Longtime Bees announcer Steve Klauke calls 3,500th game


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SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake Bees honored their one-and-only play-by-play announcer Steve Klauke for calling his 3,500th game Monday night.

Klauke originally moved to Salt Lake City in 1991 to become part of the Utah Jazz pregame, halftime and postgame show. At the time, Klauke had no idea what else would be in store for him in the Salt Lake sports community.

Two and half years later, Klauke became the announcer for what was then called the Salt Lake Buzz. Nearly 25 years later, Klauke is still the voice of the Bees.

The Bees honored the longtime play-by-play announcer by having him throw the first pitch and by honoring him with a video tribute that featured Craig Bolerjack, Ron Boone and Thurl Bailey.

Klauke also got support from the Utah Jazz during Game 3 of the playoffs against the Thunder.

"My daughter took a picture of it and texted it to me and I couldn't believe they had done it," Klauke said about the Jazz honoring his achievement.

Klauke's time with the Bees has been full of many special moments. His favorite non-baseball related memory came in 1998 when Bob Costas and his group was doing the NBA Finals.

The Jazz PR official asked Klauke if he could leave 10 tickets for Bob Costas and his group. Klauke said yes and asked if Costas would be interested in joining him for an inning. The Jazz official said yes.

Klauke sat in the booth for quite a while before a big surprise came.

"Second inning, third, fourth, nothing, Bob and his group never showed," Klauke said. "But in the sixth inning, I'm sitting here and the door opens, and I'm thinking, 'Who's walking into the booth during the middle of a broadcast?' I look over my shoulder and it's Brent Musburger."

Along with meeting the famous sportscaster, Klauke's career has also included filling in as the Los Angeles Angels' radio broadcaster.

Despite all of this, Klauke wants to recognize the others who work hard with no praise.

"What's happened today with the recognition and all that's been spectacular," Klauke said. "But on the other hand I'm thinking to myself, '95 percent of the people out there have done their job for 3,500 days or more and they don't get any kind of recognition,' so I'd like to recognize them."

For Klauke, the toughest part of being an announcer is lack of family time.

"I love what I do, but being here every night means in the summertime, no summer vacation for the family, missing family dinners or maybe some other events that I couldn't get away for," Klauke said.

Even with the lack of family time, Klauke still loves what he does.

In regards to how long he wants to keep doing this, Klauke said, "As long as they want me to; as long as I feel that I am still sharp and not slipping, I'll keep going however long it is.

"To me, at this point, the prep is almost as enjoyable as the game," Klauke said. "Especially when you find that one nugget that you can't wait to use during the game."

After 3,500 games in, Klauke still loves it; it looks like he isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

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