The Pinewood School graduate’s 15-year career in sports radio broadcasting includes calling games for the Florida Marlins, San Francisco Giants, San Jose Sharks and Cal basketball.

“I, like many kids, dreamed of playing in the NBA, but there was something that always fascinated me about being a sports broadcaster and calling games,” Bernstein said.

His interest in sports broadcasting started at a young age.

“I’d say I was probably 8 or 9 when I knew I wanted to get involved with sports, and there was something always appealing and attractive to me about broadcasting and listening to games on the radio and watching them on TV,” the UC Berkeley grad said.

Bernstein grew up in Hillsborough and enrolled at Pinewood his sophomore year of high school. Although there wasn’t a radio station at the Los Altos Hills school, Bernstein found other avenues to gain experience in sports media.

“I did some work for the campus newspaper, and Pinewood had a very strong speech and debate program, and that helped me in a way to prepare for my future,” he said. “I knew I wanted to go into broadcasting, and Pinewood was great preparation for that. It gave me a leg up and a feel for the future.”

Soon after graduating from Pinewood in 1991, Bernstein got involved with college radio at Cal, volunteering at the campus station.

After earning a degree in American studies, Bernstein was hired to host the pregame and postgame radio shows for Cal men’s basketball. A year later, at the age of 24, Bernstein was promoted to play-by-play announcer – a position he holds today.

Over the next decade, Bernstein branched out, broadcasting other sports as well.

“I did a lot of minor league baseball,” Bernstein said. “I also did some work for the San Jose Sharks in the 2000-2001 season when (regular broadcaster) Dan Rusanowsky had an awful car accident.”

Bernstein got his first taste of broadcasting Major League Baseball in 2003.

“I did some games with the San Francisco Giants in 2003,” he said. “I was a weekend fill-in broadcaster when Jon Miller would take off and do his ESPN television Sunday night.”

The next year, Bernstein made the somewhat surprising decision to return to the minors as the play-by-play announcer for the Single-A High Desert Storm.

“People were asking me why I did that,” Bernstein said, “but it was an opportunity for me to call nine innings a night every day to get myself prepared if an MLB situation (opened up).”

Such an opportunity arose in 2005 with the Florida Marlins.

“It was random how the Florida opportunity happened,” Bernstein said. “I knew they had an opening, so I sent my material in. They really liked what they heard and they ended up hiring me.”

Although being a big-league broadcaster had its perks, Bernstein’s favorite part of the job was watching the game he loved 162 days a year.

“The best part is you get to go to the ballpark every day,” said Bernstein, who counts broadcasting Anibal Sanchez’s 2006 no-hitter among his career highlights. “You get to be part of a story that unfolds over six months, and you’re around baseball every day. What better career path? At least that’s the way I looked at it.”

But there were downsides, too. Bernstein was away from his family and home in the Bay Area several months a year. When the Marlins asked him to move to Miami permanently in 2007 to help promote the team, Bernstein declined for family reasons.

“They wanted me to move to Miami full time, and I didn’t want to leave the Bay Area,” Bernstein said. “They wanted me to give up everything else I was doing, and I wouldn’t have been happy if I had done that. And we had a newborn at the time and it made too much sense for me to move back to the Bay Area, because it was home and we wanted to raise our kids near our family, near our friends.”

Bernstein has remained busy since leaving the Marlins. Beyond broadcasting Cal basketball, he co-hosts an afternoon talk show on 860 AM radio with former 49ers receiver JJ Stokes and radio personality Geoff Sheen. In addition, Bernstein does college football play-by-play for the Touchdown Radio Network and some television work for Comcast SportsNet.

And while Bernstein wouldn’t dismiss the possibility of taking another baseball job one day, he seems content living close to friends and family.

“If there are opportunities outside of the Bay Area, I’ll look at them, but for the most part we’d like to stay home in the Bay Area, and so far it’s worked out for us,” Bernstein said.