January 14, 2021 – New Cubs announcer Jon “Boog Sciambi” will be the featured guest on Off The Mound with Ryan Dempster presented by Sloan on Friday, January 15 at 9:00 p.m. CT on Marquee Sports Network.
Throughout the 30-minute episode, Sciambi recalls his thought process while being considered for the Cubs job. He also looks back on calling Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant’s memorable mic’ed-up Spring Training game on ESPN in 2020, and he shares his thoughts on his former broadcast partner David Ross as a manager. Dempster and Sciambi go back more than 20 years, as Sciambi was part of the radio broadcast team during Dempster’s time with the Florida Marlins from 1998 to 2002.
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Immediately following the episode, Marquee Sports Network will air a new edition of Cubs Classic presented by Prevagen at 9:30 p.m. CT, showcasing Sciambi’s call of the Cubs’ 8-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on September 28, 2018 at Wrigley Field.
A preview of Off The Mound can be viewed here. Select quotes from Sciambi are transcribed below:
On looking ahead to his new role:
“I'm a great sleeper, I mean it. With all due respect to you, I can fall asleep right in the middle of this interview…I’m that good. But I've had some trouble sleeping lately because I’ve just been excited, dude. I’ve just been excited, straight up.”
On whether he’s received any advice from longtime friend Len Kasper:
“We haven’t had that conversation yet…The best thing I can do is keep my antenna up to learn, be open, and just be willing to understand the things that I might not know ahead of time. I'm certainly going to lean on him before the season starts to try and put him back to when he first started and what some of those things might be.”
On whether he ever saw himself calling games for the Cubs:
“The answer is no…I think especially the fact that that job was taken by one of my closest friends, so I think I was probably blocked off from thinking about what it would be like to be him 'cause it was his job. And then when it was presented to me was the first time that I really leaned into it - I know it sounds, I mean as it comes out of my mouth it almost sounds ridiculous, but the truth is when it was presented to me and then I just kind of sat with it and felt it and thought about it, yeah, then it washed over me. ‘Wow, to be part of this organization, this community,’ and it's just unique. It just is.”