7 questions
lost to Chaminade. It happens. So yeah, on paper they have the talent. But is it reasonable to expect this team, relative to more experienced teams, teams with four starters back, [to reach the Final Four]? Eh, I think you’d have to favor [more experienced teams]. But this is the most talented team the Rebels have had in 20 years. Do you have a message for fans as this season ramps up? Patience! The two Ps: passion and patience. And the Rebels fans are fantastic at passion, but like most passionate fans, not real good at patience—totally understandable. But it’s going to take awhile for this group to get it together.
UNLV basketball’s play-by-play voice on going from lawyer to broadcaster, calling Single-A baseball games and his one-word plea to Rebel fans By Matt Jacob
Nov. 29-Dec. 5, 2012
➧ Jon Sandler’S path to the radio booth didn’t exactly follow the usual formula. While in the midst of a lucrative career as an attorney with a big Silicon Valley corporate law firm in the late 1980s—and with his 30th birthday rapidly approaching—Sandler had one of those “What am I doing with my life?” epiphanies. So he traded in his briefcase for a scorebook, “took a 93 percent pay cut,” and moved to Salinas, Calif., to become the play-by-play man for the Salinas Spurs of the Single-A California League. The Las Vegas Stars (now 51s) promoted Sandler to the Triple-A ranks before the 1993 season, and he’s been here ever since, manning the microphone for virtually all of the city’s sports institutions, from minor league hockey (Las Vegas Thunder) to UNLV men’s basketball (he’s in his ninth season calling Rebel basketball games on ESPN 1100-AM and 98.9-FM). Nearly a quarter-century after hanging up his suit and tie, Sandler remains content with his career choice, even while joking, “I went to Stanford for undergrad and Virginia for law school—I’m wasting a hell of an education!”
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How did you make the transition to broadcasting? The shorthand version: I [worked] part time at my law firm and interned at KCBS in San Francisco. The guys there, whom I respect greatly to this day, told me, “You’ve got some talent; you’ve got to go get some time on a microphone somewhere.” I got a job with a little radio station—the radio station—in Paso Robles, Calif., and for the first two weeks, I was the nighttime DJ; we played both kinds of music— country and Western—and I’d play the national anthem at
11:58 and 40 seconds, then turn off the transmitter at midnight. But a buddy of mine got the job as the general manager of an independent team in the California League in Salinas, and I called him up and said, “I want to be your broadcaster.” And he said, “OK, just don’t cost me any money.” What do you remember about that first season? Oh, it was crazy. I remember the very first home game: They plugged in the hot-dog warmer, and the left-field lights went out—it was beautiful!
It was an independent team owned by Don Nomura—the guy who brought [former major league pitcher] Hideo Nomo over from Japan—and he stocked the team with about 10 Japanese players, because there were no minor leagues in Japan. Our first baseman was Kenichi Yamanouchi, our center fielder was Arihito Muramatsu, we had Tsuyoshi Nishioka. I actually had the quote of the year in Baseball America that year—they asked me how I dealt with all the Japanese names, and I said, “I just pray they never get anybody in a rundown!”
Are they Final Four-caliber? On paper, they have the talent to be in the conversation. [But] they have a lot of new guys, they have a lot of young players. They have Anthony Marshall—who is a terrific basketball player and an even better human being—at [point guard], but he’s not a true point guard. And that’s a challenge. But the biggest thing is for them to play as a team and play hard every night out. That may sound so elementary to fans—why wouldn’t you? Because they’re 18- to 22-year-old kids. Look at Texas, which just
It says on your Twitter account that you’re a bit of a wine snob. What’s the last great bottle of wine you drank? 1961 Chateau Cheval Blanc. It was for my 50th birthday, and I had it at L’Atelier de Jöel Robuchon at the MGM Grand and had an amazing meal. It is truly, truly a spectacular bottle of wine. If you’re talking about that hall of fame, angels singing as you take a sip, yeah, that was it.
Jon Sandler reflects on his legal career and offers advice to aspiring broadcasters at VegasSeven.com/Sandler.
Photo by Kin Lui
Jon Sandler
This year’s Rebels team is stacked. Are your expectations as high as everyone else’s? I’d like to think I’m a little bit more grounded than some. I know how much talent there is on this team, but at the same time I know how difficult it is to integrate eight new guys into a system and get them to play how everyone wants them to play right away. I do think in the long run the ceiling is very, very high, and the future is incredibly bright. But when you’ve got this many freshmen and this many new faces, you’re going to have nights when it looks great, and you’re going to have nights when you’re shaking your head going, “What’s going on here?”
Do you still have aspirations to reach the big-league level at some point? Obviously, when I started, my ambition was to get to the major leagues in baseball—got close a couple of times, and I’d like to think that if I stayed a little bit longer than the seven years in Triple A, I would’ve had an opportunity to do the big leagues. But understanding that’s a commitment of basically February to November— that’s a long time to be away from home. And that becomes your life. And at some point I became OK with the idea that that wasn’t going to be my life. As far as ambitions in basketball, I’m not the biggest NBA fan in the world—although the money for anybody associated with the NBA is pretty darn good. But if I’m the voice of the Runnin’ Rebels for the remainder of my career, I’m probably going to be OK with that. It’s a great gig, you’re associated with the marquee team in the community, and I love the way the program is headed.