25 seasons: Auburn baseball celebrates Rod Bramblett, Andy Burcham

25 seasons: Auburn baseball celebrates Rod Bramblett, Andy Burcham25 seasons: Auburn baseball celebrates Rod Bramblett, Andy Burcham
Wade Rackley/Auburn Athletics

Rod Bramblett and Andy Burcham

AUBURN, Ala. – Rod Bramblett reentered the radio booth in the Plainsman Park press box Saturday, ready to call an Auburn baseball game with Andy Burcham, just like they'd done more than a thousand times before.

Only this time, Paul Ellen and Brad Law were already wearing the Auburn Sports Network headsets. Rod and Andy, they were told, were needed on the field.

Thus began a celebration of Bramblett and Burcham's 25-season partnership broadcasting Auburn baseball.

"Completely shocked, but incredibly honored," said Bramblett after the game, noting that the last time he'd been this surprised was his 40th birthday party.

A video tribute, a presentation of framed "then and now" pictures and t-shirts to commemorate the occasion, and the honor of throwing out the first pitches. Simultaneously, naturally.

"It was very, very special and greatly appreciated," Bramblett said. "It meant a lot that folks would go to all the trouble to pull this off without us knowing it, and to pick the Alabama series is special, too, because obviously it's the archrival."

Ironically, the duo that has for a quarter-century described every run, hit and error, had nothing to say.

"It left me speechless, to be sure," Bramblett said.

Rod had already been calling Auburn baseball for two seasons when Andy joined the booth in 1995.

Rod Bramblett

"That was the first year for the true Auburn baseball network," Burcham said. "We just fell into a rhythm and started doing it together. There have been some outstanding moments and there have been some heartbreaking moments. It helps to have a friend to commiserate with afterwards or to celebrate with after a ballgame."

An Illinois native who grew up an hour from St. Louis listening to Jack Buck call Cardinals games, Burcham graduated from Indiana State four years after Larry Bird led the Sycamores to the NCAA championship game.

Andy's first Auburn play-by-play gig was calling women's basketball in 1988-89, a job he's held for 30 years and one that connected him to Rod, an Auburn University graduate who was launching his own broadcasting career on the Plains.

"We were friends before we became broadcast partners," Burcham said. "And I was dying to become a part of the baseball broadcast."

Andy Burcham

"We're just friends," Bramblett said. "We've been friends for a long time. From a broadcast standpoint, we've been doing it a long time, so from that standpoint, we know how each other thinks. I think we display a lot of passion on the radio because of our friendship. We care about every win and loss. I think that's what makes it pretty special."

"Rod's an outstanding broadcaster," Andy said. "One, there's a passion for the broadcast, to do the best broadcast that we possibly can. And then there's obviously a passion for Auburn and Auburn athletics, and specifically Auburn baseball. But in the winter, it's our passion for Auburn men's and women's basketball, and in the fall, it's Auburn football. It's part of our lives now. It's part of the rhythm of our lives right now. I think that works together."

Hal Baird, Auburn's winningest all-time coach, on Rod and Andy's 25-season impact on Auburn baseball…

"It's a remarkable achievement. When you think about going from calling John Powell and Jay Waggoner, all the way to Tanner Burns, it really puts things in a special context. I feel really privileged to have been there at the very beginning of the journey with these guys.

"Every program has lots and lots of moving parts and constituencies, but I'm not sure that we ever had any that was more respected than the broadcast team. I can remember many, many different opponents that would catch our games, playing their team but on our network, and they never failed to talk about how professional the broadcast was with obviously just a tough of orange and blue, which I appreciate.

"Very professional and just really an asset, a real asset to the program, particularly when we went from one little WAUD to a real live network where we reached so many more people.

"They're both great, they're both professional, they're both just exactly what you want and I couldn't be happier. I just hope they've got 25 more years because there's an entire new generation of Auburn fans out there that are waiting for the lifetime of memories of listening to Auburn baseball over the airwaves, so I'm hoping their just halfway through."

Kent Partridge, deputy athletic director at West Alabama, former Auburn sports information director…

"Who needs Jack Buck and Mike Shannon when you have Andy and Rod? I know to whom I would rather listen. Of course, I've already heard virtually every greatest hits call or funny Mike Shannon story from Andy anyway.

I wouldn't take anything for listening to them and hopefully being a very small part of their preparation for several years there in the 90s, for them allowing me to hang out on the booth when the press box became unbearable on the road and for humoring me with the good luck hot dog in Tallahassee. BTW, it worked for a trip to Omaha…come to think of it ... David Ross may have had a little more to do with that than a stale hot dog, but who really knows?

I remember the day I handed the reins of handling AU baseball over to Scott Stricklin up at Middle Tennessee State.

I have tried to take tricks and best practices I learned from you guys into my baseball broadcasting over the last few years. Yes, I am doing play by play at my alma mater, but only for baseball because I wanted to be just like you guys when I grew up.

Heck, these guys have been together way longer than most marriages last. There's a reason for that. You respect each other, you love each other and you have the patience to listen to each other without interrupting. Auburn fans and baseball in general are the better for it.

You guys are simply the best!

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer