Weekend Watchdog

Have you ever watched a baseball game and thought you could be an announcer? That it looked easy enough?
Well, I tried Saturday. It was quite hard.
I joined three other Orioles fans as fantasy broadcasters for MASN, which does both Orioles and Nationals games. We earned our trips last September (by signing up and writing a blog on MASN. Piece of cake). But we were rained out then, so instead of calling a boring last weekend game, we got to be part of the Orioles’ excitement with the major league debut weekend of catcher Matt Wieters.
We met Oriole announcers Gary Thorne and Buck Martinez in their booth, and after tour of the park, set up shop in the booth next door. MASN’s Steve Melewski, who worked radio in Virginia in the late 1990s, did play-by-play for a half-inning with each of us. I found I wasn’t the best color announcer, but could see the importance of rapport between the duo.
When the Orioles came to bat in the fifth, it was my turn again. Wieters was due up, so I claimed the play-by-play slot. He had been hitless in his first five at-bats, then he lofted a long fly ball to deep center. The Tigers’ Curtis Granderson couldn’t catch up. The ball bounced off the wall and Wieters ended up on third. A triple for his first major league hit, and listen to the crowd.
If Wieters goes onto the greatness that some Orioles’ fans expect, then I’ll be one of the few to have announced his first hit behind a microphone at Camden Yards.
This weekend, Thorne and Martinez will call the Orioles’ games in Oakland on MASN. The Nationals host the Mets.
Other baseball on TV includes the Phillies at Dodgers on FOX Saturday and ESPN Sunday. The Rangers visit Boston for the Sunday game on TBS.
There’s still ice hockey left to be played, and it’s on NBC. Game 5 between the Red Wings vs. Penguins will be Saturday, with Game 6 Tuesday.
The NBA Finals mean Jimmy Kimmel as the pregame show, instead of Charles Barkley as studio analyst. The Lakers and Magic will try to overcome that with Game 2 Sunday, Game 3 Tuesday and Game 4 Thursday.
Horse racing quietly leaves the scene after the Belmont, with Mine that Bird and other horses you won’t hear much about again.
The French Open concludes its run at Roland Garros, and it's live tennis at breakfast time. The women play Saturday morning, and the men Sunday. Meet the Press can wait.
The NCAA baseball Super Regionals dominate the weekend on ESPN and ESPN2. Virginia travels to Mississippi starting Friday on ESPN2. If a third game is necessary, ESPN has the coverage Sunday afternoon.
And NASCAR makes its season debut on TNT with the Pocono Race Sunday.