Meet KARE 11 anchor Mike Pomeranz

You wouldn't expect a native of Miami, a guy coming to KARE 11 from New York City no less, to be well-versed in Minnesota speak or North Star culture. Mike Pomeranz proved to be an exception.

The new main anchor for KARE 11's evening newscasts easily passed the first trivia quiz posed to him. During a get acquainted stroll down Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis I tried to throw him a curveball, "Now you're familiar with the term Lutefisk?"

Mike quickly replied in a mock Scandinavian tone, "Luuuutefisk! Ha ha! It's the fish nobody knows but loves to compare to cod?"

He had no trouble recognizing the bronze statue of Mary Richards on the Mall, and revealed he has in fact interviewed the real Mary Tyler Moore on several occasions, and could never resist calling her "Mare" in a Ted Baxter voice. I couldn't trip him up with a question about Minnesota's version of the casserole, a.k.a., the hot dish. As Mike explained, "My mom makes the type with those perfectly aligned tater tots across the top."

With mushroom soup? "Everything. Cream of Mushroom soup," laughed Mike.

So how did someone born and raised in Miami learn how to speak Minnesotan? Let's just say he married well.

Mike's wife Laura grew up in Bloomington, went to Thomas Jefferson High and is an avid angler.

"People will see this walleye on the wall and they'll right away go to me and say, 'You caught this, it's wonderful, bluh-bluh-bluh-bluh,' and I say, 'No no no! My wife caught that. That's my wife's walleye!'" says Mike.

As Mike's reporting career took him from Colorado Springs to Knoxville to Chicago and on to New York, there's been one steady vacation destination, Minnesota's lake country.

"(This is) something that we've always hoped to go back to and raise our children around, and when we got the opportunity we just jumped at it," explained Mike when talking about coming to KARE 11.

For the two young Pomeranz girls Minnesota will translate to more time with cousins and grandparents. Not to mention an adjustment to a new climate.

Mike admits the cold weather will be an adjustment as a parent too, "We've been up here in the wintertime, and you know you get them all zipped up and the whole bit, and NOW you have to go use the bathroom? Exactly. Ten minutes ago it wouldn't have worked."

Leaving New York will mean missing some big stories, but it would be hard to match the ones he already covered there on September 11, 2001.

Mike was in the studio at WCBS-TV getting ready to do a mid-morning news break when the attack began. He recalled, "All of sudden someone started hollering to us, 'hey we think a plane may have hit one of the towers!'."

On 9/11 Mike's station was the only one that stayed on the air, the only local New York station in town that didn't have its antenna on top of the Twin Towers.

"It took awhile to sink in. It took awhile to feel real, because you go down there, and you remember the size of these towers, and they're gone."

While the attacks shocked the world, those who covered it, those charged with spreading the word, had to put aside their emotions temporarily.

As Mike put it, "When something like this happens and it's so physically close to you, you ARE shocked, and you go into almost an auto-pilot mode. Hey, I've got to get this out to folks. I've got to help people get the information they need, to do ok."

Stories don't get any bigger than that, but the ones that appeal more to Mike as a reporter involve everyday people.

"I always enjoy the story of the guy who has beaten the odds. The story of the woman who has done something that no one else thought they'd be able to do. These are the types of stories KARE 11 has become known for in this industry. There's someone who's doing something great you never knew about and he may live right nextdoor."

Story-telling may come naturally to Mike and yet 20 years ago he never imagined he'd be doing it for a living. Mike was wearing a baseball uniform, working on his fast ball, aspring toward a big league career.

Standing outside the Metrodome I asked about the rumor, "So you played a little baseball we hear?"

Mike tossed me a quizzical look and says, "What'd you hear?"

"A rumor on the street."

"You tell me what you heard and I'll tell you if it's true," laughed Mike.

I presented the thumbnail version from various news releases and Pomeranz bios, "A promising minor league career cut short by a shoulder injury."

"That's the way I'm selling it!" laughed Mike. He said the reality was more like, "I started playing baseball when I was nine and I just never got cut!"

Mike was pitching for Clemson University in 1988 when he was drafted by the Twins. It was right after their first World Series victory so that Minnesota jersey came with high expectations.

He bounced around in the minors, but hopes of a major-league career were dashed for good by a rotator cuff injury.

"I was a pitcher, a left-handed pitcher," he explained, "I left my fast ball on an operating table in Chicago."

But while his ride in the minors lasted Mike got to rub elbows with some baseball legends including a Dodgers pitching great; ironically the same Dodger who beat the Twins in Game 7 of the 1965 World Series.

"And I'm throwing and I'm throwing, and I'm hearing the pitching coach say try this, try this, try that, try that," Mike recalled a day in training camp in Florida, "And all of sudden I hear a voice say, 'Hey kid you might want to throw that breaking ball a little more out in front.' I turn around and it's Sandy Koufax!"

Mike's mom grew up a Dodger's fan in Brooklyn so he immediately ran to a pay phone to share the news with her. First Mike had to explain that it was not a real emergency, "No, no, no I'm fine! I just met Sandy Koufax! She's the only person I know I could have called and been as excited!"

After his baseball dream ended, Mike switched gears to news and earned a degree from Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. He considered a career in sports broadcasting, but after a student internship as a street reporter in Phoenix he caught the news bug.

He met his wife, Laura at his first paying news job at a TV station in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And from then on became well versed in all things Minnesota.

While Mike's arm won't produce fast balls anymore, it can handle a rod and a reel. And he's hoping the move to the Twin Cities will give him a chance to catch up with his wife at her favorite sport.

And yet one thing he's no longer fishing for is the perfect job. As far as Mike's concerned he's landed the big one, "I sat on the couch time and again on vacation, watching KARE 11, thinking, maybe someday, possibly some day, could it be? Nah, never will be."

He elaborated on his excitement about coming to KARE, "It sounds contrived, but it couldn't be more genuine from us, to come back home, to get a chance to cover the news for the Cities and to become part of the community, is beyond words for us. It is beyond exciting."

So that's our new guy in a nutshell: seasoned reporter, strong Minnesota ties, ex-baseball player ready to pitch for his dream team.

For more information about Mike Pomeranz, read Mike's bio

Watch John Croman's Report on Mike

By John Croman, KARE 11 News

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