April 2006: Question and Answer with Derek Ingram

[Chris]

http://www.daytonacubs.com/staff/ingram.jpg

 

Derek Ingram, Director of Broadcasting and Media Relations for the Daytona Cubs, has graciously agreed to answer questions from posters on NSBB! If you would like to send a comment to Derek, or if you would like to ask Derek a question, feel free to post it here. The deadline for submitting questions is Thursday, April 13th at noon. Once Derek has had an opportunity to answer them, the responses will be posted.

 

This session will be coordinated as in accordance with The NSBB Q & A Guidelines.

 

The Daytona Cubs are proud to announce the addition of Derek Ingram as the voice of the Cubs in 2006. A native of Bowling Green, Missouri, Derek comes to Daytona featuring a wide range of broadcasting and journalism experience. He previously served as Sports Director for a radio station north of St. Louis where he had a chance to call a variety of sporting events. Prior to that, Ingram has hosted a television show in Springfield, Missouri, worked in the sports department at another TV station and has three years of newspaper experience. When not in the press box, Derek collects baseball cards and Starting Lineups figurines. His favorite sports teams include the St. Louis Cardinals, Rams and his alma mater, the Missouri State University Bears. Derek and his wife Katie are now current residents of Daytona Beach. (Bio courtesy of The Official Website of the Daytona Cubs.)

 

Thank you to Derek for taking the time to interact with us on such an up close and personal level. As always, thank you to all of you for making NSBB such a wonderful community!

[NCCubFan]

How hard of an adjustment has it been (especially climate-wise) moving from the St. Louis area to Florida? Also, do you find it hard being a Cardinal fan while working for an affiliate of their top rival? (One of the other Cub minor league broadcasters, Nathan Baliva of Peoria, is also a dreaded Cardinal fan :D .)

[Jon]

Derek,

 

What should we expect out of the booth this year?

 

Did you have a chance to make it to Mesa this spring? How have you been preparing for the season and getting to know the new faces?

 

Thanks!

[CuseCubFan69]

How do you handle being away from your wife for so many days at a time?

 

Did you always imagine yourself doing this for a career?

[rawaction]

Welcome to the organization, Mr. Ingram.

 

What's your favorite sport to call? How much research do you have to put in to know the players and stats and such?

 

How many Starting Lineup figurines do you have? Which one is your favorite?

[Outshined_One]

Great to see a new face with the Cubs, Mr. Ingram!

 

Who are you most excited to watch on the Daytona Cubs this year? What players strike you as leaders, jokers, silent hard workers, and so on?

[Chris]

Derek Ingram Q & A

April 2006

 

NCCubbieFan

Location: near Raleigh, North Carolina

 

How hard of an adjustment has it been (especially climate-wise) moving from the St. Louis area to Florida? Also, do you find it hard being a Cardinal fan while working for an affiliate of their top rival? (One of the other Cub minor league broadcasters, Nathan Baliva of Peoria, is also a dreaded Cardinal fan .)

 

Moving from the St. Louis area to Florida has been different. It has been great weather wise as days it was snowing in Missouri, it was close to 90 down here. The people are really nice and the weather is great. We haven't had much rain and all home games at Daytona have had absolutly perfect weather. I did grow up a Cardinals fan, but I assure you that I am a DIEHARD Daytona Cubs man now. If you listen on-line you will truely see that. I'll always be a Cardinals fan, but now when some of our former guys get called up to the Chicago Cubs, I will be rooting for them!

_________________

 

 

JonMDavis

Location: Evanston, IL

 

Derek,

 

What should we expect out of the booth this year?

 

Did you have a chance to make it to Mesa this spring? How have you been preparing for the season and getting to know the new faces?

 

Thanks!

 

I hope that you can expect to hear all great things out of me in the booth this year. Anyone that listens on-line and locally in the Daytona area is always encouraged to e-mail or call with critiques! I did not make it to Mesa this year, but it would be nice to go next season!

_________________

 

 

CuseCubFan69

Location: Beautiful Upstate New York

 

How do you handle being away from your wife for so many days at a time?

 

Did you always imagine yourself doing this for a career?

 

It's tough being away from my wife on the road, but we are really close and we still talk everyday when I'm on the road. Sometimes we talk even more when I'm on the road because when we have a home game, we seem to work a lot more hours than when we're on the road. Since I was very young I had wanted to play professional baseball, but I found out at an early age that I would never be able to hit a good curveball. At that point I began focusing myself on the broadcasting booth!

_________________

 

 

rawaction

 

Welcome to the organization, Mr. Ingram.

 

What's your favorite sport to call? How much research do you have to put in to know the players and stats and such?

 

My favorite sport to call is of course BASEBALL! I also enjoy the fast pace of basketball and the 22 men on the field at once in football. Our staff puts in a bunch of research for each individual series and game. We have to get information for not only our broadcasts, but also the local media and both coaching staffs for each game.

 

How many Starting Lineup figurines do you have? Which one is your favorite?

 

As far as Starting Lineups are concerned, I have as many as my wife will allow me to have at once! Baseball SLUs are my favorite, but I have some great basketball and football figures as well. My favorite SLUs are my Ozzie Smith ones and my 1990 Cardinals team set. I also have a near complete set of 1988 baseball SLUs in the box!

_________________

 

 

Outshined_One

Location: Chicago, IL or Madison, WI

 

Great to see a new face with the Cubs, Mr. Ingram!

 

Who are you most excited to watch on the Daytona Cubs this year? What players strike you as leaders, jokers, silent hard workers, and so on?

 

I am excited to see all of our players in Daytona! Some of the leaders are of course Jake Fox who is off to a hot start and Matt Craig who seems to lead by example. Joe Simokaitis seems to put in a lot of hard work and is very business-like in his approach and Nic Jackson shows up everyday and puts up good stats and always has encouraging words for one and all. As far as jokers go, Clint Brannon does artwork of his teammates that are in a humerous mannor, while not going too far and Jeff Culpepper does some crazy magic tricks!

 

This question is in regards to Mark Holliman, Daytona's starting pitcher today (Wednesday - his third start of the season). I was wondering what sort of pitches he threw, and how hard he throws his fastball. What was the biggest reason for his success against St. Lucie today?

 

Mark Holliman is going to be a solid starter all season long! He has been working a lot with Tom Pratt (pitching coach) and it is sure paying off. Mark got his first professional win last week and there will be plenty more to come! Mark is a young guy (20) and he is already married. He is very mature for his age and pitches like a crafty veteran. In his win over St. Lucie Holliman looked kind of like a Bob Tewksberry or a young version of Greg Maddux.