Tom Hanks ‘sells’ hot dogs during A’s games. Which other celeb voices should be used on MLB broadcasts?
By this point, baseball fans have decided where they land when it comes to the broadcasts of this unorthodox 2020 MLB season.
Nobody has the same opinion on virtual fans, cardboard cut-outs and piped-in fan noise (at the stadium, too).
What everyone can agree on, however, is that Tom Hanks' voice in the background would make the experience better. And Oakland Athletics fans — or those who watch the team's television broadcasts regularly — are in luck.
The A's announced Friday that Hanks, a native of the East Bay, has offered his voice to be played during games. He taped himself as a vendor at Oakland Coliseum, and in the recordings he is heard hawking hot dogs, peanuts, score cards and programs.
Life is like a box of… popcorn. ?
East Bay’s own @tomhanks is reprising one of his first roles as a Coliseum vendor! See if you can hear him mixed in with the crowd noise during tonight’s #OpeningDay broadcast.#RootedInOaklandpic.twitter.com/o84TzuTLiX
Making this even better: Hanks actually was an vendor at the Coliseum in his youth.
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Tom Hanks throws out a first pitch in Japan in 2009. (Photo: Koji Sasahara, AP)
It also got us thinking. Which other Hollywood A-listers would you want on broadcasts, and in what ways? Here are a few possibilities:
Morgan Freeman (national public address announcer): He is the "Voice of God," after all. Designating Freeman to the role of public address announcer feels wrong, but sounds so right already. To ease his workload (and to give the 32 actual PA people a chance to do their jobs), let's pipe him in the background for national broadcasts only.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (The Boston Guys): Damon and Affleck should link up in a room (or a Zoom call) and improvise 20 totally random conversations two individuals may have at a game. Lay all of those back-and-forths over each other on the same track and run it on a loop to provide background noise, not unlike the ambiance of a crowded restaurant. Oh, and turn up the accents.
Samuel L. Jackson (The Heckler): Nobody wants to be on the other end of a verbal barrage from Jackson, in real life or on the screen. But 50,000-plus fans aren't around to keep the umpires on their toes. Solution: Jackson transforms into the tough-guy character he plays so well and lets "blue" have it for a few seconds. Now, that's a broadcast with an edge. Just make sure no profanity makes it to the airwaves.
Follow Chris Bumbaca on Twitter @BOOMbaca.
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