Professor Thomfoolery

A big crowd gathered at Professor Thom's last night in Greenwich Village for the opening game of the Red Sox-Yankees series. The Yankees games always brings out a big crowd, but last night there was a special promotion for all of us Red Sox fans: have the patrons do some announcing of the game in the bar.

It was a great idea to combat the inane announcing of Michael Kay and the gang from YES, aka Al-Yankzeera. We are forced to have to listen to their blather every time the Sox play the Evil Empire. (Although last night for some reason, ESPN was NOT blacked out in New York and Boston, so ESPN was on the screens. It was still a trial having to suffer through the babbling of Rick Sutcliffe. But at least he's not Kay.)

A number of people had signed up to do an inning, including myself and my pal Matt. We were going to start in the top of the third, with myself handling "play-by-play" in the top, and Matt doing it in the bottom of the inning. Mics were set up at the back of the bar, and we were good to go in the third.

The game had started to spiral out of control (I won't go into the sordid details), so it was our job to keep up the morale of the troops. I was "forced" to wear a black wig, fake glasses (which I had to wear over my own) and a cheesy shirt. A couple of friends took pictures of me and Matt at the mics, and I just know one day someone will use them to blackmail me! Behind us was a genuine bunting from Game 4 of the 2004 World Series in St. Louis to add to the festivities.

Matt and I were rolling along in the top of the inning when we realized that Matt's mic wasn't working, and then mine went out. There was all kinds of trouble with feedback, and PT's owners did their best to rectify it, but without success. So my broadcasting debut was cut short, in many ways much to my relief. I did have fun, but I was really glad to get that wig off.

A short time later, our friend Michael got up and did his best to entertain the Red Sox faithful with another mic that was working. He certainly got everyone's attention when he put on that goofy wig I was wearing!

Please check out Professor Thom's blog (http://www.professorthoms.blogspot.com) for more on last night's gala festivities.

I may give it another whirl tonight, as Professor Thom's is doing the Tune Out YES promotion throughout the series. Hopefully all the bugs will be worked out. And even more, I hope I have a better game to call.