In 2000, the San Diego Padres' stadium announcer decided to resign from the position after having held the permanent position for 14 seasons (and had been the backup announcer for the 13 seasons before that). The Padres decided to hold open auditions to find his replacement. I thought it would be a great opportunity for me. However, it was going to be strictly seasonal and part-time. I didn't know how I was going to be able to do that and my new full-time job. This was only a couple of months into my employment with NDC. I didn't think they were going to give me any leeway to run off early every other Sunday to do this. But I figured I would only worry about that if I got the job. This was not an opportunity I was going to pass up.
The Padres had announced what time the auditions were going to begin at Qualcomm Stadium. They were supposed to start at 5pm. I arrived about an hour early and there were already more than 200 people in line. I struck up a conversation with the person behind me. Neither one of us really knew what to expect.
I figured that for this many people, they weren't going to have us audition one at a time. I thought they might have us each read a script for a few people who worked for the Padres or have banks of recorders set up so we could provide airchecks of us reading. As we soon found out, this was not how they were going to do it.
They had staff handing out numbers. My number was around 200. The guy behind me went to another person and got a number around 300. At this point, we still didn't know how this was going to go, but they were shepherding us into the stadium. We all took seats. A member of the Padres management was there. (He was someone I had seen numerous times from monitoring news for six years.) After most of the people had taken their seats, he grabbed a microphone and started talking. His voice came out of the public address system. There was a one-second delay between the time he said something and the time that it came out of the system. I was sitting far enough back that I couldn't directly hear him, but I could see his lips move and they were not in sync with what I could hear from the system. He even stated that the delay in the system made it difficult for him to concentrate on what he was trying to say.
He explained how it was going to work. We would each come up, one at a time, read from the script we were given and speak into the microphone so we could be heard over the system. We would line up according to our numbers. I figured that it was going to take a little less than one minute for each person to audition. Taking this into account, I knew it would take around three hours before I would get my chance at the mic. And the guy behind me? Probably five hours for him. He said, "I knew I should have gone back and gotten another number!"
The Padres guy also told us about their expectations for whom they were going to hire. They were looking for someone who would just make the stadium announcements as written on the script without adding a lot of flair. Some stadium announcers at other locations act like they know the players personally and add some comments when the players come to bat or pitch. They didn't want that. He also said that they weren't ruling anyone out, that they would be interested in hiring a female announcer or even someone who spoke Spanish. He also mentioned that the old stadium announcer did the same thing for the Chargers games, but there would be no guarantee they would hire the same person they hired.
He also let us know that they had the concession stands open. This was good in that it meant I could get something to eat and drink while I was waiting for my turn. He also admitted that more people showed up than they expected. He was optimistic that they would be able to audition everyone that evening.
They started having people line up for the mic. The script consisted of an announcement of an upcoming Padres event, introducing the batter and introducing the pitcher. Everybody got a different event, batter and pitcher. That meant we couldn't memorize and practice the script ahead of time. Sometimes, when a particular name was announced, they would play that player's entry music.
Among the first 20 people in line was this one guy. He did a GREAT job with the event and introducing the players. He announced with a lot of energy without adding flair. He was so good that a lot of other people applauded. I was suddenly aware there was very strong competition for this job. And I wasn't the only one. I saw another man nearby throw up his hands and say, "How am I going to compete with that?" That guy definitely set the bar.
I noticed there were a lot of TV news crews and other media covering this event. I also saw that there were a few TV news people who auditioned. I could hear other people yelling out, "Ringer!" when they saw them approach the mic. I thought that they were just doing it for a story that would appear on the news and didn't really consider them serious competition. (But no, I found out later they were all serious about becoming the Padres' stadium announcer.)
Another unusual thing was the number of children who auditioned. Some were probably as young as eight years old. At first, I thought it was cute and that they were also doing it for the TV cameras. But it got really irritating because there were probably 50 of them who took to the mic before it was my turn. AAARGH! They could have easily reduced the number of auditions if they had restricted the participants to adults only. To me, they were just wasting everyone's time because there was NO WAY the Padres were going to hire a child to do this job.
Finally, I got my chance at the mic. After watching everyone else audition, it was clear that if someone didn't have experience with the one-second delay from the system, they didn't do very well. I didn't have experience with that and tried to figure out how to compensate. I had to hold the script with one hand, so that meant I couldn't just cover up my ears while reading. I cupped my left hand around my ear, hoping that I would mostly hear myself and not the delay. It worked well while I was announcing the event, but I started having problems when announcing the players. It wasn't a very good audition from my perspective. The guy who had been behind me earlier in line asked me how it went and if cupping my hand helped. I told him it helped a little, but I wasn't used to dealing with hearing my own voice come back at me louder than I could have ever expected.
I had to work the next day, so I went straight home. The next morning, I got the newspaper and read a story about the auditions. Apparently, more than a thousand people showed up. I think they were only expecting about 400. They had to shut it down at 11pm and try to have everyone else return another date. I honestly don't know if that ever happened. The story mentioned that one guy who did real well. He was a professional voiceover announcer and wanted the job. The story reported that he received a standing ovation from the participants. I will admit there was a lot of applause, but I didn't see anybody standing up. This guy was competition. I applauded his performance, but I wouldn't have stood up in a show of support for him and I doubt any of the other participants would have felt that strongly about it, either.
I did not receive a callback. I don't know who got the job. It could have been that guy for all I know. I went to a couple of Padres games during the 2001 season. The stadium announcer was male and did not have a Hispanic accent. But even if I had gotten the job, it looks like I wouldn't have had it for very long.
In 2004, they held auditions for a stadium announcer for the new Petco Park that was going to be opening in Downtown San Diego. It looks like the Padres learned a lesson from the 2000 auditions as these were invitation-only. However, in 2014, the Padres fired that guy and held open auditions again. Some commentary I read about it said that he should have been angry that they went the open audition route because it meant that anybody off the street could have done his job. I can assure you they hired a pro to do that job and open auditions were the best way to find those pros. In fact, for the 2000 auditions, the previous stadium announcer actually went on TV to talk about the auditions to find his replacement. He seemed excited about the prospect. (But of course, he was leaving of his own accord.)
From the news reports in 2014, they held the open auditions the same way they did in 2000. Everybody went up to the mic one at a time and read from the script over the PA system. But I didn't see any children this time. I did see that someone flew across the country to audition. He didn't get the job.
But I have to admit that being the stadium announcer for a professional sports team was never a dream of mine. I just liked the idea of being a part of something that a lot of people enjoy.
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