Announcers and food come up around here from time to time, from Carolina Hurricanes’ analyst Tripp Tracey shoving his face into a cake during a game delay to Boston Red Sox analyst Jerry Remy trying toasted grasshoppers to Philadelphia Phillies’ radio announcer Scott Franzke heading to the TV booth to get some ribs. Well, the latest on this front involves the chewing gum distributed with old baseball cards, which San Diego Padres’ TV broadcasters Don Orsillo and Mark Grant decided to chew on air Sunday during the Padres’ game against the Colorado Rockies. They were doing a special baseball card-themed broadcast, and that led to Grant first reading some of the ingredients in a 29-year-old pack of gum, then putting it into his mouth:
https://twitter.com/FOXSportsSD/status/1160660606086553600
Grant says “Artificial flavors, artificial colors, and thank goodness for the BHT to maintain freshness.” Orsillo says “Put it in your mouth! Yeah! How’s it taste there, chief?” and Grant responds “Totally disgusting.” Orsillo says “The card would taste better” and Grant says “Ugh. It’s, like, disintegrating into powder.” However, this didn’t scare Orsillo off from trying a different stick of the old gum himself a little later, after some persuasion from Grant:
Wait for it… @DonOrsillo | @Mudcat55 pic.twitter.com/ypnJEPBDss
— Bally Sports San Diego (@BallySportsSD) August 11, 2019
That’s quite the reaction. Oh, and this broadcast also included a great story off the top about how Orsillo once got his own baseball card despite not being a player:
https://twitter.com/FOXSportsSD/status/1160629126614704130
Well, anyone who can chew 29-year-old gum on air probably deserves to be on a card. Orsillo said on Twitter later he won’t be repeating this experience, though:
Well today we opened up packs of 1990 Baseball cards and tried the gum. Never again…. https://t.co/42qsb3ABdd
— Don Orsillo (@DonOrsillo) August 11, 2019
While the Padres lost this game 8-3 and fell to 55-62, their announcers at least kept things awfully entertaining.
[Fox Sports San Diego on Twitter]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.