Ryan Ruocco On Calling George Lombard's First Home Run

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
Joining us now is one of my favorite play-by-play broadcasts, because I'm a huge fan of his. In a world in which media members just like to attack each other and criticize each other and put each other down, I'm the outlier there.

**Ryan Ruocco** (0:11)
Sure you are.

**Craig Carton** (0:11)
In which I acknowledge when other people are really, really good at their jobs. And I think Ryan Ruocco is one of the best young, well, he's not that young, play-by-play guys in America today. And he joins us now quickly as he gets ready for another Yankee game tonight, I believe. Ryan, it's Craig and Big Mac, how you been, buddy?

**Ryan Ruocco** (0:28)
Very good. And you know, Craig, amongst your many talents, I've always thought you just have a keen ear for broadcasting and an excellent pace, like really elite pace. So thank you for that.

**Craig Carton** (0:42)
Yeah. And listen, it's great that you're the voice of record now for George Lombard's first home run. If he has this stellar Yankee career, it all goes back to your call last night.

**Ryan Ruocco** (0:55)
You know what? Actually, it's cool, right? I mean, one of the things I love about doing what I do is you do, you get to be the soundtrack of moments, right?
And we all know, we all have moments as sports fans where part of our memory is the call that's associated with, right? For sure. I guarantee I say that in each of you guys, the way you know sports, the way you're fans, there's calls running through your head, right? For me, one of the first ones I think of is back at the track at the wall, we are tied, you know, from, from your buck, right? And for exactly in 96, you know, and, and that's the responsibility that you take seriously as a play by play broadcaster. And you take it even more seriously here with this organization, because you know, there's history here, you know, those moments.

**Craig Carton** (1:44)
So then let me ask you this, when you're preparing for a night like last night, and probably even more so than the night before, you know, when Garcia gets his first crack at being a New York Yankee, obviously he hits that home run, which gives them the lead, which is short lived. I always wonder this, you know, do you go in where you've not scripted, but you've planned, hey, if he should hit a home run, obviously the circumstance is what it is, but I'm thinking about a call that's going to resonate, or is it completely off the cuff in the moment?

**Ryan Ruocco** (2:16)
So I think it depends.
It depends on the circumstance and the situation. I try and be thoughtful ahead of time, just in the sense of like when I'm calling at the end of a championship, right? Like I want to know, okay, what would I like to say if it's an eight point game and we're hitting triple zeros, and it's not ending in some dramatic way, but I want to make a final call that's picky. Now, when it comes to something like last night, the only thing I kind of knew going in is I'm not just going to give a generic call, right?
I'm not going to say something benign. I want to try and come up with something that's unique and singular to the moment. I hadn't thought of the actual words I use, but I had thought about, I want to make sure I'm creative if it happens to Homer today. That's how it sounded. What's that you think about it?

**Craig Carton** (3:06)
It didn't sound to me like he came to the park, he left the park, that that specific phraseology was planned pre-game. It just didn't sound that way.

**Ryan Ruocco** (3:16)
Yeah, you are correct, Craig. I did not think of those specific words. The only thing I thought of was like, hey, I'm going to want to say something different than I would on a regular home run.

**Craig Carton** (3:27)
Got it, got it. And I assume that we are a little different with the Garcia home run just because the gravitas of Lombard being the starting shortstop versus the acquisition of a trade. I would think that the thought process is different on those two.

**Ryan Ruocco** (3:43)
Exactly, exactly. Like you go into a game and you know, now I will say as a game develops, sometimes you start to think about those things, right? Where you're like, oh, I see something happening here.
Like, let me start to be thoughtful or let me think about how I might be able to put words together if something happens. I think with Garcia, yeah, you're kind of anticipating this would be like a welcome to the Bronx moment. And so you're gearing up for it, but you're not necessarily being as presumptive going into it as you are with a big star debuting the way you are with Lombard.