Mind And Mouth Need To Work Together

The public address announcer at a ball game is just like the man doing play-by-play on the radio. Folks listening on the radio can’t see you made a mistake unless you tell them.

If you have ever had the privilege to go in any professional press box like at Yankee Stadium, the PA announcer is in a room by himself. There are no distractions around him other than his scorecard and any messages that he is suppose to pass on to those at the game.

The local PA announcer, however, hears the raft of parents if you mispronounce their son’s name. I don’t know why people can’t have simple names like Doughtie or Cuthrell. If you have ever looked at a lineup card, the PA announcer gets carbon copy No. 3 and you hope the coaches have written their lineup out hard enough to read it.

The last home game for Post 58 during one of the bats by Tyler Clark, I was told I called him Tyler Joyner. Even after I said it, I didn’t know that is what I said. Mouth and mind were not on the same page.

A double duty for the PA man at Legion games is running the scoreboard. You don’t realize how fast paced baseball can be until a pitch was thrown and you are talking in the press box about the last play. Was that a ball or strike? So any time you look up and the score board shows a 3-2 count and a new batter at the plate, I just might be announcing the next batter.

In our modern world of electronics, each player today wants his own personal music to play while his name is being introduced. I don’t mind doing music between innings, but I draw the line on playing the music for the batters while announcing their names and trying to clear the scoreboard of balls and strikes. I don’t play any music that I don’t know what is being said. Any music heard at Legion games the players sitting on the bench take turns being the music director for an inning. Blame them if the music is too loud.

If that is not enough for the PA man, they also help out keeping the scorebook. Was that a hit or error? I know in my case, I umpire real well from the press box. Some nights I can do the balls and strikes better from the press box than the umpire behind home plate can.

I can sit home on Sunday nights and watch some of the shows of ball games that we recorded six weeks ago. Those guys that do NFL games take all week preparing for just one game a week. Having a full-time job and part-time TV announcer, most of the preparation is finding out the starting lineups. This past week when we did the Little League championships, I didn’t even know who was playing until I was looking for the lineups.

The next time you hear the PA man say something you know is wrong or call the wrong players name just remember there is a lot that goes on in a press box, announcing players names, getting the music just right, keeping the scoreboard, but one other thing happens in a press box that is seriously important-getting another bite of that hot dog or bag of peanuts.

There is an art to being able to eat a dog between batters without announcing the next batter with a full mouth.

In my nearly 40 years of calling ball games I think I have reached the point where mistakes roll off my back. There was a time when I was crushed when I knew I had made a mistake. Now I am so use to it that you move forward. If you worry about the old mistakes it helps create new ones.

Seriously folks, regardless of what is said and done from the press box, we get an opportunity to watch kids perform while we are with friends. There are many places I could be where I can get into trouble. Unless I cuss over the air or yell at the ump over the PA, I feel like I can stay out of harms way at the ball game. Why don’t we all find a game to go to?

Play ball!