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The Boys In The Booth · Cover IV Podcast

• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: Our guests today on cover four are the boys in the booth.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: You'll find them in the broadcast booth at Vestal High School with the Vestal Golden Bears football games.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: They're a team of five, and they're actually an extension of the third team on the field, which is the officiating team.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: You probably don't think of these guys too often when you go to a football game and you wonder, well, what's the guys in the booth doing?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: But this team would definitely be missed if they didn't perform their responsibilities.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: Every play, you're viewing some result of their efforts all game long, whether it's the game clock, I'm sorry, the play clock or the game clock.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: And there's one of these individuals that you hear all the time over the PA system.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: So if they weren't there doing what they do and have done for so long, you would definitely miss them.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome, team.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: And here are the team members.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we got Roger Rury, he's on the drums.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: Wait a minute.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's the wrong intro.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: You're that's your band.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: This is Roger Rury, Ken Sherwood, Ed Dudkowski, Dave Simic, and a guy they call Tom Doc Van Gorder.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's the team of the five guys that are what I call the boys in the booth.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: And we'll start off with the uh the leader of the gang, Dave Simic.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I guess you were the first one in this group.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: And they go back quite a ways.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: I did a little research, and it was back just after they instituted the leather helmets, is when these guys actually started doing this.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: So, Dave, if you would start and share with us a little bit of your backstory, how you became part of the boys in the booth, and then when you're done with that, what your primary responsibility is and how you go about doing that.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: So, Dave, you're up.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_06: All right.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_06: So, yeah, it has been a few years.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_06: I don't think the leather helmets were quite uh, I think they were out of out of uh commission by then.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_06: But but we took, I was uh, I guess took uh my spot in the booth in '92, best I can recollect.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_06: Uh it actually appeared on a on an old resume that I just saw where I was trying to track.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_06: Uh so in '92, uh, I was up there and I was petitioning for the public address job from my elementary uh uh PE teacher, Terry Wood.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_06: Terry Wood was a longtime PA guy up there, and he there was a total different character cast of characters up there at the time.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_06: But I remember my brother was in there, I think, also doing doing something one the same game that I remember telling my old gym teacher, I said, Hey, Mr.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_06: Wood, uh, I can do this better, or something like that.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_06: And and and lo and behold, he ends up leaving the next year and goes and does um uh works for Willowrun Foods.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_06: And now he's the the CEO and president of Willowrun Foods.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, you know, and and I then took over the public address announcing, but but now I've I've had to morph into a different uh I bumped the seat over uh and had to take over duties doing the uh the clock.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_06: Um and I so I do the down marker, yards to go, and and uh score.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_06: So basically the the essence of the scoreboard.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_06: And um I had to relinquish my PA duties when I took my job, a new job, uh my real job of uh athletic director, associate athletic director at Bangton University.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_06: So when that happened, my compliance officer came to me and told me uh that Dave, you cannot, you can no longer be the uh uh public address announcer for a high school with recruitable aged athletes.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_06: And it really just blew me away.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_06: So I was I was depressed.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_06: I I always thought I was gonna do it until I was at least this age and even older, but had to had to punt it off and then recruited uh the pipes of uh of our now public address announcer, Ed Dukowski.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_06: So that's my story.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_06: That's how I got there.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_06: It's been since '92.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_06: I can't believe it.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: Great.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: You guys do a great job, and that's a great segue into you, Ed.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_04: Uh great.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_04: Thanks, Tim.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I took over actually, we you know, old age memory kind of kicked in, and we've we've been bouncing this around the last couple days.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_04: But I believe I started in the press box in about 98.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I was doing the scoreboard.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_04: You know, knew Dave as a friend, and he said, Hey, he goes, You want to do this scoreboard thing?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, Yeah, absolutely.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's Friday night.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_04: You got to go watch the football games, and it it beats sitting out where it was raining and cold.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_04: So went up into the press box and did the scoreboard.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_04: Then I think it was about 2000, his daughter Tara had her senior night as a cheerleader.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_04: And Dave said, I can't announce here.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_04: And he handed the microphone to me and walked up, walked away.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, Yeah, okay, I I don't know if I can do this, but I got through the senior night, and it it took me a long time to read it.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_04: I read it very slow and deliberate, unlike I do now.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but got through senior night, and then as Dave said, he got his compliance finger slapped or hand slapped, and I think it was 2002, he said, I'm done, you gotta do it.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_04: And I took over and it's kind of been mine since then.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_04: And it's uh it's kind of a twisted path to get there, but it's it's been a lot of fun.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: Nice, nice.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: Kenny, what do you got to share with us?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I I started just about the same time as uh Ed started, right around '98.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_03: You know, uh my twins, uh Dave's boy Matt and Tom's boy Mike, they all played football together.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_03: So we were always at the games.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Dave is a neighbor of mine, and I think we showed up at the game one time and they could have been shorthanded.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_03: And he says, Hey, how'd you like to help out?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_03: So I went up there and said, Sure, I'd help out.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: Little did I know that they said, Hey, you got to do game clock.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_03: And I go, Well, what's the game clock rules for?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_03: You know, just watch those five guys on the field, and then if they signal, you got to do something.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_03: So I learned I learned game clock back the first game and been doing it ever since.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's been fun.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_03: You have to watch all five referees because you don't know if somebody across the field is blowing a whistle for a timeout or whatever.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_03: So you got to pay attention to the game quite a bit.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_03: And actually, it's led me on to a second portion of the career.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: Is Dave invited me to help out over at BU doing game management at BU.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_03: So I do the shot clock, game clock, scoreboard over at BU.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I've been doing that almost the same length of time.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_03: I spent about 20 years doing that too.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_03: So you know, do starting off at Vestal got me over to BU, helping with uh basketball game uh table management over there.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: Kenny, I got a question for you.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: Recently, there's been an insertion of a 40 second and a 25 second play clock.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: And how do you how have you adapted to that with the one officials officials one arm up, you know, the second arm up?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: How have you adapted to that?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's play clock, that would be Raj.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_03: That would answer that one.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, that's Raj.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'm sorry.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: My my clock, my clock would be where everybody's looking at the big board and seeing those big numbers.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: So if you do something wrong, a lot of people notice.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, exactly.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you for sharing that.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: Roger, you're up now, and let's uh let's talk to you.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: Make and make sure you hit that 40 second and 25 second play clock, too.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm a little I'm the I'm the young guy in the booth, uh, from a seniority standpoint.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: I got involved in the early 2000s.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Both my daughters were cheerleaders, and of course, I'm a football fan, and that gave me an excuse to have to go to the games, was to watch them cheer.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm friends with Ed and Dave.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: So on those cold Friday nights, I used to kind of go up and hang out in the press box door.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: You just stand there and shoot the breeze with them while the game was going on, they were doing their thing.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And over time, I but uh I became a fill-in for the different positions, and then when the the 25-second clock, and what when the stadium was redone, we had the 25-second clock, which is evolved into the 40-second clock, but I became the the full-time operator of that.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And as far as adjusting to the 40-second clock from the 25-second clock, 40-second clock's a lot easier because basically play ends, you start the you reset the clock and start it over again.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: You have to keep your eye on the umpire, right?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: The guy with the white hat, he'll give you the signal if it has to be set to 25.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: But that's overall, that's a rare occurrence.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it's basically the play ends, you start the clock over.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, good.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_04: Tim, what what Raj didn't add was he was what was known as press box security, and he would show up with this big heavy leather jacket on with the collar turned up, and he'd just stand there and look ugly.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_04: And if you remember, it was in the old press box that was rickety and falling apart.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_04: And if you put more than like six people in it, it was gonna collapse and everybody was gonna die.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_04: So Raj did a great job keeping us alive.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I did most of my standing on I did most of my security work from the top row of the bleachers, not actually in the press box because of the because of the weight limit.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: You know smart man.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: I can't think of any occurrence of any vandalism or anything getting out of control in the last few years.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: So you must have had it really really under control.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: Well, no, that's that's the stuff.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: When we get that stuff, keep it rolling.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: And now we got hey Tom, wake up.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: Tom, I'm awake.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm awake.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, now we got Tom Van Gorder up.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: I've been uh the Vesto spotter for probably almost as long as Dave has been started as the announcer.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: Dave's my brother-in-law.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: I got kind of a connection with all these guys.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: I went to high school with Roger's wife, uh, and with uh Ken's wife.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: And uh Ed and I are both uh graduates of Clarkson University.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: And uh Dave's my brother-in-law, so he got me kind of started shortly after he became the uh announcer.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we've been kind of hanging out for a long time, and and he's always dragged me around on his little projects.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: When when when the Binghamton Mets first started their uh stadium, every Friday afternoon, Dave would drag me down to the uh to the stadium, and he was videoing as the stadium was being constructed.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I had to hold the camera and spot for him then and kind of he would he'd be interviewing patrons and we'd go in the bars across the street, and anybody was walking around.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I was holding that.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: So he kind of dragged me into the Vesto uh stadium as well.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I've probably been the spotter since probably a year or so after he started announcing.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I help Ed now.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: I watched the whole game through a pair of binoculars and kind of just focus on what's going on on the field, trying to watch the ball and trying to give uh Ed at this point who makes the tackle, who's carrying the ball, that type of thing.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_03: What's your efficiency rate?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh about 99.9 percent.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: He was better.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_06: He was better when he was my spotter because when when when I handed him off to Ed, you know, it was a few years later, and I think maybe the eyesight was going, but but I think Tom and I we we had a great connection.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_06: But Ed and Ed and Tom, there's there's times where where there's some back and forth going on.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_06: Luckily, the microphone's off.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Tim, to give you a perfect example.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, Tom, what number were you when you played 60 65?
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_04: 65.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_04: Tim, there's times where he'll call, he'll call 65 made the tackle.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_04: And I'll real quick go looking through the the roster.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_04: There's no 65 on the roster.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_04: That's right, because it was Tom Van Gorder, possibly one of the greatest players ever got the golden bear uniform.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_04: And I'll just look at him and I'll just go, stop, just stop now.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_04: So just Tim, just as an add on what Tom was talking about going and filming Dave at the uh the Bet Stadium.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_04: Dave dragged me along one time and he said, Come on, we're getting a tour of the stadium.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_04: So here's all these you know real newspaper people and real TV people.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_04: We've got his VCR thing here.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_04: He's got a microphone plugged in that's about 12 feet long, and we're wandering through, pretending we're part of the press crew that's doing it.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_04: We get all the way at the very end, and he goes to ask the general manager at the time, it was uh R.C.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_04: Reutemann.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, so RC, I have a question for you.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_04: And he asks it, he just looks at Dave and goes, next, just like that.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_04: It was like we're busted, we need to leave right now.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: So now, are any of those videos available out on YouTube or uh social media any place?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_06: Uh I've got them, I've got that whole thing edited and burned on a DVD.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_06: So if you want to see it, yeah, the the the making of the stadium.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_06: And when they got their new scoreboard downtown, uh they asked me for a copy of it to play, you know, you know, kind of bits and pieces of of the making of the stadium.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_06: So yeah, I got everything from all the news articles, the the the uh the um the uh TV reports and that kind of stuff.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_06: And like Tom said, we got people off the street, and just I went to literally went into the bar across the street.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_06: We're interviewing, you know, drunks, no, just interviewing people and yeah, people on the street.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_06: Hey, what do you think?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_06: Baseball's coming back to Binghamton.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_06: Got my picture to jump Tom and I went to the mayor's office.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_06: Remember, Tom?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_06: Juanita Crab.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: Juanita Crab.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_06: We went to Juanita's office and interviewed her.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_06: He was my cameraman.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: She didn't ask for any credentials or anything.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_06: Uh geez, I don't know.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_06: I I I called, made the appointment, and said, you know, we got an appointment.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_06: Uh told Tom meet me at the town hall at uh you know noon and we marched in there.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_06: It was great.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's funny.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: I heard I don't know if this is a true story or not, but I know Tom's accuracy wasn't real good when he first started spotting, but somebody had noticed that he had the binoculars backwards.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: That kind of impeded his accuracy.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: Is that true?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_04: No, that's not true.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_04: But but but Tim, you know what Tom does do, and these guys can vouch for it, is if there is a Yankees game on the night of a game, Tom will have in the headphones, and he'll be listening to the Yankees game.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_04: There'll be plays on the field, and Tom will just go, uh, five tackle by 42.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yankees score, yes, yes, yes, yes.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_04: And the best part is Ken is usually watching or listening, and Raj is, and they're about 30 seconds ahead of Tom on the broadcast.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_04: So they'll always just give Tom, oh, you watch this, watch this.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, Jeter's gonna do something great, and all of a sudden Jeter strikes out.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_04: Tom's like, well, don't say things like that.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_04: It's yeah, it's no his accuracy can be off by a hundredth of a percent because he has to see the Yankees typically.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: Bottom line is you guys enjoy it and you have a good time up there.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: We appreciate everybody appreciates what you guys do.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you weren't there, like I said, you would definitely be missed.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: By the sounds of it, we've morphed into the storytelling portion of this episode.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: So go ahead.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: Anybody that's got a story is free game.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: Go ahead, let's have it.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I have a I have a story.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'll start.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: I have a story.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh usually there's a player, you know.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Ed's Ed's really passionate about it and about getting the players' names correct, uh, because he knows the families are in the stands and they want to hear.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: So he goes before the game.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Each game, he'll go usually try to catch a coach on the opposite side and try to get the pronounce the pronunciation of each player.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: But there's always a player on the other team who's has about 25 letters in his name without a vowel.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he could be playing for the the Czech, the Czech Republic hockey team, for all we know.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that kid may not even see the football field, but he's gonna make a few tackles that night.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_04: And that's that's never really drop it on me.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, you know, 42, and I'll go 42.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_04: Uh um, yeah, I can't say that name.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: Or also sometimes there's a kid on the sidelines and on crutches who probably hasn't seen the field all year.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: And and he always gets introduced at some point to the end game, either running with the ball or making a tackle or doing something.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: So we have a good idea.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_04: And that's and and I think the fun of that is to see when you look across and you see the kid heard his name, and he's he's looking around like, wow, I I did something.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_04: So it's yeah, I think that's the the fun of what we've morphed into, is you can see it's you got five guys that are good friends, and we get to spend Friday nights together doing something fun.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_04: And and I know it's evolved for all of us over the years is is except for Raj, whose son played um ran cross country in the fall.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_04: We all had kids at one point that were on that field.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_04: So it really was kind of it's kind of cool to sit there and announce your own kids or your friend's kids, and then be able to say, you know, call your kid scoring a touchdown.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's it's a thrill as a dad to see your kid do something, but then they score and you get to call it and you you try not to have that emotion in your voice, but I usually get yelled at, have some emotion, it's your freaking son.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_04: And I get smacked by somebody from the side.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_04: So I mean, that's I think that was a big thrill for all of us, too.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: Now, is did you find it hard saying your own name like that?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_04: No, I practice it in the shower all the time.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_04: So I you know, one one thing that that I get asked a lot is when are you gonna quit doing this?
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_04: And and I always kid that when they take the microphone out of my hand because I'm I'm dead, but I've set my goal that when my two grandsons play and one throws a touchdown pass to the other, I said, I'll drop the mic at that point and I'm walking out of the booth.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_04: So one of you guys is gonna have to pick that mic up because if if Jack ever throws a touchdown to Carter, I'm out, I'm done.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's done.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_04: So nice, nice.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Friday the Friday nights have evolved into a social event, not only for us in the press box, but for our wives during the game and after the game, we always seem to meet up, meet them at a local pub afterwards for a few beers and some wings to uh not only reminisce about what happened in the game, but uh any other current events.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I I think the i yeah, I think the wives look forward to Friday night home games.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: They may not go to the game, but they're looking forward to the uh the after party, if you might say.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, absolutely.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_06: It's always a bonus too if if we happen to be uh coming with with extra money because we all participate in the 50-50s every game and and for years, you know, as long as they do the 50-50 and and we we flag them down, Ed Ed will you know announce over the PA, you know, 50-50, please report to the press box so we can you know get our uh tickets.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_06: But they'll they'll you know everybody throws a buck on the table and we buy at arm's length.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_06: And I think we won at least three times, right?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_06: I can remember at least three.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_04: And I want to say that one one time didn't we win like three, it was like 394 or something, and we felt guilty like not announcing a winner because we won.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_04: It's like we won't right away.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_04: People turned around and accused us of you just picked your own number.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_04: So we didn't pick the numbers, yeah.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_06: We don't pick them up, but yeah, they they they always bring up the bag and and they usually have like a girl, a little little young kid with them, and they pick it, and and we've won, and and then we go, you know, like you said, out to the VI or wherever we go to afterwards, and and it's it's great.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_06: So we so we we don't get paid a lot.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_06: In fact, I think the last several years, I think we've deferred our our pay.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_06: We we pretty much uh go up there.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_06: We're we're having a good time, and you know, like I say, it's a social thing for us now at this point.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_06: And um well, I think budget's getting cut every year anyway.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_06: I guess we're doing our part.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: I think two it's Tim.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_04: I know you usually announce the games right over from us, the booth over.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_04: So you you've got to hear oh, yeah.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: I can feel that the thing, the booth shaking sometimes, and I I hear I hear sometimes I hear things, but usually I'm locked in on the game, and with in a headset, you really don't hear a whole lot.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: But I think I know broadcasting games kind of keeps me uh younger in a little in a in a sense because you're kind of in that um atmosphere where you got all the young student athletes and students running around, and it's it's a young man's game, but I think doing what we're doing and adding you guys add your expertise to it, plus there's that little bit that keeps you young at heart as well, you know, running around with you know, it's not like you're in a senior citizen's home sitting there, you know, playing the big beach ball drums or something.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: You're actually doing something you like to do.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, we got to meet you know, uh, like Frangeline was there quite a bit.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: Roger Neal broadcast games.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_03: It was kind of neat to see all those guys occasionally showing up for the game and and discussing sports with them.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and Roger's very knowledgeable.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I just I'm glad I got a chance to ride with him a little.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: I I call him Batman and I'm his Robin, but we uh we we just kind of hit it off.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: We did some semi pro games way back when for a season, but then uh you know, once my kids got older and grown up enough, we got a chance to do that.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: But it's sort of like what you guys do, it's just it's a you know, it's something you enjoy to do, it's it's fun to do.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I know you guys you do your preparatory stuff like they were talking about, Ed.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: You go get the phonetic pronunciations, you know, all those kind of things, and uh that's that's key because if you you know, how would you like to have your name mispronounced?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that's that's that's not a good thing, and especially when they're like there in front of the booth.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and then and we we do get parents that turn around.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, we I'm sure we can count the number of times we've seen a parent march over from the visitor's bleachers and come right up and tell us you said his name wrong.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_04: It's like I'm I'm very sorry.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_04: I'll make sure I say it the right way, and then uh we'll do it.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_04: But we all make sure we point to the announcement.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, point to me.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: See that guy.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_04: But but one disclosure here, Tim.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_04: I I'll be totally honest, is is I do listen to Roger Neal quite a bit, and and I hear him with drop some of the names, and it's you know, lots of times if if Tom's engrossed in the Mets game or he's eating granola or yogurt or whatever he happens to bring up there to consume him at the time, I'll listen over here to what Roger says.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_04: And sometimes I'll pick up and go, okay, Tom's a little spaced out.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: But but I think the the really cool thing if you look at the team here is is yeah, we each have our own position that we're supposed to do up there.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_04: But the number of times that you know Dave's trying to figure out how many yards to go and Roger blurts it out, or you know, a tackle's made and somebody's throwing another another number out of a player.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_04: So I mean, we've really turned into a team up there.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_04: And I I think that's part of the fun of it, is is we're all competitive still.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we all play team sports, and I mean those those days are passing us by to be a team out on the field, so we get to be a team in the box now.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I we do the same thing with you guys too.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: There are there maybe I missed it last fall a lot.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm gonna say I was just gonna say our last highlight was when we we got to do the five games in two days when we uh Vesto hosted the uh the state the state quarterfinals in 2019.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: That was when you think about it.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we were gonna do everybody was a little hesitant going in saying five games in two days.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're gonna be in that press box forever.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, at the end of the night, uh, that Saturday night, it was the last player of the game that won it for uh uh Cicero, Cicero North Syracuse over Corning.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we looked at each other and said that wasn't bad at all.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because I mean it was it was good football, we were totally engrossed, we got to see some outstanding players both from section four and section three.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it turned out to be a good time.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I you know, we did we didn't we were looking forward to it last year, of course, and we are what it is what it is.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_02: I want to share something with our our listeners, and they obviously they can't see you because they're just gonna be able to hear the audio, but this truly is a team, and they all have on a green Vestal T-shirt, and I think are they all the same years?
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, 2019 jersey, and that that's the epitome of a team when you have a uniform uniform, and uh that's that's pretty cool to see that.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: So, this truly is uh a true team, and they're like I said, they're an extension of the third team on the field, the officials, and guys, unless you have anything else, I want to thank you for really doing a great job and sharing your backstories and sharing some insights and and jokes.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh oh, I got Dave, somebody's got one here.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I think I think we just gotta, you know, kind of make sure that everybody knows that we multitask, you know, amongst ourselves, but but also at halftime of homecoming games, we are the judges.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_06: So I don't think people realize, well, who decides what float won and and all that good stuff?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_06: So you know, we we labor over that up there, you know, it's it's it's pretty intense.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_06: You know, the vote the voting comes down to you know, tiebreakers all just go to Ed because he's got the mics.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_06: Like, all right, Ed, is it the junior class or the senior class or whatever?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_06: And it's just you know, if his daughter happened to be in the junior class, then they won that year.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_06: But but but we we have some fun with that too.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_06: And then right after the homecoming uh games, back in my DJ days, I used to have to say, I got a bulk, you know, like like with a minute left in the game, or whatever, you know, it's like I'd run out of there and leave those guys having to having to do the clock, or or I'd leave right at the buzzer and and have to run up to the gym to to do a dance or but but homecomings were fun.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: Nice.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: How do what is the tiebreakers for homecoming?
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_04: Ed, what is it?
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um remember there were a bunch of abbreviated initials we weren't allowed to mention tonight, so I'll just say we it's it's typically goes to the senior class.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_04: That's if we had to do it.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_04: You know, speaking of homecoming, I remember the year that my daughter was up for homecoming queen, and and I saw like before I opened it up and read it, and these guys said, You can't tell her.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, Well, no, of course I can't.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_04: Can I tell my wife?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_04: No, you're not allowed to tell her either.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_04: So I sat there the entire time, and then it came time to read the it was the queen and the the runner up, and I almost read my daughter's name as the runner up by accident instead of the the winner.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_04: And I don't think I I would have been kicked out of the family if I did that.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_04: I think that would have been a good idea.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: That wouldn't have gone over very well.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: No, that would have been like a burp in church.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's not good.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_02: That's not good.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: Well, listen, you guys, thanks again.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_02: I really appreciate you having you on and uh successful season to the Vestal Golden Bears, and I'll be seeing you guys up in the booth, hopefully, here uh maybe not this year, but maybe next year.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: Take care, you guys.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be there and be ready.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Tim.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to click the subscribe button.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: And remember, tell your friends, Coach Smith says visit cover4.com and get involved.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: In football and life, it's not where we line up, it's where we wind up.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for listening.