During the first 1,000 baseball games Steve Klauke broadcast in Salt Lake, he was absent only three times. In the next seven years he missed just two more games.
It's a shame the nickname "The Iron Horse" is taken.
Thursday night, Klauke called one more contest, this one at home with the Bees facing Tacoma. That makes it an even 2,000 games as the voice of the Stingers/Buzz/Bees. Talk about staying power. Klauke hasn't been on air as long as "The Simpsons," but let's just say he's in the ballpark.
His first game, 14 years ago, was only about four years after Homer's first "D'oh!"
During his second batch of games, Klauke skipped one contest to attend his son's high school graduation, another to fill in for Jazz announcer Hot Rod Hundley. Otherwise it's been perfect attendance.
His third-grade teacher must be thrilled.
Some habits you never outgrow.
Along the way, Klauke has had his share of moments. He once whacked his knee on the counter of the broadcast booth and fainted. On air.
Listeners could hear his wife — who was in the press box at the time — calling "Steve! Steve!"
He was gone like a letter-high fastball.
"Thankfully," said Klauke this week, "I've had nothing like that since then."
If you think calling 2,000 games is insignificant, consider this: When he started this streak, gas cost $1.01 a gallon and you could buy a house for $150,000. Now gas costs as much as a house and a house costs as much as a stadium.
None of which has affected Klauke's work ethic a whit. He's in his office at Franklin-Covey Field at 9 a.m. and doesn't go home on game nights until around 11.
You know that old NBA slogan that said, "I Love this Game"? Klauke really, really loves his game. So much so that during his second thousand games he even made it to the ballpark on the day his daughter graduated from high school. The ceremony was early in the day, so he attended that, then went to dinner with the family and relatives — and still made it to the ballpark by the fifth inning.
If such dedication seems baffling, there are rewards. In his first thousand games he watched an up-and-coming Alex Rodriguez playing for Calgary. In the second thousand, he called a game in which a kid named Albert Pujols blasted a home run in the PCL Finals to give Memphis a win over Salt Lake. That happened to be the last minor league at-bat for the future Major League All-Star.
As time passes, Klauke says, the players keep getting younger. Or rather, "I keep getting older." Players stopped calling him "Steve" and started calling him "Sir" or "Mr. Klauke."
But that doesn't mean they've always been happy with him.
He caught a scathing look from Darin Erstad (a former Nebraska punter) when Klauke remarked on-air that Erstad — in Salt Lake on injury rehab — had "destroyed the myth that punters aren't athletes."
Though meant as a compliment, apparently Erstad didn't like the insinuation.
In 2001, Klauke interviewed Salt Lake pitcher Elvin Nina on the pregame show. Nina had produced a terrific outing the previous game.
But the next time on the mound, Nina was abysmal. Same in the following start. Soon superstition got the best of him.
"He said he'd never come on my show again — and he wasn't kidding," said Klauke.
In 14 seasons Klauke has seen 400 players, six managers and three team nicknames in Salt Lake.
"I'm glad they keep asking me back," he said.
His dream is still to work for a major league club, be it in baseball, the NFL or the NBA. But "if nothing else opens up, sure, I'd like to keep going," he said.
Of course he would. What does any self-respecting workaholic do after he passes a major milestone? He waves as he whizzes by and sets his sights on another.
E-mail: rock@desnews.com