MIAMI – For nearly two decades, Tommy Hutton and Rich Waltz entered South Florida homes on a daily basis as the television voices of Marlins baseball.
With the Emmy Award-winning Hutton celebrating his last game before retirement, Waltz surprised him in the booth during the seventh inning of Sunday afternoon’s 5-3 Marlins victory over the Braves.
In the middle of Waltz explaining his cross-country trip to get to loanDepot park in time, second-generation Marlin Griffin Conine sent a moonshot to right field as if on cue.
“Look out, there it goes!” Waltz said.
“C’mon, Rich!” Hutton encouraged.
Waltz obliged his former broadcasting partner with his signature home run call: “OUTTA HERE!”
And then later, in jest: "Wait a minute, there's another Conine?!"
Waltz, who called a college football game on Saturday night in Pullman, Washington, flew from Spokane to Miami – via a layover in Denver – to arrive midgame. With the assistance of visitors' clubhouse manager Rock Hughes, he even used a dressing room to freshen up before going on air.
Waltz would stick around a bit, teasing Hutton and current play-by-play voice Kyle Sielaff about the number of rants the 80-year-old Hutton had this season and reminiscing on memories calling Marlins games.
“I'm really looking forward to that because I grew up on those two together, and being Tommy's last game, too, is pretty special,” Conine said postgame. “So, I'm really looking forward to hearing that.”