Exceptional Vision

Wardlow had been rejected by all of the other student broadcasters. "Clearly, Don knew baseball," says Lucas. "He just wanted a chance to prove himself. Who was I to say no?" The partnership, and a friendship, started.

After college Lucas worked for a collection agency, while Wardlow became a quality-control technician for Recording for the Blind, a Princeton-based group that records books for the vision-impaired. On weekends the two baseball fanatics traveled to major league stadiums in New York City and Philadelphia, where they sat in the upper decks and practiced calling the action into a tape recorder.

In 1990, after seven years of practicing together, Lucas and Wardlow decided they were ready. They sent audition tapes to every professional baseball team in the country, from the minor leagues to the majors. Only one team called them back.

"I thought that if they were crazy enough to spend all those years practicing announcing up in the cheap seats at Yankee Stadium, then they deserved a chance," says Mike Veeck, president of a Class A team then based in Miami and called, appropriately enough, the Miracle.

Veeck, whose father was the legendary owner and promoter Bill Veeck, invited Lucas and Wardlow down to Florida in July to do a game. Five months later Veeck offered the broadcasters a job for the following season.

"Sure, they provided a publicity gimmick for our team, but I wouldn't have hired them if they didn't have talent," says Veeck. The duo announced Miracle games throughout the 1991 and '92 seasons. Then Lucas heard about a Double A team in Connecticut that was not broadcasting its games.

"Jim came to me with an offer I couldn't refuse," says Gerry Berthiaume, general manager of what was then the New Britain Red Sox, a Boston farm team. Most minor league teams pay broadcasters a salary, but Lucas offered to do New Britain's games at no cost to the franchise. His plan: He and Ward low would buy their own airtime on a regional radio station, then sell their own commercials to pay for it.

In 1993 the pair began preparing for its first season in Double A ball. There was only one problem. "No one wanted to buy ads for our broadcasts," says Wardlow. So he and Lucas came up with another scheme: Advertisers would pay for their commercials only if New Britain won.

It was a clever idea, but the team lost its first 12 games. "We knew we wouldn't get rich announcing minor league ball, but this was ridiculous," says Lucas. Fortunately, Gizmo, Wardlow's black Labrador, had attracted one sponsor, the lams pet food company, which was willing to pay, win or lose.

The Red Sox finished with a 52-88 record in 1993, and Lucas and Wardlow cleared about $5,000. The following year they fared only slightly better.