I made my P.A. debut last night. And I guess you can’t technically call it a debut — when I was about 15 or 16 I did P.A. for a game in a tournament my summer league team was playing in. For some reason my teammates thought I had the voice for it.
I don’t think I have a great P.A. voice, though I’ve always said my dream job was to do P.A. for the NBA — but only for the visiting team. I’d be the guy saying “basket by Tim Duncan” in that low, bass-heavy voice after the home P.A. guy got through saying Shaaaaaquiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillee OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO’ Neeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaalllllllll. You know, that guy.
I was making a joke to my friend that you pretty much have to call me the voice of the NBC World Series now. I said the pecking order for the history of the tournament was 1) Satchel Paige; 2) Hap Dumont 3) Larry Davis; 4) Jeffrey Lutz. And then Mike Dean at No. 5, but everybody else is on the second tier. It’s a joke, people. I could never compare to those guys in the NBC Tournament or any other walk of life, most likely.
But honestly, for 1 a.m., I wasn’t bad. I had Newton vs. Houston and a couple times I called Houston “Newton” and vice-versa. It happens. Blake Gailen, one of the Wingnuts players, sat with Stephen Pearson in the sky box next to the sound room and told me to “Tigthen it up.” I had to admit to him that I just blew it. Blake’s a tough critic.
Overall, I’m glad I did it. And I’m looking forward to another game tonight, but I’m definitely not looking forward to getting to sleep at around 4:30 a.m. The thing that’s rough on me is that when I get home all the shows I DVR’d from that day are readily available, and I feel like I have to watch them. So it’s tough to get to sleep.
Tonight it’s the Community Bank Cowboys, who will definitely be fun to do P.A. for. They’ve got the old guys like Terry Elliott and J.P. Roberge and my guy Ben Keiter, who doesn’t qualify as an old guy but is an ex-WSU pitcher. If I’m not mistaken, I think he starts tonight.
In interest of keeping the blog on a Wingnuts focus, the ‘Nuts play tonight at Lincoln after three days off. It’s the first of 13 straight games on the road for Wichita, and they need to start making up ground. The Wingnuts are 12-16, 4 1/2 games out of first and trail second-place Lincoln 9-6 in the fifth. It’s a slugfest tonight, and Wichita can’t get the road trip started on the wrong foot.
Oh, and I’ve made my final choice. The best walkup song, despite the only two votes going the other way, is “Lean Like A Cholo.” A generous donation to the Jeffrey Lutz Fund will be made in the name of Dustan Mohr. Congratulations, D-Mo.