LADERA RANCH, Calif. \u2014 It has been almost two decades now, but the memory of calling the Anaheim Ducks\u2019 2007 Stanley Cup-clinching victory still lives in Steve Carroll\u2019s mind. As Game 5 wound down at Honda Center and a packed arena was reaching fever pitch, there was just one persistent thought as he called the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust make sure you don\u2019t screw it up,\u201d Carroll said, laughing as he munched on some breakfast at a neighborhood restaurant.<\/p>\n
The last few weeks have been full of joy, laughter, tears and sadness for a 70-year-old man who once carried a transistor radio into the original Busch Stadium in his native St. Louis so he could listen to Jack Buck. And if he wasn\u2019t listening to Buck doing the Cardinals games, it was the equally legendary Harry Caray. It was Dan Kelly describing the fast-paced action of the Blues. Bob Starr doing St. Louis Cardinals football. Bob Costas as the voice of the ABA\u2019s Spirits.<\/p>\n
These were Carroll\u2019s heroes, the people who made him want to become a sports broadcaster. After 50 years of building his own career and reaching a place he thought he\u2019d never get to professionally, Carroll has hung up his own headset.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Carroll called his final game as the audio play-by-play voice of the Ducks, the job he\u2019s had for the last 27 years. His employer made it memorable. Before the Ducks took on the Vancouver Canucks, Carroll walked to center ice where he was feted and applauded with his wife, Rhonda, by his side. Tears managed to sneak out of his eyes. They did again during the game, when a video of his calls of the franchise\u2019s greatest moments played and a sellout crowd rose to salute him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause I\u2019m not one that looks for stuff like that. Just glad to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was also wistful. Carroll won\u2019t broadcast the Ducks\u2019 upcoming games in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Anaheim has ended a seven-year run of springs without postseason hockey, and he won\u2019t be calling the action. There is a reason.<\/p>\n
On March 18, the Ducks announced that Carroll would retire at the conclusion of the season to focus on his health. It\u2019s a call he made. He had missed a handful of games and others have filled in on play-by-play alongside color analyst Emerson Etem over the last few weeks. Carroll is keeping the specifics of his medical issue to himself, but said, \u201cIt\u2019s something I have to take care of.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it is bringing about a premature end to a career in sports that began when he called games for the Mineral Area junior college men\u2019s basketball team at radio station KREI in Farmington, Mo. He had hoped to do one more Ducks season. That gave Sunday\u2019s game an added layer of melancholy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t say I wasn\u2019t disappointed,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cBut I wasn\u2019t disappointed at losing a job or having to stop. It\u2019s just when you\u2019ve been doing something so long and it\u2019s your passion, you just love what you\u2019re doing. And I\u2019ve been very fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The announcement has given Carroll time to reflect on the great moments he\u2019s had in the booth, the long and winding road he\u2019s traveled to his dream job and the endless players and people he\u2019s met and known along the way.<\/p>\n
There were unforgettable moments with the Ducks. The unexpected, incredible 2003 march to the Cup Final. They were the Mighty Ducks then, and an underdog group got to Game 7 only to lose 3-0 to the New Jersey Devils.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo come that close,\u201d Carroll said, \u201cBecause you\u2019re a fan, you\u2019re a fan up there as a broadcaster. I felt bad for the team because I thought we had a really good opportunity to win the game. Granted, up against a pretty good hockey club with some veteran players in that. But for me as a broadcaster, I had never been able to do a playoff series that got to that point.\u201d<\/p>\n
The importance of the games is what guided him. It brought him an added focus throughout their run of upsets that began with stunning the powerful Detroit Red Wings in the first round.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like you better be prepared,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t make a mistake. People are going to be listening. And just to be in the atmosphere here \u2014 and for really the first time in the franchise\u2019s history, that you had something just very special happen. The crowd got into it. Because I\u2019m a fan of this, it was just disappointing that we fell short.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he thought that run would be the start of something special, it took four more years for the Ducks to reach the pinnacle. Some players remained from that 2003 club \u2014 notably Conn Smythe Trophy winner Jean-Sebastien Giguere in goal \u2014 but the return of Teemu Selanne and the additions of Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger proved pivotal.<\/p>\n
The Ducks beat the Ottawa Senators in Game 5 to win the Stanley Cup. One of the things Carroll contemplated in his head as the final minutes ticked down was whether he might get a championship ring.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be a part of a team that goes that far,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd you just had a sense that if you could get to the final \u2014 and this is nothing against a team like Ottawa \u2014 you got a good chance to win once you got there. A lot of players contributed to that. And the atmosphere in the building was just really special.\u201d<\/p>\n
There have been singular plays, including Selanne\u2019s overtime goal in Game 5 after Andy McDonald forced a turnover that swung the Western Conference final against the Red Wings in their favor. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cYou know, that happened in a hurry. And it\u2019s like, really? This is special. You knew something good was gonna happen after that play.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that moment, he thought back to the calls Buck or Kelly would make. And what not to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s funny, you can dream as a kid,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cAnd all I did was follow sports, especially hockey. But you want to make sure when you get into broadcasting, if you get in a situation like that, where you know the game\u2019s on the line, don\u2019t mess it up. Don\u2019t mess it up. So, you\u2019re going through all these things in your mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
And there was the Comeback on Katella, the miraculous Game 5 rally in 2017 to beat the Edmonton Oilers, during which the Ducks forced overtime with three goals in the final three-plus minutes of regulation. \u201cFirst of all, disbelief,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it was happening. It\u2019s like, \u2018Holy cow, we just witnessed something that doesn\u2019t happen very often, and it also happens in a playoff game and you\u2019re calling it.\u2019 So that\u2019s a memory that you have. That\u2019s not to be conceited or anything. It\u2019s just, I\u2019m so happy I got to call an event like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Good fortune was Carroll\u2019s reward for all the nights calling games in hockey\u2019s lower leagues, such as the USHL, ECHL or American Hockey League. Or the hot days working Double-A and Triple-A baseball in cities such as Nashville, New Orleans and Des Moines, Iowa. For being the voice of Vanderbilt University football and basketball. For calling Division I hockey in Huntsville, Ala.<\/p>\n
Carroll\u2019s first chance at the big time came in 1995, when he was hired by the Philadelphia Flyers as their radio play-by-play voice when Jim Jackson moved to television. It lasted a year as he didn\u2019t mesh well with his analyst. \u201cNinety-nine percent of the people were great,\u201d he says of his Flyers experience.<\/p>\n
While announcing for the AHL\u2019s New Haven Nighthawks, Carroll was persuaded by team executive Roy Mlakar \u2014 who eventually served as president of the Los Angeles Kings and Ottawa Senators \u2014 to go after an opening in Anaheim. Mlakar knew Mighty Ducks president Tony Tavares. A week after meeting with Tavares in California, he had the job.<\/p>\n
And he\u2019s been there ever since.<\/p>\n
It was the break he needed. Brent Severvyn, once a hard-nosed NHL defenseman who was Carroll\u2019s analyst from 2005-09, calls his former broadcasting partner \u201ca wonderful man\u201d who helped him develop a second career after playing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had never done the job before,\u201d said Severyn, who now works on the Dallas Stars telecasts. \u201cHe is so good at his job that you could just let him go. And that allowed me the space and the time and the experience to get better. Because he did it all. Honestly, the play-by-play guy runs the show, and they have to be good. And Steve is so skilled and such a professional. You saw his passion for the game and how much he loved what he was doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no way to get around it. You would just be sucked into wanting to be a good broadcaster for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a time when Carroll didn\u2019t think he\u2019d last longer than his first day at the radio station in Farmington. He was supposed to deliver the farm market report, but arrived late for his 5:30 a.m. shift. A kindly general manager gave him another shot.<\/p>\n
Before that, he played drums in a band and spun records as a disc jockey. Now he\u2019s got a place in the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Hall of Fame. And he\u2019ll have a spot at Ducks games, where the team has given him a lifetime seat. He wants to continue speaking for the Ducks in the community. Years of fundraisers and visits to hospitals, barbecues, schools and even meetings with inmates in prisons reflect his desire to connect with the public.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been quite a ride for Carroll, and while his broadcasting career ended sooner than he hoped, he counts himself lucky.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes you feel like all those years of struggling \u2014 and I was never one that cared about making tons of money \u2014 but you\u2019re in the minor leagues, you have no guarantees, then you lose a job like in Philadelphia, it\u2019s like, what did I work all these years for?\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then this job comes along, and to be here for, what, 27 years? It\u2019s unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LADERA RANCH, Calif. \u2014 It has been almost two decades now, but the memory of calling the Anaheim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-270851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-ducks","10":"tag-anaheim-headlines","11":"tag-anaheim-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}