Pirates broadcaster John Wehner adjusts to calling games in covid era

John Wehner was used to living out of a suitcase six months each year from March to October.

For 11 years as a player, nine with the Pirates, and 15 as one of the Bucs broadcasters, Wehner flew with the team on chartered planes to different cities, checking into the team’s hotels during the Major League baseball season. Then life drastically changed as covid-19 nearly wiped out 2020’s entire slate of games.

The season eventually started, over three months late, and with many concessions in the interest of safety, especially for each team’s TV and radio announcers.

When the Pirates are on the road, the announcers are at home, in Pittsburgh.

Wehner, a color commentator, fellow analyst Bob Walk and the play-by-play guys they work with, Greg Brown and Joe Block, aren’t travelling to the other big city ballparks to call the action. Instead, as part of safe, social distancing, they are working from the AT&T SportsNet studios on the North Shore, calling the games by watching the action on video monitors.

It’s not the way Wehner wants to describe the action, but he said they’ve gotten used to it, even though it poses certain challenges.

“Sometimes you get locked in on the monitor that the folks at home are watching and you don’t have the view of the entire field,” he said. “So, you might miss when a runner is stealing second or you might miss some of the base running and defense that you would see if you were watching it (in person).”

Wehner misses being around the players, something he cannot currently enjoy no matter where the Pirates are playing. Interaction with the team is limited to Zoom calls with a few players per day and manager Derek Shelton. He said the lack of face-to-face interaction limits the amount of insight announcers can gain about why a certain player did something in a game.

“There are times when you’d like to have the access to the players to find out what a player is going through,” Wehner said. “You miss the conversations you have with the players. Whether it’s good or bad, you’d just like to have an opportunity to pick a player’s brain. I think that adds value to the broadcast.”

Wehner said it’s been tough not having fans in the ballpark.

“Ke’Bryan Hayes hits a game-tying home run in his first start and there’s no curtain call because there’s no fan reaction. It’s so weird. It doesn’t change how we call the game but not having fans has been the biggest difference for me,” said Wehner.

For now, Wehner is trying to focus on the positive aspects of broadcasting baseball during a pandemic.

“I have been surprised at the level of play. It’s better than I expected. I really thought that maybe there would be a decline in intensity since there are no fans,” Wehner said. “I give the players credit because it’s certainly different for them, too. Teams are continuing to play hard which I wondered about, especially for the teams that are out of (the pennant race).”

And there’s one other thing Wehner said that he’ll continue to enjoy for as long as it lasts.

“It’s a lot easier to get home without traffic.”