Tomorrow is Opening Day!

Hey there, and welcome to the Bells Broadcasting blog! We're about to embark on a summer-long journey, and I can hardly wait. Tomorrow night at Joe Martin Field in Bellingham at 6:30pm, the Bells will take the field for the first time in 2010 against the Kelowna Falcons. Summer collegiate baseball is under 24 hours away!

My name is Greg Talbott, the Bells radio and internet broadcaster for this season, and I'll be your tour guide through mid-August. It's my first year with the Bells, but my second in the West Coast League. I'm an incoming sophomore at Gonzaga University (GO ZAGS!), majoring in Broadcasting and minoring in Journalism. I'm the youngest voice in the WCL (just turned 19), but rest assured, your play-by-play is in good hands; I've been calling live sports since I was 15!

The goal of this blog is to give you the all-access pass for the summer. On the site, I'll be posting game summaries, player/coach interviews, pictures, news, and analysis on a daily basis. So check back often to see how your son/friend/favorite player is doing.

So, let's get right to it!

The Bells have stacked their roster with D-I talent this year, more so than ever before. All of us in the Bells' front office are thrilled about it, and we can't wait to see "The Bellingham Boys" rush the field to compete with some of the best collegiate talent in the country. We've signed seven players from the Pac-10 (arguably the best conference in America), two from the Big East, and loads of regional talent from northwest schools like Lewis & Clark State, one of the top-ranked NAIA colleges in the country. We don't just recruit from NW schools though; we got our hands on pitchers from Army and Oklahoma City U, inked players from Tarleton (TX) and Liberty (VA), and even went to Hawaii to pick up an outfielder.

The one downside (for us) of signing talent from such elite programs is that they're currently playing in the NCAA tournament, so it's going to be a few weeks until we get our full roster into uniform. But we have plenty of guys ready for action, and they're itching to play ball.

Like I said, we begin tomorrow night against the Kelowna Falcons, one of the most prestigious teams in the WCL. They've produced well-known major leaguers at a rapid rate, including Jason Bay (a Zag!), Aaron Harang, Nyjer Morgan, and Jess Todd, with more climbing through the minors. They too are loaded this year, with a roster full of players from powerhouses like UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, and San Diego. The Falcons, like the Bells, don't have their full roster present...so it's actually quite hard to say who has the advantage in the opening series.

Bellingham's weather has everyone tense: the forecast calls for showers until about 3:00, when the sun is supposed to peak out. It's been raining for the past few days, and contrary to what the song says, it's possible that tomorrow evening might NOT be "a beautiful day for a ballgame."

Every game this season will be broadcast live for your convenience! A select amount of home games will be available on local radio in Bellingham on AM 930 KBAI, and all contests will be broadcast live on the internet at www.bellinghambells.com. We'll get a link up on the website tomorrow so you can catch the game.

Each broadcast that isn't on the radio will be preceded by a 15-minute pregame show, starting at 6:15pm, complete with an interview with Coach Kevin Matthews and a player, and we'll finish things up afterwards with "The Wrap," our live postgame show.

I'm counting the minutes before we hear "Play Ball!" Join us tomorrow at 6:30pm, Joe Martin Field, on the radio dial at AM 930, or around the world at www.bellinghambells.com!