Brooklyn's Fusselle calls it like it is

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- There's not much Warner Fusselle hasn't seen or done in his 35-plus years of broadcasting sports. He's met Ernie Harwell, called a 26-inning game by himself and hosted "This Week in Baseball."

Often described as old-school, a warrior and a throwback, Fusselle records his own stats, keeps all his interviews, doesn't leave the ballpark until 2 a.m. and still takes the train home.

Now, the native of Gainesville, Ga., finds himself calling games for the New York-Penn League's Brooklyn Cyclones.

So, on a rainy afternoon at the edge of Coney Island, Fusselle took some time before a Cyclones game to shed light on a storied career. Here's what he had to say:

MiLB.com: How long have you been the voice of the Brooklyn Cyclones?

Warner Fusselle: Since the team began back in 2001, so seven years now.

MiLB: How long have you been in the business, and how did you get involved with broadcasting?

WF: My entire adult life. I always liked sports, and I liked broadcasting. When I was in college, I was just trying to graduate and worry about the Army, so I didn't really know what I was going to do. When I got out of the military, I said I got to figure out something to do. I saw a late-night ad on TV from one of these sports broadcasting schools and applied for one in Hollywood, California. I got the job and I went out there. I was kind of tricked. I guess it worked out in the long run. Then my first job was in news, and it started out there.

MiLB: When and where were you in the military?

WF: Everybody got drafted. This was in 1968. They got me, and I couldn't get out of it. I put my two years in. I was in Fort Benning, Georgia. Then they sent me to Advanced Infantry School, which I told them I didn't want to do that because that was an extra year. Then they sent me to Korea, and there were major problems there and everybody got extended, nobody could leave. I was in infantry. Then, I finally got out of there and went to Fort Riley, Kansas, and did my final days. Then I got out, and then I had to get a job. I was just so happy I was out I didn't care.

MiLB: What about the broadcasting school you went to in Hollywood?

WF: It's no longer around, but it's called Career Academy of Broadcasting. They had Curt Gowdy and Merle Harmon and all these famous announcers, and they said they'd be your teachers and you'd go get to do Major League games and all this practicing. So, I applied for that, and I got it.

MiLB: Did you get to learn from all those guys?

WF: When Merle Harmon came to town, they picked somebody to go out and do a Twins vs. Angels game. The picked me, so I went out there and sat with Merle Harmon and Dick Enberg, who was doing the Angels. That was a pretty cool thing.

MiLB: What was the philosophy that Merle Harmon taught you?

WF: Merle Harmon said he was doing Minor League Baseball. He had a cold or a bad headache or something like that. He said on the air, "Please excuse me I have a sore throat today but bear with me." He got a letter a few days later from a woman who was listening. She said, "I love listening to your games, but I didn't want to hear ... you complain about your sore throat because my mother had just died that day of cancer, and I was trying to listen to your game to get away from all that, and I didn't need to hear that."

I've never complained if I'm sick or anything, I've never mentioned it, never said a word about it. I hate it when guys say they have laryngitis or anything because usually when they say it, you wouldn't even notice it. I've had games where I couldn't speak, but I just gutted out the best I can because some people won't even notice, and those that do notice, well hey, they're people worse off than we are.

That meant a lot to me. I never complained. I will have fun and complain about things like the rain when I get drenched or various other things that happen, but it's kind of a joke or tongue and cheek. It's entertainment to hopefully give the picture to the listener who can enjoy the broadcast and learn new things.

MiLB: So when and where did you get your start in baseball?

WF: I got a job Salsbury, North Carolina. I applied for over 100 jobs. One station called me, they told me that we have a sports guy here who's real good, but we think he's going to be leaving. If you want to come here, you can do some news. If he leaves, we would give you an opportunity to do sports. I came, and I went there. It was horrible, but it was in a good part of the country.

They had three or four sports guys that were really good, and I went around with them. Their normal sports guy, who they said would probably leave, was a guy named Marty Brennaman, who does the Cincinnati Reds jobs. I went around with him, and there was another guy there named Bob Rathbun, who does the Atlanta Hawks and the Atlanta Braves (stopped last year), and he was there. The main sports guy there was a guy named Leo Morris, who did Duke and Wake Forest. We were all there at the same time. At one time there were four guys who would do Major League stuff at a small station in Salisbury, North Carolina. I've never heard of that anywhere, ever.

So I left after about six months and then got lucky. They called me from Spartanburg, South Carolina, and said our announcer is leaving to go do the Baltimore Orioles. If you come up here and finish his (junior college) basketball season , we'll then consider you for baseball. So, I went up and I remember the first game I did. I didn't have a roster of the players or anything like that, and it was a double-overtime game, but I bluffed my way through that.

I ended up getting the baseball job for the Spartanburg Phillies, which is a great place. It's still my favorite ballpark today. Then I stayed there and did football (college and high school) and basketball for five college teams. I even did girls high-school basketball. When I got the ABA job it was in the middle of the season ... I did the last three years of the ABA after my stint in Spartanburg, North Carolina, replacing Marty Brennaman with the Virginia Squires.

MiLB: So how did you get to Brooklyn?

WF: I was in New York. I did Seton Hall Basketball for 12 years for WABC ... Then when this opened up, I said this could be a good thing, and it's Brooklyn. So here I am.

MiLB: You were doing all these national shows like "This Week in Baseball," why go to Brooklyn?

WF: Play-by-play is what I like to do best ... I called the Mets and said could you give me the name of someone with the Brooklyn Cyclones, I'd like to apply for the job. They said, "You mean you would do that?" and I said, "Yeah I would." I was lucky, they [the Cyclones] knew me, I didn't know them.

MiLB: Do you ever miss doing the national shows?

WF: If they could be done the proper way, I'd like to do them again because I have a lot of ideas. But people don't do those shows any more. I mean we came before ESPN, we started all this stuff, they said it couldn't be done. We did it. But I wouldn't trade play-by-play for that, because I've already done that, unless it could be done a certain way and at time when I could do it. I mean I can't do it now, this takes every second of every day.

MiLB: What's the best part about working in Brooklyn?

WF: There's a deli where I get a roast beef sandwich that's pretty good around two o'clock in the morning. It's the only place that stays open all night. I go in there, and the guy makes me a real good sandwich and I don't even like roast beef, but I eat that on the train going home every night.

The view here at night can be really nice. I did a game with Ernie Harwell here -- who started in Brooklyn -- and he said he'd done Major League games in 40-something parks. He said, "The view here is better than anyplace I've ever been." When you have a nice night and nice weather, it's a pretty cool view.

MiLB: How do you see yourself as a baseball broadcaster?

WF: My goal is twofold: to entertain and also to inform. They're both very important, and you can do both. But there's a fine line between being good and being corny or being stupid. I really stress the game itself. I don't like to be distracted.

Nobody will ever have to listen to me and wonder what the score is. But that's just a simple thing that you would think of, but you ask probably any broadcast student or anybody doing play-by-play what's the most important thing in doing play-by-play, probably none of them would say the score, it probably never occurred to them. They would think about their cutesy phrases and all these things they want to do. They don't realize it's important to give the score ... I think that TV has done that.

TV has created a thing where the game's not important. FOX interviews people during the game. When I see that I turn off the TV. If you interview someone during the game, it's like this is an exhibition, the game itself doesn't count -- we're going to interview some celebrities or do something, and we don't care about you. And that's my little sign of protest, I turn the TV off, sometimes for the rest of the night, sometimes for five minutes. It depends. I do it my way here. That doesn't happen here.

MiLB: You're a Southerner. What was it like coming to New York and being the baseball voice of Brooklyn?

WF: It's quite a culture shock when you come here from a tiny town in Georgia, but you can get used to anything. I like being in Brooklyn because of the rich culture and the history. I mean Red Barber was here and Ernie Harwell was here, some pretty good guys. Most of these guys were Southern guys. Mel Allen, a very good friend of mine because of "This Week in Baseball," he's from Alabama. Red Barber's from Mississippi and Florida. Ernie Harwell's from Georgia like I am. You get used to that, and I kind of pride myself being the voice of baseball in Brooklyn, telling a lot of stuff because there's still some good baseball fans here.

I think that was the most fun time ever if you were growing up in New York City in the 40s and 50s, and you could go see the Brooklyn Dodgers, the New York Giants and the Yankees. Put a nickel in the turnstile and get on the subway and go see two games a day, maybe three sometimes or a doubleheader. That had to be just the greatest thing ever.

MiLB: Is there anything else you want to share?

WF: There's just too much stuff.