When Tommy Moody died on Oct. 17, 2023, the state of South Carolina mourned. Whether someone cheered for the Gamecocks or not, Thomas Franklin Moody, Jr., was a charming, thoughtful, and seemingly constant presence on the state’s airwaves.

For nearly a quarter century, he served as the color commentator on Gamecocks baseball radio broadcasts. He commuted to work with Columbians on his radio program, which aired for years during morning drive time on 107.5 The Game. Long before he got in the booth, Tommy had a significant following among college football fans with his The Extra Points newsletter. This walk-on turned University of South Carolina scholarship baseball player became one of the great ambassadors for his alma mater, his state, and his hometown.   

“Tommy was a walking encyclopedia of baseball and Gamecock knowledge. He gave you such a level of comfort knowing that not a scenario in the game would escape his notice. He could recall any historical moment at the drop of a hat,” says his former partner Andy Demetra. Andy, who started working with Tommy in 2010, shared the Gamecock radio booth with him through the 2016 season.

Tommy took his seat as color commentator alongside Mike Morgan in 2000. The former Gamecock baseball standout had remained close to the program in the decades since his playing career in the early 1970s. He was born and raised in Columbia and attended A.C. Flora High School before earning his bachelor’s degree in business administration at USC. Before joining Mike on Gamecock broadcasts, he worked for years as a salesman for General Mills.

“He was always quick with a story. He had an amazing memory, and his reverence for the history of the game and especially University of South Carolina baseball gave him a fountain of information with which to work,” Derek Scott says. Derek served as Tommy’s partner from 2016 through the 2023 season. He remembers working with Tommy for the first time in 2008. It was the weekend of the South Carolina-Clemson series, and regular play-by-play announcer Mike Morgan was covering Gamecock basketball.

“Tommy and I just clicked immediately,” Derek says. He cites Tommy’s veneration for traditional baseball on the radio as a significant part of his appeal as a commentator.

“He grew up in an era when baseball on the radio was still very much the preferred method of delivery. As a kid, he found those faraway signals of major league broadcasts, and he just loved it. He had grown up listening to some of the legendary announcers you could pick up on AM clear channel stations in South Carolina,” Derek says.

Fans always appreciated how much the success of the Gamecocks meant to Tommy, who spent much of his adult life in and around the program. As a former ballplayer, Tommy connected well with the current generation of ballplayers and developed a strong rapport with the athletes he covered.

Tommy made friends with the crew that tailgated regularly beyond the left field fence at Founders Park. Whether after a game or out on the town, Tommy had time for anyone that wanted to talk Gamecock baseball.

“There was no such thing as a stranger in Tommy Moody’s world,” Andy says. “People felt like they were friends of Tommy’s even though they had only listened to him through the radio.”

Andy learned a great deal about the craft of announcing from the years he spent in the booth with Tommy. “Tommy has been around the ballpark so long in his life that he embodied the rhythms and cadence of the game,” Andy says. “My own baseball IQ grew alongside him. He had such a knack for anticipating situations and conveying why things happened.”

Tommy had the pleasure of covering six Gamecock trips to the College World Series in Omaha, including the 2010 and 2011 national championship teams. “Much of what I learned from Tommy was about the history of Gamecock athletics. He knew so many people and so many stories. He could recite moments to you from trips to Omaha, even the ones he wasn’t on. That was important to me coming in from a different environment,” Derek says.

Andy and Derek have fond memories of traveling across the Southeast with Tommy. During weekend long series, announcers are roommates for several nights in a row, usually at a hotel near the campus or ballpark. On long bus rides across SEC country, Tommy poured over almanacs, media guides, and box scores, culling facts, figures, and stories for Gamecock baseball broadcasts. Andy called the Gamecocks team bus Tommy’s “mobile office.”   

Tommy and his play-by-play guys toasted Gamecock victories at nearby restaurants during what they called the “post-postgame show.” Derek remembers how much Tommy enjoyed exploring college campuses, particularly checking out their football stadiums. Back when stadiums were open during the offseason, Tommy often got his travel exercise by running up and down the steps at different stadiums. 

Tommy’s love of music always showed through on the road. “We were playing at Vanderbilt and staying at a hotel in Franklin, Tennessee, the night before a series opener,” Andy says. “We were flipping around the channels, looking for something to watch, and we stumbled across this infomercial for a Time Life Soul of the 60s box set, and we watched that thing on a loop for two and a half hours. Every time they’d play a snippet of a new song, even before they flashed the song title on the screen, Tommy would tell you the name of the song, the artist, the year it came out. He’d have a very specific memory of the song that he’d share instantaneously,” Andy says.

“In later years, he and I would travel separately from the team because the bus hours didn’t always align with us. It was just a treat. He was always fun to travel with,” Derek says. “He loved music almost as much as he loved baseball. Once I introduced him to Sirius XM and he learned about the Classic Vinyl station, he seemingly had a story about every song. He remembered where he was when he first heard it or he knew some trivial fact about the band. He’d entertain you for hours.”

Above all else, Tommy Moody was devoted to family: his daughters Kasey and Jamie as well as his grandsons. Years after they stopped working together, Andy received messages from Tommy picturing him beaming with pride and joy while holding his young grandsons.

“The first time I brought my daughter up to the radio booth, she couldn’t have been 2 years old,” Andy says. “That was the first time Tommy met her, and he treated her like she was the belle of the ball. I just remember thinking, if that’s how Tommy treated my daughter whom he had never met before, I could only imagine how he treated his own daughters.”

South Carolina Gamecocks baseball will continue to flourish in the years to come, but it will never be the same without Tommy Moody. Not for the people that were his actual friends and family, nor for the friends he made over the airwaves, many of whom he never met in person.

“The screen saver on my phone right now is a picture of me and Tommy at Texas A&M, a picture taken in the booth with the stadium and the campus behind us. We shared so much, had so much common interest. The thing that I miss the most is when something happens that I know would interest Tommy, and I can’t pick up the phone to text him and share that moment.” Derek says.

“There was never a bad day when you worked with Tommy. Whether it was a historic win or a forgettable loss, Tommy always made it a joy to spend those three or four hours in the booth,” Andy says.