Dodgers broadcast forced to address extremely loud young fan

Forget about sports opinionists trying to ban kids from athlete press conferences, just wait until they start trying to keep them from attending Los Angeles Dodgers games.

If you watched any of the Dodgers and Angels Sunday afternoon on SportsNet LA, you almost certainly heard one young fan behind the plate having a grand old time. The Dodgers didn’t have a kid in their broadcast booth Sunday afternoon, although it may have sounded that way with one child repeatedly seeming louder than the SportsNet LA announcers Stephen Nelson and Orel Hershiser.

As screams of “Let’s go Rojas, let’s go” from the young fan dominated the broadcast, Nelson aptly noted, “My man in the first row is relentless with his energy for the Dodgers today” in the fifth inning. And it wasn’t just Rojas, the kid had a chant for every Dodger that stepped to the plate.

Maybe you thought it was cute that the young fan was having so much fun cheering for his favorite team, maybe you also eventually got to the point of wondering when that same young fan will get a little bit tired. And if he’s not going to get tired, why doesn’t the broadcast just turn whatever mic is near him down?

“It is our field mic that picks up the crack of the bat, so we don’t want to turn it down so you don’t hear the crack of the bat, but you’re definitely getting the voice of a little person,” Hershiser explained.

But also, let the kid be a kid. And more importantly, let the kid be a fan. This is what Major League Baseball should want, right? Young, passionate fans.

There’s a difference between a young fan having the best day ever, and someone just trying to get their voice heard on TV in the later innings of a game after a few too many adult sodas. And this particular relentless Dodgers fan would not have been able to maintain that level of enthusiasm throughout the game without being a genuine fan, and a kid.