MEDIA WATCH: Spanish broadcasts stir up butterflies for Julio Cruz

tribnet.com DARRIN BEENE; The News Tribune

The Seattle Mariners' home opener is less than a week away and Julio Cruz is feeling that familiar stirring inside.

On Tuesday, Cruz makes his debut as the color commentator for the Mariners on their new Spanish language radio network. Amaury Pi-Gonzalez will handle the play-by-play as all 81 home games will be broadcast in the Tacoma/Seattle area on 1360-AM, KKMO Radio Sol.

Cruz said he experienced butterflies while doing a trial run last week just like the ones he had before each game of his 10-year major league career with the Mariners and Chicago White Sox. That feeling is a good sign, he said.

"I once asked one of my coaches why I got so nervous before each game and if I would ever get over that," Cruz said. "Vada Pinson, rest his soul, said it was a good thing. He told me that when that feeling leaves you, then you leave the game.

"So, I must want to do it if I'm feeling this way."

The Mariners think it is a good time, even with the stagnant economy and war in Iraq, to broadcast games in Spanish. In January, they signed a two-year agreement with the KXLY Radio Group to have home games broadcast here and to Wenatchee, Moses Lake, Yakima, Tri-Cities and Ontario, Ore.

KXLY, which has the rights to broadcast the Mariners in Spokane, also owns the radio rights to Washington State athletics.

"To start something from scratch we want it to be a success right from the beginning," said Randy Adamack, Mariners vice president of communications. "They know what it takes to get games on the air and make them sound good."

That shouldn't be a problem if the broadcast crew has anything to say about it - and they do, of course. Pi-Gonzalez has a distinguished 25-year career broadcasting Oakland A's and San Francisco Giants games and has called seven World Series. Roger Nelson, KXLY's network director of sales and operations, called Pi-Gonzalez "arguably one of the best in the business."

Then there's Cruz, the popular and bubbly second baseman who reached the Mariners in their expansion season of 1977. Cruz, who played in Seattle until 1983, remains the team's career leader in steals with 290.

It's his first radio job, but what he lacks in experience he will make up for in enthusiasm if the trial run at Safeco Field is an indication.

For practice, Nelson said Cruz and Pi-Gonzalez watched a taped game from last year against the Texas Rangers and called the action. At first, Cruz was talking as fast as he used to run. Nelson said he was a little "frenzied."

"We stopped everything and said 'Guys, this is two fellas sitting down in a sports bar talking about a baseball game. It's just like you're talking to one person,' " Nelson said. "After that, it was magic. It was like they had been doing it for 10 years. They've got an immediate chemistry that is just amazing."

Cruz admits that he was "tight" at the start. Nelson said once Cruz relaxed he did a good job of sharing his insight and is "very polished."

One thing Cruz, who was born in Brooklyn, had to sharpen was his Spanish. Because he speaks with a Puerto Rican slang, Cruz said he has a tendency to drop the "s" and to not roll his "r's" as much.

As far as how he'll handle his job, Cruz said he'll keep his analysis short so that he doesn't talk during the action and he'll try not to be too critical. And he's got to handle those nerves.

"Some of these people are going to be hearing Mariners games for the first time," Cruz said. "I grew up listening to Vin Scully, Curt Gowdy and Joe Buck. And now they're going to be listening to Julio Cruz. Wow."

The Mariners and KXLY think there will be plenty of people tuning in. Since 1990, the state's Hispanic population has more than doubled to 441,509, according to the 2000 census.

Adamack said he's had plenty of e-mails and phone calls from Hispanics expressing their interest in the Mariners. Nelson said because of baseball's large number of Latin American players it follows that Hispanics would be interested in the sport.

According to major league baseball, 193 of the 827 players on opening day rosters (23.3 percent) were born in Spanish speaking countries (Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba, Panama, Colombia and Nicaragua).

"There is already a huge baseball population that is ... listening to the Mariners that would rather hear it in Spanish," Nelson said. "It's not like we are creating a new audience - yes, we're doing some of that - at the same time, we're taking a lot of the existing audience and super-serving them."

Darrin Beene: 253-597-8656 darrin.beene@mail.tribnet.com (Published 12:30AM, April 4th, 2003)