A phone call can be a powerful thing in Minor League Baseball.
It can end a player’s career and it could also send them to the big leagues to fulfill their lifelong dreams.
For dedicated SeaWolves broadcaster Greg Gania, one phone call saved his career just hours after he was considering calling it quits.
Fast forward five years and Gania reached a milestone on Wednesday when he called his 2,500th professional baseball game as the SeaWolves faced the Harrisburg Senators.
“It’s humbling to know I’ve been around for 20 years and to know that two minor league teams have valued my contributions enough to keep me around,” Gania said. “I was able to cut my teeth in A ball in Mahoning Valley, and for the SeaWolves to keep me around for 17 years is humbling. Only a handful of guys have called 2,500 games in the minors and I think it speaks to my dedication of wanting to stick this out to catch that dream of a big league job.”
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A turning point in broadcasting
Gania, 40, has dedicated his life to broadcasting sports with a shift to mostly baseball when he graduated from Bowling Green. All of those games he called for his buddies growing up, all of the different sports he called in high school and college and decades of minor league games almost culminated in him looking for a new career one September day in 2018.
“At that point, I was 15 years into this industry and not a lot of jobs were opening up at the higher levels. I wasn’t getting a sniff from anybody for jobs and it was a tough season for me on and off the field,” Gania said. “I had been with my now wife Meagan for a few years and we were trying to figure out life, and it got to a point I wasn’t sure if this career was worth pursuing anymore.”
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Gania attended a concert at Erie Insurance Arena that night with his wife and Greg and Shanda Coleman to decompress after the season. Greg Coleman, the SeaWolves team president, and Gania have been through the grind together for several years.
Gania wasn’t distracted by the music, however.
“I was struggling, and after the concert, I had a mental breakdown,” Gania said. “I was sitting at home and I’ll be honest, I was in tears thinking I busted my butt for 15 years, plus college plus high school and didn’t know if I wasted all of that time to not get a break.”
Meagan Gania convinced her husband to take the weekend and think it through when the emotions were gone.
It didn’t take the whole weekend for fate to step in.
There was suddenly a problem with the television team who called Detroit Tigers games and they — Rod Allen and Mario Impemba — had to be replaced with one month left to go in the season.
“The next day after the concert, I was packing my bag to go to the gym and my phone was blowing up with calls. I wanted nothing to do with work that day, but after about five calls from our director of entertainment Nathan Brecht, I answered and said it better be good,” Gania said. “He told me the Tigers were trying to get ahold of me because something was going on.”
Gania immediately called Stan Fracker, the director of Tigers broadcasting. Fracker had to move Dan Dickerson off the radio for a game to fill in on television and had no one to call the game on the radio.
“You talk about an emotional roller coaster. I was pondering giving up my career just hours before this phone call and now I’m going to the big leagues,” Gania said. “I immediately switched into a mode of how do I prepare, how do I get to Detroit, etc. I don’t know where I’d be today without that phone call.”
Gania immediately made calls to his wife and family to give them the news that all of his hard work had finally paid off.
On Sept. 8, 2018, Gania made his major league debut and called a 4-3 win by the Tigers. It was a walk-off win in the bottom of the ninth inning on a wild pitch. It was a day full of emotion and relief for Gania and his wife, who made the trip.
“Being from Toledo I grew up a Tigers fan and for me, there is nothing more exciting than to listen to him call a game,” said Meagan Gania. “Normally I’m listening to the game because the SeaWolves are on the road or I can’t make it to the ballpark, but it was a surreal experience to be in the stands with my headphones on listening to him as I watched the action unfold on the field. You’d never guess it was his first major league game.”
Surviving the daily grind
There aren’t many broadcasters in minor league sports that can claim they called 2,500 games in one sport. In the Eastern League alone, Gania is one of three broadcasters, including Terry Byrom in Harrisburg and Jeff Dooley in Hartford, that have reached that mark.
Byrom, who was in the booth next to Gania for broadcast No. 2,500 Wednesday, has been a mentor to Gania since he was hired in 2006 by the SeaWolves.
“When I first met Greg, he was quite young and just out of college. He showed up, did the game, then left. It took a couple of seasons for us to get to know one another and our friendship took off from there,” Byrom said. “He’s blossomed into one of the best voices in minor league baseball. The way he calls a game makes a game really easy to listen to. I’m biased because he’s one of my best friends, in or out of baseball. I’m thrilled he’s in Harrisburg and I can share this day with him.”
It has taken 20 years of blood, sweat and tears for Gania to get to this point.
“It’s a lot easier when the team wins games, and I’ve been fortunate to have some very good seasons, but I’ve also been on the other side with some lean years,” Gania said. “It takes a physical and mental toll to be around this long and you miss so much of life in this industry. You miss your family; my wife has been a trooper through all of this. My mental and physical health took a bad turn for a lot of years and I wasn’t taking care of myself being too dedicated to the job. It’s a tough lifestyle.”
One thing that Gania mentions as a blessing is meeting his wife during baseball season. She was able to see firsthand what he goes through and how inaccessible he can be at times because of the job.
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“It’s wild because when you meet the person you want to spend the rest of your life with you never think you’re going to spend weeks at a time away from them,” said Meagan Gania. “But it’s hard not to be supportive when you see the passion they have for their career and no one is more passionate about what they do than Greg.”
Except for when COVID canceled the 2020 season, Gania has worked every day of every summer since he was 16 years old working in the concession stand at Mahoning Valley. Even in 2020, he was helping save the SeaWolves from contraction.
It’s a life of long hours of meetings with a normal nine-to-five job followed by calling a game at night when he’s in Erie, and a long day of phone calls and calling a game when he’s on the road.
It’s a life of sacrifices when it comes to enjoying a summer day or going on vacations in nice weather.
Meagan Gania also deals with the sacrifices as she travels for her job, sometimes during the baseball season, as the Director of Learning Abroad and International Academic Programs at Gannon University.
“It’s a big sacrifice for both of us and as someone who travels for work, I know how hard it can be to live out of a suitcase,” said Meagan Gania. “But how can you not be supportive of someone who dedicates their life to a job they love?”
Where it all began
Gania, who is from Warren, Ohio, said he grew up “annoying” his friends because he couldn’t help but call the action when playing Tecmo Bowl or Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball.
Gania’s leadership and dedication were apparent early on as it took him one year to be promoted to the head of a concession stand at Mahoning Valley at age 17. Before leaving for college, he met with Andy Milovich, the general manager of the Scrappers and said he wanted any job the following year.
Heading into the 2003 season, the Scrappers needed a seasonal broadcaster when Mark Batcho stepped down. Milovich called Gania’s dorm room and before he could fully offer him the job, Gania accepted and said he’d work out whatever he needed to as far as school.
“Greg was a local kid that loved the Indians, loved the Scrappers and was in his second year in the Broadcaster Journalism program at Bowling Green Street University looking for an internship,” said Milovich, who helped launch the Scrappers in 1999 after several successful years with the SeaWolves. “He was extremely polished on-air, and we knew we could groom him over the course of the next three summers as he prepared for a full-time broadcasting career.”
Gania, who was 20 at the time, experienced a season he’d never forget.
“The first broadcast was awful,” Gania said with a smile. “Batavia, New York, 2003. It was as old-school minor league baseball as you can get. It was tough sledding that day and A ball is the level you work out your kinks. I remember it was a sunny day and opening night and I think the pressbox meal was hot dogs and fries. We weren’t really in a pressbox but more like a trailer and right next to me was the public address announcer, the official scorer and a guy running those old school scoreboards because I didn’t really have a booth. The New York-Penn League improved after that year, but back then it was old school and I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.”
Gania spent three years with the Scrappers and fate stepped in once again at a wedding in the fall of 2005. He met Mike Uden, who worked in the SeaWolves front office from 2005-12. The two had a conversation that led to an interview that winter with John Frey, then president of the SeaWolves.
“The first thing we noticed about Greg was how conversational he was in his broadcast. There was nothing made up or fake about how he broadcast a game, and he was very easy to listen to,” Frey said. “Over the years what I learned to appreciate is how well-prepared he was for every game. To this day, if I tune into a game on the radio, you can see how well prepared he is for every broadcast.”
The rest is history as Gania has been a big part of the Erie sports community since 2006, including a change in team presidents with the arrival of Coleman in 2011.
“Greg is a huge part of our organization and contributes in so many ways in the baseball operations side and the communications side,” Coleman said. “He’s a very talented broadcaster and it’s like having another set of eyes on things during games for me, which is tremendous. We’re fortunate to have a strong senior management team and in baseball people are always looking to move up but to have Greg here is a huge asset for the organization and the city.”
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Gania was already a talented broadcaster when he arrived in Erie but taking on an extra role as assistant general manager is something he grew into throughout the years. Milovich saw the potential right away.
“Finding great young people that perform and grow into opportunities that are bigger and better has always been something I’ve taken pride in during my 300-year run in Minor League Baseball,” Milovich said. “Seeing Greg land in Erie with a front office group with whom I knew well from Palisades Baseball’s ownership of the franchise in 2003 was fantastic. A Double-A job in a great community and ballpark was an incredible landing spot for a new college graduate. I was extremely excited for him, as I know how critical it is to land in a good spot and be around good people when starting a career in sports. Greg couldn’t have landed in a better spot for him.”
Gania’s top calls
Gania has called many extra-inning thrillers and heartbreakers for the home team throughout the years. It takes him no time to figure out which calls he is most proud of.
The list includes his walk-off call during his major league debut in Detroit, but over the past few years, he has compiled several memorable calls for the SeaWolves, as well.
In 2018, 2019 and 2022, the SeaWolves hit walk-off home runs on July 3. Jake Rogers did it in 2018 and Derek Hill in 2019. Both calls by Gania were timed with his “swing and drive!” start as soon as the ball came off the bat. He mentioned in both calls that the walk-off home runs came in front of record crowds and, of course, the calls included his signature line of “touch ’em all time” for home runs.
In 2022, Andre Lipcius went the other way for a home run, with Gania saying “Are you kidding me?” and immediately putting into context that it was three walk-off home runs in five years on that date.
The call, however, that has deep significance for longtime fans came on Sept. 22, 2022 in Richmond. The SeaWolves clinched their first playoff series in franchise history and Gania was more than ready for the moment.
“Two and two the count on Wilson,” Gania said to start the call. “White looks in. He goes into the motion 2-2. Called strike three and that’s the ballgame! The SeaWolves for the first time in franchise history have won a playoff series and they will advance to the Eastern League championship.”
Gania needed a few seconds to take it all in before continuing.
“They’re mobbing him on the mound,” he said. “Here comes the bullpen and the SeaWolves get it done tonight. They have exorcised the demons of playing baseball in Richmond and they come out of here with a series sweep. A 6-2 final at The Diamond! Folks we have more baseball coming to UPMC Park!”
He didn’t scream unnecessarily and he didn’t underplay the moment, which comes from the experience of calling thousands of games.
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Gania has four major league games under his belt as he called a doubleheader in Oakland last year for the Tigers as well as a game in October. From being a big part of promotions receiving national attention and national awards to being the voice of the SeaWolves for 17 years, he’s put together an impressive career.
But the chase to the big leagues is still on.
“I tell guys all the time that Double-A players are one injury from the big leagues,” Gania said. “The same thing happened to their broadcaster in 2018 and 2022. I’m ready for more.”
Contact Tom Reisenweber at treisenweber@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNreisenweber.