A great thing about baseball broadcasts is the discussions they sometimes lead to that aren’t specifically focused on the play. But sometimes, those discussions get interrupted by what happens on the field. And sometimes, even what happens in the stands. That happened on MASN’s broadcast of the Baltimore Orioles’ 5-4 win over the Houston Astros Thursday.
There, in the bottom of the fourth inning, Orioles’ play-by-play voice Melanie Newman and analyst Dave Johnson were discussing how some Orioles’ players who speak Spanish as a first language have been studying English to the point where they’re now doing interviews in English without the aid of an interpreter. That discussion was then interrupted by Baltimore first baseman Ryan O’Hearn hitting a foul ball into the stands down the first-base line, where it wound up landing in a fan’s plate of barbecue and getting sauce on the ball. Johnson lost mid-story momentum as they both laughed, and Newman chimed in with “You can translate that any way you want.”
“You can translate that any way you want.”
“There you go, lick the ball. That’s a barbecue…”
“A barbecue baseball. Not a feature at booths.”
…”Let’s get another look at this. We already saw a splash-catch home run. There! Let the tray do the work. Who needs a glove?”
“That’s classic.”
That is pretty classic. And it’s a good, funny announcing moment, and certainly a less disastrous interruption then some Castellanos moments. And it’s a little different from the other story going on around the Orioles’ announcing plans at the moment.
[Awful Announcing on Twitter, H/T to CJ Fogler 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.