Totally distracted

Always thought it was so cool the way the A's would use a highlight from Bill King or Ken Korach at the Coliseum -- either in pregame to recap the previous game, or during a game after a big play, or just after the game to show the highlights of the game -- and I wondered how it must feel to have 20-35,000 fans hear your call.

Well, now I kinda know ... at least, what it's like to have a couple thousand hear a call I make. It's weird. Very weird. It's both exhilirating and nerve-racking. I'm usually paranoid that it's a bad call and I'm going to sound like an idiot. Then I get self-conscious when I realize how many people are paying attention. Then I don't know how to react when people say something to me afterward.

Guess I'll get more practice at this. My cousin, the videoboard guru, is now incorporating the calls of myself and Greg Young into the highlights they show on the videoboard at home games. This includes pregame, the "save" of the game, and something after the game.

So during my open tonight, I was totally distracted talking because I heard myself over the PA system. During one half-inning, when I was talking to the internet audience instead of taking a break, I was totally distracted hearing myself over the PA. And then after the game, I was totally distracted for another reason ... the post-game victory song.

I'll gladly brag about recommending a somewhat-forgotten Santana song from the early 1980s titled, "Winning" and my cousin Grant used it, as soon as the final out was made. Totally pumped to hear the song, whatever I was saying I'm sure was nonsense because I was distracted by the victory song I recommended.