It's a new Speedylee record!!

The best way I know to celebrate the coming of a new year is to set a personal record at the end of the old year. Think about it: You roll into the next 12 months hot on the heels of a significant achievement.     

            That idea in mind, I humbly offer the following tidbit:

During the run-up to the New Year I called a few college basketball games. As mentioned in earlier blogs, I call the play-by-play for some of the sports teams at California Lutheran University on the internet at www.clutube.com. I’ve announced football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball for the Kingsmen (the men) and Regals (women).

The basketball programs each host a tournament over the final three days of the year. Between the two tournaments, run concurrently, I called nine games in three days and on Friday, December 30, 2011, I called five college basketball games in one day.

My previous personal best came a year earlier when I called three games in a day.

Broadcasting was my original career goal. I wanted very much to become the radio play-by-play voice of the Los Angeles Rams. I started in radio after college and then ran smack into The Great Wall of Talent. I guess I wasn’t good enough. The Rams never called. I drifted into the newspaper business and finally made it into public relations, a career move I have enjoyed very much.

But when the chance to do some side work in sportscasting opened up, I took a headlong dive. After 25 years, I was wearing a headset again. The folks at CLU have been very nice and I’ve been able to work with some students, preaching about the importance of preparation.

All of which led to five games in one day. Without commercials. I had a student help with color commentating for one game, but handled the other four myself.

And loved it.

I knew my voice would get through Friday’s five games. After all these years, I know my strengths. The two games a day earlier were an excellent warm-up.

The challenge was calling Friday’s fifth game with the same energy levels I used to call the first on Thursday. I will state here that I had to push myself through the second half of the last game of the day.

I do not compare my fatigue that day with the exhaustion a soldier feels after a long patrol in the mountains of Afghanistan, chasing after a heavily-armed international criminal. But I will say I was tired.

The next day, New Year’s Eve, I left a game on the table. I was not in the gym to call the first of three games that day because my wife and I have a long-standing date for lunch with friends every year on December 31. I served as color man during the second game that day so that one of the CLU students I work with could get a chance to do play-by-play. Then I worked the play-by-play for the final game of the weekend.

The final stats: Nine games of ten, play-by-play for eight, seven straight games over two days and, that new record, five games in one day.

If you watched any of the games, thanks for your viewership. If not, thanks for reading.