Yesterday it was announced that Carl Beane, the public address announcer at Fenway Park, who was known as "The Voice of Fenway Park," died in a car accident. I met Beane once and he seemed like a wonderful man.
I was officiating at a wedding and the bride's father was very good friends with Beane and so he did the introduction of the bridal party to the reception in his best Fenway voice. The bride's father was also a Yankee fan, and therefore a wonderful person, and so as a present Beane gave him a game used bat from one of the former Yankees. I believe it was either Bernie Williams or Paul O'Niell, I can't remember, and I got to hold it, which was very cool. My wife, who is a huge Jorge Posada fan, also sidled up to him to talk about the Yankees and ask him to announce Jorge coming to bat, which he was gracious enough to do, along with Derek Jeter.
Whenever I think of Yankee stadium I hear Bob Shepherd's voice in my head, and when announcing players it is his cadence that I use, so my thoughts and prayers go out to Carl Beane's family and to Red Sox Nation, Fenway will never be the same.
Update: It's not often I can say that the Red Sox organization has done something classy, because they usually don't, but to honor Carl Beane, during tonight's game Fenway went quiet. There was no public address announcer, no announcing of players, or anything else. Very nice job Red Sox, truly a classy act!
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