Bold strokes pave Langer’s path to 51s’ broadcast booth

The old photo, sent in jest, shows ESPN baseball broadcaster Jon Miller listening to an aspiring sportscaster's audition tape, wearing headphones and falling asleep while lounging on the deck of a cruise ship.

The young sportscaster was Russ Langer, now 48 and in his 22nd year as a pro baseball broadcaster and ninth season as voice of the Las Vegas 51s on KBAD-AM 920.

Besides being "really hysterical," the aforementioned photo also serves as a reminder of how Langer -- a three-time Nevada Sportscaster of the Year -- got his start in the business.

After graduating in 1983 from the University of New Mexico -- where he was recently one of two finalists for the Lobos' football and basketball play-by-play job -- Langer was trying to decide how best to package a resume tape of recordings he made sitting by himself at Albuquerque Dukes' Triple-A games.

After reading about a Caribbean cruise fans could take with some Baltimore Orioles players and staff, including Miller, Langer decided to buy a ticket, go on the cruise and approach Miller for advice.

"He's on board for a week, so he's a captive audience," Langer said. "What's he going to do, jump overboard?"

Though Langer says he was "a little too brash," to introduce himself to Miller as the "future voice of the Baltimore Orioles" -- a prediction he realized years later -- he said Miller "couldn't have been nicer" and "gave me some great advice."

"He told me to remember an average tape gets listened to for 20 seconds and is discarded, so I've got to do something at the beginning to grab their attention," said Langer, who led off his tape with a call of a grand slam, complete with "fans going crazy and lots of crowd noise."

When he took his tape to baseball's winter meetings that year, there were nearly 60 applicants competing for three jobs. Langer got offered two of them, "Because of that tape and because Jon Miller told me how to put that tape together."

Hired to do play-by-play for Class A Springfield (Ill.) of the Midwest League, an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, Langer said "If it hadn't been for Jon Miller, I'm gone."

"It's an ego-driven business, and I've grown a bit of a thick skin, but if I had been abruptly rejected like the others, maybe I would have gone back to New York to do something else," he said.

Langer was born in Mahopac, N.Y., and moved with his family to Los Angeles when he was 7. It was there, during his first trip to Dodger Stadium, that he decided on his calling in life.

"I was transfixed by the whole experience of being out there, looking out over the green and soaking in the atmosphere, and sights and sounds," he said. "One thing that impressed me the most, as a kid sitting in the stands, was so many people had transistor radios that the sound of (legendary Dodgers announcer) Vin Scully would reverberate through the stadium.

"He had stories and stories and all kinds of anecdotes. He set the standard for me to pursue."

After toiling for five years in Class A and Double A, Langer reached Triple A, with Phoenix in 1992. He moved on to Triple-A Albuquerque in 1996 and, in 2000, landed the Las Vegas job.

Like the players he covers each day, Langer's goal is to reach the big leagues.

"I can definitely relate to the challenge of trying to break in and get there," said Langer, in his 17th season in Triple A.

Despite the fact "there are more U.S. Senators than there are people doing this for a living in the big leagues," Langer has made it to the majors for 39 games with two teams, the Montreal Expos and the Orioles.

His first big league action was with the Expos, who, to cut costs in 2003 and 2004, hired about seven people -- out of about 1,000 applicants -- to call some road games.

Langer broadcast a total of 30 games, including ones at Chicago's Wrigley Field and New York's Shea Stadium.

Fittingly, his first big league game was at Dodger Stadium.

"It was a magical evening," said Langer, who called the game in a booth next to Scully. "It was baseball nirvana, something you dream about, and the broadcast went well. It was unbelievable."

The Orioles gig, filling in for three weekends, was even more satisfying for Langer, who cheered for Baltimore as a boy and got to call Opening Night at Camden Yards and three games at Fenway Park during his nine-game stint.

"I'm even more hungry now than I was before, because I got a taste of it," said Langer, a former finalist for jobs in Kansas City, Tampa Bay and San Diego.

But whether or not he again makes it to the majors, Langer said he has "won the career sweepstakes. I wake up in the morning and enjoy what I do every day," he said.

Langer "ranks right up there with the best of them," according to his part-time partner, Dodgers radio analyst Jerry Reuss, and is confident he'll realize his dream one day.

"Somewhere along the line, all of the tumblers will click into place and it will happen," Langer said. "I believe that."

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354.