Tampa Track Announcer botched call

[affirmedny]

Originally Posted by jimmyb

Yes, he did at Rockingham as well. I believe Larry Collmus stepped in at Suffolk after his announcing days were over. He was working as a teller at Suffolk last I saw him, 2014 or 2015.

.

He said something bad when he didn't realize his mike was open and they busted him down to mutuel teller. The story is in TD Thornton's book.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by affirmedny

He said something bad when he didn't realize his mike was open and they busted him down to mutuel teller. The story is in TD Thornton's book.

OK, now I want to know. What did he say?

[v j stauffer]

Originally Posted by dilanesp

OK, now I want to know. What did he say?

Couldn't have been as bad at the great George O filling in for me at Hollywood Park.

I was offered a chance to be on the Craig Ferguson show. It taped at 5:30 in LA so I took off a race early.

Georgie called the last for me.

Several things went wrong. First he got the on/off switches in the announcers booth mixed up.

They weren't on during the live race. Several people called the booth during the call but he had no idea what to do about that. So he kept calling.

After the race he somehow turned the mic on with out realizing it. When some one came into the booth and told him. He screamed ****!! For all the world to hear.

That pretty much brought George's announcing career to a halt and I didn't ask to leave early ever again.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by v j stauffer

Couldn't have been as bad at the great George O filling in for me at Hollywood Park.

I was offered a chance to be on the Craig Ferguson show. It taped at 5:30 in LA so I took off a race early.

Georgie called the last for me.

Several things went wrong. First he got the on/off switches in the announcers booth mixed up.

They weren't on during the live race. Several people called the booth during the call but he had no idea what to do about that. So he kept calling.

After the race he somehow turned the mic on with out realizing it. When some one came into the booth and told him. He screamed ****!! For all the world to hear.

That pretty much brought George's announcing career to a halt and I didn't ask to leave early ever again.

That's hilarious.

Of course I would have just assumed the announcer had lost a big wager. :)

[jimmyb]

Originally Posted by affirmedny

He said something bad when he didn't realize his mike was open and they busted him down to mutuel teller. The story is in TD Thornton's book.

I remember when TD Thornton got thrown out of the press area. I don't recall all the particulars.

[v j stauffer]

Originally Posted by dilanesp

That's hilarious.

Of course I would have just assumed the announcer had lost a big wager.

An announcers biggest fear is a live mic that he doesn't know is on. I have dodged some very big bullets in my day.

What's REALLY dangerous is when you're live to the satellite and therefore all the TV's while off to in house PA.

That's happened to me and could have buried me if the wrong person heard it.

My mantra now is consider myself live from the time I walk in the front gate until I'm in my car after the last.

[affirmedny]

Originally Posted by dilanesp

OK, now I want to know. What did he say?

see attached

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by v j stauffer

An announcers biggest fear is a live mic that he doesn't know is on. I have dodged some very big bullets in my day.

What's REALLY dangerous is when you're live to the satellite and therefore all the TV's while off to in house PA.

That's happened to me and could have buried me if the wrong person heard it.

My mantra now is consider myself live from the time I walk in the front gate until I'm in my car after the last.

Yeah, I've done tons of PA, but always just on a speaker system. I've never had to deal with a live mic that might be either recording me or sending me out over a satellite.

But even just with ordinary PA, it's SOOOOOOO easy to leave a mic open. You make an announcement, someone hands you something or comes up to tell you something, and boom, it's still on.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by affirmedny

see attached

LOL! It's reminiscent of Michael Kinsley's definition of a "political gaffe"- "when a politician accidentally blurts out the truth".

[jameegray1]

YouTube

[Suff]

Originally Posted by affirmedny

He said something bad when he didn't realize his mike was open and they busted him down to mutuel teller. The story is in TD Thornton's book.

The funniest thing in his book is the suggestion box story, when someone left a note that Suffolk Downs needs more profanity because it makes racing more enjoyable.


He's on point here.

To say Suffolk Downs is rife with colorful characters would be the understatement of the century. Sometimes, when immersed in the day-to-day atmosphere of a large, urban betting factory, it is easy for the distinction between acceptable racetrack behavior and what passes for “normalcy” in other environments to become blurred, if not outright obliterated. To outsiders, the racetrack can be an intimidating

[Zman179]

Originally Posted by affirmedny

see attached

Rockingham back in the day was one heck of a racetrack. First they battled head-to-head with Suffolk and won (that’s when Suffolk closed the first time.) Now they got all the dates and run year-round so because of the harsh winters they have to winterize the track...which after a few days break to resurface turned the course into the slowest dirt track probably in the world; 6f times of 1:20 for routes were commonplace. It looked as if they were racing on the deepest part of a sandy beach, but 12 horses in a race was very common so there was some good money to be made there. IIRC, Jim Hannon got the job as the race caller at the Rock after Dennis Clow, a popular New England caller himself, got busted for drug possession and was fired by management.

The only call I could find for Dennis Clow at Rockingham was in this video below. It’s at the 4:00 mark.

YouTube