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By Greg Stoda, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Timing, as every good baseball play-by-play man knows, is everything. Dave O'Brien is a good baseball play-by-play man, and he knows the timing -- he's leaving the Marlins' television booth for ESPN -- couldn't be better. "I guess I should start answering my phone, 'Da-da-da... da-da-da,' " O'Brien said Wednesday morning in imitation of ESPN's signature theme music. "But that would get to be annoying." O'Brien, 38, has called Marlins games since there first started being Marlins games in 1993. He once underwent arthroscopic knee surgery during the day and was behind the microphone that night. "It was my 1,000th in a row," O'Brien said. "It was probably a little selfish of me, but I wanted to do it." Now, for various reasons, he wants to go to ESPN. O'Brien will work major-league games on Monday and Wednesday nights for the national network. He'll team with analysts Rick Sutcliffe and Tony Gwynn. Texas-Oakland is his opening-day assignment. He also will do college football and basketball games and has an 80-event-per-year guarantee.. "I love baseball," O'Brien said. "That's my main gig. But one of the guys in the business I've admired is Jim McKay, who always seems to be able to do everything." And, of course, the less-than-stable situation involving the Florida franchise was another element O'Brien considered. Here's the thing, though, maybe the timing is good for everyone involved. It's a cinch it is for O'Brien, who now gets to test his versatility and expand his range with a high-profile network without having to wonder how the folks back home feel about it. O'Brien always had the feeling the Marlins wanted to keep him for themselves as much as possible. But perhaps it's a good opportunity for the under-new-ownership Marlins, too. A different voice might not be a bad thing as the franchise starts over yet again. Because even though O'Brien called his decision to leave an "excruciating" one to make, he admitted recent events -- the sale of the Marlins by John Henry to Jeffrey Loria and the subsequent transformation of the franchise -- gave him pause. "I've watched, one by one, dear friends of mine leaving the organization," O'Brien said. "It's not the Florida Marlins anymore, as I knew them." There was a time, O'Brien said, when he thought he'd be the English-speaking voice of the Marlins as long as he worked. Being a major-league play-by-play man was his dream from the time he was a kid in Boston "doing play-by-play for games I was playing in and driving everybody crazy." He attended Syracuse University to nurture the dream, and landed a job with the Atlanta Braves in 1990 before coming to Florida when the Marlins were born. He hopes Florida survives as a franchise. "I wish I had the crystal ball," said O'Brien, who will keep living in Wellington with his wife and three children despite the job change. "I keep thinking back to '93 and the 3 million people who came to watch the Marlins. Those people didn't just disappear. But my confidence in (franchise viability) has been shaken to the core. I hope it all works out. I wish everybody well. But there have been so many problems." The Marlins have lost their most familiar voice. How quickly they find another one and how well it is received will do much to define this latest new start. Copyright © 2002, The Palm Beach Post. All rights reserved. |
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