- Dave Flemming
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This article is about the sports announcer. For the former Major League Baseball pitcher, see Dave Fleming.
David Braxton "Dave" Flemming (born May 31, 1976) is an American sportscaster and television personality, currently working as a play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball as well as the Stanford Cardinal football and basketball teams.
Flemming grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, listening to current Giants partner Jon Miller call Baltimore Orioles games. In 2004, Flemming began his first full year in the Giants' radio booth, working with Miller, Duane Kuiper, Mike Krukow and Greg Papa on San Francisco station KNBR-AM. He is still currently calling all games on KNBR with Miller unless there is a scheduling conflict with ESPN or Stanford.
In addition to his work with the Giants and Stanford, Flemming began calling college basketball for ESPN in 2010.
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Early life and career
After graduating from St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School in 1994, Flemming received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Classics from Stanford University and a Master’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University. While at Stanford, Flemming broadcast Stanford baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, and football and served as Sports Director at KZSU-FM. In 2000, he broadcast play-by-play for the Visalia Oaks and served as the assistant General Manager, before moving on to the Pawtucket Red Sox.
Flemming teamed with PawSox radio broadcaster Andy Freed for three seasons on the eight-station PawSox Radio Network. His rise in the baseball broadcasting industry was nearly unprecedented as he went from Class-A ball (Visalia) in 2000 to Triple-A from 2001-2003 (Pawtucket) and now the Major Leagues. Starting in 2008, Flemming began broadcasting for the Stanford Cardinal football and basketball teams, which is the main reason why Flemming is not heard on Saturdays during the Cardinal football season.
Career with the San Francisco Giants
On May 28, 2006, Flemming had the chance for his voice to go into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum when he was set to call Barry Bonds' 715th home run, passing Babe Ruth for second place on the all-time home run list. However, as he was making the call, his microphone went dead:
“ Finley runs. The payoff pitch. A swing and a drive! Deep cen – ” Flemming, unaware of the problem, continued to make the call, but all listeners heard was about ten seconds of dead air. Then his broadcast partner, Greg Papa, stepped in to try to salvage the call. Only Duane Kuiper's call on Fox Sports Net's broadcast was sent to the Hall of Fame.[1] On September 23 of the same year, during Flemming's third-inning call of a game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park, Bonds hit a home run off left-hander Chris Capuano. This was Bonds' 734th career homer (26th for the season), which broke Hank Aaron's record for National League home runs. (Aaron hit his last 21 homers as an American League player.) Eventually on August 4, 2007, Flemming was able to call Bonds' record-tying 755th home run in San Diego on the radio against the San Diego Padres.
On July 14, 2006, for a Friday night home game, Flemming made his television broadcast debut for the Giants. Since then, he has appeared both on CSN Bay Area and KNTV during the baseball season. On selected weekend games (usually road games), Flemming usually calls the first three and the last three innings on the radio, and innings 4-6 on TV. However, Flemming usually fills in for Kuiper if Kuiper is unable to call games on CSN Bay Area.
Fellow broadcasters Krukow and Kuiper give Flemming a number of new nicknames each year. The most commonly used are "Flem," "Flame," and "et al." After his fellow announcers learned his middle name was Braxton, they also took to referring to him by his complete name. Jon Miller's common introduction for him is "Daaavid B. Flemming".
On July 16, 2010, Flemming was among the handful number of people honoring Miller before the game against the New York Mets. In one instance, Flemming described how he has listened to Miller on the radio when he was a kid. This came about a week before Miller was scheduled to be honored with the 2010 Ford C. Frick Award.[2][3]
On November 1, 2010, during the seventh inning in Game 5 of the World Series at Rangers Ballpark, Flemming made the winning home run call that eventually sealed the Giants' win, and thus the World Series:[4]
“ Lee pitches...Renteria hits a high drive, deep left-center field, David Murphy going back, he's on the warning track, IT IS...GOOONNNNE! Edgar Renteria...has hit a three-run homer...against Cliff Lee! And the Giants lead here in the World Series, 3-0! Edgar Renteria, the World Series hero, and its 3-0 here...the Giants are nine outs away... ” Commentating style
During the game Flemming often acts as the foil to Jon Miller's tangential stories. After the game, Flemming acts as the moderator to discussions with veterans Miller, Krukow, and Kuiper. He also fills in on sports talk shows on KNBR. At the beginning of most games, Flemming will introduce the lineups before handing over to the lead broadcaster (either Miller or Kuiper).
In past seasons Flemming served as lead radio announcer for Sunday games when Miller was on assignment with ESPN Sunday Night Baseball although this has changed as of 2011, as Miller is no longer employed by ESPN and now works full time for KNBR. When Miller, Kuiper, and Krukow are in the radio booth due to a national telecast, Flemming will only do the lineups and the post-game radio interviews while still being the moderator during discussions.
References
External links
Categories:- 1976 births
- Living people
- American radio sports announcers
- College basketball announcers in the United States
- College football announcers
- Major League Baseball announcers
- Pawtucket Red Sox
- People from Alexandria, Virginia
- San Francisco Giants broadcasters
- Stanford Cardinal football broadcasters
- Stanford University alumni
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