the
andy poland show on esp n six thirty the sports capital got tony coming up at eleven
this is orials preview we do it every wednesday at ten thirty and we are
joined by one of the voices of the orials jeff arnold it does work on
tv and radio and uh... has some talents that we will get to uh... in a moment
we'll talk more about the team which is uh... off to a terrific start despite
last night's crushing loss in the bronx thirty one and seventeen second best
record in the american league east and second best record in the american
league and an opportunity last night to actually get to within
two games of the blue of the uh... of the rays who've been off to an incredible
start but uh... let's let's start with jeff
was a young man who is uh... worked his way up and we'll get to uh... how that
all happened but
uh... you have you have talents beyond just being able to talk that didn't
use start out hoping to be an umpire in baseball
and he had a idea actually i am part of the league probate ball for
one season i went on fire school and actually some of the people that worked
with their now doing a july baseball and some of them
so it's been it's been kind of unique my journey because
the people really done it i think the way that i've done it
uh... but but i can really like doing it
and it really had nothing to do with getting yelled at i mean i get yelled at
now anyways
but it it a lot of it was just uh...
uh... isolated
and you you spend a lot of time you know in the car you don't have any true
home games
maybe the broadcasting thing in college i was like
you know what after you're this i did it
i enjoyed it
but it's probably time to do the broadcasting thing and then kind of
started the journey from the miners to the majors well i would say this that
uh... it's really hard
to umpire and i i i got an appreciation of this when i was in high school we were
planned pickup basketball at the school and
well one day the umpires didn't show up for the girls softball game and they
asked us to help out
as girls softball and and i'm working behind the plate and i'm thinking oh my
god this is really hard so you you now doing major league baseball
on the air you
of more than most would have a great appreciation about how hard their jobs
are right
i mean it's incredible i think i'm part of a league baseball now is harder than
it's ever been in the we all see those boxes on the screen
and they're judged so harshly on every single thing that happened and i think
they won't forget sometimes is that the the guys that call the balls and strikes
they are so good at what they do and that is such a hard job and
the players now knowledge of the strike zones are so good
and they have so much technology and ways to
to tell them what they had what not to swing at and
and so there's a lot of pressure put on the umpires but they do a really good
job and
um... it's it's one that i i got to do for a little while and
and i was nowhere at the level that the the guys at the major leagues are but uh...
but it gave me no appreciation for what they did for sure yeah absolutely um...
the other uh... talented many don't know about with uh... jeff ronald
sings a hell of a national anthem uh...
uh... i i i saw it now they didn't have any video of you doing an actual game but
i saw you uh... i guess was uh... doing a video for
for whatever purpose have you done uh... anthems for major league games
you know i have back in twenty twenty when
it was coven and they were trying to get people to do national anthem
on my call from the team i think i mentioned it
off-hand early somebody did
that i had done the national anthem before but i was in the minder's nandy i was
the emergency national anthem center
so anytime that it would be a kid who would get stage fright
or maybe a bus of
kids from a school was coming out to a day game and they get stuck in traffic
or they take a wrong turn
or just it was a no-show i would sometimes get a a tap on the door from
the marketing director saying hey
you want to do an anthem for us tonight and i would usually say yes and
um... and so when the team asked me in in twenty twenty to do it it was
pre-taped and everything and i remember i was taking this anthem
and it was out in legends park it came in the art it was
the middle of the summer it was
so hot and so
i just try to take this thing as fast as i possibly could because i got swept
ripping down my life
and uh... and i have to do anything i thought that clock did like that
a minute fifteen seconds or something like that
and i didn't interview the next day with brian holiday who is with us at the
time
he calls me to take this this pregame show
and he said hey nice and at the last night love that
paid
and it was in a bit with the players is
they don't care if it's good
they just care that it's fast
i'd like to be the fastest on air at them
i can in yards uh... in the last
for years so
uh... but i have done it once i don't know if i'm going to do another one of
a couple of colleagues and they do it in this year
so uh... that the thing is the world bring a lot of really talented people but
i'm always waiting in the wings and the if something comes up for somebody
bale that i could
i could maybe do a national at the end trust me it's not only fast it's good
google it jeff arnel uh... national anthem by the way do you know uh...
susan wallman the uh... long-time yankee broadcaster
and i was very well in fact we were talking last night and i mentioned to her
uh... we have to do uh... do to do a singing performance or something at some
point she was recounting the story where
she did uh... i guess she was on the show early in the day and she did uh...
she was thinking something
i think over the holidays with him a carver
i like them a carver and that sounded that
that's not a little fun but
no her her national anthem are much better than mine
uh... she is uh... incredible
incredible performer and uh... you know hall of fame caliber broadcaster but
yeah i just did the very well no question i work with her at the fan and she was
a a train Broadway actress so she had a a little more extensive singing background
than you did but uh... but again you know yours was was excellent
for get to the team on you
paid your dues and
most guys who get to where you are have had to do that not everybody but uh...
uh... i don't know if you want to reveal this but i do know people who've done
the kind of work that you did before you got to this spot
uh... what kind of money were you making when you were with the Frederick
keys and and and doing more than just broadcasting the games right
right i will say that like the keys i was a full-time employee
but a little bit different than some other some other folks
uh... but i will say that they have a full-time job a benefit those two things
are very rare in the minors um... especially now
on back when i got the job with them which is my last part before i got to the
Orioles
i was fortunate that they saw the value of having
a broadcaster slash media person there the entire year a lot of times that the
seasonal job on but i still work a lot in the off-season so i would do everything
from
george washington men's and women's basketball to do any nd a g league to
any number of sports i mean i did pretty much everything from basketball
football and tv volleyball you name it as
i've kind of done it i even did feel hockey once and i pray that no tape
exist with that any place because it could probably work here
uh... but
but it was
it was it was probably like
i would say it's probably
what i was making at the end is probably about what a
starting teacher
uh... salary would be right now
would be my guess okay well that's a better so i thought
now when i started uh... with another minor league team
it was much different i mean you're talking about making probably five
hundred dollars a month mhm something like that span of
i don't know
six months something like that
and then i would have another off-season job there which is a little bit more
full-time
uh... i worked in an p r affiliate too but
i i will i do remember that uh...
my dad called me with my
my taxes after my first year kind of doing the broadcasting thing
it said
is cp a he took a look at my return and was like
i don't know if he's gonna make it with this amount of money that he's making
uh...
but you know what he's it's from somebody who comes from like a non-broadcasting
background has done with you and i've done
uh... i think that that now he's like okay i think it makes sense now
and i'm not sure if you don't find
no no i mean you meet kids they go i want to be a major league baseball
broadcaster okay well you can get there but here's how you have to do it and
uh... that some times drives people away but obviously uh... it did not for you
and uh... and you've reached this
this level of major leagues uh... which is great and congratulate you for that
we're talking to jeff arnel one of the
broadcast voices for the baltimore ariles on mass and and radio and uh...
you know we we talk so much about how this team has turned around since
at the ruchman came up but a year ago
this week uh... i don't know if that's all of it but you know what kind of
percentage
would you put on the turnaround uh... with ruchman now playing with the team
i think that it's been a lot of it i don't think it's been entirely there
we're bringing a high-pitched
right before at lead reese the one year anniversary on sunday in toronto
that the culture already started the turn before he arrived
but i felt like one he got in the clubhouse we had another year
and uh... i mean a lot of it and he is how will you pitch
and ruchman is just a really good catcher
that is great at calling a game
great working with a pitching staff and i felt like are
our pitching staff got an extra jolt
uh... when he
kind of came in here and then
offensively what he does as well getting on basis much as he does
knowing how to handle the bat and also the amount that he plays
i mean this guy
get off the yesterday and he needed it more than anybody
uh... he's in there basically every day whether it's catching d h what have
you
i don't think it's a hundred percent at the ruchman i'll say that but but it
a large percentage i feel like since he has been here
um... has been the reason why this team
i hit that extra gear and i feel like everybody realized
i want that we're actually arrived
it's not for this team to hit the next year
and they they certainly did i'm having a year last season that none of us would
have expected
and then this year are right now
in the second best team of baseball you know and in your you're not the only
one who talks about what he does for the pitching staff and and that's not to
take anything away from them but outside at tyler wells everybody's got an e r a
in the force and i think it illustrates the way they're winning how well they're
hitting and the timely hitting
that they're getting you know that that the bitches have been good hasn't been
great but the it seems to me the real difference this year is is the hits and
when they come would you agree
i would i mean it we had some some success kind of getting getting like that hit
that we needed we thought on sunday against toronto where
um... tie game and it didn't we were kind of stuff along and then finally we
get a couple of ron scored
uh... in the in the eleventh and then it turned into an avalanche where you
score five times and were able to close it out i also feel like
a big part of the team success again has been a bull plan i mean it was the
background i feel like the team last year
and this year again
uh... it's been one of the best bull plans in baseball
you know it's come out of nowhere
uh... we saw him pitch last year and a couple of games and
uh... you could tell the stuff was there but the results were not
and then
he comes out this year makes a couple of adjustments and suddenly he's been the
best release picture in all baseball
none of us predicted that coming on my songs for training once i was like okay
he looks better but
that i see
best reliever in baseball with a one point three
winds above replacement that's among mlb relievers definitely not
but i think with him and feel like spout east uh... and another guy to have
stepped up uh... i i think our ball pen is play a huge role in our team
success
i kind of expected
uh... but but i feel like if if the team can continue to get those timely
hit do well with runners in scoring position
i'm also get the productivity from from guys like melon's and on there which is
been
been key in in this month of may
i'm gonna hopefully the oils can go a long way
or else thirty one and seventeen uh... broadcasting them as a hell of a lot
better than a hundred and ten lost team from two years ago and it's a hell of a
lot better right jeffton working for five hundred dollars a month in the
minor lakes
all you are not you're not kidding i mean those are some
those are some tough days and i mean i still remember you know i worked for this
this really good production company and i would be in doing college football
and high school football so
i would take time off
uh... after
you know you get to a friday and i'd leave it at noon
and i would get my you know stuff and drive all the way up to do one game and
then i
stop off and and get a hotel into a college game the next day and then on
that are after was all over and prep prep for two football games such as you
know that a lot of work
uh... get in the car drive five hours back
probably find a mcdonald or sheets or something like that
and then actually collapse on a sunday so
those are some good times for certain reasons but
but it's much nicer now and that to have an oil team that's winning and playing
like it is
uh... it doesn't get much better absolutely keep up the good work and if
you and susan do a duet i'd love to see it
uh... i will i will i will talk to her about that when i see her today tell her
i said hi and uh... and best of luck to you thanks so much
appreciate it and it is there as jeff arnel to uh... as part of the
broadcast crew for the orials this is orials preview adley ruchman on his
first year in the major leagues and how it's gone will hear from that as we
continue with orials preview right here in the sp n six thirty
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schmooze it up and uh... watch baseball and hopefully what will be a very good
weather day for three o'clock start at campden yards alright now we just
talked to jeff arnel one of the uh... broadcasters for the baltimore orials
we talked about the effect that adley ruchman has had on the team since he
came up a year ago sunday and uh... ruchman the other day talked about what it was
like to come up and uh... how he's felt since joining the team in may of last
year
looking back here can you believe it's been a full calendar year does it feel
like it's gone by fast to you
yeah it's crazy
i mean it just feels like the older you get the more time flies by and
kind of gives you perspective on
how i guess the little time you really have the game
the appreciation that you have for it while you're here is
you know you need to take those seconds to reflect and really appreciate what
you have what's your favorite part about being a big leaker
i mean anytime i can step back and take that perspective
of kind of that uh... kid and everyone that
um... their goal was to be here playing and to realize how fortunate we are to
be able to play this game for a job and
let's be able to play in front of fans who
um... enjoy us and show up for us every day
um... i mean it's just
i mean it's truly a blessing um... and
every part about it is um... you know i'm thankful for it
what's one thing you would like to improve on
offensively defensively any aspect of the game moving forward
i mean to be honest there's always going to be aspects of hitting and
defense uh... that i'm going to be learning
improving upon i don't think there's going to be a time where i'm
just sitting here like yeah but i've made it my swings where i want it to be
i'm always going to be trying to get better
you've been a part of an incredible turnaround here since you were called up
the team's playing about 570 baseball among the best records
in the league obviously there's a lot of things involved with that but what's
it been like to be a part of such a dramatic turnaround and to see
the fans in the community start getting behind it since last season you were
called up i mean it's been really cool to see
just uh... from going on our win streak last year
um... to just kind of feeling the energy change
and um... everyone being excited i think
you know what happened known in our locker room was really surprised i think
uh... we all knew we had the potential and we just
we'd love the guys around us the coaching staff and everyone
everyone's excited to play every day so
um for us it's always just been trying to keep it in the locker room but
um the energy that we feel from the fans and everyone else is
contagious and we definitely feed off of it
what do you think about Baltimore as a town to play baseball in
you're obviously here for a big part of your
your year what do you think about Baltimore?
i love it um i i think everything about it the
stadium fans um love playing at home uh
i mean i know everyone else in locker room does too but uh it's
it's awesome i mean just the energy and everything uh backdrop like
it doesn't really get much better how good is this team
um i think for us uh it's it's tough to quantify but i think
for us uh we focus on playing good baseball
team baseball and um ups and downs we stay within our club house and
we have each other's back and that's a huge part of it
Adley ruchman having a terrific season he's played in every game has started 45
with the 48 either as the dh or the catcher and uh
catching is his trade he's uh not only terrific catcher but he's great with
the pitching staff as well he's got seven home runs 25 runs
batted in he's tied for second on the team and hits with
47 batting 270 on the year as the Orioles
continue to play great baseball uh and they had a chance last night to get to
within two games of first place but failed to do so as they gave up a
ninth inning home run to erin judge and then a walk off
sacrifice fly in the loss the series continues tonight our
coverage here will begin at 6 30 the Orioles close out that series in
new york tomorrow night and then they come home to start a weekend series
against texas and then cleveland comes to town for a
one o'clock game on memorial day on monday and then
tuesday is a night game and wednesday is an afternoon game three o'clock
start so uh orials continue to get it done
the second best record in baseball three games behind first place
tampa bay continuing their series in new york tonight