At age 79, some people would be thinking about retirement, but not Dick Enberg. As he ends his 5th season as TV voice of the San Diego Padres, Enberg looks forward to another year in the booth. However, it’s not without a heavy heart.

While the venerable broadcaster continues to call games, he does so having recently lost a younger brother to pancreatic cancer, having a sister and a daughter battling ovarian cancer and a son suffering from a brain hemorrhage. It’s enough for anyone to be overcome with grief and ask “why me?”

But for Enberg, he finds solace and happiness in the broadcast booth. It’s his haven and his Fox Sports San Diego broadcast partner Mark Grant said he could not go on the air under those circumstances, but for Enberg, it’s all he’s ever wanted to do.

He told the San Diego Union-Tribune, “This is what I love coming to every day,” adding that he’s never thought of coming to Petco Park as work.

Even as he enjoys his work, Enberg knows he has detractors who hang on his every mistake or miscall.

“I’m not as sharp as when I was 40 years of age. I think that’s true of anyone 30 years beyond 40. It doesn’t make me happy that maybe I don’t see it as well or that the synapses don’t click at the right time,” Enberg said. “I think it goes back to the silent majority. I would hope that they would accept me not being 100 percent accurate. No one is, but I think there are other things I bring to the broadcast and telecast.”

But striving for that perfect broadcast is what keeps Enberg going and at age 79, he laments that he’s not as sharp as once was, “I wish I had the same mental acuity that I did when I was 40. Age does take things away.”

So as Enberg goes into the offseason and ponders what life will bring next, he knows that there are fans who do like his work and understand that he loves his job. He will be back next season, calling over 130 Padres games and for someone who will be 80 in 2015, that is a workload that will keep him happy despite his recent setbacks.

[San Diego Union-Tribune]

About Ken Fang

Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013.

He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television.

Fang celebrates the four Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.