On Monday, March 4, Pizza With the Pros welcomed Philadelphia Phillies Public Address Announcer Dan Baker.
Baker is entering his 52nd season as the public address announcer for the Philadelphia Phillies and from 1985-2014 he was the PA announcer for the Philadelphia Eagles. He is currently the longest-tenured PA announcer currently working in the MLB. Baker graduated from Glassboro State College in 1968, which was later renamed Rowan University.
Baker grew up in Mount Ephraim, New Jersey, and graduated from Audubon High School. Early in his life, Baker envisioned himself as a player for the Phillies, not an announcer. Baker was a pitcher in Little League and had dreams about playing professional baseball. Going into college, he realized that he wasn’t going to jump from Glassboro State to the MLB. So he took a different route.
Baker started a new dream to become a sports broadcaster. He sent out hundreds of audio and video clips to try and get experience working in the field. When working at WKBS, Baker was introduced to visiting NFL play-by-play announcers. This gave Baker the opportunity to keep statistics for the visiting announcers when their teams visited.
In that role, Baker was able to sit beside some of the best play-by-play announcers, including Jack Buck, who is the father of popular sportscaster Joe Buck. He took this opportunity to learn from these announcers, which helped him develop the unique style that he uses today.
As a PA announcer, you need to have great pronunciation skills. Baker got his master’s degree in Educational Media from Temple University and took a couple of classes to enhance the way he spoke, but he gave most of the credit to his parents.
“From the time I left my parents’ home, I could talk. My mother and father were sticklers with elocution and pronouncing every syllable in a word,” Baker said.
One student asked Baker how much longer he plans on being the PA announcer for the Phillies.
“I want to do this for at least another 9 years, which would make me the longest-serving public address announcer in the history of Major League Baseball,” Baker responded.
There are only two announcers who have done this job longer, those being former Chicago Cubs PA announcer Pat Pieper and former New York Yankees PA announcer Bob Sheppard.
Baker emphasized how grateful he is for the career he has. He mentioned how he always makes sure to tell his children, “When you choose a career, try to choose something that makes you happy because you can’t put a price tag on enjoying what you do.”
Baker’s career has been nothing short of outstanding, serving as the PA announcer for six World Series, two MLB All-Star Games, and three NL Championship Games.
To end the event, the 40 students who were awarded an internship with the Wilmington Blue Rocks got the opportunity to hear their names called by Baker, the same way he announces the Phillies players.
Pizza With the Pros will resume on March 18 with more exciting guests to come.
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