He speaks into his vintage tape recorder (yes, tape recorder) with all of the excitement of a kid who gets the chance to meet his favorite player for the first time as he sets the stage for the interview he is about to conduct with former players and various media members.
Borden is a radio guy, cut from the old cloth – someone who prefers radio to television. And given that his influences were Lyle Bremser, Jack Payne and Joe Patrick, it’s no surprise. He tells a story from the early 1960s that explains one of the reasons he loves radio so much.
“There’s a station based in New Orleans at the Hotel Roosevelt, 8700 on the dial, you can still get it, WWL – home of LSU football.” Borden said. “So I would be working the dial and all of a sudden I got 87 – it was crystal clear, just like KFAB – on a crisp, fall November evening, and LSU football is on the radio, beaming up north.
“I heard an announcer by the name of John Ferguson for the first time and he was absolutely tremendous," Borden said. "But what was interesting was, the engineering and the way they miked the field, the band, the music and the ambience along with the play-by-play. It was absolutely fantastic.
“That was another influence. Radio, to me, is the best. I like TV, but radio is just absolutely a tremendous opportunity to do play-by-play.
Even as he reflects back to the days when he called CWS games, he paints a picture.
“I was very humbled and privileged to be in the broadcast booth for the games,” Borden said. “It was very special for me as a broadcaster, as a fan, and as an Omahan to see the brilliant, shining diamond from that perspective.”
As you might imagine, he is full of stories about his days behind the microphone at the CWS. One of them involves a surprise he got one night.
“The Creative Sports Network would line up guests to come in for an inning or a half inning to talk about college baseball in between pitches while we were doing play-by-play,” Borden said, “If we were in the broadcast booth – where Westwood One is now – you were on broadcast row in your chair, and you were focusing in on the game. People are coming in and out all the time, but you’re focusing in on the game.
“We were in a commercial break and I knew somebody was going to come on, but I didn’t know who. So you get back, counting down ‘5-4-3-2-1 ... welcome back to our broadcast and over to my right to do color and to visit with us is Kevin Costner. Kevin welcome to our broadcast.’”
Costner, who is a frequent guest at the CWS, was in town on this particular occasion to also promote his movie, “For Love of the Game.”
Long before Borden was a broadcaster, he was sports fan and he has great memories about attending games at Rosenblatt Stadium.
“I remember going to games when I was a little boy to see the Omaha Cardinals in the late ‘50s,” Borden said. “And then the Dodgers before the Omaha Royals in the late ‘60s. But I remember from about 1964-65 going to College World Series games.
“We sat behind the third base dugout and witnessed Rod Dedeaux’s tremendous Southern California teams, Jim Brock’s Arizona State teams, Jerry Kindall’s Arizona teams, Ron Fraser’s Miami teams, Cliff Gustafson’s Texas teams – you know, I’m a little kid in a candy store at the ballpark.
“So that’s been a part of my tradition. And you watched as Rosenblatt grew physically, you watched how the game got national exposure with ESPN starting in the early ‘80s to give it more flavor and more credibility and then we witnessed a real growth pattern with the way they skewed from 48 teams to 64 teams to regionals and super regionals. So, from one decade to another, you just kind of grew with it. And the city of Omaha embraced it.”
As much as Borden loves Rosenblatt Stadium, he still expects the CWS to be a great part of the Omaha experience going forward as play begins at TD Ameritrade Park in 2011.
“Everybody around the country knows that when you think about college baseball you think about Omaha. And now it’s going to continue at TD Ameritrade Park. New traditions will build. There will be memories of this stadium and we’ll all have them.”
You can catch Borden’s radio show “First Pitch – College Baseball” on 660-AM KCRO this afternoon at 3:00 pm and again on Tuesday on the same station at the same time. He’ll also be doing football broadcasts in August – all the way through the football season. Watch the KCRO website for more details.
