In Eric Bach’s chosen line of work, there is perhaps no more joyous call than the kind he received in mid-September, just north of Lynchburg on U.S. Route 29.
Bach, the Fredericksburg Nationals’ lead play-by-play announcer, was on his way home from the team’s Carolina League playoff series when his phone rang.
On the other end of the line was Washington Nationals Director of Broadcasting Wendy Bailey, who was reaching out with a potential career-altering opportunity.
“When she first called, I was like, I could hear her fine,” Bach recalled. “It was a normal phone call.”
But then Bailey started cutting in and out, Bach’s anxiety spiking with each gap in conversation.
“And I was just, like, deathly afraid,” he said. “Yeah, this is maybe the most important phone call in my life.”
He pulled off the highway and into the parking lot of a country store, all the while clinging to a single bar of cellular signal.
“So, you know, I got the gist of it,” he said.
The gist: the Nationals wanted Bach to fill in on the team’s official radio broadcast for three home games against the Atlanta Braves: a doubleheader on Sept. 16 and a game on Sept. 17.
‘No going back now’
Fortunately for Bach, his reception at Nationals Park proved far more reassuring.
He reported to the booth on Monday, which gave him an opportunity to observe the person he was filling in for, longtime broadcaster Dave Jageler, on the microphone, along with his partner, Charlie Slowes.
“They’re a machine,” Bach said of Slowes and Jageler, “and just being there Monday night allowed me to see, ‘Okay, this is how you fit into this machine,’ you know?”
According to his counterpart, Bach fit in just fine.
“You know, he spent the day before [his debut] around me, basically shadowing me,” said Slowes, who has been calling MLB games for more than 30 years — including the past 21 with Washington — a tenure highlighted by the team’s 2019 World Series title. “And we talked a lot.
“So, you know, most of it was me telling him stories. That’s the best part of broadcasting baseball.”
Bach had spent the previous three days more or less sequestered inside an empty Virginia Credit Union Stadium, scrutinizing pitching probables and relievers for both teams. He got on the distribution lists for both teams, which gave him access to an expansive database of stats.
“It’s a lot easier to prep for Major League games than Minor League games,” he said.
But nothing could truly prepare Bach for the opening moments of that first broadcast on Sept. 16. Jageler — the half of the broadcast duo for whom Bach was pinch-hitting — typically read the starting lineups before yielding to Slowes, who would lead play-by-play for the first two innings.
“Jake Irvin was on the mound for the top of the first inning warming up, and I’m reading the lineups,” Bach recalled. “And I’m like, ‘Okay, this is it. There ain’t no going back now.’”
‘Everyone remembers their first’
The broadcasting booth at Nationals Park is nearly 10 stories up, a noticeable bump in elevation from Bach’s usual perch at Virginia Credit Union Stadium.
“Don’t look at the ball because it’ll deceive you as to, you know, where it is,” counseled Slowes. “You got to watch the fielders and hope that they’re not misjudging the ball. That’s what helps you ’til you get used to how the ball tracks there.”
Eric Bach sits in the broadcast booth at Nationals Park. (submitted photo)
While the vantage point required some getting used to, Bach had no problem forming an informed perspective on the home team’s roster. It contained a host of familiar names, many of whom he’d pronounced over three-plus years with Fredericksburg.
“Let me see if I can remember everybody,” he said, mentioning former FredNats Brady House, Daylen Lile and Dylan Crews, among others. “It’s double digits.”
On Monday, Bach experienced a series of mini-reunions inside the Nationals’ clubhouse, where word of his upcoming pinch-hit on the mic had already reached players. Kyle Brostowitz, Washington Senior Director of Communications, later gave him the dugout card from his first game.
“I was just down there shooting the breeze with them pretty much,” he said. “It’s a lesser extent because I’m an announcer and they’re a player, but everyone appreciates a Major League debut who’s made it there, because everyone remembers their first.
“So, to be able to experience my first around a lot of people that I’ve known from my Minor League life, it was just really heartwarming and really cool.”
A feel for the game
You remember those baseball stories Slowes will tell anyone willing to listen?
Accumulate enough of them and you develop the kind of rapport enjoyed by him and Jageler, a Syracuse University graduate of broadcast journalism and something of an iron-man on the airwaves, calling each and every Nationals game from Opening Day 2006 until May 31, 2018.
“We can pretty much finish each other’s sentences on the air,” Slowes said.
Bach and Slowes obviously didn’t have that pre-existing level of chemistry, so the latter gave Bach his chance to shine on the broadcast, which could be listened to live on 106.7 The Fan and distributed to more than 80 affiliate radio stations across the country.
“I just let him go,” Slowes said. “Call the game. And, you know, I didn’t want to get too deep into like a back and forth with him because you can’t create something that isn’t there yet.”
And?
“I thought he held his own,” Slowes said. “I thought he did well. He has a feel for the game.”
The veteran broadcaster also suggested that Bach must be satisfied with his performance, given that he uploaded the clips onto his professional website within a day of “air checks” becoming available for download.
While Bach may have improved his odds of getting hired for a full MLB season, it’s still a numbers game.
“As you are trying to climb the ladder to the big leagues for a broadcaster, it’s you could say it might be harder than players,” Slowes said, “because there’s fewer jobs for broadcasters than there are [for] players.”
Sure enough, Bach has already listened back to his performances, which he noted “are mostly Matt Olsen highlights,” referring to the Braves slugger, who hit three home runs over the four-game series.
This time, the call was clear on his end.
“It’s just kind of like breaking that seal for the first time,” he said. “Like, you think you can do it, but now you’ve shown you can do it at that level… The lights aren’t too bright. Like, it’s baseball.”
