Voice of Lansing Lugnuts — Jesse Goldberg-Strassler — getting shot in majors with Oakland A's
Jesse Goldberg-Strassler remembers his childhood growing up in Maryland when he would go to bed listening to the radio broadcast of Baltimore Orioles games.
It was those summer nights that really increased his enthusiasm for baseball and set the stage for a broadcasting career for the veteran play-by-play voice of the Lansing Lugnuts.
Goldberg-Strassler's broadcasting career will now include a call to the big leagues.
Goldberg-Strassler will be part of the Oakland Athletics' radio broadcast team for its three-game series against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park that begins Tuesday. He is filling in for Oakland broadcaster Ken Korach and will join Vince Cotroneo on the call.
"It's such a great opportunity and I'm grateful to Vince and the Oakland Athletics and the radio broadcast team for giving me this chance," Goldberg-Strassler said. "It's very, very cool. There's so many different ways that I've thought about it, whether that's grateful to them for the chance, grateful to the Lugnuts for allowing me to grow since 2009 or the entire path that I've come along ever since I decided I was going to go to college in order to learn how to broadcast baseball. This is very cool."
The 40-year-old Goldberg-Strassler is the latest minor league broadcaster of an A's affiliate to get the call to the majors for a series as Korach takes some time off this summer. Stockton Ports broadcaster Alex Jensen and Midland Rockhounds broadcaster Bob Hards have also filled in for road games.
Cotroneo pitched the idea of minor league broadcasters filling in while Korach was away, which gave Goldberg-Strassler and others a chance to spend some time in the bigs.
The A's reached out to Goldberg-Strassler about the opportunity in April. He said Monday there are enormous amounts of nerves ahead of his Major League Baseball broadcast debut along with excitement.
"Every single broadcast comes with nerves for me because it means something and I want to do well," said Goldberg-Strassler, who was named by Ballpark Digest the broadcaster of the year in minor league baseball in 2019. "If I don't have butterflies approaching the broadcast, if I don't have adrenaline pumping then I don't have my energy right and I don't have my mind right.
"For this, working with a new broadcast partner and a great pro in Vince Cotroneo and calling Major League Baseball, calling the A's, being at Fenway — it's going to be a new broadcast vantage point, it's going to be a new partner to work with. There are new expectations on me and there's a lot of uncertainty that absolutely brings nervousness along with all of the excitement to it."
From the archives: Meet Lansing's voice of summer - Lugnuts broadcaster Jesse Goldberg-Strassler
Adam Jaksa will handle the broadcasts for the Lansing Lugnuts' games Tuesday through Thursday while Goldberg-Strassler is away.
Goldberg-Strassler, who has been the voice of the Lugnuts since the 2009 season, said demystifying the position of broadcasting in the big leagues will be important.
"The backbone of being a Major League Baseball broadcaster is the connection to your fans and saying here's what's going on on the field, I care just as much as you and come along with me for the ride as we enjoy this together," Goldberg-Strassler said.
From 2019: Lugnuts broadcaster Jesse Goldberg-Strassler named as best in minor league baseball
Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @brian_calloway.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing Lugnuts' Jesse Goldberg-Strassler getting called up to majors
