Gus Baylow

“Despite all the long nights and early mornings, I learned most importantly what it’s like to broadcast in the big leagues in terms of the number of games and level of talent.”
Gus Baylow, wearing headphones and a microphone, looks at a notebook while announcing a Green Bay Rockers baseball game.
Gus Baylow was play-by-play announcer for the Green Bay Rockers baseball team during the summer of 2022..

Green Bay Rockers

During this past summer, I interned with the Green Bay Rockers baseball club, out of Green Bay, Wisconsin, which is a summer collegiate baseball team that plays in the Northwoods League, an independent summer collegiate baseball league throughout the upper Midwest. From opening day on May 30 to the last regular season game on Aug. 13, this internship became the most impactful summer broadcasting job I have had so far in my career.

When I arrived in Green Bay on May 15, I remember first seeing Lambeau Field, which is just a few blocks away from where the Rockers play. I also was amazed at the home of the Green Bay Rockers in Capital Credit Union Park and being pleasantly surprised by how impressive the facilities were for an independent summer baseball team.

Once I started calling games in late May, I quickly learned what it takes to broadcast at a high level every night as well as what I need to improve on most throughout the season. I saw a growth in my work by learning how to adapt to different situations in baseball, and I experienced several amazing atmospheres across the league including in Traverse City, Michigan, and in Madison, Wisconsin.

As an end-of-season reward for how hard I and the broadcast/production team worked, we were featured on ESPN+ in two of our final home games of the season. I called the first game on Aug. 8, and fellow broadcaster and coworker RJ Taylor called the other game later that week. We both gained a tremendous level of experience from calling those games to a much larger audience, a level of experience we are both very grateful for.

Despite all the long nights and early mornings, I learned most importantly what it’s like to broadcast in the big leagues in terms of the number of games and level of talent. Going into this internship, I wanted to know if this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my professional career and if I could handle announcing what was almost 60 games in two and a half months. The answer to both of those questions was an emphatic yes.

For any young broadcaster who is looking to improve their resume, working in summer baseball and in the Northwoods League is a great first step to achieving the lifelong goal of professional broadcasting. I gained a lot of great practice and experience that I will look to take even further as I enter my junior year as a Jayhawk Journalist.

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