Ryan Rouillard used to sit in his seat at Safeco Field during Seattle Mariners games quietly calling the play-by-play to himself and pretending he was his idol Dave Niehaus, the late great radio voice of the M’s.
Which may be epic foreshadowing for the rookie Internet play-by-play announcer of the Victoria HarbourCats, who is earning raves for his call of games as the youngest broadcaster in the West Coast League. So much so that Rouillard is as good an early bet to make it to the pros as any of the HarbourCat players.
“There are some parallels in that I’m the same age as the players and am also in the development phase of my career,” said the 19-year-old from Mercer Island, Wash., who attends the University of Oregon.
“Some people are shocked when they learn how young I am. But my radio voice matured really fast.”
He is also thoroughly prepared, working without a colour commentator, and rattling off a dizzying array of game, series and season stats without the hint of dead air over the length of games that can run more than three hours.
He has called basketball, soccer, volleyball and softball at the high school and university levels, but baseball presents a unique challenge to any broadcaster.
“You have to fill time, so you sometimes have to be the master of weird and wonderful stats,” chuckled the tall Rouillard, who played first base as a player.
The Victoria connection is that HarbourCats GM Holly Jones is an Oregon alumnus.
“This is a perfect baseball town,” said Rouillard, whose mother is a doctor and father an aviation engineer in the Seattle area.
“And it’s not a small town so there’s always a lot happening.”
The ultimate goal in the booth is no different than that of the WCL players on the diamond.
“Obviously, the majors,” said Rouillard.
“It’s something to work up to.”
