Over 20 years in, Whetzel a Rochester institution but still hopes for MLB call

BY DAN GLICKMAN

The nature of Minor League Baseball is one of change. Rosters change as players are called up, sent down, or released. The same goes for managers, coaches, and training staff. There are even changes off the field—new affiliations, new stadium names, new logos, and new promotions. For Rochester Red Wings fans, though, one of the few things that has remained constant since 2003 has been the team’s voice: Josh Whetzel.

The Kansas-born play-by-play man, now the longest-tenured in the club’s history, receives one of the quintessential minor league sports honors on Saturday night: a bobblehead. In fact, the bobblehead even features Whetzel’s voice: a call of a Terry Tiffee grand slam in 2005 will play when fans press a button on the bobblehead.

He wasn’t expecting it when he came to the Flower City over two decades ago after working several years for other teams like the Binghamton Mets and Kinston Indians.

“Did they even have bobbleheads back then?” he jokingly wondered ahead of Wednesday’s game against the Iowa Cubs. “I didn’t anticipate being here 20 years, or whatever it is.”

VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM JOE TERRITO.

Then again, his life has been full of the unanticipated: when he was a teenager, he battled a form of cancer that cost him his right lung. He received a trip to Los Angeles, where he met his hero, legendary Dodgers play-by-play man Vin Scully. An interview afterward back in Kansas about his experiences helped lead him into a broadcasting career.

Given his unusual path, perhaps it isn’t too ironic that one person will be missing Josh Whetzel’s bobblehead night: Josh Whetzel himself!

That’s because he’ll be at Wrigley Field in Chicago. “On assignment,” as he told listeners on Thursday night, calling a game between the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs for radio listeners back in the nation’s capital. He’s done such temporary fill-ins several times over the years, going back to a Twins-Yankees game in 2011 that saw him call Mariano Rivera‘s setting of the career record for saves.

It’s something that he still hopes he can one day do permanently. He wouldn’t be the first Red Wing announcer to make the jump to the big leagues. In fact, posters cover a pillar in the broadcast booth of Innovative Field, showcasing previous Rochester play-by-play men who have gone on to “The Show,” including Hall of Famer Jack Buck.

“I had hoped I would have gotten a major league job by now, [but it] hasn’t been in the cards,” he says. “I’ve been a runner-up for a couple. I thought I was getting a couple of them, but I didn’t get them. It just hasn’t worked out.”

Still, the lifelong baseball fan is doing what he loves:

“I love baseball, and I love broadcasting baseball,” he says. “It really doesn’t get any more complicated than that, to be honest with you. I still get a buzz out of broadcasting the games, coming out here, and seeing the best players outside of the major leagues.”

Whetzel, who also broadcasts men’s basketball for the University at Buffalo, has seen plenty of those players since he arrived in 2003. Initially, he worked with Rochester’s “Mr. Baseball” Joe Altobelli, and some of his best memories are from those early years in Rochester, and two special players in particular: Justin Morneau and Francisco Liriano. While he acknowledges that he’s covered players like Hall of Fame catcher Joe Mauer during rehab stints with the team, to him the big Canadian power hitter and the left-handed flamethrower still stand out.

“The way Justin Morneau performed here is probably one of the big ones for me; he was such a force at the plate,” Whetzel says. “And Francisco Liriano in 2005… he was so dominant. We’d draw more fans on the days that he pitched, and it was by luck of the draw that a lot of his starts were here in Rochester.”

And yet, he believes this season may have produced a player who surpasses both of them.

“The way James Wood performed this year really stands out a lot to me. I’ve said that I think James, in my 20-plus years here, I think he potentially is going to be the best former Red Wing in the big leagues- and Justin Morneau was pretty damn good,” he says. “We have had some pretty good players come through here, and I think that James, to me, is going to be the best of all of them since I’ve been here.”

Although Whetzel has been in Rochester from Morneau through Wood, he acknowledges that the job has changed a bit over time. Now, he has more resources available, with information on prospects easily obtainable through the internet and advanced information on pitches and hits available through sites like Baseball Savant. Not every change has been good, though- he says he preferred the old schedule system that saw the Red Wings play every team in the league and laments that he no longer can visit places like Louisville and Charlotte yearly.

Regardless of those changes, though, Whetzel says he still just takes it on a game-by-game basis.

“For me, every game’s different,” he says. “I don’t get as tied up into the wins and losses as a lot of people do. I just enjoy the games and what they are, and every day is different.”

In 21 years and 20 seasons (the 2020 Red Wings season was lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic), he’s had plenty of different days. One day, he hopes, he’ll be able to have those days be in Major League Baseball. Until then, though, his voice will remain the sound of summer, something so familiar to Red Wings fans that it’s just as much a part of the organization as Spikes, garbage plates, or giveaways– like Saturday night’s bobbleheads.

The Red Wings play the Iowa Cubs in the second-to-last game of the season on Saturday at 6:05 P.M. Whetzel’s call of the Washington Nationals at Chicago Cubs is at 2:20 P.M., and can be heard through the MLB App or website on various devices.