Local Teen Calls an Inning of Double-A Baseball Game
A local youth who aspires to be a baseball play-by-play broadcaster recently got a once-in-a-lifetime shot to put his skills on display during a Double-A baseball broadcast. The experience has further fueled his ambitions to be the next Joe Buck or Skip Caray.
Pierce Gilbert, from Little Rock, is a 14-year-old that loves sports, especially baseball. Football used to be the sport that Pierce showed the most interest in, until his Atlanta Braves-loving mother said she finally converted him a couple of years ago.
“He was all into football when he was younger. He loved the Cowboys, Dak Prescott, and Mississippi State,” said Adella Gilbert. “My whole family just loves the Braves, so it took me a while to get him interested in baseball. But when I did, he was hooked!”
From that moment on, he’s put a majority of his focus on baseball, and not only with the Braves. He keeps a tab on all of Major League Baseball. And it was the 2021 World Series, won by the Braves, and announcer Joe Buck that introduced Pierce’s interest into the world of broadcasting.
“I knew about Joe Buck when he did football games, but when I heard him call baseball, it made me want to do research into other baseball broadcasters,” Pierce said. “From there, I heard more great calls and I fell in love with everything they do, from the technology, stats, acting (in a way), and just the fact that their job is to watch the best sport on the planet.”
Opportunity of a Lifetime
On July 12, Pierce and his family traveled to Pearl, Mississippi to watch the Atlanta Braves Double-A Minor League team, the Mississippi Braves, play baseball. With him, he took a sign that requested a chance to call one inning of the baseball game. During the game, Pierce was shown on the big screen, holding up his sign, at Trustmark Stadium multiple times. And in the top of the fourth inning, a representative with the Braves approached Pierce and his mother, inviting them to the broadcasting booth. Once he made it to the booth, he met and got to sit in with Chris Harris, the play-by-play broadcaster for the Mississippi Braves.
Harris said that after seeing Pierce on the screen with his sign several times during the game, he gave the thumbs up to bring the aspiring broadcaster up to his booth. Once he was situated and given a headset, the two chatted between innings in the 4th before Harris handed the mic over to Pierce in the 5th Inning.
When asked what his thoughts were on being handed the mic for the first time in his life, Pierce said it was pretty straight forward. “Don’t screw up!”
According to Harris, he was impressed with the young man and his abilities at his age.
“I could tell he was an extremely intelligent young man and couldn’t believe he was just 14 years old,” said Harris. “His knowledge of the game just blew me away. He may not have had experience with it, but you could tell he had practiced in his head many times. I could tell he was nervous, but you could tell he was confident, too. Once those nerves wore off, all that personality and knowledge came out. He’s got a bright future!”
Harris added that this was the first time he had invited someone from the stands to guest announce a game, adding that a couple of national write-ups were written about the moment.
“I really wanted him to get as much attention as he could. It was an inspirational moment to me,” he said. “I made sure to stay up late that night to chop up all the video and everything on that moment so I could get it out there for him.”
After relinquishing the microphone at the end of the 5th inning, Pierce was invited to stay in the broadcasting booth for the remainder of the game. It was on the ride home when he started to realize what had happened in that moment that seemed to go by in a flash.
“I was shocked and couldn’t comprehend it,” he said. “And I was critiquing myself because there were some things that I felt like I messed up.”
“You’re That Kid”
After it was all said it done, Pierce was extremely thankful for his experience and it being with such a true professional as Harris.
“He made it a lot easier. It’s a lot easier to do it when you’re working with one of the best to do it,” said Pierce. “For my first time in a broadcast booth, it was very comfortable compared to what I thought it was going to be.”
And while still coming down from his emotional high a few days after, Pierce’s week of diving into the broadcasting world didn’t stop with the M-Braves game. Last week, he traveled up to French Camp to attend a gathering of high school and college broadcasters at the Mississippi Sportscasters Kickoff Gathering after Harris urged him to go. At the conference, he got to meet and hear great advice from a number of broadcasters, such as Jim Ellis (MSU Baseball), David Kellum (Ole Miss), and John Cox (USM), who all greeted Pierce with “you’re that kid”.
