For those hitting Charleston for the state baseball tournament, welcome.
To the kids, take a moment when you hit the field. Soak in the surroundings. Record the sights, sounds and smells in your mind. It'll be a memory no cell phone camera can match, I promise.
I also offer a welcome to Lanny Frattare. Or, rather, a welcome back.
MetroNews has hired the former Pittsburgh Pirate play-by-play announcer to call the three baseball classification finals on Saturday. There will be radio coverage and video streaming and all that. Also, all three title games will re-air on Root Sports at a later date.
But for those in the finals, a special treat will be Frattare making the call. All he did prior was call Pirates baseball for 33 years, the longest such tenure in the team's history, even longer than the 28-year stint of Bob Prince. Oh, and remember when then-Indiana coach Bob Knight tossed that chair? Frattare was the lead announcer on that ESPN broadcast.
What you might not know, however, is Frattare was also once the play-by-play announcer here in Charleston.
You read correctly. For two seasons, back in the 1970s, he called the Charleston Charlies minor league games at Watt Powell Park. The Charlies were a Class AAA International League affiliate of the Pirates back then.
"On Saturday, I'll be calling my first game in Charleston since Aug. 31 of 1975, when I left the Charlies," Frattare said. "I was there at a caravan stop with the Pirates two years ago, but I am so excited about this."
There's a reason.
"I owe the people of Charleston so much because that's where I got my big break," Frattare said. "My big break was going to Charleston and doing the Charlies games. I just have such a high regard for the community."
A high regard, and many memories.
"In 1974, my first year in Charleston, the Charlies only paid me $350 a month," Frattare said. "I lived in a Morris Harvey College dormitory. I know it's not Morris Harvey now, but back then it was.
"All I had in the dormitory was a bed, a table and a radio, so I could listen to [Cincinnati Reds announcer] Marty Brennaman. The first year it was Al Michaels and Joe Nuxhall. In '75, it was Brennaman and Nuxhall. That was my entertainment if I wasn't at the ballpark doing Charlies games."
Frattare said he was married then, a son was born and, in the second season, the family "lived in a small, one-room house behind another person's house."
OK, so maybe the living conditions were rough, but Frattare, now 68, was a mere 26 when he hit town.
"I just wanted to do baseball," he said. "I didn't need anything extravagant. The Morris Harvey dormitory was right down the street from Watt Powell Park, so it was perfect and everybody treated me so well. There was [Charleston sports writers] Shorty Hardman and Bill Smith ... it was a tremendous learning experience for me."
Just let the memories - and names - wash over as Frattare recalls those days.
"In '74, I met Kent Tekulve there," Frattare said. "Teke and I have been great friends ever since. His wife Linda is godmother of my daughter Megan. So Kent Tekulve was there. Ed Ott. Tony La Russa was our second baseman in 1974. Dave Augustine was there. Omar Moreno.
"In '75, John Candelaria was there. Steve Nicosia was there. Much of the nucleus of the '79 championship team was in Charleston in '74 and '75. Also, when I was there, we had three players that went on to become major league managers: La Russa in '74, Art Howe in '75 and Bobby Valentine was there on loan from the California Angels."
Three other future managers - Willie Randolph, Luis Pujols and Ken Macha - also played for the Charlies.
Anyway, it was in Charleston that fate brought Frattare and future broadcast partner (then-Pirates pitcher) Steve Blass together.
"I remember in '74, Blass was having his control trouble and the Pirates sent him to Charleston," Frattare said. "So Steve pitched for the Charlies a good bit that year. He said to [manager] Steve Demeter one time, 'Hey, if I get knocked out of games early, can I go up and work with Lanny in the broadcast booth?' Steve said yes. So almost every time Steve would pitch, he'd say, 'I'll see you in the second inning.' And, most times, he did. It was amazing. Years later, we became partners in the broadcast booth."
Blass, of course, became known for the "Steve Blass Disease." A former All-Star pitcher, the ex-Pirate had an inexplicable loss of control and ability and was soon out of the big leagues.
Frattare, though, can spin tales for hours on his days in Charleston. There was the bus trip that started at 11 p.m. in Toledo and ended at 4:30 p.m. the next day in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
"On my first trip with the Pirates to California, someone said 'Oh my God, five hours on an airplane.' I said, 'That's nothing compared to that trip from Toledo to Pawtucket.'"
Of course, all veterans of the Charlies have at least one Watt Powell Park story.
"The thing I remember most is I had my [radio] equipment in a suitcase," Frattare said. "It was the only thing I had. Every game I had to lug the suitcase up the steps to the press box. They were very steep and narrow. I'd get to the ballpark at 4 o'clock and take my equipment up - and would need a shower afterward because I was sweating so profusely. Sometimes I would go take a shower afterward in the locker rooms."
Also, he met some of Charleston's fine people, like Gazette-Mail contributor Frank Giardina.
"One day in '74, Frank showed up at my doorstep and said he wanted to be a broadcaster and asked if he could work with me," Frattare said. "I said, 'Well, I can't pay you.' He said, 'I don't care.' And he worked with me that summer, helping me. One time Mickey Mantle was in town and we needed an interview and Frank did it - and did a great job."
These days, Frattare is teaching at Waynesburg University in Pennsylvania. He's still a broadcasting presence after calling over 5,000 Major League games. And it's nice to have him back in Charleston for the weekend.
Enjoy, kids.
Having Frattare call your games is quite a treat.