Beloved Northwest sports broadcaster is stepping back after decades of play-by-plays

Craig West knew at an early age what he had wanted to be.

It seemed pretty obvious to his mother, too, who had to explain to the neighbors in their Southern California neighborhood that there was nothing wrong with 10-year-old Craig.

He just liked to call the play-by-play of imaginary sports games in his family’s front yard.

Two years later, a family friend gave 12-year-old Craig the opportunity to meet Vin Scully, the legendary Hall of Fame broadcaster for the Dodgers — first in Brooklyn and then in Los Angeles.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Scully asked the youngster.

Without missing a beat, West replied, “I want to be you.”

Well, it may not have been the Dodgers that West talked about. But he broadcast plenty of minor league baseball games, and an incredible amount of hockey contests.

In late April, West announced he was stepping down from his position as the Tri-City Americans’ play-by-play radio guy, after 25 seasons.

Now, throw in the eight seasons before that, when West had been involved as the Spokane Chiefs’ radio guy.

In all, the numbers are mind boggling: 33 seasons in the WHL, and 2,584 games.

West turns 68 years old in July.

He wants to be clear: he’s not retiring.

“I want to do some personal stuff,” said West. “It’s been fun. But for a couple of years, I’ve been thinking about it. I still like it. But I need some time off.”

Within three days of his announcement, West said he had three offers.

“But I’m not looking for work,” he admitted.

Life on the road

What convinced him it was time to make the decision?

“It’s a few things,” he said. “The travel. And it’s never been the same since we came back from COVID.”

The miles in the car had started to catch up with him.

West didn’t travel with the team on the bus. But instead, he drove his own car.

During the playoff series with Prince George, West drove from the Tri-Cities to Vancouver, and the Americans flew him to Prince George and then back to Vancouver — twice in the series.

“That’s still 340 miles each way (in the car). Ugh,” said West. “I’ve had PTSD for driving 33 years. And I’ve never seen worse weather than earlier this year driving from Winnipeg.”

Bob Tory, the Americans’ general manager, understands. He’s ridden with West on some of those road trips.

“Driving is not easy,” said Tory. “It’s not as glamorous as people think. You spend a lot of time by yourself.”

But West had talked with Tory before the season about it possibly being his last season.

“So it’s no surprise (that I made this decision),” said West.

When the announcement went public, his phone blew up with hundreds and hundreds of text messages and phone calls from all over North America.

“So many parents have reached out to me,” said West. “You’re the connection to their kids.”

What makes him so good?

“Craig has the best stories,” said Tory. “He’s a very good broadcaster. He’s operated so long without a color guy. And he’s seen a lot of history in this league.”

Getting in the radio business

West admits he always wanted to be a baseball player. But the lack of major-league talent stood in his way.

“So I thought, I want to find something, and stay around the game,” he said.

Growing up in the LA area, you sometimes cross paths with celebrities.

He’d play hockey with actors Alan Thicke and Jerry Houser, the latter who played Dave ‘Killer’ Carlson in the movie Slapshot.

And it was Chick Hearn, the great play-by-play of the Los Angeles Lakers of the Showtime 1980s and 1990s, who told West one time “to make sure you’re officiating” to get a feel of the game.

West was already on that.

“My first game was as an 11-year-old doing baseball. I got to tell adults what to do,” West said. “So I liked it.”

Over the years, he added hockey officiating to his resume.

In 1976, West got his first radio job in, of all places, Grand Coulee in Central Washington. Working at KFDR as a 20-year-old, he was doing sales and jockeying a bit. He was also broadcasting the Lake Roosevelt High School football games.

His highlight in Grand Coulee, though, might have been interviewing former Washington Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson, who was running for president in 1976.

In subsequent moves to the Portland area, then Redding, Calif., and finally Palm Springs, West stayed in radio.

He was hired in 1986 by a young general manager named Scott Kiner.

Kiner happened to be the son of Ralph Kiner, the Baseball Hall of Famer who also had a great resume as a radio broadcaster for the New York Mets.

Scott Kiner was 31 in 1986, and had been working his way up the corporate ladder.

“I was a national stringer for CBS,” Kiner said. “I was selling advertising for KCMJ AM/FM in Palm Springs. In 1984, I was the sales manager. Two years later the owners kicked me upstairs to the general manager spot. I had to make some staffing changes, and that opened up an opportunity for a morning guy, playing country music.”

It was the only station playing country music in the Palm Springs area.

“We were getting pretty good ratings, and I put Craig in that spot — even though he wasn’t your typical cowboy hat and cowboy boots type of DJ,” said Kiner. “He was great.”

Kiner said West was among the top three hires he had ever made. The other two were Jimmy Kimmel and Carson Daly.

“But it was clear to me early on that Craig’s goal in life was to be a sports broadcaster,” Kiner said. “Craig took to it so well. It was his calling. He didn’t want to end up playing Willie Nelson, Juice Newton and Alabama for the rest of his life.”

In 1988, West was working a ton of sports, covering professional golf for CBS, and doing weekend sports.

But also in 1988, he got divorced, and he and his wife had two kids.

Those two kids — and the ensuing grandkids — would become the most important part of his life.

All in on sports broadcasting

The first thing you must know about Craig West — Westy, he is affectionately called by his friends — is that if you ever expect to have a quick lunch or dinner with him, it’s not going to happen.

Westy is a storyteller — and he’s among the best.

“Look,” said Kiner. “My dad loved to tell stories. Craig is just as good. The man is very talented.”

Bobby Brett knew it, too.

“Craig has always had a gregarious way about him,” said Brett.

The owner of the Spokane Chiefs and the Spokane Indians knew West had some sports experience working in Palm Springs.

“We made contact (in 1990),” said Brett, who had also grown up in the Los Angeles area. “When I talked to him, he was very personable. We talked about LA.”

And then Brett heard the tape of West calling a game.

“When I heard his tape, he sounded like Vin Scully. And it was music to my ears,” said Brett.

West didn’t get the call until Labor Day weekend — just a few weeks before the WHL season was to start — to confirm Brett wanted him to be both the Chiefs and Indians play-by-play broadcaster.

“I had a five-hour interview in July,” said West. “I didn’t hear a word from them until Labor Day. But this is how the business works. They said, ‘We’d like to offer you the job to do the Chiefs and the Indians.’

“It was a 70% pay cut. But I had some money, and the kids were excited that I’d be only 5 hours away.”

By then, they were living in the Portland area.

And West, feeling an allegiance to his previous employer, wanted to give two weeks’ notice before heading north.

“The first thing I noticed was the Chiefs had what I thought were Montreal Canadiens jerseys,” he said. “The first ever game I did was a Chiefs-Americans game on Sept. 25, 1990. Ray Whitney scored five goals, and Spokane won 7-5.”

From that point on, West started raising the bar.

That first season saw the Spokane Chiefs win the Memorial Cup in the spring of 1991 in Quebec City.

“After the Memorial Cup, I had opportunities,” said West. “But I never wanted to leave my kids. I wanted to be their dad.”

Over the next eight seasons in Spokane, West began to build his reputation. People noticed.

Don Hay was one of them.

At the time that West was in Spokane, Hay was coaching in Kamloops, British Columbia.

“Back in Kamloops, you could get the Spokane radio station to come in at night,” said Hay. “And when Craig was in Spokane, I used to tune in to that Spokane station and listen to him call Spokane Chiefs games.”

Hay — who is back in Kamloops after a stint with the Portland Winterhawks — says West is one of the best he’s ever heard do a game.

“He is a storyteller,” Hay said. “He’s a guy on your team who becomes close to everyone, because everybody has got to trust him.”

And his baseball calling ability has made him even better over the years.

“Part of his appeal is he’s called baseball games before,” said Hay. “Baseball is played at a much slower pace, so you have to paint a picture for the listener. Hockey is a much faster game. I think when he came to Tri-City what made him such a great broadcaster was his ability to really paint the picture.

“That was important, because Tri-City is not a real solid hockey market.”

Jim Hiller was also a Tri-City Americans coach, and is now an assistant coach for the National Hockey League’s Los Angeles Kings. He saw something special in West too.

“His voice is so unique,” said Hiller. “I think one positive is he understands the game so well, and he has an inner perspective from a coaching standpoint. He understands why coaches do things, according to matchups.”

He also sees things happen quickly on the ice. He knows who has done what in a contest where players have lightning speed on the ice.

“You do it enough, the game just slows down for you,” said West.

West comes to Tri-Cities

In 1998, the Americans hired West and Hay to come to the Tri-Cities.

Hay left after two seasons. West stayed with the team for 25 years.

He was just as an important part of the franchise as were the coaches and players.

“Obviously (what he does is) important,” said Tory, “because he’s the eyes for the parents of the players who live so far away. He builds relationships, and the fans listen to him at home games.”

Stu Barnes, the Americans head coach as well as a team owner, agrees.

“I think when you watch or listen to the games, Craig’s the guy you think of. He’s just been doing it for so long,” said Barnes. “I’ve always enjoyed chatting with Westy with our quick meetings before the game. He’s the best.”

And it’s those game days that West has lived for — the pre-game get-together with the coach, the study of statistics, and prepping for some stories that he might use on the radio.

“I just love game day,” said West. “I love prepping for the game. I want to be overly prepped. In baseball if there is a rain delay, you have to fill air time. You just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Looking back, West still holds dear to his heart Brendan Shinnimin’s goal in Game 7 of the playoffs in 2012, “knocking out my buddy (Spokane Chiefs head coach) Don Nachbaur.”

When asked about special Americans players over the past 25 seasons, he mentions Carey Price.

“Other guys I’ve stayed in touch with are Taylor Procyshen, Kruise Reddick, Clayton Stoner, Jason Reese and Shawn Belle,” West said. “There are probably another 500 guys I could mention.”

As for this past season’s team that made it back into the playoffs, the future is bright.

“I liked this year’s team,” said West. “And there are some really good players coming. It was a fun team to watch.”

Everybody’s friend

When you become a friend of Craig West, you’re pretty much one for life.

People were eager to talk about him and how much they love him.

“I think Craig’s got a clear passion for life,” said Hiller. “I always enjoy my conversations with Craig. We’d talk about other things than hockey. He wasn’t one-dimensional.”

Hiller adds it’s not an easy life, being a hockey broadcaster, spending time by yourself out on the road.

Tory said West will always be a part of the Americans family.

“We’re a very small organization. We consider it a family. We are all hands on,” said Tory. “We’re a community team. We belong to the fans here. We’re one of the few family (junior hockey) teams left.”

A few days after West stepped down, Brett invited him up to Spokane to sit with him at an Indians baseball game.

Brett said they sat there and disagreed about numerous things that didn’t even involve sports.

“He’s always been, in my opinion, an outstanding broadcaster,” said Brett. “He’s a character. He’s got personality. He has opinions. And having an opinion is good.”

Westy has those. Plenty of them.

And expect to see him now and then, calling a game or contest in various sports — a few days after his announcement, West was working a high school baseball game on local station SWX.

But in between those events, West can now spend more time with his grandkids — grandson Kason, 16, and grand daughter Emelia, 14 — in Sandy, Ore. Family first.

He may not have ended up being Vin Scully, but to most of the Tri-Cities, Spokane and the Northwest hockey community, he is Craig West.

And that’s been a blessing for all of us.

Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.