Laurence Holmes reminisces about the time he almost (kind of) became a pro baseball player in this week’s Chat Room

If Laurence Holmes was reincarnated into animal form, he believes he would be a ferocious lion or maybe a panther or a leopard.

Only one problem: “I’m not fast,” he jokes.

OK, so what else might be his spirit animal?

“I’m drawn to rabbits,” he continues. “I believe my Chinese astrological sign is the hare.”

Still not sold on his answer, Holmes pauses. Then, it clicks.

“I know what I want to be,” he said. “Instead of a land animal, I want to be an owl.”

Why?

“Because I like the idea of being wise and being able to do what you do,” Holmes explains. “But also personality wise, I’m pretty laid back unless, unless I am pushed. And owls [like an] apex predator are kind of like that.”

Holmes is innately curious and loves to learn. He might actually be the only sports talk show host in Chicago to major in history in college. Holmes is also willing to step outside his comfort zone.

Those traits have helped Holmes, the gregarious midday host for 670 the Score, ascend in the Chicago sports media market over the last two-plus decades.

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Holmes, a Chicago native, first got a taste of radio as a freshman at Homewood-Flossmoor. Sidelined by an ankle injury he suffered while playing basketball, his mother encouraged him to get involved in the school’s radio station.

From then on, he was hooked.

Holmes landed his first of many media internships with WMAQ radio at the ripe age of 19. Shortly after his internship began, Holmes stepped into a producer role for “Sports Huddle,” a six-hour show on Sunday nights, after the original producer quit without notice.

That experience helped Holmes get his first job at the Score in 1998. Since then, he’s performed nearly every task at the station — from board operator to executive producer to host.

Holmes joined the Sun-Times in this week’s Chat Room.

Why did you major in history?

Laurence Holmes: “I was pre-law history because in my mind I was either going to go to law school or go teach history or coach football somewhere.”

Has your history major helped you in your current career?

LH: “Yeah, I actually think it’s helped a lot because in that major you spend a lot of time doing research, so ... you learn how to research, that plays a role in how you’re preparing the show, or how you’re preparing how to go out into the field, you want to be armed with as much information as possible.”

Who’s been your most interesting interview subject?

LH: “Wow, there’s so many on the list. ... As far as most interesting interviews, the one that really sticks out in my mind is one from early on, it’s one that Jonathan Hood and I did, we did it with Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts, who at the time was addicted to crack.”

Did you know Roberts was struggling with addiction?

LH: “I don’t think we knew the extent of Jake’s addiction. ... This was pre-Internet, there had been rumors about Jake and addiction but we didn’t know. And in talking [with him], he was terribly sad about not being a good father and that’s where the interview went, and I was sitting there looking at Hood, like, ‘What is it that we do?’ And we made the decision to keep going on.

“You don’t know how an interview is gonna go, like, sometimes you have it mapped out in your mind — ‘Well, I want to do this, and I want to talk to this person about this’ — and then it goes in a completely different direction. Sometimes those end up being the best interviews, and that’s why that particular interview stands out to me. It was a terrifying experience because we didn’t have control of the wheel and for someone, like me, who’s a control freak when it comes to the radio show, that is a scary place to be.”

What was it like to be on radio row for the Super Bowl?

LH: “Covering the NFL overall that week was really fun for me. And it took me back to a place where I feel my career took a big jump forward and that’s my days of covering the Bears for the Score. That’s [why] even now people associate me with football and covering football even though I played baseball until I was 22. Like, I played baseball as a college student and even got a couple of pro tryouts but most people associate me with football.”

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I didn’t know you played baseball, let alone received an invite to a professional tryout.

LH: “It’s my crowning glory as an athlete. I got invited to those regional tryouts, like, you’re never gonna be a pro, but it’s fun. I got invited to regional tryouts for the Expos, the Marlins and the Braves.”

So how did the tryout go?

LH: “So when they bring you to those things ... the first thing they have you do is run a 60-yard dash [from second base to home plate]. If you don’t make it within eight seconds, they send you home. So that was the first hurdle and as a catcher, I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m gonna break eight seconds.’ But I did.

“[At that point,] half the people that were there were gone. ... So then you move on to the next phase of this [which] was fielding. And so if you were gonna be an infielder, you had to take grounders from shortstop and you had to have enough arm to make the throw to first base. So I made it through that part of it, and it was another one of those things where half the people then ended up going. And now you’re down to 10 guys, and then they got to the hitting.

“And Maddie, that’s when they sent me home.”

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Oh no.

LH: “I could hit for average, but I definitely couldn’t hit for power and once they figured that out — I was pretty good with aluminum bat, but with a wooden bat, I had no chance at all.

“But that experience, that still lives with me. ... It was at St. Xavier and I’ll never forget driving there as nervous as ever about this and letting yourself dream for a little bit of a moment, like, ‘Man, maybe I’ll make it.’ And then making it past that first hurdle and being like, ‘Holy crap I’m still here,’ I’ll never forget that.”