A lot has changed for Cory Provus since he last sat down for a "Milwaukee Talks" interview.
Now in his third season behind the microphone, Provus has grown into his role as one-half of the Brewers' radio broadcast team.
With the Brewers in the midst of the 2011 MLB Postseason, Provus sat down with OnMilwaukee.com to talk about his career, his growth and, of course, working alongside Bob Uecker.
OnMilwaukee.com: Three years in, how have you grown into your position? What's it been like?
Cory Provus: From a broadcast standpoint, I'm a lot looser. I was probably too stiff, putting too much pressure on myself. It was like, 'Here I am, I'm working with an icon every day.' I wanted to get everything right, I wanted to be careful with how much I interacted (with Bob Uecker) because I didn't want to step on his toes, I didn't want to be "that guy" and then have people think, 'Man, he talks a lot.' I just wanted to kind of take it slow. I was maybe too stuff, too straight-forward that first year. And Bob, Jim Powell, Pat Hughes ... they all told me to just stay loose.
OMC: Baseball is a different animal when it comes to broadcasting. There are so many games, compared to say, football, where it's a weekly thing. What is that like?
CP: Chemistry, in all broadcasting, is vital. But in baseball, you have so much more time to build it. And you have to be comfortable with your partner to do that. I don't want to say it's easy in baseball, but it comes a little more naturally. The bond you build with your broadcast partner doesn't take all that long. It might take a full season to fully learn how to play off each other but the amount of games you have, if you have a bad night, a bad broadcast – and I've had them – the best part is you get to come back and do it again the next night. I don't have to sit a week, two weeks if it's football and you have a bye week, and dwell on it. That's the beauty of it.
OMC: So broadcasters can have bad days, just like ballplayers? How do you deal with it?
CP: I've had them. You can ask Kent (Sommerfeld, Brewers Radio Network producer). Nobody's going to be harder on me than me. I'm really tough on myself. If I screw up a call, I don't sleep that night. It sticks with me for awhile but I wake up the next day and know I've got another game that day and them I'm off and running. But the amount of games you have, there is so much more time to build camaraderie, to build rapport, to build a relationship personally with your broadcast partner and your broadcast team because you're around them every day for six months.
OMC: How do you handle being a "fan" of the team you're calling?
CP: I'm not too much of a homer. I don't really say "we" and I don't call the other team "they." I'm not into that. But I think people can tell by my enthusiasm and by my inflection in big spots which team I want to win without going and saying something like "we need a big hit" here. That's just not me. That's not my style. I don't fault people who do it that way, I just choose not to do it. It's not something I'm comfortable with.
OMC: You've been pretty fortunate in your career to work with two legendary broadcasters, Bob and Ron Santo.
CP: I thank my lucky stars every day. I don't know how I ended up here. It's funny, people ask me to compare Ron and Bob. They're two iconic figures. The joke I always tell people is they're both former players; one brags about his career and the other has reason to brag about his career. They both played in the same era. They both played in the 1960s, the golden era of the National League. I grew up listening to my dad's stories about the Cubs and the Cardinals, even the Pirates, the Giants of the '60s. It was just an awesome era of baseball. Both guys, though, told me from day one to enjoy it, to be myself; that it's a job and to put a lot of time into it because your audience deserves it. But they also told me to have fun doing it.
OMC: How has your relationship with Bob evolved?
CP: Until you work next to Bob, until you do it for a while, then it becomes easy. And Bob makes it that way. We're all about having fun here. That's really the goal. Obviously, we want to call baseball but at the end of the day, we're here to inform but we're also here to entertain. Working with Bob every day, we know we're going to entertain people. How much we inform people, that depends on the action on the field. We just have so much fun. Working with Bob is the best remedy for a bad day. You get there, you sit down and you're going to laugh. You don't know when or how often, but you're going to laugh. This year, I think, has been our best year. I think having a healthy Uke and a good team is the perfect combination for a special year for me, personally, but also from a broadcast perspective.
OMC: Is there a perception at times of being a sidekick, for lack of a better term, on "Bob's show?" Have you been able to establish your role in the program?
CP: Bob, from day one, has told me I have total freedom. He's not over my shoulder, listening to my every word. He wants me to develop my own style, my own call. He's great with that. And he's always there, too. If I ever need to ask him something, whether it's on or off the air, he's there. It's not like he's pacing and working on, you know, "Major League 5" here. He's such a valuable resource. He just lets you be yourself. It's very loose here. Have fun, entertain and call baseball.
OMC: What's been the highlight of your time here, so far? A signature moment, if you will.
CP: I wrote about this back in May. If you're looking for a turning point this season, it was back in May. The Brewers were coming off an, four-game West Coast road trip, they split two in L.A. then split two in San Diego. Then there was a red-eye flight back, getting in at 6 a.m. to play the Rockies that night.
At the time, the Brewers were under .500. That Friday night game, it was a 14-inning, 4.5-hour marathon. I had the pleasure of calling (Prince) Fielder's walk-off homer. That home run he hit, and they show the video of it sometimes, he just swung, dropped his bat, took a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders because he knew he got it. The Brewers went on to win the game and sweep the series to get back over .500. They've never looked back. I felt at the time that that was a big game. It was a big game. (Yuniesky) Betancourt homered off Huston Street in the 13th inning to tie the game. The Rockies took the lead in the 14th but Fielder hit that two-run homer to win it. That was a pretty fun moment.
When he leaves the booth after the game, as I'm about to do the post-game show, (Uecker) taps me on the shoulder saying "good job" ... that meant a lot. That I love. That's the stuff that sticks with me forever. The details of the game, I'll probably lose over time but I'll never forget when he says 'good job.'
That was my favorite up until this point because it was significant for me but it was a big moment for the team, too.
OMC: What was it like last year, having to work on your own for that time when Bob was out? Was it more difficult?
CP: You'll never hear me complain about doing nine innings of big league ball. If I'm complaining about doing nine innings of big league ball then I need to do something else with my life. I will never complain about that. I love calling the ninth inning when the game is tight. But you know what? I love listening to that man call the ninth when the game is tight. I become a fan. I'm a fan of baseball, obviously, but I'm also a fan of baseball broadcasters. Listening to that guy, who is sitting within arm's reach, that guy just nails it every time.
The Braun call the other night (the eighth inning home run on Sept. 23), we're going to remember that call for a long time. Everybody in this town will. That call was huge. In 2008, I was working for the Cubs at the time, so selfishly, this call will stick out for me more than the one in '08. I was here. I got to witness it. That was huge. That was for the chance to win the division, not just the wild card. The division. Something this city hasn't seen since '82. That was cool.
So getting back to your question, I'll never complain about having to call a game. Was it hard? No. Were there days where I woke up, tired and my throat was sore? Of course. But there was never a day where I couldn't truly say I didn't love what I do.
Last year, there were a lot of cool things that happened while Bob was out but really, it just wasn't the same. Calling the ninth inning is fun but calling the 14th inning, when you've got Uke two feet away from you, that's really fun.
CP: We had a good heart-to-heart last year, after his last game. He had his press conference. We were sitting down and he asked if there was anything I wanted to ask him. I had been talking to Jim Powell the night before and we talked about how it would work and how I would handle it. I told Bob that if all I did was talk about how much we miss you, it's going to drive you nuts. He pointed at the field and said, "That's your job. If you stop doing that, I'll kill 'ya. Don't lose focus. Call the plays, call the games." I'll never forget that conversation the rest of my life. It meant a lot. That's how I kind of mapped it out over the next three months. We missed him, we talked about him a lot, but we still had a job to do. Bob was in our thoughts all the time but when they threw the first pitch, we had a game to call. We talked all the time.
OMC: The novelty of Uecker aside, he's been doing this a long, long time. How has that helped you, as a broadcaster?
CP: I've got a lot to learn. He's made me a better broadcaster. Like I said earlier, I'm tougher on myself than anyone could be. Sometimes, I'm just too fast. I'm too quick. But Bob, his pacing, it's just perfect. Listening to Bob call a game is ideal. And that's how I listen. Not so much the words he's using, but the pace, the way he describes the action. That's what I listen for. A ground ball to short is a ground ball to short. But how does he say it? What word or words does he eliminate so that he still has a good pace. He's not behind the play and he's not so fast that he loses a syllable. That's what I need to work on. I've tried to really slow down. That's the beauty of baseball, I have that opportunity.
OMC: The pace of the game, itself, helps with that, too.
CP: It does. Like with hockey, I don't know how those guys do it. I did lacrosse in college. That's fast. It's hard. It's 11-on-11 but they'll use about 20 guys on each side over the course of game. Fast-paced, constantly changing. Not like soccer where they rotate two or three guys in during the entire match. Lacrosse, they're in and out and in and out. Baseball, though, you can slow down. My college professors would probably go nuts because they teach you in college that dead air is the worst thing that can happen. Not in baseball, though. Let the game breathe. Let the fans hear the ambiance, the crack of the bat, the vendor hawking a program, the PA guy saying the guy's name or even the fans in the stands once in a while. That part is fun. I've gotten a lot better at that because that's stuff I didn't do. Pacing, though, I try to focus on each and every day.
OMC: Are you in Milwaukee year-round now?
CP: For the most part, yes. I split my time between here and Chicago. My wife still teaches in Deerfield, Ill., and we still have a place there but I'm here a ton during the off-season. She's here with me all the time in the summer and then when the school year starts, it's hard, but she'll come up when she can. I do my part as well, too. We're here a lot but we also have a place in the northern suburbs and I try to get down to see her when I can. Our plan is to be here, though. When we start a family, we're going to be here full time.
OMC: You always hear about travel being hard on the players and their families. The beat writers, the broadcasters, they're on the road all year, too. How hard is that for you and your wife?
CP: It is. It's a challenge. And it's really going to be hard when we have kids. It really is. It's very hard. You miss a lot of things. You miss birthday parties, you miss weddings, you miss family events but you also miss a lot of private time, just being together as a family. Her birthday is during the season so we haven't celebrated her birthday together since we met. That's really hard. But at the end of the day, this is what I do. This is why we didn't get engaged right away. I wanted her to kind of see what a full season is like. We met in '08 but I didn't propose until the end of the 2010 season. I wanted her to see everything, from Spring Training until the end. It's hard now but everybody tells me that, once we have kids, it's going to be really hard. Then you're going to miss out on a lot of stuff.
Technology, though is great, so you know, we can have breakfast via Skype, things like that. We're going to try to make it happen. The beauty of this place, though, is this roof. If you have a day game, and you're staying in town, I can promise that I'm going to be home for dinner because of that roof. That's a beautiful thing. That is awesome.
OMC: And did she say yes right away?
CP: Are you kidding me? She wanted me to propose a year earlier!
OMC: You're a Chicago native, and you worked for the Cubs. There were some who wondered, when you got hired, if you'd have loyalty to the Cubs. It doesn't seem to have been a problem.
CP: My first job out of school, I did Virginia Tech women's basketball and I did morning sports at a cluster of radio stations in the southwestern part of the state. Christiansburg, Roanoke, Radford and Pulaski, Virginia. Big markets, let me tell ya! I was doing morning drive, 6-10 a.m. I did sportscasts for four or five different stations every day. I did morning drive at 6:05 on one station, then sprint down the hall and do another at 6:10. I was doing a lot and it was all ad-libbing, too. What a gift that was to do. It was such a great experience. I didn't like getting up at 3 a.m. every day but I don't know if I'd be here today if I didn't do that job.
OMC: How long were you there?
CP: A little less than a year. I got laid off but I stayed at Tech, did women's basketball. Then I started doing pre, half and post on the football broadcasts – that was my first, I'd say big, breakout, network gig. Virginia Tech football is a big deal. I was on in D.C., parts of North Carolina ... that was big exposure for me, my first big break in that regard. Then I left, went to Chicago and did updates on Sporting News Radio for two months. I left there when I was 24 or 25 and got my first full-time job in Winston-Salem, doing Wake Forest women's basketball, baseball ... I was the studio host for Georgia Tech football and men's basketball, I was the No. 1 fill-in play-by-play guy for the company, so when there were conflicts between football and basketball, I would do hoops games. It was all great experience. That's when I got the job at UAB. That's the path I was on, I thought I was going to be doing Division I college sports and I loved it. I got the UAB job in 2006 to do football and men's basketball, I did a weekly TV show with the coaches and I thought I was going to be there for awhile. I bought a little house and as it turned out, I was only there about nine months.
OMC: That's when you went to WGN and the Cubs?
CP: Yup. It was a lengthy process and I was fortunate enough to get the job. I was there two years and I didn't think I'd leave Chicago. I had worked hard to get back to Chicago. But then this opportunity came up and it was an absolute no-brainer. I don't think I would have left to go to, say Kansas City or Cleveland ... this, though, this made sense.
OMC: Why is that?
CP: First of all, I love coming to this ballpark. I do, I really do. But it was also close to my family, too. It made sense. Plus, it was a young, great team. And, I'd get to work with Bob Uecker every day. You can't pass that up. So, I applied, I went through the process and all that stuff and thankfully, it all worked out.
OMC: Where do you want to go from here. Is this a destination job?
CP: First and foremost, my family, my wife ... they're No. 1. I was away from my family for so long. I went to college in Syracuse so I couldn't get home a lot. I was doing radio in college so I wasn't automatically coming home for Thanksgiving or Christmas break because we still had stuff to do. We still had games to produce, we still had broadcasts. We were a 50,000-watt station. It was a big deal. There was work to do. And since I wasn't close, I couldn't just drive home. I was always the guy that said to my friends who lived in New York or Boston or Philly that they should just go home and I'd cover their shift. So I was away from my family for four years in college and then about seven years when I was down south. The fact that I can be close to my family is the No. 1 thing that keeps me here. That's really important to me. I hope I'm here, with Bob, for 20 more years.
OMC: Having a good baseball team helps, too.
CP: Having a great baseball team certainly enhances everything.
OMC: Are you excited to call postseason baseball?
CP: Oh, I love it. I'm lucky, this is my third postseason. That being said, I'd never seen the team I cover win. The Brewers, actually, were the last team from the Central to win a postseason game. The '08 Cubs team was pretty good. I was stunned they got swept. The '07 team, I wasn't surprised. The opened in Arizona and Brandon Webb had a great year. Then they couldn't hit Doug Davis in Game 2. But '08 ... that was a good team. But again, being in the playoffs, I need to remember it's a big game, a big spot ... slow down.
OMC: When you're off, which I know is rare during the summer, what do you like to do? Have you had a chance to get settled into Milwaukee and find "your spots" yet? Baseball doesn't provide a lot of free time.
CP: I'm a big workout guy. I do these boot camps a lot. I've become infatuated with them. I try to do them every day. My wife and I live in the Third Ward and it's a lot of fun down there. We live right by the Summerfest grounds, so there's always something going on. We love walking around the Third Ward, the Lakefront. Especially on a Saturday morning, we'll walk for two or three hours, just walking and talking and catching up. We don't listen to music or anything, we just catch up. We've made some great friends here. My favorite restaurant here is Crazy Water. That's my favorite spot. I could eat there every day. I kind of joke with people that I do live in my own little bubble. There's a lot of the city I haven't seen. I've gone to the East Side a little bit. I haven't made it too far west because there's a lot of traffic and when there's an off day, that's not something I want to do.
I love to golf. There is great golf here in Wisconsin. BA has really helped me with my game. I'm probably five or six shots better than I was when I got here because of him. He's a terrific caddy! I play golf when I can. But I also like to go home, see my wife, see my nieces and nephews and family. I love it here. We love Milwaukee. Our plan is to raise a family here. This is where we want to be.
