Andrew Irvine was a producer at ESPN & Longhorn Network producing more than 100 games each year and is now a Game Design Manager at MLB The Show. We talk about his progression at ESPN, how he’s influenced the popular video game and how baseball is a significant part of his life.
LOG:
0:00 - Introduction
1:15 - How Drew first thought about getting into sports
3:00 - How he didn’t make the initial cut to work for ESPN as a staff employee but was eventually hired
5:10 - What a remote Production Assistant is at ESPN
6:05 - How he advanced from PA to Associate Producer
7:45 - What an AP’s responsibility is in remote/event production
11:20 - What it took for Drew to get from AP to Producer
12:30 - What role he took in building Longhorn Network
14:10 - His first producing moment
14:45 - How his nerves were producing his first event
15:30 - Some of Drew’s mentors
16:45 - His event that went awry
18:55 - What an ISO producer is
20:40 - Relationship between announcers and producers
22:30 - His thoughts on what makes a good play-by-play announcer, analyst and reporter
25:10 - Drew’s favorite events he’s covered
26:40 - How he started working for PlayStation
29:00 - He was a gamer when he was younger
29:45 - Building a video game for baseball
32:30 - How his current job as Game Design Manager has given him more time to spend with family
33:50 - What influence Drew has made on MLB The Show with the broadcast, announcers and audio
34:30 - How he comes up with ideas for the game and how they get done quickly
35:25 - What changes he’s made for the 2022 MLB The Show version that includes the new announce team
37:40 - How the game was able to get John Sciambi and Chris Singleton as the announcers
41:30 - How they manage the amount of announcer calls within the game
43:00 - Bringing live sports broadcast elements into video games and vice versa
45:40 - How the game looks real
48:00 - What the response to MLB The Show 2022 has been so far & how people react to him when they know he works on the game
49:30 - How Drew can top what he’s doing now on the game
52:05 - Revisiting how people react to him working at MLB The Show
53:30 - How baseball is a part of your life and playing for a men’s adult baseball league, the Bristol Knights
54:10 - Some memorable baseball pictures and statistics of Drew & Don
57:30 - The difference between college football and college baseball as far as the intensity
59:50 - What Drew’s first credential was working live sports television
1:01:05 - His favorite movie
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