Welcome to the major leagues Doug Greenwald!

If you're a San Francisco Giants fan and were listening in on the radio for today's game against the Milwaukee Brewers, then you got a treat today. Doug Greenwald, son of former Giants broadcaster Hank Greenwald, got the opportunity to broadcast his first major league baseball game. One of the Giants regular broadcasters Dave Flemming had returned home to be with his wife who was expecting a baby. Doug has been broadcasting in the minor leagues for many years now including the past seven years for the Giants AAA team, the Fresno Grizzlies. According to many news reports, if not for the fact that the San Francisco Giants having one of best broadcasting teams in the business (including Flemming, Jon Miller, Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow), Doug might have already been in the major leagues.

On a personal note, I am happy that Doug finally got his shot in the big leagues. I was actually a classmate with him at Wallenberg High School in San Francisco for three years. If you've seen any recent photos of Doug, you will see a physical resemblance to his dad Hank. However, back in high school, Doug was a slim kid who looked nothing like his dad. Because I was a big local sports fan and Doug was also, we hit it off extremely well. We weathered the ups and the downs of the Giants, A's, Warriors and the 49ers (sorry Raiders fans, I wasn't paying much attention back then!).

The one great thing about Doug was that he was a regular kid. Sure, everyone (classmates, teachers, coaches) knew of Doug's background and he was well liked by everyone around school. However, I don't think Doug ever expected to be treated differently and he never looked down on others because of his background.

Though I never asked for them, there was a great benefit to knowing and hanging out with Doug during our high school and early college years. I got to meet Doug's family (dad, mom and sister). I got a chance to visit the broadcast booth at Candlestick before and after a few games. I got some great seats to a few of the Warriors playoff games during the 1990's including losses to the Lakers and Sonics. It was during the Sonics series that I got an autograph from Mitch Richmond, who had been traded to the Sacramento Kings during the off season. Richmond was back in Oakland watching the playoffs which Shawn Kemp had his coming out party. I also got a chance to meet and shake hands with then Warriors (and now Chronicle Live) broadcaster Greg Papa.

As the years progressed, we lost track of each other. Doug spent his college years in the East Coast and I stayed in the West Coast. Recently, as Doug as slowly moved up the ladder in the broadcasting business, I've seen his name pop up in local newspapers. I was happy to see him doing well. Recently, we did reconnect (as many people do these days) through Facebook.

I hope that today's broadcast will be the first of many for Doug in budding his major league broadcasting career. I'm hardly an expert, but from the couple of innings that I was able to listen to, I thought Doug a fine job. If Doug's career goes as well as I think it will, then he may become the most famous person (that I know of) to attend and graduate from Wallenberg High School. Currently, the most famous person to attend Wallenberg High is Asian singer and pop star Coco Lee (Ferren Lee-Kelly in high school).

Wiki Entry on Coco Lee:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_Lee

However, from my friends who knew Coco Lee back in high school, she left Wallenberg before her senior year and graduated elsewhere.