On his daily First 10 podcast, Post-Gazette sports columnist Jason Mackey checks in with former AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh Pirates sideline reporter Robby Incmikoski to see what he’s been up to since leaving the network last fall. How are things in his new role with Bally Sports Southwest, covering the World Series champion Texas Rangers? And what are some of his favorite memories of working with the Pirates in a tenure that spanned the playoff years with Andrew McCutchen, Gerrit Cole and Neil Walker to more recent struggles under GM Ben Cherington and manager Derek Shelton? Our duo tackles those topics and more.
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good morning everybody and welcome to Jason Mackey’s first 10 a quick hit podcast to get you ready for the day we have a special treat in store today we’re not really going to Dish on Pirates too much but you recognize the person on the other side of this screen Robbie inch macowski um formerly of AT&T sportset now I’m with Bal Sports the host reporter um yeah what’s up buddy how are you doing you know it’s great to see you my brother um everything’s great you know life’s obviously a little different not being with the Pirates anymore but um you know but I had a great 11 years there and it’s uh been a real real cool experience spending the last month and a half with the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers and uh working for uh balet Sports Southwest uh you know brag humble brag Robbie what’s that humble brag the defending World Series champion Texas you know it’s kind of cool because we had just uh not we but the Rangers just played a series in Oakland against the A’s and when you get to the hotel there were cookies like with like the Texas Rangers rings on them uh you know and pictures and stuff so just little things you notice you know when you go throughout Travels With A Team like that and uh you know it’s pretty cool it’s been a lot of fun so far awesome so we’re going to get into some of that what Robbie’s doing now sort of the transition between AT&T um and and getting to Bal um I’ve known about this a little bit and I’m happy for Robbie that he’s on the air and still broadcasting baseball first want to remind you though that we’re sponsored by the NorthShore Tavern you don’t have to be a baseball fan to love it there but I guarantee you will the interior it’s wall toall Pirates their appetizers Entre cocktails and of course steak and seafood on a sizzling lava stone open every day Northshore Tavern across from PNC Park is Pittsburgh’s home for steak on a stone Robbie have you ever been to Northshore Tavern only about a couple hundred times let’s see you got Mike and Tiffany who run the place you got the other Tiffany there’s Trish there’s I’m drawing a blank on all the other wonderful wonderful folks that work there and uh I love that place actually I took one of my best friends in there Paul Hogan uh and his wife Marcy I took him in for a steak because she had never had steak on the stone and Paul swears that the best steak in the city of Pittsburgh is at the NorthShore Tavern he eats a lot of steak so he would know so I love Northshore T I recommend everybody goes there all right um so you’re working for bleet sports you’re doing Texas Rangers games take me a little bit about how how that happened how many are you doing um what’s it like doing that versus doing pirate stuff yeah um you know I you know I don’t think we have enough time to get into all the differences between yeah just you know when you start with the TV station B uh B Sports Southwest is really really cool um first thing first I haven’t moved um you know I really don’t want to move uh from the city of Pittsburgh because I really love it there uh so the commute a little bit of a pain in the rear end because all the home games are Road games because I’m living at the hotel uh when we’re in Arlington for Ranger home games and then I’m on the road obviously with the team just like I was with the Pirates so uh so that was a lot of fun uh I mean well you start and and obviously none of this is a knock on anybody but when you get a chance to work with a manager that’s won four World Series and Bruce Boi uh that is really really a cool experience uh you know Derek Shelton was nothing short of fantastic I I I was fortunate enough to have a great relationship with Shelty and he treated me extremely extremely well as did the Pirates but um you know it’s just a little bit different when you see day in and day out losses I feel like hit a little bit harder uh in Texas because the expectations are so high just because they’re coming off a World Series Championship they won an incredible 11 and0 postseason run on the road uh the only games they lost in the postseason were home games um so that was kind of cool and you get a chance to you know interact with some you know like Superstars they got Cory Seager uh they got um Marcus Simeon ma Scherzer Jak de Gro I mean they got a they got a rotation on the injured list that would honestly be this the top five a starting five rotation for 28 of the 30 teams in baseball I mean it’s just they’re so stacked with talent but they’re ravaged by injuries right now which is why they’re kind of up and down a couple games above 500 at the time of this recording so um yeah it’s been different you know the way that the the stations operate is uh quite different as well I’ve expanded to uh about half my role is hosting the pre and postgame show show which my very close friend and one of my best friends on planet Earth Rob king and you know Den poach as well uh what they do pirates I’ve uh picked up some of those duties as well as my old job just roaming the field and bothering people like uh like Pirates fans have been accustomed to for the last 11 Seasons so how many parents have you tracked down in the stands Robbie have you handed any balls to any little kids anybody making their Major League debut you found their aunt and and accosted her we’ve had a few but we don’t get into too deep into the family stories like we did in Pittsburgh you know with the Pirates you know you do a ton of that um you know we do a bunch of that there we just don’t do that as much in Texas uh we do talk about it um you know they’ve got Jack lighter the Rangers do obviously out lighter’s dad had a decade plus career in the big leagues as a you know Premier starting pitcher back in the 80s and 90s um uh so you know we we you know we shoot out every now and then when he’s at his son’s games and uh that kind of a thing but no we don’t bother him you know as much as we used to but I know like you know I know all my friends on the Twitter sphere like all the North Shore OS people that love to bury me and destroy me uh you know they they’ve got another uh Target I’m sure they’re going to go quite a bit easier on Hannah than they did with me but uh but I do miss it I I I miss it I actually saw a picture that somebody did the other day I think it was before SK maybe maybe before sk’s debut uh they took a picture is that the liby dun meme uh no it wasn’t the Livy dun me was somebody else it was a picture of me talking to somebody’s parents in the stands I can’t remember who it was and they were poking fun at me but I love it all man I’m I’m bothers me I love it long as I’m bringing up my name for long as I didn’t do anything unethical moral illegal this is something you and I talk about privately a lot and and people can say and I love your lens on this like people can say whatever they want about that you it doesn’t bother you you say like I have squeaky clean reputation if that’s the worst you got on me that I I talk to somebody’s parents great I’m proud if the thing that annoys you the most about me is you don’t like the questions I ask their parents I’m living really really well in life believe me I’m life is going well that’s the biggest thing you’re bitching about with me have at it knock yourself out awesome man um I I saw some meme where it’s like you know that face whenever Robbie comes to interview you after your boy that that was the liby dun thing but that was yeah you know what’s funny about that though but you know let me say this in all seriousness when it comes to that like you’re parent Jason you have two sons right like when you see your sons whatever your kids aspire to do okay whether it’s something that’s on the public in the public guy like becoming a baseball you know professional athlete right any of the four major sports you know we just happen to cover baseball on the daily basis but you know would you not want to share in the joy of your son or if it’s your daughter trying to make WNBA or playing you know perform in the Olympics or perform on stage in a theater or whatever it may be these this is the greatest moment of these people’s lives and when you talk to a mom and a dad they think about their kid when they were two three four five years old having catches with them in the backyard and we get a chance to celebrate them and you know what quite honestly that was the best part of the job Jay and and and I really me that the best part of the job um you had a couple good parts too I think you know in anybody who does that job and it’s it’s the same on my side of things or Noah Hiles or Andrew D or whatever the Pirates Clubhouse this is going to transition us to our next topic but is a bunch of legitimately good dudes and has been a bunch of legitimately good dudes for years um and I wanted to use this time like who were some of your favorites who were some of the closest ones you dealt with over the years um you know that maybe you knew better than others you know um I a couple stand out um probably there are so many guys you get to have relationships with you know I I know but I’m literally asking you to pick favorites right now you have to probably Joe Joe Musgrove yeah in Musgrove I was able to get a good you know you know you know was able to have a great relationship with him his mom his dad is sisters his brother Aaron um you know his friends his best friend Dave McKay you know we just I don’t know some sometimes you just hit it off organically and you’re able to organically form a relationship with people um you know another guys we’re from the same neck of the woods back home in the Philadelphia area uh Phil Goslin he was an up and down guy played for a bunch of teams you know was like a 26th 27th guy for a while but you know carved out a nice career for himself I still stay in touch with him all the time I just saw Trevor Williams he pitched against the Rangers a couple weeks ago uh this past weekend I saw Jacob Stallings and Alias Diaz how about that for two catchers um I went same team yeah same team and I saw Jacob’s wife Amy Beth and their three boys got a chance to see them at Coors Field which was really cool but I’d probably say if I had to really name Musgrove I had a great relationship with garri Cole over the years I still talk to him pretty frequently um you know the bedar obviously bards are a great family always had a great relationship with Neil Walker and was able to work with him for a couple years Matt caps and I worked together with the twins when I was a reporter with the twins uh in 2010 when he got traded there so you know some guys that still work in broadcasting and some guys as far as guys that still play I still talk to Musgrove I’ll see him when the Padres uh come to Texas uh in early July but if you had Des I probably to nail down my favorite guy probably Musgrove okay you still follow the Pirates at all yeah any awareness of like SK Jared Jones you keep an eye on you’re busy with Jared Jones is striking out a million million hitters and is gonna strike out a million hitters you know I root for that team I think you know people ask all the time you know the Pirates were fantastic they were great to me they were wonderful with me even in parting ways when I was not coming back the Pirates were nothing short of spectacular from Bob nutting all the way down um just that the way they treat their people and I know they you know give fans fits and I know they’re you know giving a lot of fits right now but that’s almost you know like to be because people care man they care but and they care but the the fans it’s hard to explain how great a town Pittsburgh is for baseball and I really root for that team to do well because I know what it would mean to the city so to answer your question yes I do follow now I look at the box score I can’t really watch a lot of games because I’m you know doing a lot of Ranger games right now that’ll slow down in the second half of the season so I’ll be able to watch a little bit more but yeah no I I follow the box score every single day awesome man all right I got two things left for you one you have a good story that’s never made it out publicly something that it’s got be let’s hear it go ahead what no what story no I’m asking you to tell me a good story tell me something behind the scenes something that nobody’s ever heard before you know like a I know like foibles funny parts of the job something that happened that people on the other side might not be aware of oh man I mean there are numerous times where like if you’re interviewing a family member and you know they got a how do I look and you know that kind there’s basic stuff like that that happens all the time and ever have an epic fail oh yeah actually actually if you remember the one and it was I want to say it was 2013 and it was the father’s trip we were at Wrigley Field and I was interviewing Clint hurdle’s father and it was when the guy this overzealous security guy was being a complete total jackass um where I had talked to the fans that we were standing in front of I said hey we’re going to do a couple questions but we’re still going to be in commercial when we start but it’s going to bleed into the action but only for about 30 seconds or a minute it’s not going to be long at all and I’m always respectful toward everybody standing around I let him know who I am and what I’m doing and why I’m there and uh and this guy got overzealous we ended up going all over the interwebs uh that was one of The Crazy Ones and then I had said to him that we were going to be there and he still acted like that so we go into it’s actually a great story I can tell the story now so when that happened see we go down there’s a hundred of these we can tell like you know after the fact um was um we walk into the so the interview happened the guy made a total jackass out of himself and out of me while we were interviewing Clint’s father on live television and I walked down and I’m like you had to do it you had to do it I told you what I was doing why I was there how long I’d be there and I mentioned it to the fans behind him that I was there and I’m like you had to do it and he stood there and he ended up getting reprimanded for it I’m like I don’t want the guy to get fired right I don’t want the guy to lose his job but like he knew calm down Bud knew we were doing like we’ve done this hundreds of times just stop so that’s one and then uh last year I interviewed uh Chuck D from Public Enemy who’s a huge huge baseball fan you know he’s wore the Pirates hat he made you know wore the Pirates hat at the Grammys a couple years ago uh made it famous you know for all the years when him him and flavor flave were Chuck uh forming Public Enemy and uh you know they say never meet your Heroes and not that Chuck D was my hero but I’m a huge huge fan of his and I love you know his music just growing up through the years so anyway sorry about my cell phone buzz in there um okay but uh he uh he could not have been more friendly nicer friend nicer than anybody and we had a lady who worked in our engineering um and she uh uh Diane Caputo she want she was a big fan of his she wanted to get a baseball or take a photo with Chuck Chuck walks out as he’s you know going through the clubhouse meeting with Shelty the players everybody and she says hey can I take a picture he was holding a a baseball and he had grabbed half and told her to grab the other half and they formed like a heart above the baseball and he could not have been more nicer more accommodating and more friendly than he was it was such a cool cool experience interviewing him awesome dude last thing I got for you we’ve talked about this at least amongst media you know uh what’s his face Martin Perez has taken to like dumping Gatorade on a player and Hannah you’ve been in those those scenes how do you not get splattered like what what what’s the like tricks of the trade inside not getting crushed in that situation first of all you got to see how the game plays out and see if it’s gonna happen first of all right I know but like it’s played out you’re interviewing the player like how do you how do you not get down so give you a little secret I know that’s what I want we have a lot of cameras in the ballpark for television and they’re not exactly moving at warp speed so the producer will get in your ear and say just so you know they’re they’re on their way watch out and then I kind of look out of the corner of my eye as they’re answering a question I kind of look for it out of the corner of my eye but uh so it over the years it hasn’t been as hard but one time there was um shaving cream a guy got hit in the face and it I wore half of it and I had to get my suit to the dry cleaners the next morning um but yeah sometimes you just you run for your life and you hope they don’t get you and then one time AJ Bernette got me with it I was interviewing Pedro Alvarez after a walk-off win and instead of hitting Pedro he hit me and it’s on a baseball card I gotta get that card I’ll have you sign it it was actually it was actually Pedro he got Pedro but on another one he got me but one of the pie shots is AJ brunette hitting Pedro with a pie and I’m doing the interview back and out of the way so it’s kind of funny nice little memory another memory for my time with the Pirates good stuff brother I kept you longer than I wanted to thank you so much Robbie I glad to see that you’re doing well I pulled up Twitter the other day I was searching for something and I texted you this and here’s Robbie interviewing Bruce Boi it’s like the trending C in the Twitter search is that incredible one Hall of fam or to another oh yeah clearly because our our resumes are we’re we’re we’re really close to one another and career accomplishments y between us we have four World Series titles right they all him you’ve watched them on TV though it counts oh all right anyway stay well Robbie thank you so much you are the best man hey I hope all the Pirates fans see this I love all you guys thank you for all the times you came up to me and talked to me and the amount of messages that I’ve gotten Facebook and just passed on through people and I I just I’m thankful and I love all you pirate fans man I really mean that I had the time my life working dealing with all of you all right there you have it um that does it for us here today we’ll be back here same time same place tomorrow make sure you like And subscribe you can get this and all your post cazette content right here on the Northshore [Music] Drive thank you for checking out this content from Post cazette sports if you watch this video on YouTube please like the video and subscribe to our channel for all of the sports covers the post cazette has to offer visit postgazette.com [Music]
2 Comments
Miss Robbie on the Pirates broadcasts. Glad he is doing so well.
Robby!!