Transcript: Chris Rose on His US Days, Breaking into Sports Media, and Behind-the-Scenes Stories

Good morning and welcome back to the show. We are here with Mr. Chris Rose, NFL Network anchor, baseball commentator and podcast host for John Boy Media. How are you, Mr.

Rose? Charlie and Jack, I'm doing great, man. It's good to be back with a couple of preppers. I'm actually going to be out there next week, which will be kind of cool.

So it's nice. It's nice. the old dude it doesn't seem like all that long ago was sitting in your seat so um looking forward to this it's gonna be a good time yeah i'm excited to meet you next week as well yes so to get this started mr rose before you were you know obviously a nationally recognized sportscaster you're just a kid growing up in cleveland and uh can you take us back to your childhood what were you like as a kid were you always into sports yeah well first of all jack and charlie we're dad was Mr. Rose. So I appreciate the formal nature of this responsibility, loyalty, consideration.

We'd appreciate it. But I'm just Chris. I'm just another dude that went to U.S. a few years before you guys were born. So what was I?

Wow. I think the people that know me best, and there's a bunch of guys I still are very close with from the class of 89. I was a sports dork, man. my um sherman prize speech on being a sportsaholic and i actually won the thing my junior year and it's although it was a comedic speech it was very true at the time and i think probably to some degree it hasn't left me like i was infatuated with sports now i was a terrible athlete i wasn't any good i stopped playing after being on mr siegman's freshman basketball team and I ended up being the manager of the basketball team for a couple years and the manager of the baseball team a couple years because I always loved being around sports and I think that if you were to ask all of the 87 other kids I graduated with in 1989 what would Chris Rose be doing years from now this would probably be it like this is what I wanted to do I wanted to do something in sports I didn't know what it was but I just loved watching and talking about it. And I think the line that probably won me my speech the junior year was, I had a teacher that, unfortunately, I think he just passed away last year, was Chuck Selbach.

He was a great history teacher. He was our baseball coach. And most importantly, he pitched in the big leagues for about a half dozen years. And he pitched for a guy named Billy Martin, who was a very famous manager, Detroit he was a relief pitcher and had a couple of really really good years well I would always try and get stories out of Mr.

Selbach and he would never give them to me but every class I'd start out by saying something snarky about the baseball world and he would just kind of chuckle and laugh it off well I don't know if you guys still get interim report cards but I got one from history and I got a C plus and it said Mr. Selbach wrote that he has sports on his mind much more than history when he enters the classroom. So I decided to get back at him on the speech. And I said, you know, sportsaholism has even affected the way that I perform here at university school.

One unnamed teacher wrote on my interim report last fall that he has sports on his brain much more than history when he enters the classroom. I said, that's a heck of a comment coming from a guy whose best major league season was 7-6 with a 2.71 ERA. And everybody looked at him and started laughing. Because I just could have said, well, that's some comment coming from Mr.

Selbach or whatever. But the fact that I threw out my nerdy little stats kind of sealed it for me. And that's what I was, man. I haven't really changed.

I'm still kind of the sports dork, if you will. That's great. That's great. So, Chris, when did you get to U.S.?

Were you a lifer? Did you come in high school? I was a lifer. I started in kindergarten.

I think there were 10 or 11 of us. I still have the picture somewhere. My mom made me an album when I graduated high school. There's a picture of all the lifers.

We're all sitting together. I knew nothing other than... Let's put it this way. When I got to college, I was like, what are all these women doing in the classroom?

I was like, this is great. This is awesome. But U.S. was a great place to go to school. You know, was there a particular moment when you realized you wanted to be involved in the sports world more than just kind of watching from the couch?

It's a good question, Charlie. I don't think there was one shining moment where I went, wow, this is it. I wanted to go in. Did I want to be in front of the camera?

Did I want to work behind the camera? Did I want to do something for a team? Did I want to do something for a network? And so I actually had several internships throughout college.

And then I figured it out in between my junior and senior year at Miami University. I had a great nine-week internship at CNN in Atlanta where I worked for CNN Sports. And I got to do a little bit of everything down there. to talk to people that were on air, find out what their journeys were like, and I said, okay, this is the direction I want to go. I want to be in front of the camera.

I want to be in studio instead of calling games, although I have had a chance to do that as well and love it, and that was my dream, and it didn't happen immediately. It didn't happen immediately after college. I was behind the scenes for almost three years before I got my first full-time on-air job, but that was probably the point when I realized that, hey, this is the thing I want to give a shot to. You know, going to your perspective as a fan, many of us have that first sports memory, the one that really ignites a lifelong passion for the game.

Do you remember the first game or moment in sports that truly just captivated you as a fan? Well, I know there are other memories for me, certainly. But I talked about this in the Sherman Prize speech again, that it was a Brown Steelers game in 1978, I want to say. And this is when the Steelers were at the top of their game.

And we had never won in old Three Rivers Stadium. In fact, we lost, I think, our first 17 games there before we finally beat them in the mid-80s. overtime loss where they beat us on a flea flicker from Terry Bradshaw to a tight end named Benny Cunningham. And, um, and I remember that I said, boy, this just feels different. Like I'm upset.

I'm pissed off. Why did that hurt so much? And unfortunately it would be many decades of, of pain and anguish and a few really special moments as well, which kind of balance it out. It's almost like when You play golf, and if you birdie the 18th hole, you might have just shot 97 and lost four title-less balls along the way, but that birdie keeps you coming back.

So even though we've had some tough times as Cleveland sports fans, there is that glimmer of hope or that moment that you will cherish forever that makes you say, I want that feeling again, and it's worth whatever pain the sports gods will give me. That's so true. We see you on the screen, and obviously, basically one of the job requirements is to be extroverted. Are you like that in real life off the air?

Yeah. I'm a nutcase. Give me in a good way. I bounce around the house.

I have fun, man. I've got two sons that are 24 and 19, and when we go out in public, they look at me and they're like, please, just stop. embarrass us. And I'm going to tell you a few words of advice. When your parents hear from you guys, don't embarrass us.

Guess what's going to happen? Y'all are screwed because you just threw gasoline on that fire and I will do it. I like to have fun. I think I was voted.

I have to go back and look, but I think I was voted like top three funniest kids and also number one for thought he was funniest which is like a tough combination to pull off and it's probably it's really accurate like i do like i say some crazy stuff on air that i think is funny and i'm like god dang that was not funny but i'm willing to try it because i want to hit a few home runs occasionally too yeah you know the sports broadcasting world is just incredibly competitive when you were starting out was there just a particular moment of rejection doubt or failure that really challenged you and how did you kind of push through and what did you learn from that experience? Well, it's a great question. As I mentioned, I knew I wanted to be in TV and I knew I wanted to be on air, but my first job right out of Miami, a week later, I was running studio camera at the ABC affiliate in Cincinnati for $4.85 an hour. And it was part-time work.

It wasn't what I wanted to be doing, but I was in the building. and I was around television professionals. Eventually, I got to be the weekend sports producer at the Fox affiliate in Cincinnati, and I was there for a little bit over two years. And during that time, I was applying to jobs all around the country in these small television markets. So think of it a little bit like minor league baseball, right?

People that are drafted, they don't go right to the big leagues. They go where we don't really see their mistakes. So I wanted that opportunity. I think I got rejected from almost 20 different places while I was working in Cincinnati.

And that's hard to hear because there is no scoreboard in the business that I'm in. It's very subjective. People think you are either good or not good. And some people who think you're good, somebody else who thinks you stink at what you do.

And that is, that's really challenging, particularly when you're in your formative years. I was in my early to mid twenties, um, when you haven't had any success whatsoever. And I remember calling a few of these places where I was applying to be, you know, the weekend sports anchor and I'd get down to the top three or five said, well, I understand you're going with somebody else. That's okay.

What can you tell me that maybe can help me out in the next time i'm applying for a job and almost universally the thing i heard was i don't have anything to tell you you're good at what you do i just went a different direction and that's really hard to take because you know i cover people that get coached for a living they get they like to be told when they're screwing up so that they don't do it again well here i wanted to be coached and nobody was coaching me so how how was i ever going to get that That break. I almost packed it in. My dad was a very successful business person in Cleveland. I probably could have moved back to Cleveland and gotten a decent job and watched my favorite sports teams.

And I am so thankful I didn't quit. I mean, so thankful. So I ended up getting a gig in Reno, Nevada. I had no idea where the hell Reno even was.

I thought it was next door to Las Vegas. I was like, yeah. And I get out there. I was like, what are we, an hour from Vegas?

They're like, no, moron. It's an eight-hour drive. I was like, what? So it's a challenge.

It was a real challenge in the beginning. Throughout your career, you've covered everything from the NFL to baseball to even poker and battle bots. How do you prepare yourself to transition between different sports, and do you have a favorite one to cover? I'll start with the second part first.

Do you have siblings? Charlie, you have siblings? No. Jack, you got siblings?

I have two brothers, yeah. Okay. Don't ever ask your parents to pick their favorite kid because they might just say it. So be careful if you do that.

Each job I take on, it's really important for me to be passionate about what I do. I do need to make a living. I've got a family myself, so I respect that part of it. been a job that I have taken just because of a paycheck. I am really passionate about everything I do.

I even hosted the hot dog eating contest this past Labor Day between Joey Chestnut and Kobayashi. I've never been able to watch that before because I just don't have the stomach for it. Not that I don't respect it or the process or what these people do, but I was like, you know what? I'm going to do this.

Netflix is offering me they want me to be a big part of this and i said you know what i'm going to go out there and nail this because it's something that even though it was never at the top of my sports broadcasting shopping list it's something i'm interested in i'll give it a shot and i did it and i loved it and i loved everything about it in the process and i've been very thankful there's probably been I haven't wanted to go to work. And usually that has nothing to do with the work itself. It probably has something to do with what's going on in my life or my kids or my wife or whatever it is. Um, you know, but as far as sort of the, I don't really, I'm not going to pick a favorite, if you will, as far as preparing for stuff, that is the best challenge I've got.

I have had multiple jobs for the last, 20 years in this business. And even though it was like with Fox, I was doing a show called the best damn sports show period. And then I started hosting like college football at the same time and started calling NFL games and doing some baseball. And there was overlap there.

And now for the last almost 15 years, I've worked at separate media entities, whether it was the NFL network, MLB network, John boy, and then BattleBots seeps in. That keeps me sharp. It uses different muscles in this industry. And I love that about it.

You know, this past year, my primary job at NFL Network is to do our Sunday highlight shows. But twice this year, I got to call NFL games. I got to call one in London. I got to call one of the Patriots Chargers up in Foxborough.

And that was great. It's just totally different than anything else that I do. season package i love that they all have their different challenges keeps it fresh and exciting yeah well i'm a huge baseball guy so it's cool to hear you know that will be networked the john boy media um how is you know that your podcast now the rose rotation that's with john boy media and how is that like you get to talk to all those mlb guys guys in the baseball world how is that job you know what's your favorite part of that Just being able to introduce those guys to an audience that only sees them for two and a half or three hours a night playing baseball. I'm about to record my own podcast in about an hour with Miguel Rojas of the Los Angeles Dodgers. And he's an amazing guy.

He has been a part of our family at John Boy Media going on our fifth season now. And people didn't really know his story. Never lived outside of his grandmother's home in Venezuela until the Reds signed him to a free agent deal when he was 17 years old. He moved to Billings, Montana without knowing any English.

He was put in the house of, you know, he had people that took care of him. Thankfully, they were bilingual, so there was that to help assist him through. I mean, just imagine this. You guys are, what, 16 or 17? 16.

Okay. I don't know if you know foreign language, but hey, you got one month. We're going to take you to Venezuela and drop you off. Good luck.

The thought is terrifying for anybody, for a grown adult, let alone somebody who's a teenager. But the number one thing I love most about the feedback that I get from our followers at John Boy Media is when they leave on our YouTube channel, they'll leave comments about, well, I'm a Giants fan and I hate the Dodgers, but I love Miguel Rojas or I love Tyler Glass now. That's the win for us is when we are able to break down these barriers that we've built up because, you know, as Guardians fans, we're taught to hate the Royals or the Tigers, but you hear the guys when they don't have their uniforms on and all of a sudden you're like, that dude seems cool. Like that's the win.

You know, so many people see just this polished final product on TV or online. But I mean, obviously, from our experience podcasting, I'm sure a lot happens behind the scenes that fans don't realize. Can you kind of share and go through what a day in the life of a sportscaster really looks like? Well, I mean, there's that's the beauty of podcasting is kind of what you see is what it is.

We don't really edit things out. We let the conversation flow. And that's the beauty of what the podcasting world has become, is that you don't feel like it's edited and chopped up and taken out of context. You just feel like there is a free-flowing conversation, and that's what we do.

Now, I do several different podcasts for John Boy Media, the Rose Rotation with the interview format being one. which I do with a former major leaguer named Trevor Plouffe. And so that's much more kind of nuts and bolts. We take five topics that are hot in the baseball world, and we talk about them. And we do that every day during the season.

It's twice a week in the offseason. And it's fun. It's easygoing. We don't take ourselves seriously.

We make fun of each other. We make fun kind of in the baseball world. But we also give our opinions on what's going on in the sport. Now, that takes prep.

During the year, I'm locked in. I watch a ton of baseball. So at 3.30 my time in Los Angeles, I'll sit down on a Tuesday afternoon when there's 15 games that night and have my 8 screen, my octo screen working. And I'll flip around from game to game depending on who's pitching and who's hitting so I can hear some stuff. for the next day that we will record first thing in the morning.

And it is a wheel. You're on this hamster wheel that's going, going, going. So it's not just, hey, let's turn on a camera and start talking baseball. That's not how it works.

There's a lot of prep that goes into it. And when you don't know your stuff, people can dial in on that. And to watch that much baseball, you must love it, obviously. What's your favorite part of the game?

I do love the matchups. I love the, just the individual matchups that we get when there's a great pitcher going and there's, you know, you hope that there's two to three hitters in every lineup that you feel like if you just were to watch one at bat that day, that that would be it. So I love that aspect of it. I think that the, I don't think we've ever had a more talented time in, in baseball in terms of the number of guys that are probably 26, younger who are outstanding, outstanding athletes and players.

Some people get all crabby and say, oh, well, it's not the way it used to be. Who cares about that stuff? These guys are great. I love some of the rules changes that the sport has made in recent years because I think it's started to show off more of the athleticism.

And I feel like the sport, when it comes to the ability on the field, is in a pretty good spot. sport activity event imaginable. One of the ones that you haven't completely ventured into is the basketball and the NBA. Have you ever thought about going into the league and commentating or maybe doing a show about it? I love the Cavs.

We watch every night that they're on. The rest of the league, I'm not going to say I've lost interest, but with as much work as I do in baseball and the NFL, there's only so much space in this brain of mine. And so I'm not going to sit down and watch, you know, the Suns and the Kings. I just won't.

You know, I like some of the players. I like watching some of the guys on those teams. But I'm not going to sit down and make time for it. There's enough of a sacrifice that my wife has made over these three days decades we've been together where I don't need to be sitting there and watching it.

So I would say that that's probably not going to happen, that hopefully I've built a decent enough name in both the baseball and football space that if there are opportunities there that I haven't ventured into, that I could go that direction. Now, do I feel like I could host shows on the NBA and get up to speed pretty quickly? I do. I do. moments in sports, whether that's through highlights or actually covering the game.

Is there any particular game interview or broadcast that kind of stands out to you as particularly memorable? Well, there's been a couple of events that I've covered where I have said, holy crap, I can't believe I got paid to cover this event. Probably the first one was Tiger Woods winning the U.S. Open by 15 shots in June of 2000.

And that's when Tiger was at his apex. And I covered it for Fox Sports Net, which is essentially FS1 today. So it was the cable side of Fox Sports at that time. And I was on the golf beat, and I nailed it.

Like, the timing could not have been better. They asked me, my boss said, well, what do you know about golf? I used to watch it a lot as a kid with my dad. He said, okay, Tiger's like taken off.

We need somebody to follow him. So I got to follow him around the world for a bit. And it was really, really cool. But to watch pro golfers who are the best in the entire world walk off the 18th hole at the U.S.

Open, look at the scoreboard, realize he's winning by 15 shots. They were like laughing. believe it. It was like if a basketball team was kicking everybody's ass by 70 points or a football team was winning every game by 50. It just was unimaginable.

And he did it to the best in the world. So that was pretty cool. The second one was the Fiesta Bowl. I want to say it was probably played in January of 08.

And it was the first time that Boise State was really on the football map. And they were taking on Adrian Adrian Peterson, I believe, was on that team. Sam Bradford at Oklahoma. Oklahoma was this monster of a program.

And Boise State was like the cute little try-hard team that somehow squeaked into the Fiesta Bowl. And they had a big lead, the Broncos. And then Oklahoma came storming back. And then Boise State had a couple of trick plays to win the game, winning on the Statue of Liberty play.

And right afterward, their running back proposed to his cheerleader girlfriend, They're still married, by the way. That was awesome. And then the last one was game six of the 2011 World Series. It was in St.

Louis. And the Rangers were up three games to two. And it was going to be the first year that we were going to do... I was hosting Fox Saturday Baseball, so it was my job to be the lead voice of the trophy presentation, which was freaking awesome.

So even if Texas had won on the road in St. Louis, platform and have it out in front of everybody instead of years past, where if the road team won, they would only do it in the clubhouse. So the Rangers are leading by a run or two in the ninth inning, bottom of the ninth. And I am behind the right field wall in Bush stadium.

And it's myself and it's our camera crew. And it's all the people that are going to push out the stage. And it's like 30 cops back there to go protect the field. Well, we've got a small TV up there where you really couldn't see what was going on.

So I decided to go up to the wall, and I poked my eye through. There's a crack in the wall. It was like this big. And David Freeze comes up, and he hammers a ball right in our direction.

And I see Nelson Cruz is playing right field for the Rangers. And if he makes the catch, the World Series is over, and we're all going to come firing out of there. The ball comes right at us. I could hear the thud.

It hits right off the wall. He missed it. David Freeze hits a game-tying triple. Well, I got to run my butt back upstairs to our center field set to go host the postgame show because if the Cardinals win, we're on TV in less than five minutes.

So here's chubby little Rose in a suit running upstairs, weaving his way through traffic. I get back up to the set. I'm winded. I'm sweating.

Sit down. And the Rangers take the lead in the top of the 10th. So I got to run back downstairs. Same spot.

Waiting for it to happen. Well, Lance Berkman gets a base hit. Ties the game. I got to run back upstairs.

I'm like, enough. Thankfully, the Rangers don't score in the 11th. And then Freeze hits a home run. I think it was off of low.

And Joe Buck's got the great line about, I'll see you tomorrow night. And it was crazy. I had to go back and forth like three times. running through the fans of St. Louis on just a crazy, crazy evening.

Yeah. Those are great. I'm curious for the golf. Did you have to practice your golf commentating voice?

You know, the super low, like not, not too excited. So we're here at the par three, seven. It'll be a 60 degree wedge. No, I mean, fortunately I was not calling the event.

I was just covering the event. So I would just get the post-match interviews and stuff like that. You know, reflecting, back on your time at US, do you have any favorite memories or just funny stories that really stand out? So as I mentioned, I was the manager for the basketball and the baseball team.

And Mr. Selbach and Mr. Johnston, who was a wonderful chemistry teacher, had the thickest New York accent ever. And he was the assistant baseball coach. love that guy dearly.

He was one of my favorites. And I remember in the beginning of the year, this is probably my senior year, they're asking everybody what uniform number they want and what their pant size was. And he goes all the way around the team and finally I jokingly said, Mr. J, why didn't you ask me?

Don't you want to know what number I want to wear in my pant size? And he goes, Rose? They don't have Yeah, uniform size. Because I am shaped.

If you saw me in person, I have the dad bod of all dad bods, but I've had it my entire life. And I am shaped like a pear. And so he used to make fun of me during practice for the way I was shaped. And he just nailed the timing.

He did it much better than I just did it. But between Mr. Johnston's interesting vocabulary, his accent, his New York City accent, the fact that he nailed me on the comedic timing with the they don't come in and pay my best friend Jay Novotny still utters that phrase every once in a while to me you know if you could go back and give advice to your high school self that Chris Rose walking these halls at university school what would you say what do you wish you had known back then about life career or just even during the journey for my work purposes. That would be take Spanish with Senior Pla.

I took an accelerated French Latin course. Do either of you take that? Take Latin. You take Latin?

What do you take, Jack? Chinese. Wow, that's awesome. Good for you.

I was convinced I had an older brother that went to U.S. and was significantly smarter than yours truly. Ended up going to Yale. He took an accelerated where if you took Latin in seventh and eighth grade and ninth grade, I think you could be eligible for an accelerated French course. Well, he did great because he's smart.

And I got in that and I was horrible. And I just was it was tragic. I was just not good at it. But I wish I had taken Spanish because I think it would help me immensely.

I know of a few people who are bilingual covering baseball, and it's a great way to communicate with players who are from the Dominican or from Venezuela, and it's awesome. It's great, and I don't have that ability, and I wish I did. As far as the rest of it, and I'm still trying to convince myself. I told you earlier about the thinks he's funniest and was kind of funny.

Not everything has to be a joke. have to kind of bite my tongue with that. Like there's times where I'm, I'm in my fifties and I'm still doing it and just say it, it's okay to just kind of let, let life go the way it is. Not everything's got to be comedic. And I, that's not, like I said, that's something I got to work on still today.

So I don't know if saying it to 16 year old Chris Rose would have, would have helped because 54 year old Chris Rose isn't necessarily adhering to that thought process. Yeah. Well, I know we're wrapping up, almost hitting the Zoom time limit here. So this will be the last one, but I think it might be the most important one that we ask all of our guests on the show.

And throughout your career, you know, you've covered some of the biggest moments in sports, interviewed legendary athletes and had to adapt, you know, the ever-changing media landscape. But at the core, I think we want to know what drives you. What is your why? You know, the reason that you wake up every day through those long nights watching baseball, still waking up to do the shows in the morning.

What keeps you going, Mr. Rose? Or Chris, what keeps you going? I've got an amazing family.

I know it's going to sound cheesy, but I really do. I've got a wife who has been with me since I started in Reno, Nevada. I mean, that's a long time ago when we didn't know if I'd make it in this business. And so we have a great partnership. that has worked extremely well.

And we've got two great boys who are, they're great dudes. They're just good people. And, you know, they're both trying to find their way, and I'm confident that they will. One is following in this business.

He's a director of sporting events, and he's doing great. He didn't even finish college, and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. So that's really important.

In this business, we give so much time. We sacrifice a lot. I've missed birthdays. I've missed anniversaries.

I have missed weddings of nephews and nieces and bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs. And that's a lot to give up. It is a lot to give up. that I can in this. It is my passion.

I was a terrible, I told you, a terrible athlete. But I sure as hell could debate sports with the best of them. And I don't, I don't ever want to lose that passion, that zest for it. I'm really fortunate to do what I love because not everybody does.

I have friends that hate their job, even if they're extremely successful at it. And I don't ever want to be that guy. I'm about to go cover my 19th Super Bowl. I've covered more than 15 World Series.

If you would have just told me when I was at US that you would get to go to a Super Bowl as a fan or go to a World Series as a fan, I would have been like, what? I get to do this for a living. That is... I can't script that any better.

Well, Chris, it's been great having you on the show today. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your insights, experiences, stories with us. us. And to our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. And we'll hope you'll join us next Wednesday for another episode of Late Start Show.

Thank you.