The adjective hit me like a line drive.
Wayne Randazzo, the television voice of the Angels, was detailing just how poorly the team’s relievers had performed. He recited the Angels’ earned-run average in the late innings, inning by inning. Over 5.00. Over 6.00. In the ninth inning, at that time, over 7.00.
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“The numbers,” Randazzo said, “are gargantuan.”
What a colorful, descriptive and absolutely apt adjective. Not the “struggling” or “scuffling” or “slumping” a broadcaster typically offers, bland adjectives presented with the assurance that better times are ahead. No team can win with that kind of bullpen performance, and no one can guarantee that better times are ahead for a relief corps where only the closer has a successful track record.
For all that has gone wrong on the field for the Angels in modern times, they have struck gold in the broadcast booth. In pairing Randazzo with longtime analyst Mark Gubicza, the Angels just might have their best broadcast team since Dick Enberg and Don Drysdale half a century ago.
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Randazzo, in his third season with the Angels, grew up listening to Harry Caray in Chicago. He filled all sorts of roles on the New York Mets’ radio broadcasts — pregame and postgame shows, clubhouse interviews and eventually play-by-play — before the Angels hired him.
That background, he says, informs his honesty with the audience. “Gargantuan” isn’t about trying to tear down the players; it’s about being forthright with the fans.
“I’m from Chicago, I worked in New York, and those markets do the same thing,” Randazzo said. “Carrying that through makes it a more respectable listen for the people that are really listening, which are the fans of the team.
“They know what is really happening.”
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Joe Davis, the television voice of the Dodgers, knows Randazzo well. The two broadcasters trained together in the Southern League, calling games for teams in Alabama: Davis for the Montgomery Biscuits, Randazzo for the Mobile BayBears (now the Rocket City Trash Pandas). The two were in each other’s weddings, Davis said.
For the Dodgers, Davis calls a nightly all-star game. Randazzo calls games for a team that has not posted a winning record in a decade.
“I joke with people, but I’m only half-joking,” Davis said recently at Dodger Stadium, “that if this team had lost 100 games a year since I got here rather than won 100 games, I might not still be here.
“People enjoy when you’re delivering good news, and I have no control over that. Similarly, he and guys that cover teams that aren’t winning have no control over that. Maybe his upbringing as a Cubs fan helped.”
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Indeed it did. The Cubs might have been in their “lovable losers” era, but Caray was leaning out of the broadcast booth and leading “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” without a care in the world.
“When you’re 5 years old and you’re watching the Cubs play a day game at Wrigley Field, all that matters is that day’s game,” Randazzo said. “I didn’t even know if the game was important, but Harry made it seem like it was the best game ever.”
Gubicza grew up in Philadelphia, listening to Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn.
“At that point, the Phillies were really bad,” Gubicza said. “But every game was fun because they made it enjoyable and entertaining. They had some laughs together.”
Angels broadcasters Mark Gubicza, left, and Wayne Randazzo prepare for a game against the Miami Marlins on May 24. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Randazzo and Gubicza do too, which frankly is a stroke of luck on the Angels’ part, since the two men said the team did not have them do a trial run together before hiring Randazzo.
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On one recent broadcast, after a foul ball was lined back into the booth, the audience saw Randazzo triumphantly hold up the ball, which would have been the end of the scene on many broadcasts.
“I knew you had it,” Gubicza said on the air.
But then came the replay: Randazzo had ducked and covered as if he were doing an earthquake drill, before safely retrieving the ball after it had landed.
“Where’d you go, Wayne?” Gubicza laughed.
“It’s 100 mph off the bat,” he shot back on air. “What am I, crazy?”
Said Randazzo: “I think not taking yourself seriously is a huge part of this.”
There is a time to be serious, of course. Randazzo went viral last year when he used a retroactive change to a scoring decision as the impetus for a rant in which he trashed the league for choosing to take action on that issue amid “scandal after scandal” — the “fiasco” of the A’s move from Oakland, the “ridiculous-looking jerseys” with the tiny letters produced by Nike, the “constant pitcher injuries” and the “global superstar … embroiled in a betting scandal.”
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Read more: Angels upbeat about their future despite dropping back-to-back games
Davis might never go that far, but he fully endorses Randazzo and his approach.
“He has a really classic, big-time baseball sound,” Davis said. “He’s as good as anybody there is these days at recalling an appropriate thing from baseball history in the moment.
“He has this huge bank of information and stories that a guy his age typically doesn’t have, and he has the confidence to tap into it. I’m a huge fan of his.”
On the air during one of the recent Dodgers-Angels games, Randazzo shouted out Davis and broadcast partner Orel Hershiser, then pointed out how staggeringly high the decibel level is at Dodger Stadium: “There’s no shortage of noise in this place. Ninety percent of it comes out of the sound system.”
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The Angels’ broadcast could use a touch more silence, fewer mentions of exit velocities, and more barbs like Randazzo mocking Sacramento fans for doing the wave while an A’s player batted with the tying run in scoring position.
“Nobody is ever like, ‘Hey, you gave a great statistic in the third inning,’ ” Randazzo acknowledged. “They’re like, ‘You made us laugh; you told a great story; you had a great interview.’ ”
Randazzo, 41, could earn his halo from fans if he sticks around long enough to see the Angels win again. He says he plans on doing just that, however long it takes.
Angels broadcasters Wayne Randazzo, left and Mark Gubicza in their broadcast booth before a game against the Miami Marlins on May 24. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
When we talked earlier this month in San Diego, Enberg’s picture was on the wall of the visiting broadcast booth at Petco Park. Enberg was dressed in an NBC Sports blazer. He left the Angels in 1978 and finished his distinguished career with the Padres in 2016, with national network stints in between.
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The Dodgers accommodate Davis so he can fulfill his commitments to Fox in baseball and football. Davis and Hershiser are a terrific pair on the Dodgers’ television broadcasts, but they did just 51 games together in 2023 and 60 last year, according to Eric Stephen of True Blue LA.
Davis said he and Hershiser will be in that range again this year. The SportsNet LA broadcasts have featured five different announcer pairings this season, down from nine last season, Stephen said.
Randazzo said he and Gubicza will do about 125 games together this year. He also calls Friday night baseball games for Apple TV.
“I love baseball,” Randazzo said. “I don’t ever want to not be associated with a team.
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“I wouldn’t want to be gone doing a football game on a Saturday or Sunday in September when the team is in a pennant race. I would be beside myself if I was in Morgantown for a big college football game. It’s just not for me, because I love this game and this sport so much. For my career, that would be a success.”
For the Angels, a September that matters would be a success. Randazzo already is.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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