{"id":2970755,"date":"2016-08-24T18:07:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T22:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/?post_type=sn-article&p=2970755"},"modified":"2016-08-24T18:07:22","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T22:07:22","slug":"cbn-rob-fai-seen-vancouver-canadians-broadcaster","status":"publish","type":"sn-article","link":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/baseball\/cbn-rob-fai-seen-vancouver-canadians-broadcaster\/","title":{"rendered":"CBN: Rob Fai has seen it all as Vancouver Canadians’ broadcaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

By CJ Pentland<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first time Rob Fai worked in Nat Bailey Stadium, he stood in the concourse wearing a paper sailor\u2019s hat and making hot dogs.<\/p>\n

Fast forward 21 years later to 2016, and Fai sits perched inside the park\u2019s home broadcast booth, having called close to 700 Vancouver Canadians games over the airways. <\/p>\n

Now in his 10th year as the broadcaster and director of communications for the Canadians, Fai didn\u2019t take the average broadcaster\u2019s road to behind the mic. No schooling, no formal training \u2013 but plenty of dedication, and a gift of the gab that allows him to talk for hours on end.<\/p>\n

For Fai, sitting high atop the action in parks across the Pacific Northwest and calling the action by himself is basically an extension of what he did as a child while growing up in Scarborough, Ontario. Armed with chalk, a brick wall, and a baseball, the young pitcher would fire the ball at a chalk strike zone while commentating games to himself. When his arm got tired after about 600 pitches, he\u2019d invent dice games where each team would score depending on the roll \u2013 though things got a bit out of hand when he started cheating to ensure the Blue Jays won. <\/p>\n

From there, the journey goes all over. Fai headed down to Northern Indiana to play one season of ball for Grace College in 1993 \u2013 setting the school\u2019s record for strikeouts which he still holds to this day. He then came out west to Vancouver to pursue a spot on the National Baseball Institute Team, and while the team didn\u2019t take walk-ons, he hung around enough and got his Moonlight Graham moment with the squad out in Abbotsford \u2013 throwing one inning, and giving up one run on one hit and one walk while striking out one. <\/p>\n

And since he needed to be enrolled in school if he wanted to play for the NBI, he went to Capilano College in North Vancouver and became the PA announcer for their basketball team. When he asked if there were any broadcast opportunities available, he was at first shrugged off \u2013 before a colour commentator was needed for a basketball game and he got his chance. He then became a reporter and host for the school\u2019s local sports show on community television.<\/p>\n

An internship with the Canadians followed in 2001 \u2013 the team\u2019s second season at the Low-A level after the Triple-A team left for Sacramento \u2013 though the eventual path to team broadcaster in \u201907 was by no means direct after that.<\/p>\n

Bartending, telemarketing, working at Eaton\u2019s \u2013 Fai isn\u2019t afraid to admit that he didn\u2019t make his first pay cheque in broadcasting for seven years, and was on welfare before making a pitch for to become the morning show host for a radio station in Powell River in 2004. <\/p>\n

"I call the guy, and he\u2019s like \u2018yeah, whatever, send me your resume.\u2019 I say \u2018I don\u2019t have a resume\u2019\u2026 he says \u2018Ok, well just send me your tape.\u2019 I said \u2018I don\u2019t have a tape\u2019. So he\u2019s like, you don\u2019t have a resume, you don\u2019t have a tape, but you want my most coveted spot at the radio station.<\/p>\n

"I said that I\u2019d never be late, I\u2019d work cheap, and I promise that I\u2019d take you to No. 1 \u2013 though I didn\u2019t realize that they don\u2019t do measurements of whose No. 1 in those small markets. He felt my passion \u2013 he was kinda a quirky family guy \u2013 and said if you\u2019re here Monday morning, the job\u2019s yours. He told me that Wednesday afternoon." He made it there, and gave himself a year \u2013 and if nothing came of it, he\u2019d call it a day and find work in construction or something.<\/p>\n

It turned out to be the best year of his broadcasting life. He learned everything by working in the small market, and after dropping off a cassette to News1130 in Vancouver, he got on in their news department. After a few years there, he put in for the Canadians\u2019 broadcast opening in \u201807, and he\u2019s held that post ever since.<\/p>\n

As for his broadcast style, he fears falling into the trap of sounding like other baseball broadcasters \u2013 which is why his few influences included Hockey Night in Canada\u2019s Jim Hughson, WWE commentator Jim Ross, "and of course Vin Scully." On few other baseball broadcasts will you hear references to Auston Matthews, Macho Man Randy Savage, and the college kid who flips burgers in the third-base barbecue. <\/p>\n

"Here\u2019s what I think, and this could be taken good or bad: I think a lot of broadcasters in this generation are really vanilla, they\u2019re really boring. Yeah, they\u2019re packing it with stats, but tell me something I don\u2019t know if I couldn\u2019t Google it. If Siri knows it, then I don\u2019t want to know that.<\/p>\n

"Tell me something about the bus. Tell me something about the quirky ballpark dimensions or just things that are nuances of the ballpark, that I would physically have to be here to appreciate. Those are the things that I think [Hughson, Ross, Scully] do \u2026 sure do I want to give you a lot of stats \u2013 I mean I think it\u2019d be easy to \u2013 but I always find those to be crutches. What makes you a good broadcaster is \u2018can you make me feel like I\u2019m physically at that ballpark. That\u2019s always been my motivation." <\/p>\n

Fai calls it a surreal journey that he\u2019s been on, and for his next chapter he\u2019s taking over an Italian restaurant in Vancouver. For 17 years he had dreamed of having a place where he could invite people over for lunch, and after saving up money, the situation presented itself and he jumped at it. So maybe expect a few pasta references on the broadcasts over the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s called three championships, met many of future major leaguers, and many others who didn\u2019t make it. Yet he\u2019s cherished each moment, with highlights being the first of three Northwest League championships in 2011, and the bond he formed with former manager John Schneider during that same 2011 season. He also understands the sacrifice that these minor leaguers make \u2013 working long hours, being away from home, and not getting paid much \u2013 because it\u2019s a similar path that he\u2019s scratched out.<\/p>\n

"Any job that was available I would\u2019ve taken. You could\u2019ve honestly told me to clean the toilets and I probably would\u2019ve just to stay in the building. Because once you\u2019re out, it\u2019s really tough to get back in. So to get back in was very fortunate."<\/p>\n

Fai\u2019s All-Time Vancouver Canadians Team (2000 \u2013 present)<\/strong>
\nC:<\/strong> Kurt Suzuki<\/p>\n

1B:<\/strong> Balbino Fuenmayor<\/p>\n

2B:<\/strong> Mark Kiger\/Jon Berti<\/p>\n

3B:<\/strong> Kellen Sweeney<\/p>\n

SS:<\/strong> Freddie Bynum<\/p>\n

OF:<\/strong> Nick Swisher, Andre Ethier, Kevin Pillar, Nelson Cruz (man, who do I remove? One can be a DH)<\/p>\n

Starting rotation:<\/strong> Noah Syndergaard, Aaron Sanchez, Marcus Stroman, Rich Harden and Taylor Cole\/Justin Nicolino<\/p>\n

Closer:<\/strong> A.J. Griffin<\/p>\n

Manager:<\/strong> John Schneider\/Clayton McCullough<\/p>\n

The one player he thought would make the majors but didn\u2019t — Grant Desme, 2007. On cusp of MLB, left Oakland to become priest.<\/p>\n

The one player he thought wouldn\u2019t make it, but did — Jeremy Bonderman, 2001. On active roster with Canadians although never played an inning. Pitcher ended up playing in MLB with Tigers, losing a ton, winning a few before calling it a career. So arrogant, so sure of himself, and yet even when he spewed how it was a foregone conclusion that he\u2019s make it – he did. Go figure.<\/p>\n

\n

This piece was originally published at the Canadian Baseball Network<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now in his 10th year as the broadcaster and director of communications for the Vancouver Canadians, Rob Fai didn\u2019t take the average broadcaster\u2019s road to behind the mic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":2618117,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","disable_ec_suggest":"","writethru_meta":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2995],"class_list":["post-2970755","sn-article","type-sn-article","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","sports-baseball","leagues-mlb","importance-normal"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sn-article\/2970755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sn-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sn-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sn-article\/2970755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2970771,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sn-article\/2970755\/revisions\/2970771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2618117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2970755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2970755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2970755"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2970755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}