Wainwright will be the Fox analyst when the Cardinals host the Cubs on May 25
“Ack†is back, and so is “Waino,†this weekend.
Tom Ackerman, who broadcast eight Cardinals games last season for Bally Sports Midwest in a fill-in role for lead play-by-play announcer Chip Caray, is set to call the team’s three-game series at home against the Chicago White Sox that starts at 7:15 p.m. Friday.
Then on Saturday former Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright is scheduled to make his regular-season Fox Sports broadcast debut as a game analyst for the Mets-Rays game.
Before last season Ackerman had called numerous Cards spring training games that were on radio or exclusively streamed, but he never had done a big-league regular-season contest.
So calling major-league games that count certainly was memorable. Not surprisingly the first one was the biggest for Ackerman, the sports director at Cardinals Radio Network flagship station KMOX (1120 AM).
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“I talked to (partner) Jim Edmonds before the first pitch about what a great moment it was, but how calm I felt,†Ackerman said. “It was so special calling a game in my home ballpark, of a team I have been covering for a long time and in my hometown. ... I really enjoyed calling it.â€
Ackerman, 48, said during that first game Edmonds asked him if his family was there. When Ackerman said yes, “he said that they should come up to the booth to share the moment,†and said, “I’ll arrange it.â€
Edmonds did that, and it was quite an entourage that arrived — Ackerman’s wife, two daughters, mom, stepfather, mother-in-law and a couple of family friends.
“They all stood and watched (me broadcasting) and took pictures,†Ackerman said. “It was really great of him to arrange that.â€
BSM has been breaking him in with some of the team’s most low-profile games on its schedule, not exactly marquee matchups with the Cubs or Dodgers. His debut came in a contest against Detroit, which finished six games under .500, and the Cards’ foes in the two other series he called, against Kansas City and Oakland, finished in last place. So did the Cardinals.
This weekend he’ll have another series featuring struggling clubs. The White Sox (6-25) have the worst record in the majors and the Cards (14-17) are only a half-game ahead of Pittsburgh at the bottom of the National League Central Division standings.
But Ackerman is ecstatic just to be calling big-league games and said he looks at his schedule “the other way around.â€
“If the Cardinals are the superior team in the series, I may have some fun things to call ... and make it as exciting as possible,†he said.
BSM began using Ackerman last year in order to groom a potential fill-in just in case Caray had an unexpected absence as well as giving him an occasional break. That’s after his predecessor, Dan McLaughlin, was an ironman when he was the full-time Cardinals television play-by-play announcer from 2016-2022.
“It’s important for our broadcasters to have a chance to rest and refresh and important to have depth ready to fill in,†Bally Sports Midwest general manager Jack Donovan said then.
Ackerman has no BSM games scheduled beyond this weekend but said he’ll be ready if called again.
“Chip has been so supportive,†Ackerman said. “I’m just here for when he needs some time off.â€
Wainwright resurfaces
Wainwright has been busy since retiring from baseball at the end of last season, dabbling in broadcasting and doing a lot more than dabbling with a blossoming career as a country musician.
He has released an album and has had some tour dates to support that, including one recently in ºüÀêÊÓƵ as he opened for the Zac Brown Band and is set to be appear June 2 as part of the Confluence Music Festival, which is associated with the NASCAR weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison.
But it’s has been back to baseball this week. Wainwright has pulled some shifts as a studio analyst on MLB Network as part of his deal for occasional appearances there, then makes his season debut as a Fox game analyst Saturday when he works alongside play-by-play announcer Adam Amin. They have been together before, as Wainwright has called a postseason series for Fox in 2020, 2021 and 2023 after the Cardinals were done playing.
Fox has two games Saturday, with Wainwright’s Mets-Rays game being sent to 82% of the country — including ºüÀêÊÓƵ affiliate KTVI (Channel 2) — at 6:15 p.m. The Mariners-Astros game will go to the rest of the nation.
It’s the first of about 15 games Wainwright is expected to call this season for Fox/FS1, including the Cardinals-Cubs contest on May 25 at Busch Stadium.