At the ballpark with Charley
Steiner
Charley
Steiner '71, right, interviews New York Yankees pitcher Roger
Clemens before a World Series game last season. Steiner, who
was at ESPN at the time, was recently named the Yankees new
radio announcer.
It's 3:30 p.m. and Charley Steiner '71 is studying
team statistics in the New York Yankees' broadcasting booth
at Edison Field in Anaheim.
The quiet stadium with an emerald-green field
is nearly empty three and a half hours before game time except
for Anaheim centerfielder Darin Erstad taking early batting
practice.
When Erstad finishes and leaves home plate, the
Yankees' new radio announcer shouts down from his second deck
booth. "Darin! Darin! Got five minutes for me now?"
"Yeah. Whenever," Erstad replies, looking up
at the bearded Steiner, who built relationships with many players
while working for ESPN the last 14 years.
A few seconds later Steiner sits in the shaded
third base dug out next to Erstad. Steiner schmoozes for a few
minutes, asking Erstad about his beloved University of Nebraska
football team. Then he extends a microphone with his left hand
while holding a tape recorder in his right, beginning a three-minute,
pre-game interview to be aired later.
The blond, normally intense Erstad looks straight
at Steiner and calmly reveals that a foot infection has thrown
off his batting swing. News nugget in hand, Steiner ends the
formal interview and again schmoozes briefly before Erstad retires
to the clubhouse.
"That was the hardest part of my pre-game work,"
says the down-to-earth, whimsical Steiner, who with partner
John Sterling will soon broadcast a 4-0 Yankees victory. "The
heavy lifting is doneÉ.This is fun. This ain't work."
Steiner appreciates his job because, although
he regularly scours the Internet for newspaper reports on opposing
teams, arrives at stadiums hours before game time to prepare
for broadcasts, and follows the Yankees for a grueling 162-game
season and the playoffs, his schedule is less rigorous than
at ESPN.
"The last five years I was doing baseball two
games a weekÑon Wednesday television and the Sunday night game
of the week on radioÑwhich meant traveling four days a week.
And the last six weeks of the season I was on the road constantly,"
he says.
"The good news is I got to call the All-Star game,
the World Series, and the playoffsÉ."
"[But] after every baseball season I was physically
and emotionally drained. The first week or 10 days of the off-season,
I did not want to leave my couchÉ"
"When the Yankees made the offer, I knew that
we'd go [by bus] right from the stadium to the plane. We don't
even go through the airport. Plus, when you are with one team,
there are home stands of 10 games to two weeks. And, on the
road, I can even unpack my bags [because we're in a city three
or four days]. "Those are the practical reasons [for taking
the job]. The emotional reason is that it's the Yankees. It's
the sports team that has more history than any other, and to
sit in the seat that Mel Allen and Red Barber sat in, that's
a pretty exclusive club and something I don't take lightly."
Steiner had fallen in love with broadcasting at
five when, growing up on Long Island, he heard Vin Scully announce
a Brooklyn Dodgers' game.
Steiner hoped to gain experience by broadcasting
Bradley basketball games when he arrived on campus in 1967 as
a long-haired freshman. He leaped into the anti-war movement
and other protests but practically lived at the campus radio
station.
Steiner describes the station, WRBU, as one room
"divided by a piece of glass that passed for sound proofing"
and says the broadcasts were only heard on campus. But that
didn't matter "because [on each broadcast] I had my headphones
on and I was trying to figure out how to get good at this."
Eventually Steiner announced Bradley games and
earned his first professional job as a newscaster at station
WIRL in Peoria. He served an extensive radio and television
career in the East and Midwest before joining ESPN in 1988.
Along the way he not only established a broadcasting
scholarship at Bradley but developed friendships with great
athletes.
"When I came to the Yankees the first night in
spring training this year, I had dinner with Yogi Berra and
Whitey Ford. I've known them for years covering them, but when
they took me out to dinner it was like I was a made man. After
the first exhibition Yogi comes out of the shower and he says,
'How'd you do, Charley?' These are historical figures. It's
almost surreal for them to think of me as a peer even on some
level.
" Another friend and member of the baseball Hall
of Fame dined with Steiner in Florida five or six years ago.
"We were two single, middle-aged Jewish guys lamenting
recently failed relationships with women," Steiner says, "when
it occurred to me that the guy talking to me was Sandy Koufax.
I said, 'Whoa! That's pretty cool!'"
But even without perks like these, Steiner would
love his work.
"I go to the ball park every day," he says. "I
get the best seat in the house. I can say whatever I want. And
on the field, scratching and spitting is encouraged. What's
not fun about that?"
by Gary Libman
BU is a family affair
They've studied together, worked together, and
now they vacation together. This July, five families, all with
roots at Bradley either as alumni, employees, or as a member
of the Board of Trustees, gathered for a vacation at Sanibel
Island in Florida. These gatherings have become regular occurrences
for the families, who were vacationing together for the fourth
time in 30 years.
Originally, Ken Goldin '64 MA '72, Jim Erickson
'61 MA '66, Sue Haines Schmitt '63, and their spouses vacationed
together. Over the years, Dan Gura '67, Board of Trustees member
Jerry Flaherty, and their families joined the group, bringing
this year's total to 39 people, including children and grandchildren.
Goldin says, "We all wear our Bradley T-shirts and hats, and
when we walk into a place for breakfast, heads turn. We look
like we're getting together for an alumni event."
Goldin says, "At one time, all five families lived
in Peoria. All the children of the adults have grown up together
and became close friends. Now, their children see each other
periodically."
He adds, "We've been going about once every seven
years or so, but our next vacation is scheduled for 2005." In
addition to the Florida trips, the families also have gathered
for Bradley basketball games in California, Oregon, and other
locations.
Goldin comments, "Bradley friendships continue
after you graduate. They just grow and expand. Going to Bradley
is more than just attending classes. Lifelong friendships develop
and become larger and larger as the families become larger and
larger. We're all proud of our affiliation with Bradley, and
many of our children attended Bradley."
To China with love
Tom
Eiden '94 and Pan Wei Wei were married on April 26 in China
in a local government civil affairs office, called a minzhengju.
"There were no exchange of vows, ring ceremony, maids of honor,
or anything else typically associated with such a joyous occasion,"
Eiden says. "In fact, at one point, I turned to Wei Wei and
asked, 'Are we married yet?' and she said, 'Well, yes, about
five minutes ago.' So much for kissing the bride."
After their civil marriage in Dalian, they traveled
to Wei Wei's hometown, Gaizhou, about three hours to the north.
"There we had a wedding reception," Eiden says, "during which
we did wear traditional red silk ceremonial dress, but nothing
as elaborate as what you see in the photo (at right). My primary
responsibility during the wedding reception was to walk around
making sure everyone's glass was full and their cigarettes lit.
This necessitated numerous rounds of strong Chinese rice wine,
called baijiu, to the call of ganbei, or cheers."
An international studies major at Bradley, Eiden
earned an Illinois teaching certificate in 1997 and worked a
few years in corporate jobs before deciding he wanted to try
teaching abroad. "It was a coin toss between Argentina and China,"
he says, "and I've often thought about how life can turn on
a single decision."
He arrived in Dalian, in Liaoning Province, in
July 2000 and began working at New Century Practical English
School, a private school for both children and adults. He and
Wei Wei began dating about a month later. In the children's
classes, the foreign teachers had Chinese assistants for translation
purposes. "Wei Wei was a senior English major at Dalian University
of Foreign Languages, working part-time at New Century," Eiden
explains. "We met in one of the children's summer school classes,
in which she was my assistant. She was funny, clever, good with
kids, and a joy to teach with." After completing his one-year
contract in Dalian, Eiden brought Wei Wei to visit the U.S.
for the summer. "I introduced Wei Wei to my parents and my country,"
he says, "and we had such a grand time that we got engaged just
before returning to China in August 2001."
Since that time, he has been teaching at Times
Language School in Xiamen, Fujian Province, in southeast China,
and Wei Wei works as a study abroad consultant, helping Chinese
students prepare for university in English-speaking countries.
"
To anyone considering a teaching career abroad,"
Eiden says, "I'd give the life a ringing endorsement. I've met
more interesting, adventurous people from England, Australia,
Ireland, and Canada in the last two years than I can count.
And they are all just icing on the cake compared to the 1.4
billion people of my adopted country."
Breaking new ground for
Caterpillar
Jill
Dorjath '95 decided as a junior at Bradley that she wanted to
have a career that took her abroad. A communication major concentrating
in public relations and photography, Dorjath studied abroad
in Prague in the Czech Republic. "It was 1995, just after the
changeover in 1989, and the city was exploding with energy.
With all of the artists on the streets, entrepreneurs starting
businesses, and all the positive energy that was in this city,
I realized that the world was an enormous place, and I wouldn't
be happy just sitting at home and watching it go by," Dorjath
says. "
I was exposed to so many differences, so many
new ideas, and so much diversity that it changed the way I viewed
things and opened up my mind to a world of opportunities. After
returning from Prague, I couldn't wait to travel again, and
this is why I wanted to work for a company that would enable
me to pursue my dreams even further," she continues.
With that goal in mind, Dorjath accepted a position
at Caterpillar Inc., the world's largest manufacturer of construction
and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial
gas turbines. Seven years later, she is working in Geneva, Switzerland,
as a brand marketing consultant for The Cat Rental Store. Her
role is to build The Cat Rental Store brand in Europe, Africa,
and the Middle East. That involves market and consumer research,
promotions, public relations, advertising, and identity development
with the ultimate goal of leading to positive brand recognition
for the new endeavor.
While Caterpillar has supplied independently owned
dealerships with heavy equipment for many years, they are now
focusing on a new customer base: smaller contractors involved
in excavating, home building, landscaping, utility jobs, building
construction, and other trades. The company believes that in
the longer term, an increasing percentage of industry demand,
particularly for their new line of smaller equipment, will be
provided in the form of rental.
The Cat Rental Store targets small customers who
might not need to make a large investment in equipment, but
who are looking for flexible solutions, effective machine utilization,
availability of equipment, and better management of their assets.
"These new distribution outlets are geared for walk-in traffic
and short-term machine rental needs, and it's a great way to
get people to experience and eventually buy our compact equipment,"
says Dorjath.
Since much of the growth for The Cat Rental Store
initiative is taking place in Europe, Dorjath was sent to Geneva,
Switzerland, in April 2001 to work with the dealers and help
build the new brand. She says, "Some of the dealers in Europe
are choosing to enter this business through acquisition and
have acquired major rental companies that had previously operated
under different brand names. Much of our time is spent integrating
these companies into The Cat Rental Store business concept and
then working with them to make the brand changeovers happen.
This involves putting up new signs, making changes to the facilities,
implementing new vehicle designs, getting new business cards,
helping communicate and launch the concept, etc."
Discussing the benefits of working overseas, Dorjath
says, "Working in an environment with many different perspectives
on business and on life is stimulating. There is not a day that
goes by when I do not feel thankful for the opportunity I have
been given. The most fascinating part of the job is to be able
to work in a growth area of the company. Unlike many of the
other areas of the company where we have a rich history and
expertise and everything has been decided decades ago, we are
starting something from the ground up. We get to work in an
entrepreneurial environment and make things happen for a new
business with a team of people who are extremely goal oriented,
creative, and inspiring. At the same time, we are backed by
a major corporation, so we are constantly learning from the
experts who have worked here for years."
A triple dose of medicine
Celebrating
their new medical degrees, left to right, are Carolyn Joyner
Fitzpatrick '91, Teresa Davis '96, and Sandra McGowan '96. The
trio graduated in May from the University of Illinois at Chicago
College of Medicine.
Three Bradley alumni - Carolyn Joyner Fitzpatrick
'91, Teresa Davis '96, and Sandra McGowan '96 - graduated from
the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine in
May, receiving the doctor of medicine degree. The trio of new
physicians is among the first graduates to complete a pre-medical,
post-baccalaureate program begun in 1997 by UIC's Urban Health
Program.
Fitzpatrick is beginning a residency in family
medicine at West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park. McGowan begins
a family medicine residency at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.
Both Fitzpatrick and McGowan were biology majors at Bradley.
Davis, a psychology major at Bradley, is beginning a preliminary
year in anesthesiology at the University of Illinois Hospital
in Chicago before entering the field of emergency medicine.
