The Phillies go out to Oakland in June for a three-game series. Scott Franzke and Tom McCarthy and all of the broadcast guys will be there, but they may not be able to use the visitor’s booth because there’s a possum living in the walls and shitting everywhere.
New York was there this weekend and the Mets’ broadcasters explained what’s up (via Edward Sutelan at Sporting News):
(Gary) Cohen said he was told about the possum’s activities by Wayne Randazzo, TV voice of the Angels, who had been in the booth to start the season. Randazzo was one of the Mets’ radio voices prior to his offseason move to Anaheim.
“[Randazzo] told us that in the opening game of the season, the possum, who apparently lives somewhere in the wall behind that visitors’ TV booth, made an appearance during the game in their booth,” Cohen said. “It wasn’t trying to horn in on the broadcast. He was just doing his possum things. Anyway, so they set traps for this possum, but he’s proved elusive.”
Cohen said that because the Athletics were on a road trip, no one had been in the visitors’ booth until the Mets arrived Friday. He said that when the SNY tech people came into the booth to get the broadcast set up, they “immediately were met by the stench of the possum . . . having done his business in the booth.”
The stench forced the SNY team to find another booth for Cohen and Darling, this one with a less-than-ideal seat that featured a pole obstructing Cohen’s view of the game.
Gotta adapt. We used to go to games at RFK Stadium and there was a raccoon running around down there. No big deal. You have to work in differing environments and be flexible. Plus, a creature that plays dead is the perfect mascot for a franchise like the Athletics, who have won a grand total of one playoff series dating back to the George W. Bush administration. They’ve feigned being a serious franchise for decades now. That’s why it just seems to “fit.” The team stinks and there’s a possum running around their decrepit stadium, which they started playing at in 1968.