The Pot of Gold

 

I made it to the ballpark in time for the pregame meeting.

It's standard with the Renegades to have a pow-wow before the game starts to review what is supposed to happen.

Ah, the best-laid plans and whatnot.

While I generally abhor meetings, this one is pretty lively and, mostly, over within a few minutes. 

Then we go on about our business. In my case, that means connecting with Sean, catching up if we haven't seen each other, and maybe grabbing a bite to eat.

We did all of that and my pretzel was delightful, thanks for asking. Then he goes to his booth and I go to mine. 

Being a public address announcer is a much different world from doing play-by-play. Look, I'm not a "hype man." I'm much closer to the style of Bob Sheppard but I do realize that I have to embrace a little energy and even a little silly.

¡Fenómenos!

That was in force tonight. Before the game, jerseys were handed out to the first group of ticket holders and, somehow, Sean and I were each given one. The quality is nice and we each wore ours all night. Thus, all of us in the PA booth donned the giveaway jersey for the evening. The team took the field as the Fenómenos Enmascarados del Valle de Hudson (the Masked Phantoms of the Hudson Valley) for one of the annual COPA night events and the jersey was in honor of that.

But, back to the silly. Admittedly, I'm one who watches where the line is and how far I can take it. I do the standard introductions and necessary scripted reads. I play to the crowd a bit and that's a huge difference from play-by-play. Obviously, in that case, your audience is around the world. They're likely not the people in the stadium (though they could be). You're also not there to be silly though a little entertainment is a part of calling a game.

When doing PA, the people in the stadium are your audience so what I say can have an immediate impact. Introducing Spencer Jones (an Aaron Judge-esque outfielder) gets a big cheer.

Saying we have bags of peanuts to toss out of the booth also makes us popular.

A little witty banter with Rick Zolzer can also play well.

But it's a dance and, admittedly, I'm still learning the steps. I've done public address announcing and I'm not averse to it. It's just not play-by-play, which is an entirely different skill set. Still, I like being "multi-talented" or, as I'm sometimes called, a Renaissance Man.

There was rain in the area and some did fall but we were blessed with a few rainbows throughout the evening. Admittedly, I uttered a line from "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy."

"Veronica! Look! The most glorious rainbow," Ron Burgundy purrs to his beloved Ms. Corningstone.

I will pass on noting what she said in reply.

But the rainbow was pretty glorious.

The commute is a downside to all of this but, so long as things flow smoothly and we work as a team in the PA booth, I wind up having fun.

Tonight was just that. We had fun. We laugh, we respond to what we see, and we get to see a baseball game.

In the end, the Renegades won the game on a wild pitch.

Fireworks followed before we decompressed a bit outside the booth.

Then Sean and I walked to our respective cars, chatted a bit, and went our separate ways. He'll be back tomorrow to work his Saturday shift at WGCH and then he'll come to the apartment before heading back to the stadium.

I get to call baseball at Brunswick.

A crazy Sunday awaits beyond that.