Hruska is the voice of Nationals Park

By Joe Conroy

Published: September 20, 2008

The booming voice echos around the new walls of Nationals Park, synched with a recap of the previous night’s game, culminating with the Washington baseball club’s season continuing “Right now…”
Every home game begins that way, with Jerome Hruska’s signature welcoming call.
It’s a dream come true for the 29-year-old, being at a major league ballpark everyday, announcing big leaguers as they come to the plate.
“I thought about it as a kid, but not seriously,” said Hruska, a Stafford resident.
He got his start providing the public address announcements for Middle Tennessee State’s baseball team, a long way from the nation’s capital and the majors.
Working on the college radio station as a Mass Communication major, Hruska got word that the Blue Raiders were looking for a PA announcer for baseball games.
“I did one game and I knew it was something I wanted to do instantly,” he said. “I did everything I could — volleyball, basketball, baseball.”
A 1996 Hylton graduate, Hruska returned to Prince William County when his wife Jessica took a job as a teacher and volleyball coach at Stonewall Jackson High School. When not working as a director of programming with Telemedia Broadcasting (95.9 and 104.5 FM stations in Fredericksburg, Va.), a job he still holds, Hruska could be heard over the speakers at Raiders’ home volleyball matches.
Then an opportunity he couldn’t pass up presented itself: in 2005 Major League Baseball awarded Washington, D.C. it’s first baseball team in more than 30 years.
“I submitted my resumé and tape 30 times when I heard,” Hruska said. “They held a tryout on TV that first year, but I didn’t make the cut.”
Thinking he may have missed his chance at fulfilling that dream, Hruska returned to calling high school games and began announcing at Pfitzner Stadium, the home of Washington High-A minor league affilate the Potomac Nationals.
“I’m more comfortable with sports I played,” Hruska said. “I never played football so it’s harder to announce what’s coming. It’s easier to do sports that I know.”
The next year Washington called him back, making him the No. 2 guy and spotter for No. 1, Jim Clarke (spotters prepare the announcer for pinch hitters and pitchers warming in the bullpen so when the switch is made, the fans can be alerted in time). After Clarke left following that season, Hruska took over, becoming the youngest PA announcer in the majors.
“It was a long process,” he said. “It’s funny, a lot of players who played in the minors when I was there and are here now. (New York Met) Endy Chavez was with Potomac. I feel like we were working our way up the league together.”
Becoming a Nats fan
A lifelong baseball fan, Hruska grew up a Yankees and Orioles fan, a strange hybrid perhaps.
“I was a Yankees fan but there was no baseball here so I rooted for Baltimore, too,” he said. “I was still a Yankees fan exclusively my first year here. I wore a Yankees hat here everyday.
“But after a while, when you’re here everyday, watching the team,” Hruska added, “I just became a Nationals fan. It’s hard not to.”
Of course, shaking those allegiences aren’t as easy as it may seem. He tries to emmulate long-timeBaltimore PA announcer David McGowan’s delivery.
“It’s who I grew up listening to,” Hruska said.
Even Hruska’s first turn announcing a game came while he was still the backup and it was an interleague matchup that brought the Yankees to town.
“I was doing the visiting lineup and I actually had the director come over the headset and remind me ‘Jerome, this is the visiting team,’” Hruska said. “I lived to announce those names like Derek Jeter.”
Hruska has settled into a routine at first RFK Stadium and then Nationals Park, making the job more comfortable for him. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the occasional bout of nervousness when loaning his voice for a game.
“I still get nervous before the first pitch,” he said. “Opening Day I was probably the most nervous. I got to announce the president coming out and his first pitch. And I’m standing there with a (Secret Service) guy with a gun next to me making sure I stayed on script.”
A new home, an old mic
There isn’t a lot of room in Hruska’s announcing booth, either, just enough for himself and his spotter. But it’s certainly an improvement over the accomodations he had at RFK.
“RFK has tons of history, but it was falling apart around us,” Hruska said. “There was water leaking above the podium everytime it rained and I was in press row, so I had to be quiet. I have my own area in the new stadium.”
Hruska says Nationals Park understandably lacks tradition and making a connection to the new stadium is difficult. So Hruska decided to add a little touch of his own to his job — with a little help.
A radio engineer friend in D.C. gave Hruska a gift when he won the top spot for the Nationals, a 1939 RCA microphone. Just one caveat came with it: He had to use it on the job.
“It has all original parts and sounds better than any microphone. Also, there’s no processing on the mic,” he said. “It’s true to voice.”
In addition to the mic, Hruska has also brought his personality to the job. Hruska said in the 1980s that was an aspect of PA announcing that was phased out from the old school style of entertaining the audience.
That aspect’s return can be heard particularly in Hruska’s pre-fireworks announcements, such as warning fans that they “will hear the fireworks, but won’t be able to see them,” from the first base side of the stadium.
“When Charlie Brotman was the Senators announcer, it was about personality because they didn’t have big screen TVs and scoreboards,” Hruska said. “Then they wanted you to stay on script, really black and white. They allow me to ad-lib. With the fireworks, I’m trying to get it to stand out, being goofy.
“When you have a losing season,” he added, “you have to do something extra. It’s all part of a big show. It’s baseball and a show all in one.”
Wait till next year
Most PA announcers don’t have contracts that run beyond the season they’re working, and Hruska is no different. They hang on a request from the team at the end of the year that they return the following spring.
There really isn’t anywhere for them to move onto, either.
“This is the next level,” he said. “I have no intention to not do this. It’s a job you can do forever. I’m hoping in four or five years my son (Tyler, 2) can come up here and be my spotter.  He already has mastered the phrase, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen.’”
Though Washington is still a long way from the national stage of title contention, Hruska said that is one more attractive part of his job.
“The cool thing about baseball is, unlike the NFL or NCAA, if you go to the World Series, you host the series,” Hruska said. “With the NFL or NCAA, the team goes somewhere else. If we host an All-Star game, or World Series, I get to do those games.
“I’ll do this as long as they’ll have me. This is the coolest thing of all time.”