By: Jonah Alewine

Perseverance is the exact word to describe Michael Marcantonini’s career. 

The lead play-by-play announcer for the Aberdeen Ironbirds baseball team has experienced a wide range of career trajectories, from significant success to near ruin.

The COVID-19 pandemic nearly took everything away from the broadcaster. Marcantonini’s mental health was going down a dark path for a variety of reasons. He lost family members and he missed the opportunity to work for the Kansas City Royals. 

However, through it all, Marcantonini did not give up on his chosen path of being a sports broadcaster.

The Effect of COVID-19:

When 2020 hit, Marcantonini had spent a couple of years doing seasonal broadcasts but was waiting to find better job offers in sports broadcasting. He had obtained an offer from the Kansas City Royals to work in media relations.

He was just seven days away from accepting the Royals’ offer when the COVID-19 pandemic struck the United States in early 2020. Major League Baseball temporarily shut down operations, and Marcantonini lost the job opportunity.

The minor league season was canceled in 2020 and broadcasting jobs were scarce, with limited opportunities.

Without a job for the summer of 2020, Marcantonini worked as a camp counselor, teaching young kids the tactics of sports broadcasting, but doing it virtually over Zoom. 

Even though he enjoyed doing this, he found himself being on the quieter side, like the days

when he was a camper himself. 

Marcantonini sought a fresh start and moved from Pennsylvania to Florida one year later. He began working at the collegiate level, broadcasting Division II baseball games. 

“I’m very thankful for those opportunities because that’s how I got back in and built up some of my confidence again,” he said.

But at 26 years old, this could have been the end of Marcantonini in the public eye. He began to ask himself if his time in sports broadcasting was almost over.

Marcantonini moved back to the Pennsylvania area to focus on his mental health and get

his life back on track. 

He turned around many of the negative things that happened and redirected the path he took during the early years of his career. Now, he feels stronger and is grateful for the opportunities he’s had.

After the world started to open up in 2022, teams began to hire more broadcasters.

TeamWork Online would provide Marcantonini’s break in broadcasting. 

An opportunity arose to broadcast play-by-play for the Melbourne Aces in Melbourne, Australia. Marcantonini applied, interviewed, and successfully secured the job. 

The only catch was moving his entire life down to Australia. 

“I remember talking to him and telling him that this is the time to do these types of things and he should go for it,” said Steve Goldstein, the co-CEO of Play-by-Play Sports Broadcasting Camps.

Marcantonini had to go half the world away to get back on his feet. Melbourne, Australia, is well over 10,000 miles away from his home in Pennsylvania. 

While Marcantonini cherished this opportunity, he felt a pull to come back to the States. He used

this time to improve his broadcasting and interviewing skills and eventually landed with the

Aberdeen Ironbirds, the high Single-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. 

The Present Day Perseverance:

After filling in for an Ironbirds game in 2018, Marcantonini had known the Ironbirds’ general manager, Jack Graham, for a few years. He reached out, but the Cal Ripken Jr.-owned team was not hiring broadcasters then. 

Marcantonini thought it was “crazy” for the Ironbirds not to have a broadcaster for games. Determined, he created a PowerPoint presentation on why they should hire a broadcaster.

“I presented it to the hiring team and was told that they didn’t have the budget for a broadcaster but that they would remember me,” Marcantonini said. 

Before the 2022 season, Marcantonini tried again, but he got the same answer. However, he took a different approach to land with the team.

“I reached out to ask if I could do some demo work and just call the game into my laptop for a recording,” he said. 

With a yes from the hiring team, Marcantonini showed up for a game. This finally got Graham and Marcantonini face-to-face, a factor the current broadcaster believes landed him his current job.

“He offered me a chance to call some games here and there for them later in the year

because they were working on a deal with a local TV station to actually broadcast some of the games,” Marcantonini said.

This television deal fell through a few weeks later, but the Ironbirds had already clinched a playoff spot because they won the first-half title. 

Fans on social media were giving the team a lot of slack for not having a broadcaster, so Graham finally asked Marcantonini if he would want to broadcast the final few homestands of the regular season and the playoffs. 

With the opportunity of a lifetime in his hands, Marcantonini jumped right in.

The move worked, and the Ironbirds gained much-needed attention from having Marcantonini, now the squad’s head broadcaster.

“His confidence, you can hear it on air. He just comes up with these sayings and descriptions that I use all the time now,” Goldstein stated. 

Every time someone reaches second base safely, Marcantonini shouts, “It is a two-bagger with swagger.”

His calls when a player hits a double or smacks one out of the park have gained traction with the fanbase too. 

The Bright Spot of Social Media:

As a broadcaster, Marcantonini interviews many players on the Ironbirds roster. He

conducts many of these interviews through a segment he calls “All Mike’d Up with Michael

Marcantonini.” 

A player that Marcantonini loves interviewing is pitcher Kyle Virbitsky because he is one

of the best people he has ever met. Virbitsky’s love for the game and his family makes him a

great interviewee.

In 2023, Marcantonini was broadcasting a night game, and number one prospect Jackson Holliday came to the plate with an opportunity to win. Coincidentally, country music artist Luke Combs had recently released a song called “Going, Going, Gone.”

Marcantonini decided to use the song’s name on a call. The broadcaster got his chance as Holliday hit a walk-off home run, and the call was posted online. Luke Combs ended up retweeting the post, and the video generated over one million views.

Through his new gig with the Ironbirds, Marcantonini has seen his career soar. 

Despite the ups and downs of his mental health, Marcantonini currently shines as the lone announcer for the Aberdeen Ironbirds.

Marcantonini believes it was all about his perseverance that led him to where he is today.