I’ve had some championship games that have gone to overtime or extra innings, I’ve had others that have ended due to mercy rules, I’ve had some that wound up with more people watching at the end than were there for the start of the game.  No matter what sport, what level, championship games are an honor to announce.

I know I’ve announced eight total USA Hockey National Championship Games, seven of those in the last three years.  Most have protocols they go by after the game but even if they don’t, it’s all pretty much the same.

The basic gist of a championship ceremony consists of:

• Congratulating both teams on a great game AND season played.
• Introduction of those presenting the trophies and special guests.
• Speeches from tournament personnel, though this doesn’t always happen.
• Presentation of the individual runner-up awards to the players, coaches and staff; and the runner-up trophy.  If you have this (not all do), make sure to allow enough time between each player so that they may receive their award without causing a back-up.
• Presentation of the championship awards.  Again, allow enough time between players to announce everyone and give everyone a chance to pick up their award.
• Presentation of the championship trophy to the captains and coaches of the winning team.
• Pictures, pictures, pictures.

Remember though, championship games also have a lot of emotion from the teams, their fans, coaches, etc.  But you also need to keep your emotions in check as well.  I’ve announced championship games between teams I’ve never seen before or since, and championship games with players who I knew and still know to this day.  It’s hard to remain impartial, but it’s a necessity…unless you’re on the pro level then give your same enthusiasm.  Just don’t let it get out of hand and you’ll be fine.

And don’t forget to play “We Are the Champions”.

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 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.

We have 30 high schools in my immediate area and each one has a little bit different demographic. I’ll play the same 80% of songs at all of them, however the other 20% is what makes or breaks your event and whether or not the kids come back with, “That’s the best DJ we’ve ever had,” or “That guy was lame, he didn’t play anything we liked.”

If you have the students give you requests, that helps.  Plus, they want to be the stars and most of the time don’t want someone who is going to stand up on stage and make the show about them.  There has been a recent trend of DJs and performers at school dances and all the performer does is sing along with the music.  Let the students do that, they want to hear their favorite bands and songs, let them hear them.  One school asked me recently about doing just that, I told them that I’d interject a few comments here and there, but I’m not going to dance with the students, but make them the stars.  The result from that dance, “That was the best homecoming ever, EVERYONE had a great time.”

You can find videos of this homecoming dance on my YouTube account at www.YouTube.com and I hope to post a few to this blog as well.  I’m working on this blog at a site where the internet is slow, so putting media online is a lot tougher than it should be!

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.

First, the announcer’s main priority, is to say names.  And when you’re saying names, you always say them right, otherwise you are insulting the person for which you are referring.  Think about the annoying telemarketer that calls and asks for a person who doesn’t live there, gets the first and/or last name wrong, or doesn’t listen when you correct them.  Are you happy?  Nope.

One night, I was going to watch a baseball game that involved one of the schools I announce for.  I get to the site and our scorer hands me the line-up card to take to the pressbox to go over the pronunciations of the players, including one that was very hard to read, but very easy to announce.  So I take the line-up card to the pressbox and go over the names, including the one tough one, writing it phonetically, saying it phonetically, and having the announcer write it phonetically.  After having trouble with it–and several others–during the starting line-up, I went back up and asked him if he needed help with the names.  He said no, then the game started.

After butchering the names in the top of the first, I casually strolled back up to the pressbox when he was snickering to his buddies about the “weird names”.  I said, “If you’re not going to get the names right, then you  might as well just leave.  You’re embarrassing the school, the county and yourself.  This place has a reputation that they’ve worked hard to overcome and all you’re doing is magnifying the stereotype.”

A lot of people have told me that I shouldn’t have done that, however I continued.

“What was you name again sir?” I said.

He replied, “Bob” (not his real name).

My response, “Well Steve, if you and your buddies here at [school name mispronounced] don’t have the respect for the game of baseball, nor the school for which you are playing, realize that those are kids out there and you’re disrespecting kids.  It’s too bad that your sense of entitlement that everyone get your names right doesn’t extend to the other side of the fence.”

After leaving the pressbox, I went down and stood next to  my team’s dugout.  A couple of innings later an administrator who I’d known at another school approached me and asked me what happened.  I explained to him what I said, why I said it and he understood.  Not telling me I shouldn’t have done it, he did tell me it was a parent in the pressbox and my feedback was what they were hoping for from me.

There are a lot of people that would have said to just let it go,  but I have a true pride in what I do and a respect not only for the game which is being played, but my profession and most importantly those who have worked hard to play in that game.

The ironic part was a couple of years later, I was announcing football for another school when that same school’s football announcer came to the pressbox.  He’d typed up his school’s roster along with pronunciations and was happy to go over the names with me.  I even told him the same thing I tell other announcers and coaches, “If I get any wrong, please let me know.”  I gave him my phone number and he texted one correction to a name I’d mispronounced and was appreciative of his efforts.

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.

Back in my early days of announcing ice hockey in Northern Virginia, I met Billy Harrington and Sandy Witt.  I knew Sandy as the mom of a player I was announcing for and Billy was a coach.  Billy also played for a professional inline team that I was also announcing for.  I would see Sandy different places and run into Billy at the rinks around the DC area.  They knew me from when I was still working in professional baseball in around 2003 or 2004, Billy asked me if I was interested in DJing their wedding.  They would go through many trials and tribulations before finally tying the knot on July 30, 2011.

Well, I had always been slated to DJ the wedding and that I did.  I provided the sound system for the ceremony even after some college-age kids were trying to tell Sandy the night before that it wasn’t possible to do what I wound up doing.  Love those college kids!  According to them, the sound never should have been able to be heard in a lakeside area that’s outside without any trees surrounding it.  Yet, I’ve done dozens of events in which I can do this so I knew what was possible.

I also brought out my sound system for the dance area, two completely different systems for two different areas, but both could be heard from the other if I wanted them to be heard in surround sound.   I didn’t do the surround because of local regulations however.

Anyway, as part of being there to DJ the reception, they told me that I was also like a guest.  Eat when I was hungry, drink whatever I want (I never drink alcohol when I’m DJing except for champagne during the toasts), and do whatever I want.  They knew that I have a penchant for jetskis and one of their friends brought one over.  As everyone started to make their way down to the water, I set a playlist to play for about an hour while I enjoyed the jetski.

Well, as I got set to head out, some of the kids at the wedding wanted to ride so I decided to give them rides while I was enjoying the jetski.  I believe in sharing the fun and wealth.  I took a couple of kids out who enjoyed themselves, and let them “drive”.  The third time I went out, was with the child of a friend of mine, and someone who’d had too much to drink at the reception.  I figured this was the only way to let her on the jetski and not risk the jetski to much damage.

Once we cleared the no-wake zone, we found that with the extra weight, it would be easy to roll the jetski.  I knew from the safety classes that it happens and it’s ok if it does.  There are directions on how to right the jetski if it happens.  Well, I warned the lady that she shouldn’t lean that hard into the turns.  We nearly bit it once, but about 10 minutes into the ride, she leaned a little too far and off we went.  Jetski was upside down and we were in the water.  After a couple of attempts to right the jetski, we got some help from a veteran boater who helped us get it over.  The two then joined the others on the boat and we all went back to shore.

It was fun taking the jetski out onto new waters, but I don’t think I want to roll one again.  But if I do, I now know how to spin the jetski upright, as well as I know how to spin the tunes!

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.

First, let me say that I’m am not a monotone announcer, I deliver in a clear, concise, informative, and open manner.  I add inflection, enthusiasm and fun to my voice for BOTH teams and I teach this as well.  A lot of people think I’m over the top as it is, but I like to think I’m sitting at the top.

When announcing any sport, fans want to simply hear names.  They want names.  They want to know who scored, is batting, got the foul, was called for the penalty, etc.  They want names, so I find any instance I can to announce names.  If the sport offers stoppage subs like soccer or basketball, I announce those subs.  In sports like field hockey, I insert them as I can as play is going on.  Name is the key to being a good announcer, but there are times even announcing the names can be too much.

While umpiring second base during a Senior Little League tournament game a few years ago, my crew chief came to me and said, “You’re not going to like this guy but I’ll try to reel him in for you.”  I found out why after the first batter when the announcer recapped what just happened in the field (fly ball to right, caught for out number one) but then went on to include who the player threw the ball to and how it got back to the pitcher.  He then announced who was on deck and then who was batting.  That’s way too much and he wasn’t keeping it concise.  He was giving you information you did not need to know and very quickly became part of the background noise instead of being part of the game.

In the second inning, with runners at first and second, the batter hit the ball to the right-center field gap where it was cut off.  I made the call at second on one of the runners and turned to watch the throw home as a run scored on the play.  After a conference on the mound, and being asked by the coach about the play at second, I noticed that nothing had been said by the announcer.  As the coach heads off the field after our brief conversation, I noticed the announcer started recapping the entire play which was more convoluted than I wrote about because the ball was thrown around a little, runners caught in run downs, etc.  As the announcer is recapping the play, the pitcher is waiting for him to stop, then finally steps up on the rubber to throw the ball.  The announcer continues as the pitcher goes into the wind up at which time I called “time” from behind the pitcher’s mound.  My crew chief, who was also the home plate umpire then turned around and told the announcer to be quiet.

After the next batter ended the inning, he spoke to the announcer and said, “No more play-by-play, your job is to announce the batters and subs, you’re not Jon Miller.”

The announcer replied with something to the effect of, “You’re not an expert on this,” to which my partner pointed right at me and said, “Well he is, he’s a pro, and he’s not happy with you right now.  Do as your told and you won’t have a problem.  You don’t need to worry about me, you need to worry about him.”

He quickly silenced all his extra announcing and finished the game announcing the way he should.  He was a good announcer in that regard, but didn’t need to recap every little play because there wasn’t time to do it.

In another situation, my first year announcing for the St. Petersburg Devil Rays, we had an official scorer named Rick who taught me a few things about recognizing the situations.  St. Pete was getting ready to bat in the bottom of the sixth of a game when he noticed the wrong batter coming to the plate.  He mentioned to me to announce the batter that comes to the plate and not the batter that’s supposed to come to the plate as the wrong batter would lead to an out.  The wrong batter did bat, reached base, scored and nobody noticed, not even when that spot in the line-up came back through later in the game.  In this situation, announce the batter that is coming to the plate, because the announcer announcing the “correct” batter in this situation could cross the line and cause the game to be delayed as teams discuss what is going on.

A situation that arose during a hockey game in Philadelphia a few years ago has been the topic of discussion at officials meetings for USA Hockey.  The on-ice referee called, “Unsportsmanlike conduct, too many men on the ice.”  But only had two minutes placed on the scoreboard.  As the announcer, I announced the too many men penalty because that’s what the call should have been.  The referee stopped the game at the next whistle and told me to re-announce it the way he said it.  In this case, I’m also a hockey referee and know that both penalties would necessitate four minutes on the penalty clock instead of two minutes.  He demanded I re-announce the call and I refused, telling him that it’s one or the other, not both.

Between periods we discussed again and he even got his rulebook out to show me that…I was right.   Did I cross the line, some say yes, but in reality, I kept myself from looking bad when the officials are the ones that were trying to make me look bad.

Recently, a baseball announcer made a big snaffu during game by mentioning a pitcher was throwing a no hitter on the microphone at the game.  It’s an unwritten rule in baseball that you don’t talk about no hitters, but when he announced that the batter coming to the plate had broken up several no hitters earlier that season, that’s where the line was crossed.  This announcer then came to a forum to ask if he crossed the line and got the answer.  This announcer will learn and become a better announcer because he’s inquired about what he’s done.  Asking questions is always good for announcers.

There have also been instances of announcers making comments over the P. A. system that get them ejected from the game, it happens occasionally but not so much these days as it was a few years ago because too many teams are afraid to push the envelope.  Instead, they hire hosts to host in-game promotions and allow the announcers time to rest, really don’t understand this one as having two announcer is overkill when the original announcer could easily handle the situation.

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.

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.

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.