Podcast: A Conversation With Joe Ritzo

Joe Ritzo has been calling games for the Single-A San Jose Giants since he was a freshman in college at Santa Clara University. In the last few years—and especially this year—Ritzo is playing a larger role on the radio for the San Francisco Giants.

Due to a variety of health issues, longtime TV broadcasters Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow no longer travel with the team to broadcast away games. For away broadcasts, either Jon Miller or Dave Flemming, who call home games on the radio, move over to the TV side and are joined by a rotating cast of former Giants players, including Javy Lopez, Sean Estes, and Hunter Pence.

Those moves have made room for Ritzo to do the play-by-play for quite a few Giants road games this season. For the most part, he’s been paired with former major leaguer F.P. Santangelo.

Last week, I talked with Ritzo about how he broke into baseball broadcasting, how he prepares to call a ballgame, what it’s been like to move from Single-A games to major league games, and the successes and failures of the Giants’ farm system since he’s been calling San Jose Giants games.

Take a listen.