If there's anyone in the New York City area who can relate to the pressures facing the next shortstop for the New York Yankees, it would have to be John Imbriale.
After a long career in the background at New York Racing Association tracks, Imbriale is currently occupying a stage that was so brilliantly graced by his sport's own icon figure.
The affection for Tom Durkin that poured out after the beloved track announcer concluded his final call on Aug. 31 was just one example of the giant-sized shoes Imbriale has stepped into. After working in the shadows as Durkin's backup for roughly 17 years, the 60-year-old Imbriale is now the voice of New York racing, serving as NYRA's lead announcer until next April. To say he has a tough act to follow, doesn't even come close to the Jeterian task Imbriale was handed.
"For the first couple of weeks it was odd being up here knowing Tom's not coming back," Imbriale says. "It took me a while to settle in. I'm in the same position of everyone else. I loved his calls and I miss him doing them."
The challenge started quickly for Imbriale. In a footnote to one of racing's more memorable moments, after Durkin capped a 24-year career at NYRA with his "splashtastic" call of the Spinaway Stakes, Imbriale had to step into the announcer's booth after the passionate goodbye ceremony for Durkin and then call the final two races of the day.
He, like everyone else at Saratoga on an emotionally charged day when tears fell like the rain drops earlier in the day, had to put his own feelings in check. Imbriale was overwhelmed as he watched fans loudly cheer for Durkin as if he was a conquering hero while he walked down the stairs from the announcer's booth to the track and heard them chant, among numerous tributes, "Tom-my Dur-kin" in "Der-ek Jet-er" fashion.
"When Tom started walking down the stairs (toward the winner's circle ceremony), that was as heartwarming and uplifting and as special a moment as I've ever seen at Saratoga," Imbriale says. "The response was nothing that I had ever heard before for a jockey or anyone else. The fans made that moment so great. Their off-the-cuff reaction, the chanting, that was something I won't see again in my lifetime. There's no one else like him here.
"I had two more races to call and you're just trying to get through them," he adds. "I got caught up in the emotion of everything and it was strange because how can you top what just happened? It was like the famous line from George Gobel when he was on the Tonight Show after some mega stars and he said 'I feel like a pair of brown shoes in a world of black tuxedos.' Talk about mopping up, that was the ultimate mop up job."
With that behind him, Imbriale has been settling into his new prime time role during a meet once known as Belmont's Fall Championship meet. It includes some of NYRA's most famous races like the Jockey Club Gold Cup and Champagne and has presented a unique challenge for him, despite more than 30 years of experience at calling races and hosting television shows with the likes of Harvey Pack for NYRA.
Imbriale knows and understands that he'll revert to being a backup when Larry Collmus leaves Churchill Downs and joins NYRA on April 1 to take over as the lead announcer. Until then it's his job. According to a NYRA official, it's expected that Imbriale will be receiving some help in the near future from Monmouth caller Travis Stone. But for the past month he has been smoothly and successfully handling the call of everything from claimers to some Grade 1 stakes that were virgin territory for him - like the five renowned Grade 1's on Sept. 27 during NYRA's Super Saturday card.
"I was happy there were several weeks between the end of Saratoga and Super Saturday. It took a while for me to get the right pace," the native New Yorker says. "To be blunt I was very nervous at the start of Super Saturday because I hadn't been put in that situation before where I had to call an entire big day by myself.
"The thing I didn't know and I had to prove to myself is that I could do something like that, calling those kind of races with those kind of horses. At 1 o'clock I had butterflies in my stomach not knowing how the day would turn out. But I got my legs under me as the day went on and hopefully it turned out well. You just don't know how you're going to do until you actually do it. I had called races for a long time, but not like that."
Imbriale's calls that day were spot-on, including his handling of the Jockey Club Gold Cup, which contained a frightening moment midway through the $1 million contest when Wicked Strong clipped heels, tossed jockey Rajiv Maragh and continued running riderless.
"The last thing I wanted to have happen in the Gold Cup was what happened with Rajiv going down. But it happens in horse racing and sometimes you get caught off guard. I was very, very lucky that I was looking somewhere in the general vicinity to see the riderless horse shortly after it happened because there are times it happens at the back of the field and you don't pick it up until the very end," Imbriale says. "You're caught between the excitement of the end of the race and knowing there might an issue there with a horse or jockey. I toned it down a bit at the end. Tonalist ran a great race and you don't want to take anything away from him, but I didn't know what happened to Rajiv."
Maragh avoided a life-threatening injury and walked away from the scary fall with a broken arm, adding to the relief Imbriale felt at the end of the day.
"I was much happier at 6:30 than 1 o'clock," says Imbriale, who also doubles as NYRA's director of television production. "I tried to take the whole day into account and I was pretty satisfied. I did get some compliments, which was nice." One of those compliments came from the Master himself, Durkin.
"John is the ultimate pro," Durkin says. "Those were big time races on Jockey Club Gold Cup day and John came up with big time descriptions of them. He struck a perfect tone."
Imbriale called four more stakes last Saturday and long before he fades into the background again in April he'll have the pleasure of calling NYRA's Thanksgiving weekend cards with six graded stakes.
It should be another treat for someone who started working at NYRA in 1979 when he won a New York Daily News contest to be a guest announcer. That led to a job in NYRA's Press Office. He first apprenticed under Marshall Cassidy, the track announcer at the time who would listen to tape recordings of his calls and offer suggestions, including the one that resonated most with Imbriale: Get the call right.
When Durkin arrived, Imbriale became the backup announcer. He filled in primarily during Durkin's winter vacations and on Mondays at Saratoga, and all the while his education continued.
"There are two things that Tom told me which stand out most," Imbriale says. "He believed the race makes the call, not the other way around. In other words, don't embellish it into something it's not. He also told me to be my own caller and don't look to take his or someone else's phrases or their way of calling; become your own guy. I'm sure I've thrown in things I've heard him say, but I try to avoid the phrases he used. You appreciate what he's done and why even try to imitate it? I learned a lot from him, but tried to avoid picking up his style. Everyone has their own style."
Yes, everyone has a style about them, even Imbriale. And now, in the absence of a living legend, people are getting to know and appreciate his more than ever. The next Yankees shortstop should be that fortunate