Nuts' Suchon savors broadcasting

MODESTO, Calif. -- With one out in the bottom of the 10th, the Modesto Nuts had strategically worked runners into scoring position against the Stockton Ports, allowing outfielder Travis Becktel to step to the plate with the chance to drive in a game-winner for Modesto.

That's when things got a bit, well, nuts. And up in the press box, Modesto radio broadcaster Josh Suchon had the call.

"The pitch gets away from the catcher. Here comes [Nuts outfielder Justin] Nelson to the plate. He's safe! The Modesto Nuts have won the ballgame, 9-8, on an errant intentional walk pitch!

"You've got to be kidding me! Now I've seen it all."

For the past 10 years as a writer for the Oakland Tribune, Suchon would have cursed such a bizarre play.

"It used to be that when it got late in the ballgame," he said, "I had to worry about my deadlines and writing something quickly -- especially when the home team is losing and they come back and they win they game.

"Now I don't have to worry about that. I just get to have fun and call the game. I get to get excited. It has allowed me to become more of a fan again."

And that's exactly why Suchon returned to Modesto and John Thurman Field, where he tried to begin his radio career a decade before.

Suchon had already signed on to call games for the Nuts during the 1997 season when he was informed by the club's front office of a minor snag: the team had failed to secure a deal with a local radio station to broadcast the games.

Unable to pursue radio with the Nuts, Suchon adapted by jump starting what became a successful writing career with the Tribune. He reported on prep sports for the newspaper for three years before being called upon to be the traveling beat reporter covering the San Francisco Giants.

In his time with the Giants, during the 2000-03 seasons, Suchon saw plenty of highlights, including the opening of (then PacBell, now) AT&T Park, Barry Bonds' 73-home run season, a 100-win team, four hometown Most Valuable Players, a Manager of the Year Award for Dusty Baker, a division title and a seventh game in the World Series.

But despite all the thrills and history, Suchon continued to miss radio.

"[Broadcasting] was the first thing I wanted to do when I came out of college," he said. "It's what I thought I was going to do, but it was taken away from me when I thought I was on a path to that goal.

"At first, I didn't think that I cared. I was like, 'Whatever. I was meant to be a writer.' But every year that went on, I missed it more and more, and I wanted to give it another shot. I didn't want to have any regrets in life. I didn't want to wake up five years, or 50 years, from now and wonder what could have been."

So after writing a self-published book on Bonds' 73-home run season, This Gracious Season: Barry Bonds & The Greatest Year in Baseball, and a brief stint covering the Oakland A's from 2004-06, Suchon began trying to revive his broadcasting dream.

The adventure came full circle when he was offered the job in Modesto, where Suchon has fully rediscovered why he set out originally to establish a career in radio.

"As a writer, you have to be objective, and it's weird because you're around the team every day but you're not part of the team," Suchon said. "A lot of people try to identify you as part of the team, but you're not. And you shouldn't act like you're part of the team.

"Here, I'm on the team. I can get fired up. It's my job to represent the fans, tell them what's going on in the game. That's really fun."

Suchon credits the players and the Minor League atmosphere for making the job more satisfying than its Major League equivalent.

"The players are not as jaded as the Major League players are. I don't think the money has spoiled them yet, and they still have a perspective on what is reality.

"In a lot of cases there's a sense of innocence with the guys. They have to pack their own bags, carry their own bags and split rooms. You don't have that in the Major Leagues."

But with the Minor Leagues comes the Minor League treatment, including traveling by bus instead of plane, smaller crowds instead of packed stadiums. And there is one aspect of Major League life Suchon does particularly miss.

"I get asked a lot if I miss the writing, and I say, 'I don't miss the writing, but I do miss the hotels.' It's the only thing I miss," he said. "I used to have a nice big king bed, all to myself in a Marriot or a Renaissance. Now, I split doubles in hotels like the Lamp Lighter Inn."

For Suchon, the perks come on the job, though, and while he must cope with the "added pressure of not having a delete key" when it comes to describing a play, he still prefers the freedom of broadcasting.

"[When writing] you get a lot of time to think about how to describe a wacky play, but when you're talking about it, you only get one chance," he said. "It's way harder. You can't get tongue-tied. You can't panic. You can't start screaming. You can't look down and say, 'Wait, who's the shortstop again?' And you can't talk fast, otherwise people can't understand you. You have to be clear.

"But that's what I want."

That and the freedom to say things like, "You've got to be kidding me! Now I've seen it all."

"You can't write that in a game story," said Suchon, smiling. "You have to have someone else say it. So now I get to say it instead of quoting someone who said it. I'm having a blast."