By CJ Pentland
The first time Rob Fai worked in Nat Bailey Stadium, he stood in the concourse wearing a paper sailor’s hat and making hot dogs.
Fast forward 21 years later to 2016, and Fai sits perched inside the park’s home broadcast booth, having called close to 700 Vancouver Canadians games over the airways.
Now in his 10th year as the broadcaster and director of communications for the Canadians, Fai didn’t take the average broadcaster’s road to behind the mic. No schooling, no formal training – but plenty of dedication, and a gift of the gab that allows him to talk for hours on end.
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’d invent dice games where each team would score depending on the roll – though things got a bit out of hand when he started cheating to ensure the Blue Jays won.
From there, the journey goes all over. Fai headed down to Northern Indiana to play one season of ball for Grace College in 1993 – setting the school’s 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’t take walk-ons, he hung around enough and got his Moonlight Graham moment with the squad out in Abbotsford – throwing one inning, and giving up one run on one hit and one walk while striking out one.
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 – 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’s local sports show on community television.
An internship with the Canadians followed in 2001 – the team’s second season at the Low-A level after the Triple-A team left for Sacramento – though the eventual path to team broadcaster in ’07 was by no means direct after that.
Bartending, telemarketing, working at Eaton’s – Fai isn’t afraid to admit that he didn’t 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.
"I call the guy, and he’s like ‘yeah, whatever, send me your resume.’ I say ‘I don’t have a resume’… he says ‘Ok, well just send me your tape.’ I said ‘I don’t have a tape’. So he’s like, you don’t have a resume, you don’t have a tape, but you want my most coveted spot at the radio station.
"I said that I’d never be late, I’d work cheap, and I promise that I’d take you to No. 1 – though I didn’t realize that they don’t do measurements of whose No. 1 in those small markets. He felt my passion – he was kinda a quirky family guy – and said if you’re here Monday morning, the job’s yours. He told me that Wednesday afternoon." He made it there, and gave himself a year – and if nothing came of it, he’d call it a day and find work in construction or something.
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’ broadcast opening in ‘07, and he’s held that post ever since.
As for his broadcast style, he fears falling into the trap of sounding like other baseball broadcasters – which is why his few influences included Hockey Night in Canada’s 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.
"Here’s what I think, and this could be taken good or bad: I think a lot of broadcasters in this generation are really vanilla, they’re really boring. Yeah, they’re packing it with stats, but tell me something I don’t know if I couldn’t Google it. If Siri knows it, then I don’t want to know that.
"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 … sure do I want to give you a lot of stats – I mean I think it’d be easy to – but I always find those to be crutches. What makes you a good broadcaster is ‘can you make me feel like I’m physically at that ballpark. That’s always been my motivation."
Fai calls it a surreal journey that he’s been on, and for his next chapter he’s 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.
He’s called three championships, met many of future major leaguers, and many others who didn’t make it. Yet he’s 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 – working long hours, being away from home, and not getting paid much – because it’s a similar path that he’s scratched out.
"Any job that was available I would’ve taken. You could’ve honestly told me to clean the toilets and I probably would’ve just to stay in the building. Because once you’re out, it’s really tough to get back in. So to get back in was very fortunate."
Fai’s All-Time Vancouver Canadians Team (2000 – present)
C: Kurt Suzuki
1B: Balbino Fuenmayor
2B: Mark Kiger/Jon Berti
3B: Kellen Sweeney
SS: Freddie Bynum
OF: Nick Swisher, Andre Ethier, Kevin Pillar, Nelson Cruz (man, who do I remove? One can be a DH)
Starting rotation: Noah Syndergaard, Aaron Sanchez, Marcus Stroman, Rich Harden and Taylor Cole/Justin Nicolino
Closer: A.J. Griffin
Manager: John Schneider/Clayton McCullough
The one player he thought would make the majors but didn’t — Grant Desme, 2007. On cusp of MLB, left Oakland to become priest.
The one player he thought wouldn’t 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’s make it – he did. Go figure.
This piece was originally published at the Canadian Baseball Network.
