Jim Weber’s journey to become the dean of minor league baseball broadcasting began in 1969.

As of June 4, he has broadcasted 4,344 games for the Mud Hens. He is the longest tenured broadcaster in the minor leagues. He has been called the Cal Ripken Jr. of broadcasting.

“When I got to the 3,000-game mark, I started getting it,” Weber said, referring to the Ripken Jr. comparison.

Weber got his start after a friend of his, who was a disc jockey, asked him if he wanted to help him broadcast Sylvania High School basketball and football games. At the time, Weber was a drummer in a band, but he liked the idea of a different career.

Jim Weber

“I thought it would be fun to do,” Weber said.

Weber became an unpaid color commentator, while his friend received $10 a game. After five games, though, his friend quit and Weber took over.

“Then I got the $10,” Weber said. “After a while, I knew I wanted to stay in the radio business.”

In 1975, Weber noticed the Mud Hens had been off the air since 1970 and he saw it as an opportunity.

He worked out a deal where he broadcasted 52 games in 1975 on what is now 92.5 Kiss FM, but was carrier service WMHE at the time. After bouncing around from WSPD to 96.1 FM to 1470 AM, Weber and the Mud Hens have found a home at WCWA 1230.

Weber did the radio broadcasts solo until 1987, when Frank Gilhooley joined him in the booth. Gilhooley’s last full season was 2007, and now Jason Griffin assists Weber with radio and TV broadcasts.

With this being his 35th season, Weber still remembers his first game in April 1975 at Watt Paul Park in Charleston, W. Va.

“I drove all the way there. I was nervous, but it went pretty good,” Weber said. “Things kept building from there.”

Hall of Fame pitcher and U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning was the first manager Weber worked with, as the Mud Hens were the farm team for the Philadelphia Phillies that year. Following Bunning and the Phillies and a stint with the Cleveland Indians, the Mud Hens were the farm team for the Minnesota Twins from 1978 to 1986.

It was during that time, in 1984, that Weber drove Kirby Puckett to the airport after he was called up to the Twins.

“I’ll never forget it. He was meek and nervous,” Weber said. “He couldn’t believe they called him up. I told him, ‘You’ve got to figure even if you’re only up a week or two, it would be a great experience.’ The rest is history.”

He was the last guy to see Puckett, who would go on to hit .318 in his Hall of Fame career in the major leagues. In 1990, Weber was selected to do the radio broadcast of the Triple-A All-Star game in Las Vegas.

“You can’t go wrong if you’re doing the game in Vegas,” Weber said. “We were part of a huge radio network, 130 stations, and we were on the Armed Forces radio, which was big because the first Gulf War was building up at the time.”

The Mud Hens weren’t very successful for Weber’s first 25 years or so, but he said the move from Ned Skeldon Stadium to Fifth Third Field in 2002 turned the franchise’s luck around. He has been behind the microphone to see the Mud Hens win two International League championships and make the playoffs four times total since then — which is one more time than he had seen prior to 2002.

“To go from being a doormat in terms of a stadium, to having this ballpark being called one of the best is great,” Weber said.

In 2004, he was named the minor league broadcaster of the year by Minor League News. It marked the 10-year anniversary of his favorite on-field broadcasting moment, which was calling Jose Lima’s no-hitter for the Mud Hens in 1994.

“It was during the [Major League] baseball strike. I was on Sportscenter that night calling the last out of the no hitter,” he said.

Weber said that Eric Wedge, current Cleveland Indians manager, was the catcher for Toledo’s opponent that night, Pawtucket, and drew the only walk — which was the only blemish to what could have been a perfect game for Lima.

“He walked on a 3-2 count on a pitch this far off the plate,” Weber said holding his thumb and index finger just inches apart. “Wedge said the umpire should have never given him the walk. Lima was so fired up that he signed autographs for an hour and half after the game.”

In addition to his radio broadcasts, Weber also does TV broadcasts at times, while being the director of team travel for the Mud Hens. Broadcasting the games is like “riding a bike” for Weber as it has become a full-time job for him over the years.

Weber said people ask him if he’s going to retire soon, and he asks them, “retire from what?”

“I’m the type of person that I’ll do it until they carry me out of the booth,” Weber said.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Mud Hens, Sports.
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