Baseball players are creatures of habit. Once they settle into a groove, they don’t like to change too much. So, as a Midwestern native, Dan Plesac wasn’t initially enthusiastic about relocating to the East Coast.
But in 2009, the former longtime relief pitcher took a chance on a fledgling startup, and he’s been with MLB Network since its inaugural season. Plesac is an analyst on MLB Tonight, the Emmy Award-winning flagship studio show. He also routinely pops up on the network’s other programs.
In hindsight, joining MLB Network in New Jersey seems like a no-brainer. In reality, it was anything but at the time.
“I was just playing golf with Greg Amsinger yesterday,” Plesac, 62, told Awful Announcing in a recent phone interview. “It’s just incredible to think that when I got here my daughters were in eighth grade and high school. (Now,) one of them’s a mom and the other one’s 27 years old. We’ve kind of grown up here. It’s been an incredible ride. When we all started, we were all nervous, everybody here. We left places to come here.”
Plesac spent most of his life in the Midwest. He grew up in Northwest Indiana, an hour outside of Chicago. He started his 18-year major-league pitching career with the Milwaukee Brewers (1986-92) and the Chicago Cubs (1993-94). After retirement, Plesac was working the Cubs pre- and postgame shows when he got the call from MLB Network.
He auditioned twice in the winter of 2008. But Plesac had options that would keep him in Chicago. Joining MLB Network meant a significant change. Not only did he need to be a league-wide expert. Also, he and his family were leaving their comfort zone.
“The thought of me moving to New Jersey wasn’t very appealing,” he said.
Plesac added: “It was a tough transition for me moving out here. It’s a different lifestyle on the East Coast. A much simpler, slower life in the Midwest. It was a lot easier doing Cubs pre and postgame. You watched the game. You talked about it. You come here to 40 Hartz Way, and it’s 750 players. It’s 30 teams. It’s 15 games a night. It’s not just two teams, the Cubs and whoever they’re playing. It’s a lot of info. The first couple of years were hard. You’re doing inventory. What guys are on what teams? Who gets traded? Who’s signing? What free agents? It was a lot.”
Since those early jitters, Plesac has become one of the most recognizable faces of MLB Network. MLB Tonight gives baseball fans everything they want with live look-ins, on-site interviews, deep analysis, and quirky segments. It even has a replica baseball diamond on the set. Plesac makes bold predictions and makes fun of himself as DJ Dan.
“What makes Dan unique is his versatility,” MLBN Coordinating Producer Chris Roenbeck said in a quote provided to AA. “Dan can do anything you ask of him. Whether he’s a studio or game analyst, talking about a serious topic, or being part of a fun, crazy TV segment, Dan will give 100% and excel.”
As much fun as Plesac is having now, it took a while time for him to feel completely comfortable. He credits MLB’s greatest night ever—Sept. 28, 2011—for lifting MLB Network to new heights. On the final day of the regular season, three games had win-or-go-home playoff implications for the St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays. One of the signature moments was Evan Longoria’s game-winning home run to send the Rays to the playoffs. Tampa was down 7-0 to the New York Yankees before rallying for an 8-7 win in the 12th inning.
“We got an e-mail the night before saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to make a change. You guys are going to be on the late three-hour MLB Tonight.’ I remember ‘Ah, I finally got an easy day (and get to) go home early.’ Next thing you know, the Orioles lose. It was crazy. The Red Sox lose. The Orioles win. Longoria hits the home run. The Yankees have a big lead. It was just the craziest night. It was one of those nights where you wait for it to happen again. It may not ever happen again, but it did that one night. I think that one night put this network on the map. I wish this network was around when I played.”
As an analyst, you can ask Plesac about what he thinks about the biggest surprise of the season (the Houston Astros struggling) or his early take on the Cy Young race (He likes Oakland A’s relief ace Mason Miller and Chicago Cubs starter Shota Imanaga).
But you can also ask him about funny stories from his playing days. Such as this wild superstition that began with 1992-93 back-to-back World Series champion Blue Jays and continued when Plesac pitched in Toronto (2001-02).
“In ’92 and ’93, whenever they needed to win a big game, I can’t remember that batboy’s name, everybody would put some money together, and he would go into the dryer that dries the uniforms, and he would have to make three rotations in the dryer to be able to get the money, and that was everybody’s good luck charm. … It worked all the time. Once or twice a year, when we needed a win, we need him to go into the dryer.”
He did this willingly?
“Voluntarily, oh, yes,” Plesac said.”He put a double earflap batting helmet on so the helmet would stay on. ..He described it as insanity.”
