So I covered the first two days of the National Baseball Congree World Series at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium and I think my editor, Kirk Seminoff, had it right in splitting up the coverage of the tournament among three people. My love of baseball has been well-documented, but even I don’t know if I can brave 14 hours of so-so fundamentals and skill on a daily basis.
And really, I don’t know if my duties in covering the tournament called for me to be there for 14 hours on Saturday, but I’m the type of journalist that wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I missed something important. So I got there in the middle of the 8 a.m. game on Saturday and stayed until around 11:30 p.m. or so.
Thankfully, I was able to get a couple of items for the NBC daily notebook that runs alongside game coverage from the earlier games. And I had time to do the Wingnuts notes that also ran today. So, if nothing else, it was at least a productive 14 hours. I can’t say I’ve had very many other productive 14-hour periods in my life, so it’s a good change of pace.
My role at the NBC tourney changes a little bit tonight, however. At a Wingnuts game last week, general manager Josh Robertson was talking about how he didn’t have a public address announcer for the 12:30 a.m. games. And of course I’m up that late pretty much every night anyway, so I volunteered for the gig.
I didn’t really think anything would come of it. But sure enough, J-Rob remembered and offered me the P.A. spot for all the 12:30 games in the tournament — five total. So my debut is tonight/this morning. I’m taking this pretty seriously, too. I’ve been lifting weights and power walking for most of the day, and I’ve already had three glasses of lemon juice — you know, to keep the voice tight.
So I think everybody (or at least all the baseball tweakers, as I call them, in Wichita) should head out to L-D to hear me. It’s going to be pretty embarrassing for me, I’m sure. But I have an innate ability to laugh at myself, so it should be fun. My warmup act is as the selector of between-innings music for the 10 p.m. game, to be announced by my boy Jeremy Mock.
I’ve already taken one nap today, but I’m looking to squeeze in one or two more. So I’m off for some shut-eye for now. After one more glass of lemon juice.