Saturday, June 16, 2007

Who the hell is Joshua?

Just before the season began, I spent a game in the A's radio booth with Ken Korach and Vince Cotroneo. The idea was to watch the A's announcers describe the game on the radio, and takes notes on how they went about doing it. Found it very helpful. Vince volunteered to listen to one of my games, and I finally took him up on it.

Vince's first resposne was, "who the hell is Joshua?"

Ok, so here's the story.

For 33 years and some change, the only person who called me Joshua was my mom ... and that's when I was in trouble. I was always Josh. I used Josh in print, and for all the radio/TV interviews I did. Always thought Joshua was too formal and biblical.

Of course, ever since the "Friends" episode in which Rachael says her boyfriend's name as "Josh ... ooooohhh .... ahhhhh" I've been a much bigger fan of Joshua. But that's another story.

Anyway, the name Josh Suchon is a tongue twister. To say Suchon, it's like the girl's name Sue and the boy's name Shawn. That makes for a lot of sh's in a short amount of time. You have to consciously pause between my first and last names, or else they run together. It usually gets butchered.

So I decided to go with Joshua Suchon. Thought it sounded smoother. Also liked the idea of a slightly different name to coincide with my new career. Josh was the writer. Joshua is the broadcaster.

Everybody still calls me Josh in person, including my program manager -- even on the air. So I guess the new name isn't exactly taking off.

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