After missing the weekend Reds-Marlins telecasts, announcer John Sadak says he'll be back on the air Tuesday for the Reds' games against the first-place Milwaukee Brewers.
Sadak broke bones in both elbows running in his subdivision Friday afternoon.
"I’ve got a brace on my left arm, and a sling in the other, which is good because I'm right-handed," says Sadak, 42, who's doing his first season for the Reds on the Bally Sports channel. Announcer Jim Day filled in on play-by-play through Sunday.
Sadak, the former CBS Sports, Westwood One and longtime minor-league baseball announcer hired in Februaryto replace Thom Brennaman, considers himself lucky.
"No surgery. No pins. No cast," he says.
When Sadak went out for a run in his Warren County subdivision Friday, he took a different route than the one he's gone 20 times before. He tripped over an elevated edge of sidewalk and fell forward onto the pavement.
"I've walked that way before, but not run it," he says. "There was a raised piece of sidewalk and I didn't notice it."
Sadak came home and planned to wash and ice his bloody hands, arms, elbows and knees. But his wife said he was "white as a ghost" and insisted he get X-rays late Friday afternoon. On Saturday morning Dr. Tim Kremchek, Reds medical director, drained blood from both elbows and sent him immediately to physical therapy to improve his range of motion.
Sadak, who moved here from Delaware earlier this year, was grateful to hear from broadcast partners Barry Larkin, Chris Welsh, Jim Day and Jeff Brantley, plus Bally Sports producers and directors. He posted on Twitter: "Thank you for your kindness & to Jim Day/our awesome crew for being fabulous friends/teammates. #GoReds."
Hello, my friends! So, I had an accident running yesterday & suffered breaks in my elbows. Thank goodness, Dr. Kremchek has taken great care of me & I plan to return Tuesday. Thank you for your kindness & to Jim Day/our awesome crew for being fabulous friends/teammates. #GoReds
— John Sadak (@johnsadak) August 21, 2021
Statistician Joel Luckhaupt, who lives close by, will drive Sadak to Cincinnati, from where TV road games are broadcast. Luckhaupt has volunteered to carry Sadak's bulging bag containing a laptop, notebooks and other materials.
"It's as heavy as a bowling bag, and I can't lift anything," Sadak says.
It could have been much worse. If he had a more physically demanding job, Sadak would have ended up on the disabled list. He's confident he'll resume working Tuesday.
"I'm a 42-year-old guy who just has to watch a (TV) monitor and talk about it," he says.
Can he keep score during the game?
"That won't be a problem. Joel and Chris keep score. I can look at theirs if I can't," he says.
Sadak will get by, with the help of his new Ohio friends. He told me before the season he hopes to be the Reds TV announcer "for the rest of my working life." He doesn't plan on moving again.
"I think we (my family) are in a perfect place. So many people are being so helpful," he says. "There's good to come from everything."
