Courtesy USA Today

(October 6, 2010) During big-league playoffs, viewers usually find familiar on-air voices they've heard all season. Not so with the TBS' MLB playoff coverage. After airing just one weekly regular-season game, TBS carries all first-round action — and had to draft an on-air roster.

Which led to Milwaukee Brewers announcer Brian Anderson calling Wednesday's Cincinnati-Philadelphia series opener (5 p.m. ET).

But getting that national TV perch was only his latest odd career twist. As a catcher for St. Mary's University in San Antonio, he hoped to play pro like his brother Mike, who made the Reds in 1993 and is now a Texas Rangers scout. After a "reality check" made him realize he wasn't good enough, he had two offers: Be a scout for the Reds or call minor-league games in San Antonio.

He picked broadcasting. After all, he'd been a part-time gofer for ABC's Monday Night Football where he rounded up newspapers for Al Michaels— "and I was an English major."

Anderson spent nine on-air years in the minors, also working as a freelance cameraman for the San Antonio Spurs, but gave up on baseball to join The Golf Channel in 2003. "I told my wife I was done with baseball."

Bob Costas, who'd heard Anderson's calls, tried to dissuade him. "He didn't yell, but was pretty upset I wasn't going to stick with baseball. … Financially, it was a no-brainer."

But temporary. Anderson got his Brewers job in 2007 — "Bob's recommendation helped a lot" — and the TBS gig "was the easiest job I ever got, didn't even know they were looking."

Brother Mike will be at the Reds-Phillies series to scout them as potential World Series opponents for the Rangers. Brian says Mike's first assignment with the Rangers in 2007 was to "baby-sit" Edinson Volquez— Cincinnati's starting pitcher Wednesday night — after being traded for Josh Hamilton. Both players are now stars. But when they were traded, says Brian, "both their teams thought they were ticking time bombs." Careers aren't predictable.

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