Marquee’s broadcast of Thursday night’s game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs got a little weird in the ninth inning. One might even say that the broadcast got nuts.
At the beginning of the ninth inning, announcers Boog Sciambi and Jim Deshaies named the Fan of the Game. On Thursday, the Fan of the Game was Cubs infielder Justin Turner for his celebration of Seiya Suzuki’s sixth-inning home run. Only, we don’t think too many people watched the celebration that closely.
The celebration featured Suzuki, looking down the steps into the tunnel leading to Wrigley Field’s home clubhouse. Turner was standing at the bottom of the stairs, jumping up and down with his arms up. As Turner was jumping, it became clear that he was wearing a fake pair of testicles, which were visible for a while.
Seemingly before realizing what happened, Sciambi excitedly exclaimed, “It’s you, Justin Turner. You are our fan of the game. Wooo.”
Then, presumably after both announcers caught on, we didn’t hear anything from them for a while. For the next 30 seconds, the only sounds audible on the Marquee broadcast were the fans at Wrigley Field and the ball hitting the bat of Pittsburgh’s Adam Frazier. Frazier fouled off the first pitch he saw, then he grounded out to first base on the second. Shortly thereafter, the silence was finally broken.
We can only hope that everyone involved has a good sense of humor. It would sure be unfortunate if things got testy.