Tampa Bay’s Enrique Oliu has a great ear for color
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Kevin Baxter reports from St. Petersburg, Fla, on Enrique Oliu, a Spanish-language radio sports commentator who has an ear for color even though he can’t see:
The cramped broadcast booth for AM 680, the Spanish-language outlet for the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays, is close enough to the infield of Tropicana Field to hear it all.The crack of the bat, the ball’s loud pop as it is snared by the second baseman, the crowd cheering. Enrique Oliu, color analyst for the Rays’ radio broadcasts, takes these sounds and spins them to life, making the game something a listener can see, even if he cannot. Oliu is blind.’And now, for the play-by-play, here’s the friend of apple pie, Ricky Taveras!’ Oliu says in rapid-fire Spanish.’Thank you, Volcano,’ Taveras says, in a nod toward Oliu’s excitable on-air style.’It doesn’t make sense, right?’ Carlos Pena, the Rays’ All-Star first baseman, says of Oliu. ‘It’s unbelievable to me. But he does it. And he does it well.’Oliu has an easy answer.’If sight is perception,’ he says, ‘I can see as much as the next person.’
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City