Yesterday, I had the privilege to sit down with Chris Mehring, the voice of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and author of Rattler Radio.  He was extremely congenial, and we chatted about the Timber Rattlers and the new partnership between the two clubs.

BC:  So how did you get into the business in general?

Chris Mehring:  It's what I've always wanted to do.  Ever since I was a kid growing up, I loved sports, wanted to stay in it.  Broadcasting is something that always fascinated me from the time of watching the bowling game on Channel 18 with Lee Roth.  It was something else.  And going to games with my headsets on and turning around and looking up into the radio booth, and things like that.  It was something that always interested me. 

I was fortunate enough to go to UW-Platteville, with a very good broadcasting major.  I got right into the radio station there as a freshman, started doing sports reports, dj shifts, and news.  Then, I started doing stats for football and basketball.  By my sophomore year, I started doing color and then I started doing play-by-play.  It was a great time to be there for play-by-play because the football team wasn't really a power, but it was still pretty good, and I was fortunate enough to be there when Bo Ryan was at Platteville.  My senior year was the first year Platteville won a Division III champtionship game, and I got to call the championship game down in Ohio against Franklin and Marshall.  It was really something.  Robbie Jeter was on that on that team as a senior.  Really a special group of guys that year.

Then, I went into radio in Sheboygan.  That station went under after nine months, so I learned the see-me side of radio.  Then, I went into graduate school at UW-Superior and got into doing hockey for them.  UW-S had a great hockey team the four years I was there, and it kind of snowballed up to where I am right now.

BC:  How long have you been doing this?

Chris:  I have been the radio voice of the Timber Rattlers since 2000. 

When I started, I was just doing radio during the summer.  I worked full-time for the Green Bay Gamblers, the hockey team up in Green Bay, so I was doing Gambler games in the winter and Timber Rattler games in the summer.  The Gamblers were playing about a 60 game season, and the Timber Rattlers are about 140 games.  So it's about 200 days out of the year.

Then, at the end of the 02-03 season for the Gamblers, the Timber Rattlers made an offer for me to come on board to work full-time as the radio announcer and salesman.  I decided that I would do that.  I miss hockey every once in a while, but this has just worked out really well.

BC:  I noticed that you do most of your blogging during the morning.  How long are your days, normally?

Chris:  Well, in the offseason, I get up and I do the blog.  I try to blog from about six-thirty to eight o' clock, and then I get into the office.  Up until about January, it's nine to five, but now you're starting to get in at eight-thirty, maybe leave about a quarter to six, a quarter to seven, somewhere in there. 

And then, once the season starts, I'll get here at...I'll try to get here at about seven in the morning because I handle the stat-packs for the team and I try to do some game notes and things like that.  I also have to worry about my sales part of things and helping out with set-up for the game.  And then the game starts, and you're here until...it wasn't unusual last season for me to get here at seven in the morning, leave at about midnight or one o' clock, and come back at seven the next morning and do the whole process all over again.

It comes with the territory.  The long hours, they don't get to you because you're doing something that you love.

BC:  Before this season, it was the Mariners, correct?

Chris:  From 1993 until this past September, the Timber Rattlers were a Mariners affiliate, yes.

BC:  Well, how has the community embraced the change to the Milwaukee organization?

Chris:  It's been outstanding, Jim.  It's been...our ticket sales are up, our season package tickets are up over last year, groups are up over last year.  Even in this economy, we have seen people want to come out and spend money on advertising with us.  Merchandise sales are up.  We've done some neat little co-branded stuff, like hats and t-shirts and various sweatshirts.  We're looking to do even more.  Sales in the team store are up.

It's been interesting because we have had people come up to us ever since the announcement, and they have said, "We never wanted to come to these games when you guys were part of the Mariners because we didn't have an investment in those guys."  I mean, it's great to come out and support the community, but why?  

That's changed.  People now see us with the Brewers.  They see the relationship, and they see some of our guys perhaps playing at Miller Park.  They want to come out.  They want to be a part of that again.

Just a quick story.

You know, when the announcement was made back in September, I think everybody knew that it was going to happen, but nothing is sure until it does.  We sent out a press release on a Monday at like five o' clock, saying there's a press conference at Time Warner Cable field at home plate at eleven o' clock on Tuesday morning, regarding the Timber Rattlers' new parent club.  We didn't say anything about who it was or anything like that.

The next morning, we all got in at about a quarter to nine, eight-thirty to get set up and start the day.  The phone was already ringing.  Fans were already ordering tickets and buying ticket packages. 

And then, at about a quarter to eleven...you know, we didn't say that the public was welcome, but we didn't keep them out.  We didn't really expect anyone to show up.  People were already coming in because they wanted to see the press conference.  They wanted to be a part of it.  Even from day one, we knew it was going to be a different situation than it had been in the past.

BC:  I know that the Mariners have had some good teams up here in the past, but the last couple years they have struggled a bit with some turnover and the trades that have been happening.  I'm sure a lot of people around here are excited that the Brewers are going to be bringing a quality baseball team here.

Chris:  Well, we did have some great teams with Seattle.  J.J. Putz was here.  Rafael Soriano was here.  A lot of major leaguers.  I mean, the team made the playoffs every hear from 1996 until 2002.  So we had really good baseball here.

The team has lost 80 games the last three years.  People were a little down on that, even though we did have some great talent here.  You know, we're going to see guys from those three teams with the Mariners go on and play in the major leagues and be successful in the major leagues.

But people are excited because in their mind, these are our guys.  These are the guys we are going to be rooting for.  The Mariners start there games at nine o' clock every night central time, but with the Brewers, it's two hours down the road.  They just have to turn on the television to see the team play at a regular hour.

BC:  Who are you most excited to see play this season?

Chris:  I think Lawrie, Brett Lawrie, is most interesting.  The Canadian Olympic guy making the switch from behind the plate to second base.  I think that will be really neat to see.  Cutter Dykstra, Lenny Dykstra's kid.  Also, Cody Scarpetta, the pitcher.  Those are...I know you only asked for one...but those are the three guys that I think Brewers fans are most interested in seeing.

BC:  I agree.  Though, Jake Odorizzi might have an outside chance coming in, but it is going to be pretty crowded up here with quality arms.

Chris:  Yeah.  I haven't really had time, with all of the sales stuff, to take a look.  I saw your projected roster and I saw a couple of others, but it will be interesting to see what happens.  The interesting thing is the depth of the Brewers system right now because they had a lot of good guys at Helena and down in Arizona last year. 

I think you'll see Jake Odorizzi at some point, but maybe not right away.  I mean, I'm not a mind-reader, but I think, based on his limited innings last year, he might stay down at extended and might join the team somewhere around the All-Star Break for us -- which is in June.  I think we'll see him, and I think we will see a lot of those guys come through here.

BC:  Can you tell the readers something about a couple promotional things you have going on here?

Chris:  We've got the same old...well, I shouldn't say same old...but we have the very popular "Bang For Your Buck" nights, which is the dollar soda, dollar hotdog, dollar beer night on Tuesdays.  Thirsty Thursdays, which is dollar sodas, dollar beers on Thursday games.  Friday nights and Saturday nights starting in June will be fireworks nights, and all the Friday nights are Family Nights.  Kids eat free.  Kids also run the bases after the game. 

We just added this one to take advantage of the Brewers affiliation, Brewers Sunday.  The Timber Rattlers are going to be wearing Timber Rattlers jerseys, but they will be Brewers themed.  They will have Brewers colors.  They will wear those jerseys on Sunday.  We're looking at maybe bringing up some former Brewers for some autograph signings on Sundays throughout the year and make Sunday a real event to take advantage with the affiliation with Milwaukee.

BC:  You said you've been doing this for a few years now.  What has been your favorite or most memorable moment in broadcasting?

Chris:  Oh, there's been a lot.

With the Timber Rattlers it would have to be, it would have to be 2005 when they made it to the Midwest League Championship Series.  They played Beloit in the first round, and this was Beloit's first year as a Twins affiliate.  We went down to Beloit and lost the first game, came back and won the second game, and the third game went extra innings.  Mike Wilson, who is in the Mariners' big league camp, hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 10th to win it and send the team to the championship series.

There was a pitcher, Derrick Van Dusen, back in 2001.  We were down in Cedar Rapids.  It was the second to last game at the old Veteran's Memorial Stadium, and he threw a no-hitter. 

J.J. Putz, who I mentioned earlier, threw a no-hitter in a seven-inning game here against Kane County back in 2000.  He walked five guys and gave up a run, but he threw a no-hitter.  

Overall, it's just meeting different players.  Walk-off wins and big strikeouts always stick in your mind, but it's the relationships with the players.  Some of the best guys that I've met on the team are maybe guys that got released that year or a year later.  It's meeting some of the people that I've gotten the chance to work with.

BC:  Do you have anything else that you would like to add?

Chris:  Well, Opening Day is April 9th against Quad Cities.  The game starts at 6:35. 

There is a whole week of events leading up to it.  We have Fan Fest, which is and Open House for the fans.  That is the Tuesday, April 7th.  It starts at noon.  We'll have free pizza from Palermo's.  We'll have some samples.  We'll have popcorn, some soda vouchers as well.  The team will be practicing and doing an autograph signing, and plus, we will probably be scrimmaging one of the local colleges.  The last couple of years, it has been Lakeland.  It might be Oshkosh this year, although I don't think that's been finalized yet.

Wednesday is going to be the Welcome Home Banquet at the Wave, which is right behind the parking lot here at the stadium.  Gord Ash is going to be here.  It is kind of a neat thing.  The leadoff experience is something different.  For several years, we called it the Welcome Home Banquet, and we basically just brought in a speaker to talk.  You know, Milt Pappas came in.  Jay Johnstone has come in, and a few other big names have come in like Tug McGraw have come in to give a speech.  

That's great, but it's almost too traditional for what we're kinda going for, so we changed it up to a more interactive thing last year.  We introduced the players and the coaching staff to the fans, and then the fans can ask questions of the players and coaches.  The capper this year is Gord Ash of the Brewers front office.  He's going to be joining us on stage for that. 

That's coming up on the 8th.  Opening Day is the 9th.  

I guess the big news today is that the Timber Rattlers are going to be playing the Peoria Chiefs, which is the Chicago Cubs affiliate, at Miller Park on April 24th at 7:05.  It will be our third time playing at Miller Park, but it will be our first time as the host.  We played the Snappers in '03 and '04 down there. 

It's something that the Brewers are excited about, we're excited about.  The Chiefs played at Wrigley Field last year and had something like 38,000 fans, so we're going to play at Miller Park and we're hoping that we outdraw them for that.

One other thing is that our single-game tickets go on sale on Saturday, March 14th at ten o' clock in the morning.  We've got a rummage sale, kinda clearing out the decks of some of the old gear.  There's a chance to win some stuff for the Brewers and a suite for the stadium. 

There's a lot of stuff going on, and we hope everyone comes out this year.

BC:  Alright.  Well, thank you very much.  I really appreciate it.

Chris:  Thanks, Jim.