In the topsy-turvy world of sports broadcast, courage, wit, and curiosity combinatively make a compelling narrative.
ESPN’s veteran reporter Buster Olney proved it once again during a Sunday Night Baseball game at Dodger Stadium between LA Dodgers and San Diego Padres.
Olney’s acute observational skills were put to the test during an utterly strange situation in the course of the fourth inning.
ESPN’s Buster Olney holds bizarre interview with fan after switcheroo trick https://t.co/OHL4tkxazo pic.twitter.com/NkzYS55NLc
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 15, 2024
San Diego Padres’ hotshot, Manny Machado, smashed a home run that was swiftly captured by a Dodgers fan.
As is the team’s tradition, the audience cheerfully expected the ball to be thrown back onto the field, which a Dodgers fan seemingly obliged, much to the crowd’s delight.
However, something unusual caught the ESPN camera’s eye. The supposedly thrown homer wasn’t Machado’s ball.
The Dodgers fan was captured swapping the ball with another from his pocket, pitching the latter instead and securing the actual home run ball in safety.
On noticing the far-fetched trick, Olney sprang into action, seeking to unearth this brilliantly crafted scheme.
Standing beside the crafty fan, Olney relayed, “He’s gonna tell us the story of the old switcheroo; he made great plans for this.”
The fan confessed that retaining the actual ball might provoke the fellow Dodger fans. Still, the thrifty lure of keeping the homer led him to pull off the switcheroo.
“Nobody in the stands called me out for the switcheroo, everybody high-fived me and was happy I threw it back,” the fan said. “The telecast seems to be the only people who caught it.” “What are you gonna do with the baseball?” Olney asked.
“I’m definitely going to keep it. The wife won’t like it, because I try to collect baseballs a lot and I have too many as it is,” the fan said. “But this one for sure’s going on the mantle.”
Brought along for the ride, play-by-play announcer Karl Ravech couldn’t resist asking if the fan had caught any other home run balls.
However, it was Olney’s unexpected turn of question towards the fan’s personal life that made the interview stand out from the standard.
“Why is your wife mad at you?” Olney quizzed, pitching a puzzler.
Caught off-guard, the fan struggled for a moment before replying, “We don’t have enough time on the telecast to talk about that.”
"So why is your wife mad at you?" – Buster Olney
"We don't have enough time on the telecast to talk about that." – Dodgers fan (who caught a Manny Machado home run ball and threw a different ball back) pic.twitter.com/IYya2giwg7
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 15, 2024
