News<\/p>\n
By Kevin Dotson, Coy Wire, CNN<\/p>\n
Wednesday, September 17th 2025, 5:19 AM CDT<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n By Kevin Dotson, Coy Wire, CNN<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Atlanta (CNN) \u2014 <\/b>Imagine having a front row seat for all of your favorite team\u2019s games.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It sounds like the dream job for a lot of young sports fans around the world, but for the play-by-play voice of Major League Baseball\u2019s Atlanta Braves, it\u2019s a dream that came true.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Brandon Gaudin lives and works down the street from CNN, so he is somewhat of a local here in Atlanta. However, his play calls, in both the real and virtual worlds, catapult his presence around the globe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As the only big league team in the southeast until MLB expansion brought baseball to Florida in the 1990s, the Braves were the proverbial only game in town<\/em> for southern baseball fans for decades. With a radio network that stretched across the entire region \u2013 from Virginia to Mississippi and Florida to Kentucky \u2013 the Braves built one of the biggest fanbases in the sport.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But Gaudin was not a kid who grew up listening to the Braves on hot summer nights in Georgia or Tennessee, South Carolina or Alabama. Gaudin is a Midwesterner, raised in the Indiana town of Evansville.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Even though his childhood was spent about halfway between Cincinnati and St. Louis, Gaudin didn\u2019t root for the Reds or the Cardinals. Nor did he gravitate towards the uber-popular Chicago Cubs or the crosstown White Sox.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Instead, it was the accessibility of the Braves through cable television that brought the team into the Gaudins\u2019 living room, where, as a youngster, he would reenact the games he saw on TV.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Under the ownership of Ted Turner, the Braves earned the nickname \u201cAmerica\u2019s Team\u201d because practically every one of Atlanta\u2019s games was available coast-to-coast on Turner\u2019s TBS network.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It was there on the \u201cSuperstation\u201d that Gaudin developed his love of the Braves and his passion for broadcasting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe Braves were on every night, and they got good in the 90s,\u201d Gaudin recalls to CNN Sports. \u201cAnd I started watching them every single game and just became a huge Braves fan.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While many children would watch the ballgames and emulate their heroes on the field, Gaudin staged his own fictional games and mimicked his idols in the broadcasting booth \u2013 chief among them longtime Braves announcer Skip Caray, the son of legendary Cubs play-by-play man Harry Caray and father of Cardinals announcer Chip Caray.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gaudin\u2019s childhood dream of becoming a sports commentator led him to Butler University in Indianapolis, where he studied broadcasting and called games for the school\u2019s sports teams.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n After Butler, Gaudin followed the same path as so many young men aspiring for a baseball career: He headed to the minor leagues, starting at the now-defunct single-A Orem Owlz in Utah.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As Gaudin worked his way through the broadcasting ranks, his journey brought him to the city of his beloved baseball team in 2013 as the football and basketball voice for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n His stellar work as the voice of the Ramblin\u2019 Wreck led to the opportunity to jump to national broadcasts in 2016, calling NFL, MLB and college football games for Fox Sports as well as collegiate games for the Big Ten Network. Gaudin also continued his radio work with Westwood One.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n His stint at Georgia Tech also led to another very unexpected opportunity to use his vocal talents \u2013 but more on that later.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Moving to a larger stage gave Gaudin a chance to reach another career goal; the kid from basketball-crazed Indiana always dreamed of calling a buzzer-beater in March Madness, a dream he accomplished while announcing Michigan\u2019s last-second win over Houston in 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gaudin tells CNN Sports that he always felt the only team-specific broadcasting role he\u2019d be interested in was for the Braves, where he could achieve his early dream and follow in the footsteps of the idols of his youth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The opportunity came in 2023, when there was an opening for the Braves\u2019 television announcer position.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019m living in Atlanta and that play-by-play job opens up,\u201d Gaudin said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI thought, \u2018Well, this is the time.\u2019 It felt right. I was 38, and it felt like it was the right fit for my career.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAnd I went in and interviewed and everything went great, and a couple weeks later, they offered me the gig.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt was another one of those \u2018pinch me\u2019 moments that I now get to sit there every night and call the games for the team I grew up rooting for. It\u2019s incredibly special, I feel honored to be able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gaudin shares with CNN that his debut in the Truist Park television booth at the Braves\u2019 home opener in 2023 produced one of his favorite calls of his career, courtesy of an Orlando Arcia single and a play at the plate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe first time I sat in that home booth, that chair that I had dreamed about sitting in all those years, and the Braves had a walk-off RBI single to win it,\u201d Gaudin recollects.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAnd I had always, kind of, had this fantasy of being able to have that call and then sit there and listen to the roar of the crowd, and I still get goosebumps thinking about it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI made the call, \u2018The Braves win! They walk it off in the home opener!\u2019 40,000 on their feet going nuts, players are mobbing everybody. And I remember just sitting there and thinking, \u2018How cool is this?\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something that I dreamed about, that I mimicked in my living room and foyer as a kid at seven, eight, nine years old, and then at 39 years old getting to live that out in real life was incredibly neat.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Even if you\u2019re not an avid viewer of Atlanta Braves baseball or a regular watcher of vintage Big Ten games, Gaudin\u2019s voice might seem eerily familiar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Since 2016, he\u2019s also been a featured commentator for EA Sports\u2019 insanely popular Madden NFL video game franchise, a best-selling title year after year that consistently rakes in over half a billion dollars annually.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n To hear Gaudin tell it, he initially thought he might be the victim of a practical joke when he received a fateful LinkedIn message from the Madden game developers in 2015.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cOut of nowhere, I\u2019m sitting in my office at (Georgia) Tech one day and I get this email and it says it\u2019s from the director of talent at EA Sports; it was actually through LinkedIn,\u201d Gaudin recounts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt said we want to talk to you about an opportunity. And I was at a decent spot in my career at the time, but I didn\u2019t think I would be on the radar of EA Sports, so I thought \u2018I\u2019m getting punked, like what is this? This must be spam.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But Gaudin replied, expressing his interest, and then was hit with a strange request.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBefore we go further, we need you to sign an NDA \u2013 a non-disclosure agreement,\u201d Gaudin remembers EA Sports writing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAt that point, I\u2019m thinking, \u2018What did I do here? What\u2019s going on? This is top secret!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A wary Gaudin signed the form and received a phone call that would change his life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n EA Sports\u2019 director of talent told him that the mega-franchise was looking for a new voice, and a producer for the game had recently heard him calling a game and thought his voice would work well for Madden NFL.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gaudin was then offered a chance to audition for the job.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAt the time, I\u2019m 30, I\u2019m just trying to grow and establish my career, I grew up playing this video game, absolutely I\u2019m going to audition,\u201d he told himself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He felt that the audition had gone well, but he also feared he may be up against some stiff competition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t think a whole lot of it because I knew they were probably bringing in guys with a whole lot more experience and much bigger names than I had,\u201d Gaudin shared.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But two months later, he received the news he\u2019d been waiting for.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe voice on the other end said, \u2018Would you like to replace Jim Nantz and be the next voice on Madden?\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYou only get so many moments in your life where you will never forget everything about that moment \u2013 where you were, what it felt like, what it smelled like \u2013 and I couldn\u2019t say yes fast enough. It was such an honor and something that just came out of nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The partnership with Madden NFL has been a fruitful one for both Gaudin and EA Sports, and one that regularly gets the kid from Evansville recognized by rideshare drivers by voice alone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cHere we are, gosh, eight or nine years later, and it\u2019s been a wonderful ride.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The-CNN-Wire By Kevin Dotson, Coy Wire, CNN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":96181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018To say that it\u2019s a thrill is an understatement\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
That voice sounds familiar\u2026<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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