Mr. 3000
The rookie broadcaster scaled past the nine rows of bleachers to the cartoonishly small press box overlooking the playing field at McDermott Field. With room for four people to sit shoulder-to-shoulder and a closet-sized broadcast booth, the space wasn't what he had always envisioned, but here he was on June 17, 2002, about to call his first professional baseball game between his Ogden Raptors and the host Idaho Falls Padres.
Armed with a handful of baseball books so if the games got out of hand, he could thumb through them for material to discuss on air, he was behind the microphone for the Raptors' 10-5 come-from-behind victory, including a six-run sixth inning capped off by a Mario Mendez grand slam.
After the game, the broadcaster thought, "If they fire me tomorrow, I've done what I've always dreamt of doing."
Well, they didn't get rid of Terry Byrom.
After serving our country in the first Desert Storm and years working jobs in the corporate world, Terry decided to take a chance on a career change at the ripe old age of 39 when he applied for the Ogden play-by-play job in the short-season Pioneer League. Two years in Fort Wayne, Indiana, followed, and since then, he has come into the cars and homes of central Pennsylvania as the voice of the Harrisburg Senators.
Twenty-two years after that first game, Byrom will strap on the headset for the milestone 3000th game of his professional career when he calls the season finale between the Senators and Fightin' Phils on later today on Sunday afternoon.
