John From Albany - Interview with Cyclones Announcer Keith Raad Part 2

 

Photo from https://www.keithraad.com/

Before the Brooklyn Cyclones took on the Hudson Valley Renegades on Saturday September 11^th, I had the opportunity to talk to Brooklyn Cyclones Broadcaster Keith Raad.  

Here's part two of our conversation:

John From Albany: As you have brought up on your broadcast numerous times, Brooklyn is a tough place to hit.  Franscisco Alvarez seems to be hitting there no matter what which speaks to his raw power.  What can you tell us about the difficulty of hitting in Brooklyn? 

Keith Raad: Ronnie [Mauricio] struggled because he’s a switch hitter.  He would hit left a million times and the wind is blowing in.  So you hit the ball as hard as you want, it’s not going to go anywhere.  I remember Robinson Cano here on a rehab talking about the wind.  It just stops balls in the air.  It’s the opposite of a band box.  

We were is Ashville the first week where they’ve given up double digit home runs in a game – so what kind of player would he be there.  I think Ronnie will do just fine.  Francisco is a righty so he’s able to go out to left field a ton in that place without a problem... I think it got in Ronnie’s head a little bit.  He was trying to do too much…go to center, go to left, hit low line drives, that’s why his average was so low in the beginning. 

It is tough.  It is annoying.  The guys don’t like it.  We were having a lot more success on the road just because of that wind. 

JFA: Who was the biggest surprise in your time there?

Keith Raad: I think Josh Walker was a real big surprise.  He was with us for about a month before he shot up to double-A and now he’s at triple-A.  He’s an amazing kid.  He’s one of the nicest guys.  37^th rounder out of New Haven.  Who? From where?  

Had a real tough car accident in St. Lucie; it’s a story he’s told many time and he would gladly tell you if you asked him. He got into a bad accident and missed two years almost and he’s been amazingly impressive. 

And this year with our position players, I love Luke Ritter.  He’s an under the radar guy.  He may take a little bit of a longer track but he’s just another pure hitter, average power.  We see him everyday but we were amazed that Baseball America just put him in their Top 30 [Prospect List] and Pipeline just put him in their Top 30.

Another guy I want to mention, I’m a big Antoine Duplantis fan.  He’s a great hitter.  He just has to put on weight and build strength.  He just has to hit the ball harder.  His bat to ball skills are unmatched. One of the best pure hitters this organization has.

JFA: Speaking of Luke Ritter…”Ritter the Hitter”…”Light’s Out Lasko”…You’ve had some great nicknames for some of the players.  Is that just something that comes to you naturally? Is that something that you work on? 

Keith Raad: Always gotta keep it fresh.  Keep it fun.  A lot of people take this job very seriously.  It’s baseball.  Gotta make it fun.  Anything natural…rolling off the tongue.  I come up with some of them.  Billy Harner (Brooklyn Cyclones Communications Director) comes up with a lot of them.  His nickname for Antoine Duplantis was “Toiney”…Billy would always say “Toiney” on the spot.  Not going full John Sterling here but we keep it fun.

JFA: Out of all the players, who has been the most colorful?

Keith Raad: Francisco is a such a ball of energy.  This is just a small tidbit, in Hudson Valley there’s a clubhouse in Right Field, and outside the clubhouse, both the Yankees and us share a batting cage.  

The Latin guys are all friends.  The Venezuelans know the Venezuelans, the Dominicans know the Dominicans, everybody is just hanging around.  All of a sudden, Francisco’s kicking a soccer ball with a couple of guys from the Renegades and a few more people are joining in.  You can see Alvarez starting to create rules, do this, do that, who can keep the ball up the most.  He’s a competitive party animal. He likes to keep the competitive spirit going and is one of the most colorful guys on the team. 

JFA: Who’s the most fun to be around?

Keith Raad: Francisco definitely…he’s a jokester.  He’s 19 but he’s such a great, fast learner with the language so he can talk to everybody.  He wants to speak everything in English.  I practice my Spanish just to talk to him.  He doesn’t want it.  He wants to talk in English.  He wants to learn how to relate to everybody.  He wants to handle all the pitchers in English.  Because he wants to soak everything up.  He wants to do everything in English. 

JFA: 2019 was such a great year as the Cyclones played exciting baseball and went all the way to the championship.  How great was 2019 and what were some of your impressions on that you can share with us?

Keith Raad: To be perfectly frank when you’re going into a short season you are literally waiting on the draft to see who is going to be the team because you don’t know who these guys are.  Draft day…they are usually college guys.  The Mets had three “reaches” - high school guys early (2019 Draft Picks Brett Baty, Matthew Allan, and Josh Wolf), so they had to go with College Seniors for the rest of the team.  College Seniors have no leverage – they are just drafted and they gotta go and they’re not as skilled as that Junior in College that’s coveted.  So we are looking at the roster saying “Hey – I don’t know the kind of year we’re going to have”.  

We had a lot of guys that were just looking for a chance…it was like a team you watch in the NCAA tournament that has 4 year Seniors like a Middle Tennessee beating a Michigan State because Michigan State has a couple of Draft Picks…We had that Middle Tennessee state, 4 year Seniors, guys that have been around the block, battlers on that team that had some good skills.  Antoine [Duplantis] was amazing.  Mangum was great. [Joe] Genord was amazing.  [Luke] Ritter was terrific. These guys were unbelievable in putting it together.  

We led the league or were close to it in runners in scoring position {batting] because our hitting coach Delwyn Young always preached those money making at-bats with guys on base.  Get the job done.  Get yourself paid.  Drive in those runs. He always preached that. And they took that to the end.  I give them credit.  

Antoine, I was talking to him the other day about that because he was having his worse statistical year.  He was hitting .220 - .230 and he never hit under .310 at LSU.  They got the job done in the late innings.  It was a great year.

JFA: Whenever people talk about Jake Mangum, I always point to his production with runners in scoring position that year (Note: In 33 at-bats with 2 outs and a runner in scoring position in 2019, Jake hit .364.)

Keith Raad: And credit to [Jake] Mangum too.  He saw the writing on the wall two years ago as a challenge. He was a little over matched in the beginning and he has really changed his swing drastically.  He’s added muscle.  He’s driving the ball.  He’s not the old Ichiro slap hitter, going left, going right.  He’s really adapted. 

It’s part of that pedigree, they know how to be clutch because they want it and Mangum I think wants it.  If he sees a challenge and he’s not doing it right, then he’ll change it and do it the right way.   

JFA: The Cyclones ran a lot that year.  In fact they stole 4 bases just in the first inning one game.  Was the running game something that Manager Edgardo Alfonzo and First Base Coach Endy Chavez implemented?

Keith Raad: What Fonzie was so good at was knowing everybody’s strengths and letting them do their thing. He would put a couple of things on, but really, he let these guys [go]. If they felt it was time, they would go for it...Fonzie let these guys play and let them run and let them go on their own a lot. 

 Endy was a such a ball of energy with that too.  He loves the speed game as you probably know from watching him.  They let their guys play to their strengths.  

One of the great calls this past year from Keith Raad, Brooklyn Cyclones announcer. August 7th on Seinfeld night - "Boutros Boutros-Ghali…That was real and that was spectacular…" @KeithRaad @BKCyclones https://t.co/7Ld7xF8vhZ pic.twitter.com/AvJB0Tfz1G

— John From Albany (@JohnFromAlbany) October 2, 2021

 

JFA: You have had some great calls over the year – for example the Seinfeld game this year [Saturday night August 7, 2021] after the Cyclones won you said “Boutros Boutros-Ghali…That was real and that was spectacular…” just a great call.  What do you think was your best call? Winning that championship had to be great.  What is your favorite call?

Keith Raad: The Championship.  That’s definitely number one right now.  You grow up and listen to play by play guys talk about big calls.  They say don’t have something prepared.  Don’t be cliched, don’t be cheesy.  I just went into that game, I don’t know what’s gonna happen, I’m just gonna ride the moment.  And when Dom [2019 Brooklyn Cyclones co-announcer Dom Savino] was calling the 7^th inning, I could see the people getting up and feeling it, and really loving it.  

When you’re in the playoffs, you’re not really selling the same kind of tickets you are selling the regular season.  The people that are there want to be there.  They know it’s a playoff game.  They love the baseball part of it.  They are not there to see the mid-inning stuff.  They want to see the game.  So they wanted it.  So I felt like it was there.  

So I scribbled it down at the time and felt that if this is it, this is what it should be. I felt like I let the moment come to me.  That was probably my best because I felt like I let the moment speak for itself.  That’s my job to connect the dots between the game and the people that are listening trying to contextualize all of it.  

Wait 'Till Next Year?

This. Is. Next. Year! #AmazinStartsHere pic.twitter.com/U3bJum6FkB

— Brooklyn Cyclones (@BKCyclones) September 11, 2019

JFA: Thank you for time.  Best of luck in the future.