Oak Park and River Forest High School alum Jack McMullen has long been a student of baseball, going back to his playing days with the Huskies and continuing throughout college and, after a long journey, to Major League Baseball. Not as a player, but as an announcer. He is in his first season as play-by-play voice for the Miami Marlins Radio Network, and he could not be more thrilled about that.
“It’s amazing,” McMullen said. “It’s honestly a dream come true. When I realized I probably wasn’t going to pitch at this level, I said, “OK, how are we going to figure out a way?” I had that eureka moment when I was 14 or 15 years old, and we understood there were other avenues to make baseball your life. I found the one that suited me. It’s been beyond my wildest dreams; I’m riding a high right now.”
A 2016 graduate, McMullen, who did intern work for Wednesday Journal Sports, was a key player for OPRF’s baseball team that finished third in the IHSA Class 4A state tournament. A left-handed pitcher, he went 3-0 with a 2.84 earned run average as the Huskies finished with a 30-8 record.
“I learned how to think baseball [at OPRF],” McMullen said. “From a personal perspective, it gave me some of my best friends in the world, and I’m still in communication with a lot of them. In terms of the actual baseball process, I learned how to think through the game.
“The pitching coach for OPRF, Tim Dennehy, I really don’t think I’m here without him,” he added. “He is one of the best pitching minds I’ve ever met, and the fact that I met him when I was 15, learning the art of pitching and the art of baseball, I owe a lot to Tim Dennehy.”
Still the Huskies’ pitching coach, Dennehy remembers McMullen as a player who was studious and keenly interested in the game.
“We had a pretty strong relationship,” he said. “He was just the nicest kid in the world. Jack was unbelievable for that team; he was amazing. His two-seam fastball was hands down one of the best pitches I’ve seen at OPRF in the last 14 years. That thing moved a foot off the plate, so it was running away from righties and in on lefties, had plenty of sink. He had command of all his pitches; his accuracy was elite, Greg Maddux-like. It was unreal.”
Although he was a successful player in high school, McMullen, who was heavily involved with OPRF’s student-run television program, Newscene, as both an anchor and on the production crew, focused on becoming a broadcaster.
“I could either pursue playing baseball at the (NCAA) Division III level and not keep the dream alive but have fun playing,” said McMullen, who graduated from Syracuse University, “or pivot and try to make it to the big leagues in a different capacity. I realized that was the route I should be going, and so far, so good.”
He enrolled at Syracuse’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, which is one of the top journalism schools in the country. His first baseball broadcasting experience came in the summer of 2018, when he called games for the Brewster Whitecaps, a team in the Cape Cod Baseball League, where top college baseball players spend the offseason. The following year, he landed his first professional gig with the Auburn Doubledays, a short-season Class A affiliate of the Washington Nationals.
McMullen also served as sports director for WJPZ radio, Syracuse’s student-run radio station and spent over a year as WAER-FM sports director. At both stations (as well as with ACC Network Extra), he was a play-by-play announcer for several Syracuse sports, including football, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, and men’s and women’s lacrosse.
Upon graduation from Syracuse in 2020, he became a broadcasting and media assistant with the Fort Wayne TinCaps (Class High-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres). He also worked play-by-play for Ball State University’s women’s basketball team for the ESPN Plus and Learfield IMG College networks.
In 2021, McMullen started Just Baseball Media, a podcast network which discusses baseball topics. The following year, he became the radio voice of the Indianapolis Indians, the Triple-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, a position he held for three years.
When the Marlins’ radio job became available this past offseason, McMullen jumped to apply.
“It’s not like the job was posted on a site like Indeed.com,” he said. “You see there’s an opening and you pursue that. You email a bunch of people and try to get as many leads as you can, and stay true to the communication process. If they like you, they’ll call you. It’s a unique process, but it worked out really well for me.”
There are very few play-by-play announcers under the age of 30 who work for a major pro sports league, and McMullen says it’s an awesome feeling.
“It feels great,” he said. “It’s a real blessing to be in this position at my age. You set the goal of being a MLB announcer and hope it happens before the age of 30, and for it to actually happen at 27, I’m so thankful.”
McMullen also appreciates the support he has gotten from not only his family, but several friends in the community.
“The outpouring of support has been unbelievable,” he said. “When it was announced in February that I had the job, I heard from many people in Oak Park I hadn’t heard from in eight years. It put a smile on my face; it’s such a supportive community. I’m so lucky to have grown up in Oak Park.”
Interview with the announcer
Q: How did college influence your decision to pursue this career?
McMullen: I initially showed up to Syracuse wanting to do talk radio because I watched my uncle, Matt Spiegel, host at 670 The Score throughout my childhood. I interned with WGN after my freshman year of college and sat in the back of the Cubs and White Sox TV booths for an entire summer watching Len Kasper, Hawk Harrelson and Jason Benetti do their thing. I realized making the ballpark my “office” would be the coolest thing in the world.
Q: Who are your role models? Do you pattern your announcing style after them?
McMullen: My favorite baseball announcers growing up and listening to now are Jason Benetti (Detroit), Jon Miller (San Francisco), Jon Sciambi (Cubs), Dan Shulman (Toronto), and Tom McCarthy (Philadelphia). I’ve pulled good things that announcers do from a bunch of different people, but I wouldn’t say I directly “pattern” myself after anyone. I like to think I have my own unique approach to calling a game.
Q: What advice would you give to students about pursuing their dreams?
McMullen: If you have something that you love to do, pursue it and leave absolutely zero stone unturned. I entered an industry that has a very low “success” rate, but I can confidently say I’ve done everything in my power to pursue my dreams within it. I sacrificed plenty of Friday and Saturday nights, but I know I’ve gotten a lot better at this, and it resulted in me landing in Miami. And the biggest thing: be a good person. It takes minimal effort to be nice to everyone, and life is more fun for everyone that way.