Latest / Reel Talk with Rich: Stories in Sportscasting / Reel Talk with Rich: Xavier Scruggs
Transcript
- Rich: Welcome to Reel Talk with Rich Stories in Sportscasting. This is a podcast about sports, media, and the intersection of both. I'm your host, Rich Hollenberg. I'm a veteran play-by-play announcer, anchor, and reporter at the top levels of this business. And I'm also the host and founder of the Break It and Breakthrough Sportscasting Cohort, a program designed to reach the next generation of top talent who have the passion and potential to chase their dreams. Each conversation will make you better in front of a mic by taking you behind the scenes. No bull, no fluff, just the straight scoop on sports casting. This is Reel Talk. My guest on Reel Talk this week is someone who is as varied in talent as you'll find. He started as an athlete playing professional baseball with the Cardinals and then with the Marlins and also in the Korean Baseball League. But when he came back home. He made a career change that very few professional athletes can make. I'm talking about Xavier Scruggs. I first met him when he and I called some college baseball championships together on ESPN. He since went on to blow up in the baseball broadcasting world, being seen all the time on ESPN and MLB Network. Now he's focusing on MLB network, television, and radio, but At the time of this recording, I had no idea that he would become a reality star as well. Another career turn for my man X. Like I said, he is as versatile as it comes, he's as interesting a conversationalist as it comes as well. We're gonna talk about his on-camera presence as well as his social media presence and what led to all these different decisions that he made as he built. And pivoted in his career. Right now, you can watch X on NBC on Thursday nights at eight o'clock Eastern on a show called Traitors. Really popular. When I talked to him, I had no idea that's where he was and that's what he was doing. He was in a hotel room. I didn't know where he was. He couldn't tell me. Now I know, and we all know. Without further ado, here's Reel Talk with Xavier Scruggs. speaker-0: let's start with this. When you and I first met, you were at the beginning of your broadcasting journey, and it's been a rocket ride in the intervening years. How did you prepare for that transition from professional athlete to professional broadcaster? speaker-1: Yeah, well first it's a pleasure to be on here. And I I think a lot of that preparation came with just finding ways to to communicate. so whether that be if I could join somebody else's podcast, if I could jump on a radio hit for t for ten minutes, five to ten minutes, if I could find myself doing more public speaking, th those things were the things that helped me really prepare for any opportunity in broadcasting. and and TV and in media. I I would try to surround myself with people like yourself, who have had a lot of experience, just asking a lot of questions, trying to figure out what what would be the most important things for myself to be a part of or or try to learn from and and just you know finding ways to even I I remember starting a podcast which I'm talking about communication and and I did that just to just to help myself be able to speak. Right. And I I remember kind of thinking, man, this is kind of lame because I would do interviews with my parents, like interviews with my in-laws. But ultimately those are the times that I look back and I'm like, that was all the prep that was really getting me ready for any single opportunity. and when you feel like when you can communicate and be able to speak your thoughts, be able to speak you know, you the things that are important to you, that the you f you start to find out what's passionate. And I think when we find out what's passionate to ourselves, then that becomes easy. So my thought process was find ways to communicate and figure out what I'm passionate about and then try to go forward from there. that that became a lot of the preparation for me. And then from a written standpoint, like it I would try to prepare as if I was, you know Going to interview somebody, I wanted to do my research. That that to me was just as important as anything else because now I'm starting to figure out okay, how do I research things? What what do I do as far as what platforms do I look at to find information about somebody? Is that Wikipedia? is that going and looking at somebody's bio on ESPN? Is that looking at their bio on NFL.com? What what do I need to do to make sure I'm prepared to have a conversation? And then so the research part of it was important for my preparation as well, getting into the broadcasting sock. speaker-0: Yeah, I mean, I'm sure for you it feels like a lot longer than it looks to the rest of us because you really burst on the scene, not only on TV, but from my perspective, X, it's also been on social media. You were a really early advocate of using social media for the right reasons instead of the wrong reasons. And you've had a significant impact on not only the sport you cover, baseball. But also branding yourself. So I I guess my question is, what are your most important do's and don'ts for people on the come-up? How to use social media to help themselves? speaker-1: Yeah, I think one of my do's is is really try find your voice, right? Like it kind of going to the same thing about our preparation and trying to communicate. I I use the social media to try to find or at least early on, try to find my voice. try to use it as practice reps, right? Whatever I'm passionate about, making videos on that, making graphics on that, and and thinking about giving other people value. and not trying to necessarily be so focused on trying to hit all the the trends. I I want to find a way to give people value so where they see me, they understand what I'm about. if I happen to pop up on their social media, they're scrolling, I know what X is about. He's about X, Y, and Z. Those are the things that I tried to really focus on with social media. And another thing too is finding out what people like that you s that you talk about, right? Like learning from your social media, right? What who who's in engaging with my stuff? What what's being what's being talked about when I put stuff out there? That way I can learn what other videos or what other social media aspects I can be using to my advantage. How can I garner more attention by speaking about some of the things that people are engaging with? And and don't feel like you have to do everything that somebody likes, right? Like that's a huge part of it is, you know, not everybody's gonna like your stuff anyway. Not everybody's gonna like the way you deliver your you with your voice anyway. Like do you can't please everybody, but do what you like and figure out what's giving people value and try to continue attacking that. And find it find a schedule that works for you. One of my does don'ts would be don't don't try to feel like you have to post every day. Don't try to feel like you gotta put something out there That's not enough value. Don't think qual don't think qual quantity, think quality. What can I put out there that people are gonna rock with and love and wanna be a part of? speaker-0: what are the biggest differences? When you and I first met, it was in a broadcast booth at a baseball game and we called a game together. You don't do that as much as we see you in the studio at ESPN and at MLB Network, but what are the differences between preparing for a game that you're calling and a studio show that you're gonna be part of? speaker-1: Right. I I think studio is more about the conversations that that I expect myself to have. kind of looking at whether it be a pregame, post-game, looking at what are some of the things that that I'm really interested in that maybe only a couple, right? Three, four things that I really want to dive in on. But if I'm looking more at a game situation, I want to go in understanding the story of the game, right? Like where is this team at? Where is this other team at? how did they get there? Where where do they expect to be later on in the season? what have been their expectations coming into this game? What's the story that you're trying to tell on this broadcast? And then what are the characters? Who who are the important characters? What are their stories? what is important to tell during that game? That to me is kind of what I go into a game broadcast looking at. And then we we spoke about research. Making sure that my research is on point when it comes to what's going on right now, and what are the things that I want to tell about that person specific to whether it be their swing, whether it be their defensive side of the ball, what can I highlight that maybe as an analyst I can give people insight to that may not be as familiar with just watching the game? How can I how can I give them something a little bit different? than if if they're familiar with the game, right? Like it may be a casual fan that I'm talking to. what should they know about this player? So I try to think about, hitting the audience with certain things that that I think could be valuable to them. Kind of like we talked about social media in a way is finding out going into each game, what what's going to be valuable to them about this whole storyline. And then from a pregame, postgame or studio side of things, I wanna make sure that I present to my producer the a these are the four or five things I think we gotta hit on because I know this is important. As an analyst, this is what drives the game or this is what drives that specific at bat so really being prepared on those four or five things that I feel like are gonna be the biggest issues. speaker-0: Yeah, people don't understand from the outside looking in how collaborative our process is. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Yeah and analysts and producers and directors. It really you know, it sounds like a a silly pun because we're talking about sports, but it's a team sport in and itself. so to that end, X, what are the attributes that you look for and appreciate the most about the hosts? And or the play by play guys that you've worked with so far in your speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. Well, one would definitely be as you mentioned, teamwork. and being open to having those conversations even before you we go on air, right? Because and the reason why I say that is because those conversations that you have beforehand, it makes it a lot more comfortable once you actually are on air because we we've talked about this, we've had conversation about this, we've we specifically hit these points. so I think being open, and also just the ability to be a great point guard, right? feel like you can go anywhere with me. don't feel like I can't I can can't hit on any point. And and I guess that comes a lot from from trust, right? trusting your partner in a sense and no and and vice versa. I wanna be able to trust him, he's not gonna throw me some random question that we didn't even prepare for, right? But I think it's a lot of of trust aspect in it. you know, that openness, that that willingness to to have fun too. Personality, I think is so important. That's one thing you kill it with is there's always personality in your broadcast. and I think that that's it it if you can feel it as a partner when your partner's stiff, right? Or they they feel like they're just reading the reading the lines or just hitting the cer certain spots. Now give me some personality. Let's have fun with it a little bit. And and I think that's a a big part of it. But another thing is making sure that they've I I don't know how you say this characteristic, but that that they've done their homework, right? Like they're they're just as prepared as as you are. And I think you know, that that makes you feel comfortable as a partner too. makes you feel like you're you've you're working with someone that's invested just as much time as you put in for your show, for your broadcast. So th those would be some of the things That I would say w would be huge. you give me some personality and we can rock. Yeah. speaker-0: Yeah, I always tell people it's hard work making it look as easy as the good ones do. And I think that's what you're talking about, right? speaker-1: Definitely. speaker-0: that that energy is evident to the audience on camera when the lights go on. People think that that happens just like that, and it doesn't. It's it's put in the work beforehand to make that show up on the air and and you do a great job of that. So let's close on this, X. What would your best advice be for aspiring sportscasters who are on the club? speaker-1: Hey, that's good. I would say, and this is kind of what I tell a lot of people, even on the social media side, just media in general, is like, you know, find what's unique to you. don't try to feel like you gotta be somebody else. because the first thing somebody else is gonna say is like, man, he's he's like so-and-so, or he's trying to be somebody different. feel like you can be yourself. And you're gonna find through your communication, you know, through practicing, through reps, you're gonna be you're gonna be like, I I do this thing, one thing a little different. And and and that's okay. you want to have some difference in you than than being the same as everybody else. So that's why I talked about finding your voice. Your voice is gonna be different. There's gonna be some things that are gonna give it some flavor. There's gonna be some things that are gonna be a little nuanced, right? That that are gonna be an advantage to you. so make sure that you're you're unique. Find that one thing that's unique and and run with it because that's gonna separate you from everybody else. speaker-0: Yeah. Well said, as always. the one thing that I've tried to do in not only my on-camera presence but on social media as I try to build a following like you have is just to be real. And the biggest compliment I could give you, X, is there is no one more real in our industry than you are. And you've cultivated that. You've created that. And I appreciate it as a fan of yours. And I appreciate as a friend of yours as well. Thanks for spending some time, bud. speaker-1: Nah, thank you for having me, man. I appreciate you. Thank thanks for rocking with me when I was first getting going too, all the bumps and bruises. speaker-0: Awesome, man. Thank you. Rich: So much fun catching up with my man X, as we all know him in the business. Again, keep watching him on Traders on NBC Thursday nights at 8 Eastern. And then, of course, you could always catch him on MLB Network TV and MLB Network Radio as well. But my three biggest takeaways from Xavier Scruggs and the conversation we had. First, I love how he keeps it simple. The way he broke into broadcasting. Was he had to try to find ways to communicate. That's as simple as it could be when you talk about getting reps. I love how he talked about the fact that he even interviewed his in-laws on Zoom calls just to get the feeling of what it was like to be on the other side of the microphone, the other side of the interview. I think that's a lesson that we could all learn from. Are reps, whether they're practice or live on the air, it's always important to keep getting reps. the second thing, my biggest takeaway, he learned from social media. This is a guy who grew his social media presence in a major way and in a relatively short amount of time, but he did it very methodically. He didn't just throw stuff against the wall and hope that it stuck. He was very Very intentional with his social media posting. He learned from his social media. Who was interacting with what posts? Why were they interacting with it? What was his audience? And then he refined it and catered to that audience. I think that's a lesson well learned, not just in the social media space, but also if you're in television or radio or podcasting for that matter. My third biggest takeaway from my conversation on Real Talk with Xavier Scruggs was the fact that he made a point of talking with his co-host or his play by playman or anyone he was working with before they went on the air. Again, very intentional in what he wanted to accomplish. Building chemistry is a key to having on air energy. And X being a newbie at one point, in terms of being on television and radio, made sure that he sat down and had meaningful conversations with his partner on the air so that when they got on the air, it wasn't the first time they spoke. I always tell people in my break-in and breakthrough cohorts, it's hard work making it look easy. That's some of what I'm talking about. You have to put that work in. On the front end, so you can get the results on the back end. Three biggest takeaways, there were certainly a lot more on these. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Again, the best way you could tell me how you feel about this podcast is subscribe, tell your friends about it, give us a good rating, five stars, please. I'm not afraid to ask, and give us a review as well. Use your writing skills and tell us what you think. That'll do it for this episode. We'll see you next time.