Mr. 3000: Capps reaches milestone in Round Rock

ROUND ROCK, TEXAS -- Baseball is a sport that loves its round-numbered milestones, which don’t necessarily have to be related to on-field accomplishments. Note, for instance, the hoopla that surrounded April 24’s Sunday afternoon matinee between the Round Rock Express and visiting Albuquerque Isotopes.

Mike Capps, the first and only broadcaster in Round Rock’s 22-year franchise history, called his 3,000th game. Not that he was keeping track.

“I’ve got five hours of [game] prep and that’s what I do,” said Capps, slapping a large stack of stat sheets and game notes to emphasize his point. “I thought [the 3,000th game] was no big deal, but then here’s this big blowout. They’ve got messages on the board from [Express team owner] Nolan Ryan, and a couple players, ex-managers, the whole thing.”

Capps was speaking from his spacious – by Minor League standards – broadcast booth at Dell Diamond, nearly a month after the milestone. On the wall, to his left, was a celebratory photo collage featuring highlights of his long career. He’s doing what he loves, clearly, even if he took the long way to get there.

Congratulations to Mike Capps, Director of Broadcasting, on eclipsing 3,000 games with the #RRExpress!

Capps, who has been the radio voice of the E-Train since the club's inception in 2000, brings his own style, flair and fun facts to every broadcast.

Take a bow, Mike! pic.twitter.com/PoIHTYTcux

— Round Rock Express (@RRExpress) April 24, 2022

“I was a news reporter for 22 years,” he explained. “I was at the NBC affiliate in Houston, my first major market job, at age 24 as a police reporter. Guts, gore and police chases and narc raids.”

The myriad twists and turns of a peripatetic career in the hard news business eventually led to a reporting job at CNN. Capps said he did “a lot of overseas stuff” while with the network, including covering the Gulf War and the 1991 Haitian coup d'état.

Capps always had a love of baseball, however, dating back to childhood outings with his grandfather to see the Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers at Burnett Field. He went on to play at Hill Junior College in Hillsboro, Texas, and called games while attending Sam Houston State. These experiences, combined with a longstanding friendship with original Express general manager Jay Miller, led to his unexpected midlife career change.

“[Miller] called me, this was in 1998 before the Winter Meetings, and said ‘What do you know about Round Rock, Texas?’” said Capps. “Well, l I knew was that it was about 15 miles north of Austin. He said, ‘We’re moving a Double-A team there. Trust me, it’s gonna be great. Come to the Winter Meetings and we’ll get this thing started.”

The Round Rock Express, whose ownership group includes Nolan Ryan and his sons, Reid and Reese, are named after Nolan’s “Ryan Express” nickname. The team, currently the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate, debuted in 2000 as the Double-A affiliate of the Houston Astros.

“The first season, it’s been called a Steven Spielberg season, we won the Texas League championship in front of 11,000 people on the third high school football Friday night,” said Capps. “That group of kids, several of them went to the big leagues. Roy Oswalt was big on that team. Morgan Ensberg, Jason Lane, guys like that. The manager, Jackie Moore, was a 50-year Major League veteran and was so good for those younger guys…. And the fans were just crazy here, they hadn’t had [professional] baseball since 1967, the Austin Braves.”

That 2000 season set the template for what has followed, as Capps says his time with the Express has always been a pleasure. The downsides of the job, including 3 a.m. wake-up calls for 6 a.m. road trip flights, have barely registered.

“That kind of stuff, it doesn’t bother me in the least,” said Capps. “Having come from the news business, covering wars and insurrections, this is just nirvana compared to that.”

The 2022 season will be notable for Capps beyond the 3,000-game milestone. His book, “Grinders: Baseball’s Intrepid Infantry,” co-authored with the late Chuck Hartenstein, will be released on July 31.

“It’s stories of people overcoming tremendous odds to play this game, and playing it for a long time, coming away with dignity,” he said. “There’s stories of guys who went through combat and lived to tell the tale, lived to be grinders at the big league and Minor League level. There’s stories of the Jim Crow south that are just riveting. It’s a compendium of incredible human stories.”

Capps said he doesn’t consider himself to be a grinder, though he added that “I guess you could make a case for it.”

“People tell me that I am [a grinder], and you know what? Being 71 going on 35 is a blessing because I’ve had a chance to do some special things and be in some special places,” he said. “But I don’t take any of it for granted. It’s just a blessing to do this to start with, you know?"