That’s quite a way to start your senior year of high school.
Two Chaminade students who once played youth baseball together will call the Sunday night KidsCast of the New York Mets versus Seattle Mariners game on ESPN2.
Roman Brunetti of Mineola and Thomas Gamba of Garden City, incoming 17-year-old seniors at the Mineola all-boys school, were selected for the prize broadcasting gig at the MLB Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pa., after acing their audition.
“We were on the same Little League team in third grade,” Gamba said. “So to go from that to calling a Major League game at the home of the Little League World Series is really, really awesome.”
It will be Gamba’s second go-round at broadcasting a game from Historic Bowman Field, one of the oldest ballparks in baseball, after he earned a spot at the 2024 KidsCast of the Little League Classic between the Detroit Tigers and the New York Yankees.
“This is just a Chaminade game, but it’s the Mets and the Mariners,” he said of his thinking. “My preparation is the same.”
Gamba will be joined by Brunetti, his all-seasons partner on Chaminade Flyers sporting events that air on the SportsEngine Play streaming service.
The two have also been paired on Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League broadcasts.
“We’ve worked on a bunch of games together,” Brunetti said. “In the fall, it’s mostly football and soccer, in winter, it’s basketball and in the spring, it’s lacrosse and a little bit of baseball.”
On Sunday night, they’ll go big time in the big leagues as part of ESPN’s multiple broadcast offerings for the 7:10 p.m. Mets-Mariners matchup.
Karl Ravech will handle the play-by-play on ESPN alongside analyst Eduardo Pérez, former Mets and Yankees great David Cone and reporter Buster Olney. On ESPN2 and the ESPN App, Gamba and Brunetti will team with 14-year-old Pepper Persley, now in her fourth year as the KidsCast reporter.
While working in front of the camera at an MLB game may be old hat for two-thirds of the KidsCast crew, Brunetti conceded that he may feel some early broadcast butterflies.
“At least for the open, the first inning or so,” he said from Williamsport, where he and fellow crew members will spend the days leading up to Sunday preparing for the game. “But once I get through the first inning, I think it will be ok.”
The two Chaminade students are products of the Bruce Beck Sports Broadcasting Camp, a weeklong July gathering for budding broadcasters at Iona College in New Rochelle. That’s where they were selected for the plum broadcasting gig after an audition that included calling a half-inning of a Mets game.
Started by Beck, the longtime NBC4 New York sports anchor, the camp is split in two.
There’s a “Rookie Camp” for those 13 and up who are new to sports broadcasting, while participants in the “Veteran Camp” must have attended the program at least once.
“I was in the rookie camp and I really wasn’t supposed to get picked,” Brunetti said. “But I just happened to do really well and somebody nominated me for the audition. Once I got in the audition, I just played my game essentially and I got picked.”
The two high school students said they would like to pursue broadcasting as a career once they start college. They will enter with reels highlighted by their ESPN appearances.
“This would be huge, it would stand out like a sore thumb,” Brunetti said. “I mean, what type of 17- or 18-year-old is calling a game on ESPN for MLB? It’s crazy.”
For Gamba, the Sunday night spot will mark the latest highlight in a year that has included calling play-by-play duties for the animated NHL Hockeyverse Matchup of the Week.
“It is really an incredible opportunity,” he said.
Gamba said that calling the MLB Little League Classic alongside his former youth baseball teammate will make the experience that much more memorable.
“We’ve been two of the more involved people in the [Chaminade] sports media team since we started as freshmen and our relationship has really grown since then,” Gamba said. “To be able to do it with him is super, super awesome.”
Then it will be right back to work calling the action for their high school’s sports teams.
“From football to bowling, I’ll be calling literally everything,” he said. “Any Chaminade game that I can do, I will.”
Top: Photo of Thomas Gamba (R) during ESPN’s “KidsCast” segment last year with David Cone. (Credit: Allison Gamba) Inset: Roman Brunetti of Mineola and Thomas Gamba of Garden City. (courtesy photos)
