A lot of people don’t realize how lazy they are when speaking.  This list will provide you with a good test to see how well you speak and/or read to language.  If you speak correctly, good for you, but it’s hard to find anyone that speaks absolutely correct when on a microphone.  The parenthesis will indicate the correct way, the brackets will indicate incorrect ways of saying the word.

Spartans – (SPAR-tans) [SPAR-dins, spar-DANS]
Sitting – (SIT-ting) [SIH-in, sid-din]
Frederick – (FRED-er-rick) [FRED-rick]
Baltimore – (BAL-ti-more) [BAWL-more, BAWL-mirr, BALL-di-more]
Kissimmee – (kiss-SIM-me) [KISS-im-me]
Crayon – (CRAY-on) [crown]
Trenton – (TREN-ton) [TREN-tin, TREN-in]

More will be added throughout time, check back for further updates

I started as a mobile DJ while in high school and I knew then that one of the toughest things for DJs to do was to make everyone happy, especially if everyone was a high school student. It’s not uncommon to have kids whose families or they themselves come from 30-50 different countries at a high school dance. How do you make everyone happy? Keep it upbeat and LISTEN TO THE KIDS.

I know it’s hard for adults to actually listen to teenagers because the adults feel the kids already know it all and the kids, well they feel they know it all anyway so there is a source of contention that it seems everyone can agree upon. However when DJing, you really do need to listen to the kids and have a wide variety of music. Know and understand the school, their sports and their support systems. Learn as much about the school and the students as possible. It’ll only benefit you in your work. Read the rest of this entry »

Over they years, I’ve had the chance to hear several announcers who’ve done a great job.  At the same time, I’ve heard even more that just don’t seem to care or are just announcing to announce.

I’ve always kept myself to a high standard, that every game is the most important game because it’s the one going on right now.  I also treat every game as if it’s the seventh game of the World Series, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals and Super Bowl all wrapped up in one.  Because of my perfectionism toward announcing and game operations, I also expect others to treat the job with respect.  Disrespecting my profession brings out the ugly in me and that ugly has reared its head on a few occasions.  Some say it’s unprofessional of me to say something, personally I believe that it’s not only professional but warranted. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the first in what will be a series of posts about my life as a mobile DJ.  I’ve been a DJ about as long as I’ve been an announcer, in fact, the same amount of time.   I figure I post these stories on here as well because you could learn some things about sports announcing and how it can make you money in the long-term.  Though this story, I doubt will give you insight into how to do that.

The title of this post should sound a little unprofessional, because it is.  Why, as the DJ, are you not only riding a jetski, but rolling one as well. This story is as follows. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a two-part post, one for P. A. announcers and one for music personnel.  It’s possible to do both, though for P. A. announcers it is a lot easier because of their role in sports.  All of the scenarios used either happened to myself, I was in attendance for the happening, or the person who was “guilty” of the offense relayed the story to me.  None of these are second hand stories.

As the Public Address announcer, your job is to relay information to the fans that they need to know in a clear and concise manner.  This is what I tell all of those who are getting behind the mic for the first time or who are coming to me to get some instruction.  It’s a simple statement, but it’s amazing how far over the line some announcers can go in doing this simple job. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the course of any given season, you’ll have a crowd or two that just doesn’t seem to get into the game.  Whether it’s uninspiring play by the team, the weather outside or just simply one of those days, there’s nothing much you can do about it except give your best effort and try to entertain the crowd as much as they’d like to be entertained.

However, there are some places who have fans that just never seem to get into the game.  There are many factors for this and a lot of people think a simple change–changing the person doing the music–is the answer when all they really need to do is a little legwork.  If you’re in a town or area in which the crowd shows up, watches the game, goes home and doesn’t care about the production, then this is for you.

Step 1: Identify the Demographic of Your Crowd

This is something that’s very simple and a lot of places already think they know what the demographic is, but it changes on a nightly basis.  You can, however, get a general idea after a couple of games as to the kind of people that come to your games.

Play music that is relevant to your fans.  If they’re primarily a country crowd who likes a little bit of rock, then do that.  If they’re a crowd who can’t stand country, don’t play it.  But take notes each night on what kind of music you played, the crowd reaction, the situation and the weather.  Wow, that seems like a lot, but keeping this info on simple note cards or on your computer will help you in the long run.  I’ve had many people who were higher up in the organization find my cards or my notes and ask my why I’m wasting my time doing all of that.  The next season, when I wasn’t there and their attendance went down, I had my answer in the notes.  I looked, I listened and I responded.  That’s the basis of a good salesperson.  Look at the situation, listen to the needs and respond with something they can’t refuse.  Notice their age and try to play music from that era, that’ll give you a good starting point.  Once you’ve established that starting point, expand genres and see how that works.  If two or three songs in a row from a certain era don’t work, avoid that era.  If they do, keep playing more and more.  But don’t get down on one song not working, try a three or four.

Step 2:  Talk to the Fans

This step is very simple and basic, however too many people fail to do the actual leg work to make this  a success.  You can be a success overnight.  I was a quick success–had the fans engaged the first night and in the palm of my hand after the first homestand–in Portland, Oregon; Modesto, Calif.; and Potomac, Va.; though I struggled a little bit up in Auburn, NY and St. Petersburg, Florida at the outset in those cities.  I listened to the fans who had no problem talking to me, but then I started asking fans and that’s when you get some good responses.  Yes, most will say, “Oh it’s fine”, but keep asking until you find the one or two who are vocal enough to tell it like it is.  Most places, that’s the fan club.  In Portland they had a group of fans online that liked to chat about everything and anything under the sun and that was an awesome resource.

One thing to avoid is sending out a questionnaire about the music and game production that people will answer after the fact, because they’ll forget most of what they saw and heard if you’re asking about levels.  Most teams pre-script everything so the only thing they can really change on the fly is the levels.  Engage them at the game and they’ll be more favorable in their responses, telling you what you want to hear, but you’ll also get some nice quick responses that’ll help you.  Someone is more likely to mention a minor annoyance at the game like the music is too loud, too quiet, we couldn’t hear the video, etc.

Once you’ve established your in-game production, ask fans specific questions about this video or that segment and even try to provide a review for them using YouTube or your team’s web site.  This will allow them to comment more on the content they want to see and gives them a chance to respond accordingly.  These are the kinds of details that will make your show better as the season progresses and people are less likely to make snap decisions based videos or promotions.

As you’re talking to the fans, ask open ended questions.  “What did you like about this promotion?”, “What didn’t you like about the host?”, and “Why don’t you find coming to games as much fun as you used to?” are three examples of open-ended questions.  This allows the person to respond with actual information rather than, “Yes, I liked it” (but how much?) or “I didn’t like it” (why not?).  Asking “Why” after the fact can make it seem a little confrontational and you don’t get the answers you like.  Simple yes and no answers or rate-by-number don’t provide you with ample information and was always one of the problems I had when working in sports.

One of the teams I worked for set-up a questionnaire and asked 1,000 fans over the course of three games (Monday-Wednesday) questions about the in-game production.  I asked it to be Thursday through Sunday to give us a better picture of our overall demographic because those four days were four different crowds.  The responses to the music questions were all 4′s and 5′s except for a few 1′s and 2′s.  But I couldn’t address the 1′s and 2′s because there wasn’t anywhere for the fans to leave comments.  Why did I get such low ratings from a couple of people?  I know you can’t please everyone, but was it something minor they were upset about?  What it something major?

A few years later I’m working for Potomac and they did the same questionnaire except better spread of dates, they did an entire homestand and allowed for comments.  Again, lots of 4′s and 5′s with a few 1′s and 2′s.  Except on the 1′s and 2′s I got my answers.
“Too many sound effects during the game”
“Too much music during the game”
“Not enough country music”
“Change the home run song”
“I don’t like you”

The last one was a real response and even though there was nothing I could do about it–didn’t know who it was that put it in there–I could do something about the other four.  The first two comments came during the early/mid-week games.  So for those games, I played fewer crowd prompts and sound effects.  Rating went up on the midseason questionnaire from those.  The third one I kind of had an idea that I wasn’t so I changed it.  The fourth, we were playing “Rock and Roll Pt. 2″ so we changed it to “Gone” by Montgomery Gentry.  Two birds with one stone on there because our team was hitting a lot of home runs that year.

Another fun surprise that we did for the fans that year is had them vote on the “first song” of selected games.  This was to eventually turn into a full night of fan-selected music, but we never got around to getting that completed.  We would give fans a selection of five songs to vote on starting Monday before a Saturday night game with fireworks.  The songs varied and most of the time it was a baseball song that won, though there were times fans wanted to hear something different.  We would then encourage the fans to send in their requests and this helped build a good music library for us to build off.

Step 3:  Get Out And Listen

Ever go to a bar and hear a DJ playing music?  Well, that DJ is perfect for that bar because he’s there nightly playing to the same crowd.  Is that a good DJ to hire for your team?  NO.  Capital N, capital O.  Why?  Because in sports your crowds change by night and their emotions can change in a split second.  That bar DJ is playing the same music for the same 10-100 people every week.

Go to a hotel, conference center or try to find someone around you that’s hiring a DJ for an event they’re doing and see how that DJ works.  Myself, I’m a mobile DJ as well as P. A. announcer, sports-music DJ, in-game host, etc.  The experience in sports helps me with the parties and the party experience helps me in sports.  Each night is a different animal.

On one recent Saturday, I was DJing a friend’s wedding in the morning/afternoon and then DJing a private graduation party where I only knew one person–the person that hired me–that night.  The reception had mainly oldies and swing music with some recent stuff.  The grad party featured a lot of country to start, 70′s, Motown, Funk, Classic Rock and some newer Top-40 along with the traditional line dances that weren’t all that popular at the wedding.  I was able to do this based on my past experience in knowing every crowd is different and how to adjust my comfort level to their liking.  Both were successes.

But another key factor of this, is listen to the music that’s played.  If you go to five or six events and the same song is being played at all of them, then you might want to write it down and play it at your place.  If you notice that the people get up out of their seats and dance with a particular song or particular style of song, then play that.  The key here is to watch and listen.  You may have a song that you absolutely don’t like, but the fans love.  Play it.  It’s not worth the fans not having a good time because one person doesn’t like it.

Step 4:  Set the Atmosphere

Many times people ask me, “How do I get people up and dancing when I want them to?”  The answer is to set the appropriate atmosphere.  People are coming to a sporting event looking to have fun.  Play fun music.  Occasionally, I’ll get the comment, “That’s not a [insert sport here] song.”  My response is, “It’s a song the fans like and that’s who I’m trying to entertain.”

Setting the atmosphere can only happen if you’ve diligently performed the first three steps.  You also need to watch the crowd during the pre-game and even during the game.  Earlier, I mentioned some teams script EVERYTHING.  I’ve worked for one of those teams.  It wasn’t fun and most of the time the game didn’t go the direction of the script.  Something out of the ordinary happened and you needed to think on your feet, but robots don’t have the ability.  The big key to success is to be ready for anything and not to overscript.

I’ve had interns with other teams try to do that.  One of which was so insistent that she get to run the show for a night to show how much better it’d be with her running the show.  I then asked her, “Ok, what’s the final score of the game going to be, I want to place a bet in Vegas on this one.”  She had no clue what I was talking about until I said, “Look, if you think you know what’s going to happen in the third inning to go with that song, then I want to know what the final score is going to be so I can make a little money on this game.”

Was I being a jerk, yes, but I knew my experience and I knew our team that year.  She had a Wednesday night to work with and boy did it fail.  First two innings went ok, but that third inning we made a couple of stupid plays in the field and didn’t fare well at the plate so the big dance number at the end of the inning–that we would have normally moved to later in the game to allow for that situation of the fans being stunned–didn’t go over so well and many fans asked why we did it then.  By the fifth inning, I was back in charge of the music and everything else in game and she never bothered me with her antics again, though did ask many good questions the rest of the year and learned a few things.

The key is to realize that you may need to move some things because of the atmosphere.  Normally, I would have taken the fifth inning announcements and moved them to the end of the third and put the dance number back in the fifth.  I also would have followed up that third inning with something upbeat, but not over the top.  The atmosphere the rest of the night was off and people started to leave early.

Step 5:  Enjoy the Successes But Learn From Failures

If you do the first four steps, you will have a lot of successes.  If you try and succeed, great, you learned well.  If you try and fail, don’t worry.  Learn from the mistakes, identify what went wrong and figure out IF you want to make changes.  Maybe it was a bad call to go with that video at that time, but tomorrow it may work.  If you fail again in that situation, then make the necessary change.

One of the great things about the first four steps is that your fans will feel closer to the game and to the organization.  The Washington Capitals do a lot for not only their season ticket holders  but for their fans as a whole.  You don’t need to be a season ticket holder to feel like you’re part of something special and the Caps do a great job with that.

Fans who feel  like they’re a part of the organization will have a greater sense of pride to the team and that pride leads to bringing their friends to the game, buying souvenirs, talking about the team at work the next day, etc. which only adds to attendance which means more money in the bank.  And that’s the bottom line in sports these days is that bottom line.  I’ve worked with some organizations who spend thousands of dollars per fan to get them to come to the game, then pennies to keep them coming back once at the park.  That’s not right, there is a finite number of fans who are going to come, make them feel welcome, make them want to come back and avoid the minor annoyances.  You can avoid one minor, but potentially major, annoyance by simply following these steps.

There are people who, when a dream comes true, are disappointed.  In fact, a lot of people I’ve known who’ve gotten to live out a dream came out disappointed because they built up whatever it was in their heads to the point of unattainable status.  Getting to meet the star athlete and finding out he’s a jerk, finally getting to that dream destination only to find out that it’s a tourist trap, or finally meeting a goal you’d set for yourself only to find out that it’s not what you wanted nor hoped for.  It’s common and happens more often than not, but dreams are what keep a lot of people going everyday.

When I first started announcing JV baseball in 1992 as a freshman in high school, I had a lot of fun doing it so I wanted to get better.  Since I was doing baseball, I recalled many visits to Memorial Stadium with my dad and how the Baltimore Orioles “did things” (now known as game production, I had no idea what game production was when I first started).  I would take what I heard from Orioles P. A. announcer Rex Barney and the music selections at the games and try to use those myself.  One thing the Orioles have always done is found the right music for the right situation.  They’d run a video and the background music to the video matched perfectly.  As far back as I can remember, it’s been like this and I’ve always looked to myself to get as good as the Orioles in game production.

Rex Barney was the mid-Atlantic’s answer to New York’s Bob Shepard.  The two had their professional differences in that Mr. Shepard was a professor, Barney a former pitcher for the Orioles who also hosted a radio show.  Both, however, rarely missed a game and were as much a part of their respective stadium’s experience as the stadium itself.  It’s hard to imagine one without the other.  Both had similar styles in that it was a straight-forward approach, giving as much respect to the visitors as to the home team.  They didn’t shout, scream or encite.  They were the epitome of P. A. announcing.  Both are in my personal P. A. announcer’s Hall of Fame, something I wish to expand upon in the future.

Barney’s style was simple.  For announcements or subs, he’d preface with, “Your attention please.”  He’d follow special announcements with his tag line, “Thank Youuuuuuu,” which also was the title of his autobiography.  He was also known for his announcing of names.  “Now batting.  For the Orioles.  The short stop.  Number 8.  Cal…Ripken.”  Though I only went to a game or two a year for a few years and then a few more once I could drive myself, it still rings in my ears.  Hearing Rex announce for Cal Ripken.

One thing was always certain while growing up for me.  Rex Barney would be announcing Orioles games, and Cal Ripken was at short stop.  Cal played so many games without a break, that I’ll be in my 40′s before the Orioles will have more line-ups without Ripken than did have Ripken.

My first game behind the mic was W. T. Woodson vs. Fairfax.  The first batter I announced was Dink Whitney.  When I announced Dink’s name, I announced it just like Rex did.  In fact, I did almost the entire Fairfax line-up that way until I got a little more comfortable behind the mic and let it flow a little easier.  However, to this day, I still have a little bit of influence in my announcing from Rex.  Whenever there is a substitution in baseball or softball, or a special announcement that needs to be made at any game, I still say, “Your attention please.”  There have been times people have come to me comparing me to Rex simply because of this.  Not just at baseball games, but in other sports as well.  Basketball, hockey, football and lacrosse fans have made note over the years.  Once, out in California, I had a fan recognize Rex’s style and he asked me about it.  That was kind of a strange, but fun interaction.

When I first started announcing, I wanted to announce for the local Minor League team in Woodbridge, Va.  I figured I could work my way up there, and then some day take over for Rex in Baltimore.  That was always a dream of mine, was to announce at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.  I knew that the chance would probably never come, and if it did, there was such a long waiting list ahead of me that it would be difficult to get my foot in the door.  Rex died in the late 90′s and his back-up took over behind the mic.  Since then, I’m really not sure who they have doing games, but people always come back to me and say, “You should be doing Orioles games.”  People tell me I should be doing games of their favorite pro sports teams all the time, even teams that have good announcers already.

In early 2011, Ben Hyman contacted me about possibly announcing for a high school championship game he was setting up.  He’d asked me about doing the semis and the finals, however I was unable to do the semis due to conflict with other teams I announce for.  When I told him that, he mentioned that he’d had someone possibly set for Camden Yards but still needed help with the semis.  Rains in the spring pushed games around and the championship game was pushed back two weeks because one of the semis was pushed back a couple of weeks as well.  This break gave me an opening I didn’t know about until Ben sent me an e-mail about a week before the championship game.  He asked me to announce a game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

I originally met Ben while announcing different sports at George Washington University.  I got my foot in that door when I was selling beer for the professional football team in the DC area and met Steven Kramer.  Steve (or ‘K-dog’ as we refer to him sometimes) found out I announced volleyball and two days later I’m at Smith Center announcing a volleyball match.  That led to me doing other sports, filling in where needed for the Colonials athletic department.  Ben wanted to put on a special soccer event so he asked Steve if he knew of anyone that could handle the ball behind the mic and he put us in contact.  Ben liked what he heard and was happy with everything that he got.

The next winter, I ran into Ben again, this time when he was working as the mascot assistant at Verizon Center for the Washington Capitals.  Ben and I remained in contact throughout and that network continued when he got a job with the Council President of the City of Baltimore, Jack Young.

One thing I learned early in life was to not look forward too much to something.  That talking about it can lead to disappointment if it’s not what you thought it’d be.  I was disappointed to find out that they didn’t need me to do the music as well for the game because the Camden Yards crew would be doing the video board and music.  Having been to pro stadiums for “minor” games like these, there’s the want to not to do all the work associated with it, to take it easy and to be a little lazy while doing just enough.  That’s part of the reason I hadn’t been to a Major League Ballpark in nearly five years and haven’t been back to a professional baseball game since June of 2006.  I know too much of what goes on behind the scenes to want to go back.  Personally, if you’re going to work in sports, you should want to be there.  I couldn’t believe I got paid to watch baseball everyday and there were people who took it for granted and complained that they had to do work.  This DID NOT happen at Camden Yards!

My wife knew that I was excited about doing this game, I made a Facebook event for it and invited a lot of people.  I posted it on Twitter and told a lot of people about it.  It was a life-long dream come true that I get to announce at Camden Yards.  I brought my wife, our son and her mom to the game so I had a support crew.  It’s important to go to something like that with family and friends.  It helps keep you grounded.  When we got to the stadium, we found our way in and then found Ben who would take me down onto the field, then up into the control room, which is rare for non-Orioles employees to get to work in the control room.  I’ve spoken with others who’ve done games at Camden Yards to find out they typically give the announcer a wireless mic and sit him on the first base side.  I got to sit behind THE mic.

After meeting several up in the control room including Eddie, Stosh and Holden, I took my spot behind the mic, went over the game itinerary and got ready for the game.  In there, I got to do a sound check to make sure the mic worked and it was great getting to hear my voice on the P. A. system at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.  There was a little bit of a rush to it.

Coming into the game, I’d prepped ahead of time to look at the rosters of Mt. St. Joseph and Gilman.  I’d announced Gilman’s victory the previous morning.  Gilman’s roster had Gavin Sheets, the son of the head coach and former Oriole Larry Sheets.  Gilman also has a first baseman named Ryan Ripken.  That would be Gilman Assistant Coach and Hall of Famer Cal Ripken’s son.  Mt. St. Joseph had a player named Gehrig McCracken.  In that prep time, I realized I was going to announce for Gehrig and Ripken at Camden Yards.  Little did I know that Gehrig McCracken would pitch for Mt. St. Joseph and that added a little more to the experience.

In introducing the teams, I introduced the assistant coaches which meant, I would get to announce for Cal Ripken in a game at Camden Yards.  There’s now only three people who’ve had that honor and I’m one of them!  That was cool to get to announce that.  I did it with a little bit of Rex and a little bit of flair and he received a nice round of applause from the fans in the stands.  Another dream come true that I could never have expected!

Once the game started, the production crew did a simply spectacular job.  They’ve always been an influence to me throughout my career and to work with a crew who knew what they were doing and were enthusiastic about their jobs was great.  If I’d had crews like this in other stops in baseball, maybe I’d still be in it.  They were easy going, not ready for the game to end after the first inning was over, wanted to do their best and were looking for ways to make it more fun for everyone.  They talked about games they’d done in the past including going all the way back to when the Orioles had teams in the playoffs.  Their experience showed, but they didn’t act like they knew it all.  The production crew knew how to do their job well and they did their job extremely well.  This was a game between two high school teams and they treated it like it was a playoff game.

The greatest part of the day however, came at the end of the game.  My closing line has always been, “Ladies and gentlemen, we’d like to thank you all for coming out to tonight’s game and we ask that you all please drive home safely.  Thank youuuuu.”  I’ve altered it a little bit to include special thanks from the staff/stadium and add my name–which I did at Camden Yards so I got to hear my name announced there as well–but in the end, it’s the same basic statement.  That thank you has never changed.  That thank you is another nod to Rex Barney.  As I said, “please drive home safely,” I then paused, took a breath and thank “Thank youuuuuuuu” in my best Rex Barney voice.  I had chills run throughout my body when saying that.  It was a great feeling and still gives me chills after the fact.

On May 1, 2011, I realized a dream of announcing a game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.  Would I love to do another game there, yes.  Will I be talking about it for years to come, yes.  Will I embellish some things?  Probably not, don’t need to.  It was truly what I could have expected and much, much more.  Does this mean everything else will be a let down from here?  No, it just gives me more appreciation for the games I get to announce and the people who hire me to announce those games.

Ok, going back many years teams have played batter music for their home team players, but the recent transition to providing to to visiting players as well isn’t as new.  In fact, it dates back to 2002.  How do I know this?  Because I started it.  Now, I know I’m going to get people saying they’ve been doing it longer, but in fact, my efforts in 2002 in Modesto, California are what turned things around and that was due in part to my moving around to a couple of other places.

John Jacobs was a baseball player for the Bakersfield Blaze.  When he came up in one series, I started singing “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt” because it was a popular song in a commercial around that time.  I sang it to myself, but the next day went out and bought a CD with it on there and every time John came to the plate, I played it.  It was cute the first time, but the fans really got into it so I played it EVERY time he came to the plate.  After the four-game set later that year I found out he really hated it.  And then there was the five-game series we played against Bakersfield that really made him not like the song.  But the crowds loved it.

Since I did it for him, and that really was the only instance people would do it in the minors was for that one player each year you could do that for, I decided to take it a step further and find songs for other players on visiting teams.  Until that time, it was considered taboo to even play a crowd prompt while the visiting team was batting.  I would occasionally drop them in to keep the crowd into the game, but it was usually just something simple like “Carwash” or “Addams Family”.  Something like a simple clap tends to keep people involved in the game when it could be getting boring and making people want to leave early.  I remember hearing from coaches and players, “You just don’t do that,” and when I said “Why” they could never give me a real answer.  You didn’t do it because nobody had ever done it.

In fact, you can trace back to the first time I did something like this back to 2000 when Earl Snyder played for the St. Lucie Mets and every time he made an out against St. Pete, I would play “Goodbye Earl”.  But that would go in the former category of that one player in the league that you had fun with.  It wasn’t a constant thing like it would become a couple of years later in Modesto.  Ironically, it would be in Modesto that I would see Snyder get his first Major League hit while waiting for dinner and watching the game on TV.

Mike Veeck's book Fun Is Good is highly recommended for anyone in business, not just the business of sport

I’m a child of the Mike Veeck era.  An era of baseball when you did things to try them out, see how they worked, and then tried something else.  You were always looking forward, taking strides to try something new and if it failed, you either didn’t do it again or learned from it and tried something different.  Fun is Good is the name of Mike’s book and it’s true, fun is good and if people have fun they’ll come back.  That’s the key, it’s not winning, it’s having fun.  Winning is nice, but if the people are bored because of the in-game production, they’re not going to come back.

One of the things that I’ve heard from Mike is take something someone already does and make it 10% better.  So I took something that was rarely done and just for one player, if that, and make it 1000% better…and changed Minor League Baseball at the same time.

Though John Jacobs was the first, there were many other players that fell into the wrath of my song comedy.  Most of the time, it was in good taste, I never tried to hurt anyone’s feelings but if they didn’t like it, that made it better.  There were times that I would play the Tomahawk Chop for players who played at Florida State University (or in one case, a player who left Florida State and had to go to another school to finish his college career) because they absolutely hated the song.  After four years of hearing it daily, you can understand why some former Seminoles don’t like the song.

A few of the other players over the years who I’ve played songs for include

• Angel Chavez of San Jose Giants (several songs mention Angel, so I had several to choose from)
• Fernando Rio of the Stockton Ports (“Fernando” by Abba)
• Blake Bone of the San Bernadino Stampede (“Bad to the Bone)
• Corey Hart of the High Desert Mavericks (“Sunglasses At Night” by Corey Hart)
• Tim Frend of the Wilmington Blue Rocks (“Thank You For Being A Friend” and “I’ll Be There For You” from Friends)
• Victor Mercedes of the Lynchburg Hillcats (“Mercedes Benz” by Janis Joplin”)
• Woody Cliffords of the Frederick Keys (“Cheers Theme”)
• Tripper Johnson of the Frederick Keys (“Day Tripper” by The Beatles)
• Matt Walker of the Frederick Keys (“Walk Like An Egyptian” by the Bangles)
• Jonathan Van Every of the Kinston Indians (“Everybody Have Fun Tonight” by Wang Chung)
• Carlos Duran of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans (“Hungry Like The Wolf” by Duran Duran)
• Mike Myers of the Winston-Salem Warthogs (“Austin Powers Theme”)
• John Fagan of the Salem Avalanche (“Pick A Pocket Or Two” from Oliver, Fagan was the nemesis)
• Luke Scott of the Salem Avalanche (“Star Wars Theme”)
• Michael Meyers of the Iowa Cubs (“Austin Powers Theme”)
• Players wearing the number 1 (“One Is The Lonliest Number” by Three Dog Night)
• Jennie Finch while sitting in the stands watching her now husband Tim Daigle pitch (“867-5309/Jenny” by Tommy TuTone)

This is a pretty impressive list of songs, and there have been others over the years, but now-a-days, you’ll go to some Minor League parks and they’ll be playing music for the visiting team batters coming to the plate.  Usually, it’s theme music from TV shows of the 70′s and 80′s, but you’ll see that if I were to get back into baseball again, that by simply doing what I already had been doing, that I would still be taking something that someone does and making it 10% better.  Now for players who didn’t have name-attachments, I didn’t play anything.  I let it go and that’s what made it.  If people know they’re going to hear music when someone comes up, it loses effect when it’s funny.

“There’s no way anyone can ever do that.”

That’s what I heard a lot when it came to doing announcing and music together.  I’ve been told by professional baseball GMs that it’s not possible, and they were dumbfounded when I did it…and not only that, did it well.  I can remember my boss in Portland Jadira telling me that there’s no way anyone can do that and then questioning me with, “what happens if…” questions.  She didn’t believe it and finally called me on it…and lost!

So when I approached Paul Wilson about broadcasting Washington Glory games along with the P. A. and music for his games, he looked at me skeptically, but also knew that if I said it, I could do it.  So the second year of the Washington Glory, I did it for every home game.  In one night, I not only announced the first perfect game I’d ever seen, but also called one on the air when Desiree Serrano shut down the Venezuelan national team.  It was a great night.  But still, to this day, people still tell me it’s not possible to do the P. A. announcing, music and play-by-play, because well, most people can’t do the announcing and music.

In my first few years of announcing, the thought that you needed one person to do music and one person to do the P. A. was justified because you had tapes and CDs being played.  Setting those up in advance was a chore in itself, something I did may times on many nights.  Heck, in hockey alone, you needed CDs to keep you going, but there were quiet times every now and then when switching CDs.  This was also before CD-R and CD-RW were popular so you were stuck with what was already on the disc.  It made for some hectic games and yes it was nice to have help every now and then in some cases, but not needed.  I was able to learn to multi-task and do everything I needed to do.  Once I started using computers in 2001, things became a lot easier.  I’d known about programs since 1996, but hadn’t really had a chance to use one until 1997 and that was only temporary.  I finally got my own system when I was in Auburn, NY and went 90% computer in 2002 in Modesto, California.  It was in 2002 that I found Sports Sounds Pro and have been using it ever since.

There were times during baseball games in the Clark Griffith League that I would be doing some play-by-play, but not very long.  Maybe 30-45 seconds of it but it was all in fun.  Most of the time, the other people in the pressbox would encourage me to keep going but I was a little subconscious about it.  I’d been playing around with this idea since that first year in the CGL in 1993, but never really did it full time until 1999 when I would occasionally “broadcast” games at Florida Power Park Home of Al Lang Field for St. Petersburg Devil Rays games.  We would broadcast the games down onto the concourse so the people working the concessions and waiting in line could keep up with what was going on in the games.  I did this maybe a handful of times to some mixed reviews, but those mixed reviews became more and more favorable as we went along.  In 2000, I did a few more games, usually on nights there were more people and wound up making a nationwide broadcasting debut the night Tony Saunders broke his arm throwing a pitch.

It wasn’t really until my first time at the Atlantic Junior Hockey League playoffs that I got the idea to really go all out.  It was the winter of 2005 and I was up in Salem, New Hampshire to do the AJHL semi’s and championship game.  I was new to the league and after the semi’s, myself, Glenn Hefferan the head of the AJHL and the video guy from Digitial Video Magic were talking.  I told Glenn that I had done play-by-play for baseball while the game was going on and could do the game for hockey.  I would hold the mic for the broadcast while play was going on, then announce what I needed to announce while the broadcast mic picked up the announcement.  Glenn was skeptical but believed it was something that I could do.  It would be something that I would do for several all-star games for the league for five years with different broadcast companies.  That was my first real charge into doing it, but I knew I could do it and would do it for some other special hockey games.

The Maryland Scholastic Hockey League would hire Sean O’Connor with Broadcast Monsters, and later AllInBroadcasting.com to video the games and occasionally have broadcasters.  Sean would eventually become the coach of DeMatha Catholic baseball but there are several MSHL and MAPHL championship games where I’m doing the broadcast along with the P. A. announcing and music in game.  Nobody, except for Sean and Joe Lacour knew that I was pulling double duty.  Those games were fun to do because I knew some of the players already so it was an easy call.  In December of 2009, I would do the play-by-play for the Purple Puck championship game which involved a pair of teams from outside the D. C. area so the friends and families of those teams–including one from Canada–were able to listen to the game.  A much appreciated service provided for free.

I’ve also done Little League Baseball games when another company completely crapped out on the tournament.  The other company was to provide broadcasting of select games, but they never showed up.  So when I found out about it, I told the tournament organizers that I’d do the semi finals and the championship games that I was already to do P. A. for and would broadcast the games.  I would also sell audio copies of the games that people were able to purchase after the fact, many did.

For three seasons now, I’ve broadcast DeMatha baseball games, including games at University of Maryland and Baysox Stadium where people from both organizations saw what I was doing and were amazed that someone could do it, and how good that person was doing it.  It’s fun to do it all, but there’s a little secret to it.  I’ve found a mixer that will allow me to mix everything together, both the broadcast and P. A. announcing.  Using the auxiliary inputs into the mixer, I can set it up to have those channels go straight to the broadcast while I use the main mix for the announcing so I have better control over the sound.  Once I realized I could do this, I surprised myself, had to carry less equipment and have really started to use the mixer for what it’s really intended for.

I love broadcasting the games, but getting to do some a college and professional stadiums is fun because you get to show people who require their workers to do many tasks, but don’t think one person can do music and P. A. that one person can do music, P. A. AND broadcasting.

It still does amaze me that higher-ups on some professional sports teams (mainly in the minors) will tell interns they will be expected to do a little bit of everything, but when someone approaches them and tells them they can do two similar jobs they scoff at that person.  If you have a chance to do more, do it.  If you can make it better, make it better.  But when it comes to telling someone they can’t do it, call them on it before making yourself look like the fool.