Sports Man behind the mic

Marblehead’s Gus Baylow ascends to the pro broadcasting booth

BY CHAD KONECKY

Already a year removed from calling the NCAA Final Four for University of Kansas student radio, Gus Baylow has since traveled with the Kansas baseball team and has handled the on­air play­by­play for most of its games the past two months.

The Marblehead native has a lot on his plate, especially for a guy who is still weeks away from wrapping up the academic year. But Baylow, a junior at KU’s William Allen White School of Journalism, is no ordinary collegian, and his career pursuit is no easy get.

In point of fact, working the bulk of this spring’s 55­game Big 12 baseball campaign actually represents a downshift from last summer, when he shared a 72­game schedule of radio and TV play­by­play and color analyst duties for the Green Bay Rockers in the independent, Midwest­based Northwoods League.

That came on the heels of calling almost two dozen KU softball games streamed on kuathletics.com last April and May. Suffice it to say, the Rockaway Avenue resident is learning a lot, so much so that he will be back in Green Bay this summer for a second tour.

“This past summer was a great, great opportunity, and I’m incredibly fortunate to have had it,” says the St. John’s Prep graduate, who cut his teeth calling some 200 streamed broadcasts of Eagles’ sporting events during his high school years.

Baylow continued, “It’s a lot of games. It’s a lot of work. I

SEASON prEV iEW knew that going in, and I wanted that — I wanted that experience. The Northwoods League is as much a place for broadcasters to improve as it is for players to improve. When you do this many games, you’re not going to have your best stuff every night, either on the field or in the booth. It’s mainly just a way to get reps. It’s a way to get practice. It’s a way to get motivated. When I got back to school last fall, I had a different level of broadcast experience