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Zaf
03-23-2003, 08:16 PM
Who is this guy calling the races at Hou tonight. Sounds like they pulled him out of the grandstand. What happened to Michael Chamberland ?

ZAFONIC
Tom
03-23-2003, 09:48 PM
You mean they are now having last minute "announcer" changes???:eek:
Zaf
03-23-2003, 09:58 PM
Originally posted by Tom@HTR
You mean they are now having last minute "announcer" changes???:eek:

Tom ,

I'm waiting for the last minute horse changes.

ZAFONIC
BillW
03-24-2003, 02:30 AM
Originally posted by zafonic
Who is this guy calling the races at Hou tonight. Sounds like they pulled him out of the grandstand. What happened to Michael Chamberland ?

ZAFONIC

Possibly Purple? (I didn't have audio tonite) Of course he would have been from under the grandstand, err restaurant. :D

Bill
Whitehos
03-24-2003, 03:25 PM
Hey guys, that was our fellow poster Purple Power, the track handicapper etc. Called in on an emergency and did a terrific job on a tough assignment. Michael the regular caller should be back for the final week.
Zaf
03-24-2003, 04:09 PM
Originally posted by Whitehos
Hey guys, that was our fellow poster Purple Power, the track handicapper etc. Called in on an emergency and did a terrific job on a tough assignment. Michael the regular caller should be back for the final week.

Sorry Purple,

Didn't mean to offend you, The grandstand comment,

I kind of got used to you by the end of the night.

Michael is hard to replace, he is excellent.

ZAFONIC
so.cal.fan
03-24-2003, 06:17 PM
Purple Power:
I just got an email from a regular on track fan at SH.
He thought you did a good job!
This is a HIGHLY SKILLED trick, calling races.
I don't think many of us would even have the guts to attempt it.
David McKenzie
03-25-2003, 11:22 AM
Originally posted by so.cal.fan
This is a HIGHLY SKILLED trick, calling races.
I don't think many of us would even have the guts to attempt it.

I agree. I've had nightmares about calling twelve horse fields with only minutes to prepare.

To even take a stab at it is admirable.

To pull it off is *certainly* worthy of kudos!

(PS- Does anyone besides me remember when Julie Krone called a three-horse-race in New York? It was so cute; she sounded like a munchkin from The Wizard of Oz :>)
PurplePower
03-28-2003, 05:08 PM
Originally posted by zafonic
Sorry Purple,

Didn't mean to offend you, The grandstand comment,

I kind of got used to you by the end of the night.

Michael is hard to replace, he is excellent.

ZAFONIC None taken -- Hey, I'm just glad I don't have to sit by my computer or in the stands and listen to me call the races. Thanks for the "flowers" from everyone. Here is what happened.

Michael is a diabetic and had a sugar crash. Martha called me with 4 minutes to post to the seventh and said "get up here, Michael is having a problem". Michael argued that he was OK, but Martha wanted the EMT's to check him out and they did not "release" him for further calling that night. (Michael had a major "incident" last August and missed an entire night of Quarter Horse racing and we didn't want that to happen again.) He stayed around and helped with the paper work and closed down the booth after I told everyone to go home -- or stay for simulcasting of Australia and Los Alamitos.

I introduced the seventh as the "Michael Chamberlain appreciation race, because everyone is going to appreciate Michael a lot more after listening to me." One of my biggest problems is that I have a hard time seeing the horses. Michael uses 50 X 10 Binocs and I would use 300 X10 if I called regularly. Secondly, his monitor is a whopping 12 inches and when they are showing the far away shots I can't even see the color of the saddle towels. I could do better if they would plug me in from my office "under the kitchen" (literally -- :) ) where I have a big easy to see 46 inch main screen accompained by two 19-inchers on each side.

Quarter Horse racing is easier -- Announcer just needs to learn how to say "Theeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyrrrrrrrr''''''' OFFFFFFFF" ---and "It's a PHOTO"!

You guys would have got a kick out of Michael's phone message last night after the third rider change -- describing the "end of the meeting awards" for the track vet that didn't scratch the horses at the gate and the riders that were bringing runners back. I thought I was going to have to go up and call another race or two til someone could put his gaskets back in place and sweep all the F words out of the booth.