San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Exhibition at Angels,
(All games at Petco Park except Wednesday at Angel Stadium)
Exhibition vs. Angels, 6:10 p.m.
Wednesday:
6:40 p.m.
Friday: Season opener vs. Arizona, 6:10 p.m.
Saturday: vs. Arizona, 6:10 p.m.
July 26-27: vs. Arizona, 1:10 p.m.
On the air: FSSD; 97.3-FM
Jack Harris and Mike Digiovanna of the Los Angeles Times provide AL West, NL West previews, team capsules and predictions.
Grant called intrasquad games on Padres.com. Streaming totals Wednesday reached 11,469.
“I’m about 10 percent monitor or 90-10 field,” Orsillo said. “My old (Red Sox) partner Jerry Remy is 90-10 monitor. We did simulated games, video games, where all you had were monitors. That really helped.”
Creativity will extend to the studio and trucks, as FSSD and its Spanish telecasts will be put together with 20 percent less staff on-site to restrict interactions and enhance safety protocols.
Viewership should be huge, especially early, with a combination of baseballstarved fans and ticket holders who find themselves at home.
“We know we’re the link now,” Barnes said.
The extraordinary circumstances of a season with an interrupted spring training, shortened season and health questions that will linger, potentially threatening play, cause Orsillo to shake his head.
This was Orsillo’s first spring and earlier summer off since 1988. He has embraced his two hobbies, cooking and fishing, and coaxed his wife to watch the fictional White House drama “The West Wing.” He’s watched streaming concerts from his favorite band, the Dave Matthews
Band, which he’s seen live 21 times.
Baseball on the back burner felt beyond odd.
“It’s so weird,” Orsillo said.
Adjustments will come on the fly.
“We could hear people on the field (during intrasquads),” he said. “You hear a first base coach trying to get a guy back on a throw over. We’re hearing stuff we’ve never heard before.”
Meaning the players are likely to hear the announcers at times, too.
“If we get excited, I think they’ll definitely hear us,” Orsillo said. “Most of what we say about players finds its way back to players anyway from a family at home, or someone in the clubhouse or watching the replay after they get home. So that’s always been a factor anyway.”
There might be one thing that remains outside Orsillo’s comfort zone. Killing time before a recent live stream, he watched Grant fumble with his phone, playing chess with whoever, wherever.
“It’s unbelievable,” Orsillo said. “I don’t know who this man is.”
Strange days, to say the least.
bryce.miller@sduniontribune.com