Under Appreciated Jobs in Baseball part 3 of 5

As we reach the mid point of this series I know many of you are already beginning to say things like “I would of put that job higher on the list” or “What could be worse then being the Official Scorekeeper or Video board / Score Board Operator.”  Well let me tell you that the top three jobs on my list may just be leaps and bounds worse then the previous two. Of course my number one job on the list is worse then all four jobs put together but we aren’t there yet.

Job Number 3

Although this job may sound sexy out in the stands, being the Public Address (P.A.) Announcer is anything but.  Although we as fans enjoy the smooth baritone sounds of a good P.A. Announcer we often take for granted just all that they do, and we certainly find it easy to criticize and ridicule any and every mistake that is made.

I know that a good P.A. Announcer can make names like Balbino Fuenmayor, Stephen Landazuri, or Yeico Aponte roll off the toungue, but it takes a lot of prep work before a game to make sure that they know how to properly pronounce each and every name on a team’s roster.  One single slip of the tongue can bring down the wrath of the fans upon them, or in some cases even the players themselves.

Just look at the incident in Oakland, on opening day about 8 years ago, when Oakland’s P.A. Announcer mistakenly called Bret Boone, Bert Boone on live TV and for the next ten seconds all the TV audience could hear as Bret made some, not so nice, comments about the idiot P.A. Announcer and how he couldn’t get even a simple name like Bret right.

At the minor league level P.A. Announcers are often in charge of all the sound for the stadium, like walk up songs for batters, cheering starters, and between inning music.  Being in charge of all of these areas can also bring more wrath from fans, wrath from players and even from the umpires.  Play a song that a fan doesn’t like and suddenly a classic baseball song gets banned from the stadium and you get the blame.  Play the wrong walk up song for a batter and watch as they glare up at the press box hoping that your head explodes. Yes, these things do happen.

The best example of a P.A. Announcer getting wrath poured down on them, is when they play the music too long and a pitcher begins to pitch. This gets them a stern cut it off sign from the umpires and can even get them fined if they do it too often.  In recent years a P.A. Announcer got fined for playing Three Blind Mice after a bad call by the umpires.  Truthfully I think that just adds street cred to that P.A. Announcer.

The best part of being a P.A. Announcer is when you miss a day and suddenly all the fans start talking about how the fill in P.A. Announcer seemed to enjoy his job more and seemed more excited.  It may just be me but after doing a job for a while you lose a little bit of excitement for the job, and even if you don’t lose your excitement for the job there are just days that aren’t as good as others.  We all go through that and P.A. Announcers are no different.

So the next time you hear a P.A. Announcer say “Oops”, “Excuse me”, or “Correction” just smile and know that they are trying to do their best to make the game enjoyable.