Lewin didn’t travel alone: His steady companion was a bulky tape recorder which he kept in a brief case. He would sit in the stands at Silver, read off his notecards and broadcast games.

He drew stares, but eventually he also drew the attention of the Wings front office.

“(Play-by-play man) Jay Colley and (general manager) Bob Goughan had enough mercy that they saw this kid getting paper clips thrown at him every night and they made me an intern,” Lewin said. “I got to read the out-of-town scores on the air, and eventually do three innings for Jay.”

Lewin eventually replaced Colley, but he was in no mindset to stay in Rochester and broadcast minor-league games.

“I wanted to be in the majors,” he said.

He has been there for the past 14 years and, still only 40, has made his name on a national level as a broadcaster and field reporter for Fox. He is in his eighth season as a TV broadcaster for the Texas Rangers.

Lewin was on the air covering the Wings from 1986-95, working the last five as the No. 1 man.

“I think of those red-and-white pinstripe uniforms with the ‘R’ on the chest, and how in awe I was to be around that,” he said. “My hero wasn’t George Brett, it was (Wings third baseman) Taylor Duncan.”

Lewin remembers driving a washed-up pitcher to the Ottawa airport in 1993 after the pitcher was promoted to Baltimore.

“He needed a ride, and I had to pick up (outfielder) Jeffrey Hammonds anyway,” Lewin recalled. “I thought, ‘It’s nice that this old guy is getting a chance to get back in the majors.’”

That was 16 years ago, and left-hander Jamie Moyer is still going strong at 46. He has 257 career wins, won a World Series ring with the Philadelphia Phillies last year and, apparently, was not washed up in 1993.

Lewin and his wife Dana have been married for 18 years. They have a 15-year-old daughter named Kelsey and an 11-year-old son named Coby. They live in Southlake, between Dallas and Fort Worth.

Although he says “we’re fantastically happy here,” there are some regrets.

“I was so busy trying to get to the next level I forgot about being a kid. I was so tunnel-visioned on baseball. I’d do a game, go back to the hotel and listen to that three-hour game and pick it apart.

“If I had to do it over again, I would have enjoyed what I had in front of me.”

Lewin left the Wings in 1995 for a job as sports director of WBAL in Baltimore, where he also occasionally filled in for Jon Miller for two seasons Then, a surprise call from Fox changed everything.

“They wanted me to work on the Game of the Week, which they had just launched, and it kicked down every door,” he said. “I no longer was aspiring to be the No. 2 guy for the Kansas City Royals. It was a huge break.”

He worked for the Chicago Cubs for a year and the Detroit Tigers for four years before landing in Texas. He’s also entering his fifth season as a broadcaster for the NFL’s San Diego Chargers.

He’s dealing with “my own mid-life crisis” by playing keyboards and singing in piano bars and steakhouses around Texas with the rock group Independent George.

Lewin’s mom only lives in Rochester during the warm months, and he rarely gets back home. But part of him will always be that precocious teen braving the chill of Silver Stadium to talk into a microphone and hone his skills.

“Rochester means so much to me,” he said. “It’s home.”

Mascot to mike

Lewin met Glenn Geffner when both attended Northwestern University. That connection brought Geffner to Rochester as an intern in 1990. He worked for free in public relations that season, but his other gig — dressing as Wings mascot R.W. Homer — brought him $25 per appearance. “A baseball with arms and legs, and big clown shoes,” is how he describes his alter ego.

The Wings won the Governors’ Cup in 1990, and Geffner left the team that fall looking for broadcasting jobs. He did some radio work for minor-league basketball teams before returning to the Wings in 1993 as PR director. One year after that, he joined Lewin in the booth.

And when Lewin left for Baltimore following the 1995 season, Geffner took his place as Voice of the Wings. He held that position for the final two years at Silver Stadium before leaving for the top media relations job with the San Diego Padres in 1997. He eventually returned to the radio booth with the Padres and Boston Red Sox (where he received World Series rings in 2004 and ‘07). He’s now in his second season with the Florida Marlins.

Ironically, his last day working for the Wings was when the club moved its offices from Norton Street to Frontier Field. It would be nine years before he would watch a game there.

His wife, the former Christine Frost, is a Hilton High graduate and former Wings receptionist. The two live with their three children in Miami.

“What I remember most about Rochester, without question, are the people,” he says. “To this day, we stay in contact with Dan Mason, Naomi Silver and Josh Lewin, and any time we’re in Rochester we stop to see Joe Altobelli and (PR director) Chuck Hinkel.”

Geffner was offered a job with the Padres in 1996 but felt the timing wasn’t right. Having a chance to broadcast the final season at historic Silver Stadium was a factor.

“I remember doing the final regular-season game against Ottawa, and we went overboard with all the celebrating,” he said. “There was so much electricity and excitement. But then we made the playoffs, and our real final game at Silver wasn’t nearly as special.

“We were in the process of getting swept by Columbus, and it was a much smaller crowd.”

One of his most disappointing moments took place when he was the PR director in ‘93. The Wings faced the Charlotte Knights at Silver in the fifth and final game of the Governors’ Cup. Charlotte’s roster included future stars Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome.

Heavy rain fell throughout the day, but International League president Randy Mobley insisted on playing that night.

“So many Wings were eager to get the game played because they wanted to go to Baltimore,” Geffner said. “When we lost, it was so disappointing. I think of how many guys from that team never won a championship, and how special it would have been had we waited another day.”

Goodbye, baby!

When Joe Castellano was let go by the Syracuse Chiefs following the 1996 season, he worried his career as a baseball broadcaster might be over.

However, the best was yet to come.

“Geff had told me he might be heading to San Diego, and when he left, I applied for his job,” the San Jose native said. “Coming to Rochester was great, because we had a new ballpark (Frontier Field) and a very good team that first year.”

In fact, 1997 would turn out to be the most enjoyable of Castellano’s 12 seasons behind the mike. The Wings, led by pitcher Rick Krivda and hustling infielder P.J. Forbes, won the Governors’ Cup championship in a dramatic Game 5 played at Frontier.

“Being at that ballpark every day and to win the whole thing, that was just incredible,” Castellano said. “We kind of took it for granted, and it went all downhill after that.”

The Wings would slide from first to worst and eventually dissolve their relationship with the Orioles in 2002. While the team couldn’t get a win, Castellano couldn’t get back into the country one infamous day in 1997.

“The team was upset because they’d lost and had a bad series in Ottawa,” he says. “They didn’t even shower. They just got on the bus and took off.”

Castellano, meanwhile, was packing his equipment in the radio booth. When he walked into the clubhouse and asked where everyone was, the clubhouse attendant pointed to the highway.

“I could see the bus heading out,” Castellano recalled.

Castellano and the clubby got in a car and tried to chase down the bus, but it was too late. Stranded in a foreign country, he rented a car and drove home alone.

“I remember it cost a lot of money,” he said, “and (GM) Dan Mason picked it up.”

During the gory days of 2001-02, when the Wings were finishing 60-84 and 55-89, Castellano implemented the catch phrase “Goodbye, baby!” after every Wings home run.

“I was just searching for a way to get to the major leagues,” he said. “I discovered there is no blueprint. The call was a little contrived, in retrospect.”

Castellano’s time with the Wings ended after the 2002 season. He no longer wanted to work for the club in the offseason, wishing instead to expand his broadcasting duties (he had been covering Division I Siena basketball for years). Mason wanted a full-time broadcaster and let Castellano go.

“My parting was not the way I wanted it,” he said. “But I loved my time in Rochester, and the most special part was working with Joe Altobelli. It was incredible sitting next to him for five years. I never would have improved as much as I did without him. He’s one of my favorite people in the world.”

These days, Castellano is in his fifth season as night-time host of MLB Home Plate, which airs locally from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday through Thursday on XM 175 and Sirius 210. He also is a top statistician for NFL games on CBS, has broadcast the College World Series for five years on Westwood One and last summer covered Olympic softball (albeit from a New York City studio) for NBC.

Now 47 and living in San Francisco, he hasn’t abandoned his dream of being a play-by-play man in the big leagues. Last year, he was a finalist for the Padres’ job.

“I’ve been close other times, but close doesn’t count,” he says. “I still think I’m good enough to do it, so why not try?”

The current Voice

Since 2003, the Red Wings’ broadcasting duties have been in the capable hands of Josh Whetzel, who found broadcasting through near tragedy.

He was diagnosed with lung cancer before his senior year at Parsons High in Parsons, Kan. Doctors removed a football-sized tumor. During those nasty days of treatment, friends contacted Dream Factory (similar to the Make-A-Wish Foundation). He was given a chance to live out a dream, and he chose a visit to Dodger Stadium.

There, he met legendary broadcaster Vin Scully. Upon returning home, Whetzel told his tale on a local radio show and the station manager was so impressed with his demeanor he hired Whetzel to work part-time as a disc jockey and board operator for Kansas City Royals games. He moved on to broadcasting games for the Single-A Albany (Ga.) Polecats and climbed his way to the Triple-A Wings in 2003, beating 70 candidates.

Whetzel is extremely well-prepared and has a terrific command of any game he broadcasts.

“I rediscovered baseball on the radio this summer,” says local author Curt Smith. “Driving to Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh (on a book tour), I listened to a lot of games. And I will tell you that Josh (Whetzel) is one of the best out there. Period.

“I hope he rides that magic carpet to the big leagues.”

Whetzel was a finalist for a Philadelphia Phillies broadcasting job in 2006 and the Pirates last season. His dream remains to work for a major-league team.

He already knows dreams do come true.