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In Which I Almost Join the Baltimore Orioles

From Matt Byars | 07:05

The story of how a guy cold calls a Major League Baseball organization Matthew Byars and almost becomes their new PA announcer.

Default-piece-image-2 When I told people that I was a semifinalist to be the Orioles new PA announcer, they were impressed.  Their automatic response was, "That would be so cool!" even after I explained the long hours, having to report a full two hours before game time, staying for extra innings if necessary, then having to get up the next morning for my regular job as a middle school teacher.  We're talking 15-16 hour days at least-- and I had some serious trepidations about it.  "I'm kind of worried they'll actually offer it to me," I'd say.  "It'd be hard to turn down, but I don't know how I'd pull it off."  "Yeah," they'd say,"but it would be so cool..."  

Matthew Byars is a middle school English teacher at St. Paul’s School for Boys and the founder of the Baltimore Writing Lab. This piece o
riginally aired on WYPR, Baltimore, on September 7th and 8th, 2012.