Courtesy San Diego Union Tribune

(December 11, 2009) Josh Lewin will get in his car Sunday morning in Texas and make the same drive he has made hundreds and hundreds of times over the past eight years, down State Highway 360 from Southlake to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. After about 20 minutes he’ll pull into the parking spot with his name on it and only then will everything be different.

Instead of turning right and heading to the press box, as he’s done every one of those previous hundreds and hundreds of times, Lewin will turn left and, as he put it yesterday, “hoof it across the street to Jerryworld.”

Yes, it’s December, and Josh Lewin has a home game — Chargers-Cowboys at Cowboys Stadium.

“It’s weird to think of it that way,” said Lewin, nearing the end of his fifth season as the radio voice of the Chargers. “The one advantage obviously is if I forget anything, it’s a quick U-turn back to pick it up as opposed to having a blind panic.”

Another advantage — besides not having to travel — is being able to invite a couple of dozen members of the broadcast crew and the Chargers organization over to his house tomorrow for a barbecue. No players, however.

“I don’t think we have quite enough brisket for Marcus McNeill,” Lewin quipped.

A disadvantage, of course, is all the neighbors and buddies and “Oh don’t you remember me” folks who think he can get them tickets to Sunday’s game.

“One thing that’s a really tough concept for people is that football and baseball are really, really different when it comes to freebies,” he said. “I mean, when there are 80 baseball games and it’s the Kansas City Royals on a Tuesday, hey, I can get you in no problem. But the ‘oh-by-the-way’ nature of some of these requests kind of puzzled me. This is only the biggest game of the year for both teams. They don’t exactly hand these out like Tic-Tacs.”

Lewin is hoping he’ll get to continue enjoying the many differences between baseball and football. His contract with the Rangers expires this month; his contract to call Chargers games is up after this season.

There was a report out of Dallas last month that the Rangers likely would ask him to commit to baseball full time, but Lewin said his agent is talking with his baseball and football employers and the “wheels are in motion for the status quo to continue.” (UPDATE: The Dallas Morning News reports that the Rangers said Friday morning they have given Lewin a one-year extension.)

He added: “I’m confident there will be news on both fronts soon. We’re getting close on both. Everybody is being very cooperative and it’s just kind of premature to say anything is done. All the proper things are being said by all the proper people. I don’t have any concerns.”

Other than what his neighbors might do to him if the Chargers win Sunday.

“This weeekend will be bizarre,” Lewin said. “Dallas is my full-time home, and while I have absolutely fallen in love with San Diego, I have put down some pretty substantial roots here in Texas. The back-and-forth commute is likely to continue for a while, but this week, on a cul-de-sac full of Cowboys fans, it’s pretty strange to be wearing my Chargers sweats when I’m out in the yard.”

Wait till the neighbors get a load of Hank Bauer.

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