Klauke reaches the Majors

After 11 seasons as the voice of the Salt Lake Stingers/Buzz, 1320 KFNZ's Steve Klauke got called up to the Major Leagues, except it's not with the Anaheim Angels, but rather the Toronto Blue Jays.

Klauke called two innings of the Blue Jays-Angels game Wednesday night in Anaheim and he will call two more innings tonight to complete his brief cup of coffee in "The Show."

"This may be my one and only opportunity to do Major League Baseball, so I'll try to make the most of it," Klauke said before Wednesday's broadcast.

Klauke has called several Utah Jazz games while sitting in for Hot Rod Hundley, but he's never called a Major League game.

Klauke is filling in for the Blue Jays' regular broadcaster Tom Cheek, who had a brain tumor removed 10 weeks ago. Cheek is back working for the Blue Jays, but current chemotherapy treatment forces him to stay at home. During his absence on the road, the radio station has used various fill-ins.

Back in July while in Oakland, Klauke was invited to take a turn at the Major League mike.

While in Sacramento with the Stingers for a series with the Grizzlies, Klauke went to a day game between the Oakland A's-Toronto Blue Jays game to interview Damian Miller and Mark Redman, two former Salt Lake Buzz players.

It was there he ran into Jerry Howarth and was asked if he would like to take part.

"One thing led to another and here I am," Klauke said.

Interestingly, two former Salt Lake Gulls' announcers, Howarth, and the current voice of the Anaheim Angels, Rory Marcus, will be in the booth. Howarth and Klauke will be sitting side-by-side and just to the right of Klauke, through the glass will be Marcus. Howarth called the Gulls in the late 1970s and Marcus in the early 1980s.

In true Klauke form, he reported to the ball park at 2 p.m. Wednesday to begin preparations for Wednesday's 7 p.m. (PDT) broadcast and at the same time took some friendly ribbing from former Stinger players, who called him a traitor.

"It'll be strange that I'll know more about the other team than the team I'm broadcasting for," he said.

Klauke will sit with Howarth from the fourth to the seventh innings and call the play-by-play for the fifth and sixth innings. In the other two innings, he'll provide color commentary. Then, following the game, he'll join Howarth in the postgame show.

"I'll try to relax and call the two innings and not try to jam too much into it," he said. "The game is the star, not me."

Klauke came to Salt Lake City 14 years ago to work the halftime and postgame shows for the Utah Jazz. Three years later, he was hired to be the voice of the then Salt Lake Buzz.

In his 11 seasons, Klauke has only missed six games.

"It should be fun," he said.

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E-mail: jhinton@desnews.com