By BARRY LEWIS Sports Writer on Feb 26, 2013, at 5:43 PM Updated on 2/26 at 5:43 PM
PRO BASEBALL
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Former Oklahoma State lefty Tyler Lyons will make his major league debut for the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday at San ...
Tulsa resident Bob Carpenter will open his 30th season as a major league television announcer when he works the Washington Nationals’ spring training game against the New York Mets on Thursday night. Carpenter is going into his seventh season as the Nationals’ TV play-by-play voice.
“I think the Nationals will be deep in the playoffs this year if the team stays healthy,” said Carpenter, who was the guest speaker at the Tulsa Sports Charities monthly luncheon at ONEOK Field.
Carpenter got his first good look at ONEOK Field, the Tulsa Drillers' home that opened in 2010.
“It’s gratifying for me to see a facility like this in Tulsa,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter recalled his first pro baseball job as a Tulsa Oilers baseball radio announcer in 1976 after working at a radio station in Jonesboro, Ark. He was hired by the Oilers’ A. Ray Smith after being recommended by then-St. Louis Cardinals general manager Bing Devine. Carpenter was hired by the Oilers after a brief tryout in May.
Earlier in that month, Carpenter did some practice games into a tape recorder in a box at Busch Stadium while the Cardinals were playing the Los Angeles Dodgers. His sister, who works for the Cardinals, arranged him to have a room by himself and unknown to Carpenter at the time, Devine heard him during a two-minute visit in the room.
Carpenter has lived in Tulsa ever since. Smith wanted him to be the announcer of his team’s games when the franchise moved the next year to New Orleans, but the offer was only for $600 per month and he was making $800 selling advertising for a Tulsa radio station.
Carpenter said his biggest thrills as a major league announcer were Mark McGwire’s successful pursuit of the single season homer record in 1998, calling some Cardinals clinchers to reach the postseason, Stephen Strasburg’s major league debut and the Nationals’ 2012 season…
Owasso’s Dylan Bundy tossed a scoreless inning for Baltimore in his 2013 spring training debut…
First baseman Ben Paulsen, who always has seemed to hit better in major league spring training with Colorado than he has with the Drillers the past two seasons, had three hits in his first six at-bats this spring for the Rockies.
-- Barry Lewis
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