposing coach might hear him and admonish his players to throw back to the base. ``I don't want what I do on the radio to dictate what happens on the field,'' Hubbard said. ``Would Vin Scully have said it? Maybe, but you're in a situation when you don't know who has a radio. ``I work for the team. My checks come from the team, I answer to the team, I have to have the team's best interests in mind when I go on the air,'' he said. ``I'm obviously a major promotional tool for the team when I go on the air.'' The Visalia Oaks' first-year broadcaster, Marcas Grant, a USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. grad who also serves the team in a public-relations capacity, is learning how hard the balancing act can be. ``It's a weird situation,'' he said. ``You're around the team every day, but you have to remain neutral.'' Sports broadcasters face other challenges. Being separated from family for long periods of time is one of them. Hubbard goes through long stretches in the summer when he won't get to see his wife Tina, daughter Catherine and five-month-old granddaughter Lauren, who live in Victorville. ``I'm fortunate to have a very understanding wife who knows what my dream is, and somehow we've made it work,'' he said. The business of sports broadcasting is also fiercely competitive. Hubbard noted that there are roughly 250 working professional baseball broadcasters in the major leagues and the minors, and that for every job, there's at least a couple of thousand people who want it. Ellis understands Hubbard's ultimate goal is to be a major-league broadcaster and he is fully supportive of his endeavor. ``He's no different from a player who wants to make it to the big leagues,'' Ellis said, ``and it's just a matter of time before he makes it to the big leagues.'' CAPTION(S): photo Photo: The JetHawks' J.D. Closser will start in the California/Carolina League All-Star Game on Tuesday. Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer |
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