In 1934, the Cubs and Cardinals were playing a midseason game that was being broadcast on WHO in Des Moines, Iowa.

The announcer wasn’t at the game, but was instead in the WHO studio receiving play-by-play over telegraph that was sent from the game in St. Louis.

The Cubs were up 1-0 in the ninth inning when Cubs shortstop Billy Jurges stepped to the plate. At just that moment, the telegraph went dead. Not having any idea what was going on at the game, the announcer improvised and thought that foul balls don’t really show up in the box score, so for the next 12 minutes, Jurges fouled off pitches, if you believed the radio broadcast.

Eventually, the telegraph came back and Jurges had grounded out just one pitch after the feed went dead. That creative broadcaster was none other than Ronald Reagan.

IronPigs radio broadcasters Mike Ventola and Pat McCarthy are hoping that they aren’t faced with the same dilemma as Reagan was on that June day nearly 87 years ago.

They, too, will be doing radio broadcasts remotely, at least for the time being. The plan is to set up in McCarthy’s apartment and watch the game on MiLB.TV and simply voice what is happening in the game.

“Obviously, you miss being with the team and it’s not an ideal situation, but it’s what we’ve got to work with right now,” said Ventola, who also serves as the Media Relations Manager for the ‘Pigs.

The challenge is an interesting one for McCarthy, whose father, Tom McCarthy, is doing the same thing for the Phillies TV broadcasts, sitting in a studio while watching monitors from the game site. The difference is that the IronPigs broadcasters don’t have the luxury of satellite feeds and multiple monitors to work from, and instead have one broadcast with just one angle to do the game from.

“I’ve kind of thought about what happens if we lose that feed,” joked McCarthy. “We have other options like Gamecast [an online pitch-by-pitch feed of games], but you can’t actually see what is going on with that. It’s possible that we would just ask someone with the other team to point a web cam at the field and at least let us see what’s happening.”

McCarthy has also considered other interesting scenarios that could affect the broadcasts.

“I’m more concerned with my downstairs neighbor cranking up their music and hearing it in the background of the broadcast, but we’re having crowd noise piped in, so maybe that would cover it up.”

Media relations in general has been difficult. Ventola has had to know exactly what writers will be at home games so that he can allocate space in the press box.

Even little things like whether the windows in the press box are open have become an enforceable issue. Normally, writers prefer to have them closed to avoid having papers blown about by the wind and foul balls coming into the press box while they’re looking down at their computer.

Interviews are no longer done simply by walking into the clubhouse. Instead, they’re pre-arranged and done either by Zoom or phone.

The biggest challenge for Ventola has been working with photographers who would normally photograph the game from camera wells next to the dugout. Major League Baseball has closed the camera wells, and photographers have to shoot from the seats or from the concourse, giving them more difficult angles to work with. They also must remain away from fans in the seating area to support social distancing.

Ventola is thankful that the media have been cooperative, and understand the process.

“I’m very fortunate because we have experienced people who cover the team, and they understand and they are willing to work within the guidelines,” said Ventola. “None of our jobs are any easier because of all of the changes, but we work with each other and have been able to make things work as best we can for both sides.”