Dave Flemming
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David R. B. "Dave" Flemming (born in 1977) is an American sports announcer.
He grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, listening to Jon Miller call Baltimore Orioles games. Now he calls games with Jon on the radio for the San Francisco Giants. In 2004, Flemming began his first full year in the Giants' radio booth, working with Miller, Duane Kuiper, Mike Krukow and Greg Papa.
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[edit] Early life and career
Flemming received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Classics from Stanford University and a Master’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University. While at Stanford, Flemming broadcast Stanford baseball, men’s and women’s basketball and football and served as Sports Director at KZSU-FM. In 2000, he broadcast play-by-play for the Visalia Oaks and served as the assistant General Manager, before moving on to the Pawtucket Red Sox.
Flemming teamed with PawSox radio broadcaster Andy Freed for three seasons on the eight-station PawSox Radio Network. His rise in the baseball broadcasting industry was nearly unprecedented as he went from Class-A ball (Visalia) in 2000 to Triple-A from 2001-2003 (Pawtucket) and now the Major Leagues. Starting in 2008, Flemming will begin as broadcaster for the Stanford Cardinal football and basketball teams.
[edit] Career with the San Francisco Giants
On May 28, 2006, Flemming had the chance for his voice to go into the Baseball Hall of Fame when he was set to call Barry Bonds' 715th home run, passing Babe Ruth for second place on the all-time home run list. However, as he was making the call, his microphone went dead. Flemming, unaware of the problem, continued to make the call, but all listeners heard was about ten seconds of dead air. Then his broadcast partner, Greg Papa, stepped in to try to salvage the call. Only Duane Kuiper's call on Fox Sports Net's broadcast will be sent to the Hall of Fame.
There were no technical problems, however, on September 23 of the same year. During Flemming's third inning call of a game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park, Bonds hit a home run off left-hander Chris Capuano. This was Bonds' 734th career homer (26th for the season), which broke Hank Aaron's record for National League home runs. (Aaron hit his last 21 homers as an American League player.)
Eventually on August 4, 2007, Flemming was able to call Bonds' Record-tying 755th home run in San Diego on the radio against the San Diego Padres.
Fellow broadcasters Krukow and Kuiper give Flemming a number of new nicknames each year. The most commonly used are "Flem," "Flame," and "et al." After his fellow announcers learned his middle name was Braxton, they also took to referring to him by his complete name.
[edit] Commentating style
While broadcasting, Flemming holds back none of his intellect. His descriptions of on-field events, as well as his insights about off-field issues are reminiscent of the all-time Bay Area broadcasting legend Bill King. Although not flamboyant like the late King, Flemming comments on controversial and complex issues, sometimes subtly, between the lines.[citation needed]
During the game Flemming often acts as the foil to Jon Miller's tangential stories. After the game, Flemming acts as the moderator to discussions with veterans Miller, Krukow, and Kuiper. He also fills in on sports talk shows on KNBR.[citation needed]
