Spikes and Mics: Beaver Baseball Players Show Talent on the Diamond, in the Studio

June 7, 2019

More than three months ago, in the first days of the season, Buena Vista University baseball players Guy Tannenbaum and Nick Henrichs dashed from an 8 a.m. Saturday practice and assumed their positions, outfielders standing for an entire double-header.

A basketball double-header.

Tannenbaum and Henrichs announce and produce sports and news stories and programs as digital media majors. On that early February day, they delivered play-by-play and analysis of BVU’s home finale in women’s and men’s basketball for BVTV, the campus TV station. 

“This is the perfect place for me. I get to play a game with 40-plus guys I consider brothers. And, I get to participate in our digital media program, which is preparing me for a job someday.”

Nick Henrichs

Their work continued deep into May as the duo captured sights and sounds of the baseball team, which won the American Rivers Conference Tournament and secured a berth in the NCAA Division III National Tournament. The Beavers won one game while losing a pair of contests in the double-elimination tourney in suburban Chicago.

Henrichs, a sophomore, batted fifth throughout the national tourney contests. He was also the starting pitcher in BVU’s 7-3 victory over St. John’s University. He kept his camera close by as he documented the remarkable season, creating video for the team’s Twitter account he helps manage with Tannenbaum.

“I love doing video and Coach Eddie and Coach Paletta, and my teammates all said it was great if I continued to shoot,” Henrichs says.

Tannenbaum, a second-year junior, plays on the junior varsity baseball team. When it comes to varsity action, he’s behind the microphone, updating listeners for KBVU “The Edge,” the University’s station which earned “Station of the Year” honors from the Iowa College Media Association. Tannenbaum called the conference tournament championship game. He then headed to Chicago for play-by-play duty at the national tourney.

“To call the final out of a conference tournament championship and then get the opportunity to call a national tournament game is something that’s hard to describe,” says Tannenbaum. “I wouldn’t have found out about BVU were it not for Coach Eddie recruiting me. I had the opportunity to get on the air right away as a freshman and I’ve never stopped.”

Tannenbaum and Henrichs worked as the team joined members of the BVU community at Cru5h Dining to watch the national tournament brackets unveiled on TV. Their reporting efforts showed up on “BVTV News” later in the week, a segment also found on YouTube and the digital media program’s Facebook page.

“This is the perfect place for me,” says Henrichs, an honorable mention all-conference player this season. “I get to play a game with 40-plus guys I consider brothers. And, I get to participate in our digital media program, which is preparing me for a job someday.”

Henrichs’ highlight for the season came in the conference tournament when his solo homer accounted for the only run in a 1-0 victory over Luther College. He presented the ball to his mother, an early Mother’s Day gift.

Now that finals are done, Henrichs tackles his next assignment, spending the summer away from home while working in the BVU Sports Information Office, assisting SID Steven Phelps.

Tannenbaum, meantime, finished his finals and headed home to Las Vegas, Nev., where he’s interning in the news department at KLAS-8 News Now. Next summer, as winner of BVU’s prestigious J. Leslie Rollins Fellowship, Tannenbaum, BVTV news director and anchor, will work in the CBS News offices in either Los Angeles or New York City.

“I’ll be placed in a news bureau once I’m there, a show like ‘CBS News This Morning,’ or ‘60 Minutes,’” he says.

He talks about the big-city assignment in the wake of tasks completed in Chicago, working as both he and Henrichs represented their school on the sport’s biggest stage, a highlight capping a whirlwind season for a pair of players who know their spikes and mics.

Tannenbaum smiles and shakes his head, awestruck by the whole experience. “I still can’t believe it,” he says.