How Needham High School Sparked Karl Ravech's Journalism Career

Bronx, NY - October 6, 2015 - Yankee Stadium: Karl Ravech on the set of Baseball Tonight prior to the 2015 American League Wild Card Game (Photo by Ben Solomon / ESPN Images)

NEEDHAM, MA—After an knee injury derailed his soccer career in Needham, a young Karl Ravech was left wondering where his life would take him.

Ravech covered local high school hockey for the Daily Transcript and was inspired by his bylines. He was driven by a passion for both sports and writing, but wasn’t thinking about making those passions his life’s work at the time.

At least, not until a conversation with a Needham High School guidance counselor got him thinking.

“A guidance counselor asked ‘What is it that you like?’” Ravech told Patch ahead of him broadcasting ESPN's Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown before the Red Sox-Yankees game at 8 p.m. Sunday. “I said I like sports and I like writing.”

That discussion directed Ravech to Ithaca College, where he graduated in 1987 with a major in communications. Ravech served as the sports director at NewsCenter 7 in Ithaca and as a freelance sports producer for WCVB-TV while in school. He later went on to work for WBNG-TV, in Binghamton, NY and WHTM-TV in Harrisburg, PA before finding his way to ESPN.

Fast forward over 30 years later, and Ravech is now one of the most recognizable names in sports media. He has hosted ESPN’s Baseball Tonight since 1995 and has covered some of the most memorable experiences in baseball history. Recently, Ravech sat down with President Barack Obama during a baseball game in Cuba was not only significant for the sport, but carried global importance.

Ravech had interviewed President George W. Bush and met President Bill Clinton, but he says the Obama interview rendered a surreal experience.

“The circumstances of being in a communist country with an American president and interviewing him for national television was surreal,” Ravech said. “Trying to get your head around the fact that you’re sitting there with President Obama; and Raul Castro is ten feet to the left of you and Derek Jeter is sitting there and Dave Winfield is sitting there and the Commissioner of Major League Baseball was there was a surreal moment.”

A lengthy career in broadcast journalism doesn’t come without its hiccups and awkward situations. When asked about those situations in his career, Ravech couldn’t quite put his finger on one moment specifically. However, he did point to a rather unusual situation involving a fly.

“Rather than ignore it, we actually tried to catch it,” said Ravech. “I think having a fly buzzing around during a live broadcast is another one of those moments.”

Some broadcasters might rue the day that they are bothered by a fly on air, Ravech said that he relishes those moments.

“I’m used to those thing where they get screwed up and we try to prevent the viewer from from noticing,” Ravech added. “That’s really what I enjoy now in a really perverse way.”

While the fly presented a distraction in that night's presentation, it didn't exactly change the landscape of sports media. That would be social media, which has changed the business in a drastic fashion, making vast amounts of content available at one’s fingertips.

Ravech said that a crucial part of being an analyst in the modern day media space is being able to provide what social media cannot.

“We’ve got to be able to transport the viewer to a place where a phone or Facebook can’t,” Ravech said. “That’s through personal experience that our guys have and allowing the viewer to be in that position and see things that they wouldn’t see. It’s in effect interpreting the access they have and attaching meaning to it in a way that they may not necessarily recognize when they are watching it, reading it or seeing it.”

Ravech will appear on Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown starting at 7 p.m. ahead of the 8 p.m. Red Sox and Yankees battle.