Episode 8 — Mike Capps

Mike Capps enjoyed the type of career than most journalists could only dream they could attain, winning awards, and covering some of the biggest stories in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. But he gave it all up to become a minor league baseball play-by-play announcer.

In episode 8 of the “Life Around the Seams” podcast, we learn how walking out of his tryout with the Montreal Expos in 1969 led Capps to a career in journalism. He was honored with the George F. Peabody Award for the investigation over a three-year period that resulted in the downfall of the SMU football program. He covered 16 Space Shuttle missions, two tours of duty in the first Gulf War, Hurricane Alicia, the Midwest Floods, the overthrow of the Haitian government, and earned a National Emmy Nomination with CNN for a 10-hour-long live broadcast for the fiery end of the Branch Dividian Siege in Waco. 

But one morning, he woke up with a bedpost in his right hand and blood on his forehead. And that’s when Capps knew that he needed to leave television journalism, change his life, and it was baseball that saved his life.