Spikesnstars.com is in the process of trying to secure interviews with all of the Houston Astros minor league affiliate broadcasters. We hope that you will get a feel for the person behind the voice and a taste of what they may be thinking as you are listening. Leading off the series, Mike Capps, the radio broadcaster for the Round Rock Express, agreed to an email interview with Spikesnstars.com. The interview has not been edited for content but formatted for the website. Join us as we go ‘Round the Bases’ with Mike Capps.
First Base
Spikesnstars.com – We would like to give our readers a sense of where you came from and how you got to where you are now. Please describe for our readers your journey to land behind the mic in Round Rock. Specifically other teams you have called for and any other work if applicable away from the mic that may have helped lead you to your current role.
Mike Capps – I played Junior College ball, and it never left me. My grandfather, a Pirates prospect until World War One intervened, gave me the game. I had a cousin who scouted forty years with the Cubs. I got into the radio TV news business full-time while attending first Hill JC and then Sam Houston State. Moved to Houston as a reporter for Ch2 in 1974 and worked there for six years, spent 10 years at WFAA-TV in Dallas-FT. Worth as a reporter and in management. Spent a year in management at ABC News, then went to CNN as a correspondent. At CNN, I covered the Gulf War, was in Haiti for the bloody overthrow of the government there, and was in Waco the entire time of the Branch Davidian siege. In fact the live broadcast of the final ten hours of the siege I did won the Cable Ace Award and National Emmy Nomination. At WFAA I, along with a producer broke the story of the SMU football scandal that caused the death penalty for the program. That work won several national awards. I took an out in my CNN contract and wrote a book with the scout that discovered Nolan, Red Murff. Red had scouted me in H.S., and I worked as a part-timer for him for five years. We were promoting the book in spring training in 96 and it hit me that I should broadcast ball. For that season worked in the old Texas-Louisiana League in Tyler…then AAA in Nashville, a year in Sioux Falls, on in Atlantic City…I was hired more than a year before the Express started, so I am the original guy in Round Rock.
Second Base
SnS.com – Following up on that what in your opinion are the best and worst parts of broadcasting minor league baseball games?
Capps – I have done this for 12 full seasons. I have yet to find a worst part. I work with great people. The Ryans and the team president Jay Miller are T-H-E best operators in baseball…period. I work with great color announcers–Bill Mercer (the former Cowboys and Rangers guy), Kelly Wunsch, Kirk Dressendorfer, Jim Raup, Keith Moreland, Spike Owen, Bruce Ruffin…tell me one thing bad about that. You will have a hard time convincing me that I don’t have the best job in the world…baseball or otherwise.
Third Base
SnS.com – Can you describe some of your most memorable moments behind the mic in your career? Also which ballplayers were your favorite to call and why?
Capps – Working with longtime friend and father confessor Bill Mercer for the first time. The first major league game I did on ESPN radio at Fenway Park was another highlight, as was the most recent one in D.C. between Florida and the Nats. The final game of that 2000 Texas League Championship Series against Wichita (Stephen Spielburg ending to our first season of ball in front of 12 thousand fans, on a high school football Friday was awfully special.)
Heading for Home
SnS.com – Finally, as The Bus Ride highlights Astros prospects we would like to know one pitcher and one position player who you have seen this year that stands out. We’d like to know in your view those players’ strengths and areas for improvement.
Capps – Yordany Ramirez is the best CF prospect, defensively, I have seen come through Round Rock. The Best. When he hits you will see him in the MLB ranks for years. Look for lefty Josh Muecke to have (a) breakthrough season. Nothing rattles him. He throws a cutter on the hands of righty hitters, sinker to break lefty bats. I have counted in six starts, 24 bats he’s broken…that tells me a lot about the guts and guile of a lefty who throws 90/91…
You can hear the Express games online at the Express web site. Spikesnstars.com and The Bus Ride thank Mike Capps for the interview.