You’ll find it odd that this made my day, but it did.

Yesterday, I was really struggling to get through the work day. I was grumpy, tired and whatever else, and really ready to be done with the work week (I’m one of the lucky ones who works four tens, so Thursday is my Friday). I mentioned something about the upcoming high school football season to my co-worker Phil, a graduate of Burlington High, who plays in the same conference as my alma mater, Blaine High.

As many of you may know, I’m the stadium announcer for Blaine Borderite (shut up about the silly name of our mascot) sports, both football and basketball. This is a fun “job” on the side, they pay me a little stipend but I’d do it for free. So, if you’re at a Blaine game, and I’m sure none of you ever are, I’m the voice coming through the speakers saying something like, “Casey McCabe around the right side, picks up four on the play. That’ll bring up 2nd and 6.”

Anyway, upon the mention of high school football, Phil lit up and said, “Oh! I have to tell you something. I was talking to a fellow Burlington grad this past weekend about the upcoming season, and I mentioned something about us being scheduled to have a road game at Blaine for the second straight year.” He continued, “I hope to make it up to this one.” The other guy in the conversation said, “Oh, you didn’t make it up to the Blaine game last year?” Phil said, “No, I got off work late and didn’t want to go without my kids anyway, so I just listened on the radio.”

At this point, random Burlington guy immediately interjected, “Man, they have this really irritating announcer up there that was really getting on our nerves. He kept on making a big deal and announcing, ‘…and that’s another Borderite first down!’ We all just wanted him to shut up. Finally when we scored a touchdown, one of the parents stood up and yelled toward the Blaine side, ‘and that’s another Burlington touchdown!’”

(the “another Borderite first down” thing is blatantly ripped off from WSU Cougars P.A. announcer Glenn Johnson, an absolute legend and a joy to listen to if you’re ever at a Cougs game; I started doing it a couple of years ago, and the Blaine fans really seem to enjoy chanting along with it, so it’s become new tradition in Blaine too…maybe one day I’ll be creative enough to come up with a trademark of my own.)

Leave it to me to be tickled pink by somebody calling me irritating and wanting me to shut up, but I thought this was great. I always hoped that I annoyed visiting fans, and I really must if it was the first thing this guy related with heading up to a game at Blaine. As a fan who follows the Blaine team around to all of their road games too, I spend half my time in hostile territory too, and I think it’s just part of the drill for visiting fans to deal with the annoyance of a loud home crowd, and sometimes an irritating home announcer.

Other examples of digs I get in?
Scenario 1: Visiting team throws pass that falls incomplete. It might’ve been pass interference on Blaine, but no flag is thrown. I hear the visiting bleachers in an uproar over the lack of flag. I put the mic to my mouth and interject, “Fantastic defense on the play by <insert name here> of the Borderites!” How does that salt feel, visiting fans?

Scenario 2: In basketball, I don’t call out every single call that comes up. I announce baskets and fouls and such, and otherwise I stick to explaining calls that a decent number of fans might not understand (rarer things like backcourt violations). However, with the prevalence of calls like traveling in HS basketball, I’m not going to pick up the mic and say “traveling” 25 times a night. Instead, I say it more like…10 times a night. When? Well when the visiting team travels, of course…and not every time, but definitely all the times that the call is either questionable, or important to the outcome of the game.

I’m insulated in a booth in football, above the stands, where nobody sees me…I sit at a table out in the open in basketball, right in front of the visiting section; I get to hear their displeasure a bit more directly. Meh, I can handle that.

And on that note, I’m less than six hours away from announcing my first game of the season tonight, as Blaine opens up the high school football season against some team from Canada. Probably not too many visiting fans to bother, but I bet it annoys the Canuck team when they discover that we play with a 100 yard field and four downs…