Curt Bloom Birmingham Barons Long Time Broadcaster

 
 

Written and Photographed by Cristina Byrne

I drove 92 miles south to meet up with Curt Bloom, the Play by Play Broadcaster for the Birmingham Barons, Double-A Affiliate to the Chicago White Sox, and has been for 32 years. In an exchange of emails, he told me that he usually arrives at the ballpark around 2 p.m. I got to Regions Field around 2:30 pm and went up to the 3rd floor and knocked on his booth door.

"Cristina is that you!" Blooms asks from the other side of the door. Thinking there should be some sort of secret knock to get in.

"Yes, it is!" I responded. He opens the door., "Welcome!"

His booth is not only where he broadcasts the games but it is also his office. He has a wooden desk with a laptop towards the door, hanging above his wooden desk is a photo of the Annual Rickwood Classic of April 24th Barsons vs. the Lookouts, a photo of his two daughters, and a bookshelf filled with binders labeled by year and baseball prospects. Bloom points, "That's 32 years of Barons baseball," he tells me "And '94 is the Jordan Year." He had the Yankee game on his laptop and one of the four baseball movies Kevin Costner stars in. There is a fridge, some snacks, three chairs a small round coffee table, and a newspaper article frame of the “93 championship season and one of Michael Jordan. He is originally from North Salem, New York, and is an alumni of the University of North Carolina Greensboro, a "die-hard" Yankee Fan, and also a Bruce Springsteen fan even though there is no evidence of that in his booth office, I have run into Curt at a Boss show once before.

"It's an 18-mile ride from my house to the ballpark and it's a good time to call my 83-year-old mother and every time I talk to her she always asks me why I am going to the ballpark so early if the game does not start till 7:05 pm," Bloom tells me. "Those 5 hours before the game go by fast," he says.

He was working on the scorecard and carefully filling it out and even color-coordinating it which seems to take up a good chunk of his time. In between Bloom carefully filling out the scorecard and making sure it is all correct, his chats about baseball are ongoing.

When I asked Curt if being traded was such "a bad thing." Curt’s response was, "It's every player's dream to make it to the big leagues with the team that drafted them. At first, when a trade happens it can be emotional because it's an adjustment but at the end of the day they understand it's just business."

He makes progress with his scorecard. He has details about everything on there such as the player’s age, the player’s years as a pro, what round the player was drafted, and what college he attended. As he finished up the scorecard, he warned me that he would move fast and that he would take the stairs. We make our way down to the clubhouse and then to the field where he checks in with the manager, Lorenzo Bundy.

"Since I do not travel with the team anymore, that check-in time is crucial, I get everything I need," Bloom explains. He likes to check in to see if what he sees matches up with what is happening. "Building a good relationship and trust with the manager is important and I have that with Lo." He says that does not always happen with managers, "some just don't trust.”


With 32 years of experience as a play-by-play broadcaster, Curt arguably called one of the greatest athletes of all time, Michael Jordan's minor league career in 1994 when Jordan got signed with the Chicago White Sox and was assigned to Double-A in Birmingham. 29 years later, that’s still what people want to know about the most.

And in July of 2022, Bloom had the opportunity to call a game for the Chicago White Sox. "Whether I did good or bad, I went into it as I belong there," he tells me. "Don't get me wrong, minor league baseball is fun but in the Major Leagues everything is catered to you in the sense that you have everything you need right when you walk in." 

Aside from all that he has said that the four championship seasons of, 1989 (Prince William) 1993, 2002, and 2013, with the Barons, have all been highlights of his career. "When you take into consideration the long hot summer and the countless hours away from home, winning a championship is very special. My one game that stands out is a no-hitter in 1995, during a pennant race which the Barons won 1-0. The pitcher was Luis Andujar who had a small taste of the big leagues," Curt tells me.

Two minutes before he is about to go on air he points to his watch, "See those 5 hours go by fast!" he says to me.

He stands for the first 3 innings of every broadcast and for the last 15 years has swapped out the soda and coffee for water. He told me that broadcasting is like pitching it's all about pace and rhythm.

Even though being a play-by-play broadcaster is hard to break into with limited spots available at Bloom's current age of 60 he has not given up on his childhood dream of being a Major League Broadcaster.

"I am still the luckiest guy in the room. I knew at nine years old what I wanted to do and I am still living that dream today."

Curt Bloom was inducted into the Birmingham Barons Hall of Fame in 2013, he has also won AL Broadcasters Association Best in Broadcasting Large Market in 2015 and in 2018 was inducted into the Southern League Hall of Fame.


 

A Power 5 Mascot

They get the crowd into a frenzy, all while having fun doing it! Various professional and collegiate sports mascots are iconic figures; it is an essential part of college sports and a university's history. What makes a mascot great is the audience, as it is about the franchises it symbolizes! 

Despite seeing them almost every time you watch a sporting event, what do we know about the people who are the sports mascots? Beneath the costumes, who are these "performers"? 

DIBS spoke with a graduate student whose name or mascot we cannot reveal due to the university rules but is the mascot to one of the Power 5 universities and has served as the school's mascot for the longest tenure!

This particular school’s university mascot attends roughly 100 to 150 events a year this would include sporting events such as football, basketball, baseball, softball, soccer, volleyball, and gymnastics—these make up over half of the appearances the mascot makes each year. Outside of sporting events, there are campus and community events as well as photoshoots with the school's social media team, graduations, and fundraisers.

*The Power Five Universities encompass 65 schools and are considered the elite in college sports in the United States and are part of the NCAA Division I, the nation's highest level of collegiate sports.

I am aware that you can not disclose what collegiate mascot you are but do people on campus know you are?

Sadly over five years, the word has gotten out to a few people. I was already not the best about keeping secrets, which was the most challenging part of becoming the mascot. However, it is not to the point where people see me going to class and know I am the mascot, which is honestly a part of the fun. One day you can go to class as just an average student, and then the next, you are on the football field in front of tens of thousands of fans. In my opinion, that's what makes it the best college job a person can have.

Why did you want to become a mascot?

Surprisingly to many people, I was not a mascot in high school. Most college mascots I have met were not high school mascots either. However, growing up around my university, I was always incredibly spirited and went to as many sporting events as I could. I knew I wanted to continue that school spirit by becoming a super-fan when I entered college. I sat in the front row for every football and basketball game my freshman year, wearing the craziest outfits I could reasonably put together. That got me noticed by the marketing department, which led me to have an opportunity to serve as one of the school's t-shirt throwers at the games. While there, I got close with the guys who served as the mascot and encouraged me to try out. From there, the rest is history!

Could you explain the process of trying out to be the mascot?

For my program, it was a three-day process! The first step was seeing how I looked in the mascot suit. Since the program already had a few returning members, the coach wanted to pick students who were a similar size as the current members. Unfortunately, having members of varying sizes is not ideal for mascot programs as it ruins the image of there being only one 'mascot' character.

On the second day, we learned the walk and the character of the mascot and an interview with the coach. Then, after cuts were made, the remaining participants had a final tryout which consisted of improv skills, dancing skills, and overall energy. Luckily for me, everyone who was trying out at that point made it, and I officially became my school's mascot. Funnily enough, my first ever event as the mascot was only a few hours later at an event on campus, so I got thrown into mascoting quite quickly.

Currently, the team has five members, but I have been on the team with as few as four and as many as seven.

What do you think it takes to be a collegiate mascot?

The most important trait one can have is learning to be someone completely different. My mascot's personality is over the top, energetic, and loves to be the center of attention, which are traits that I do not necessarily share. However, when I put on the suit and go out to perform at an event, I lose all of my personal qualities and become that character. To be a good mascot, you have to be willing to get out of your comfort zone. For example, while you may not be the type of person to run onto a basketball court during a time out and jokingly imitate the referees, that's exactly what a mascot would do. This does take a while to fully learn; however, it took me over a year to be fully comfortable putting myself in those situations. Also, while dancing skills are not mandatory (I am an example), they are incredibly beneficial.

Were there mascot mannerisms that were already in place? Or did you help create the persona?

The mascot's character was already pretty defined when I entered the team so there weren't too many mannerisms I had the opportunity to create. However, I will say that I may have influenced a few poses the mascot now does while taking pictures with fans.

Did you have any sort of training prior? Is there such a thing as Mascot classes?

Prior to my tryouts, the only training I received was from the current members teaching me the walk and the mascot's character. Once I got accepted into the program, the university sent the team to a college mascot camp in Texas, where they taught us skills such as prop making and planning skits. From there, most of the training comes from a yearly camp we have that is put on by former mascots to refresh us before the start of the fall semester. While these camps and practices are helpful, the best way to learn for me is by doing as many appearances as possible and taking critiques from the other team member.

What are some areas in which mascoting has helped you?

Performing as the mascot has helped a lot with gaining confidence, which I have struggled with for years. It taught me time management skills, as I had to learn how to balance school, social life, work, and mascoting. It taught me how to be a good teammate and work well with others. Best of all, the connections and friendships I have made while being the mascot have been life-changing.

What are some mascot rules that one should be aware of or aren't aware of?

The biggest rule of being a mascot is not taking off your head. While self-explanatory, for many programs, that is an automatic termination from the position. The second biggest rule is to not talk in the suit. Fans, students, and even university workers know this and will do their best to try to make you say something, but it's pretty easy to say collected. Another big rule is keeping your identity a secret. The fun of the mascot is that it is treated as its person and not as a suit a college kid wears. To keep that fun alive, you have to be selective about who can know. I have heard of some programs that only allow immediate family and significant others to know. I heard of a professional mascot who kept their position a secret from their child.

What challenges do you face as a mascot?

Most of the challenges I face as the mascot come from how much time obligation the position is. Over the years, I have missed numerous parties and get-togethers with friends because I was scheduled to do an event as the mascot. Of course, this is similar to almost any job, but when you throw in school and other work obligations, it can be pretty difficult to find any free time some weeks.

What do you want to do as a career?

While fairly broad at the moment, I currently want to pursue a career in the sports industry, particularly in either event management, marketing, or entertainment. However, I haven't fully shut down the idea of becoming a professional mascot, and I hope to reach out to professional teams in the near future.

Who are some mascots that inspire you?

There are so many great mascots out there that it is hard to pick just a few! Obviously, I have to say Benny the Bull is definitely one of the best! He is honestly the Michael Jordan of mascots and often sets the standard for many other mascot programs. Blue from the Indianapolis Colts is great as well! His presence online is incredible, and he has honestly turned himself into a social media celebrity. Some of my other favorites include Orbit from the Houston Astros, Stuff from the Orlando Magic, and the Phillie Phanatic from the Philadelphia Phillies!

What is something that compares to being a mascot?

Very few things! Unless you become a widely known athlete, actor, or musician, there may be no other job you can have that receives as many cheers and picture requests as a school's mascot.

Have you ever done theater?

I did a tiny bit of acting in middle and high school and even did some extra work in a few filmed projects but nothing substantial. Honestly, I wouldn't even consider myself an actor or even good at acting outside of mascot performing. However, you do have to become pretty animated when being a mascot. Since you can't speak or use facial expressions while performing, you have to be significant with your motions to convey what you're feeling. One trick, I thought, is whatever motions you make that feel overtop appear like a normal action in the mascot suit. Due to this, we are always taught to be over the top in everything we do.

For example, when I was at mascot camp, we were taught to 'burst the bubble'. As silly as it may sound, they told us to imagine there is a bubble around us at all times, and every action you make must be big enough to burst the bubble. But, of course, I can never forget the famous quote, "If the fur ain't flying, you ain't trying!'

What are the craziest thing that you have done as a mascot or has happened to you?

Being the mascot, you are always going into crazy events. One of the coolest things I have ever done was being in a commercial in Los Angeles and having the opportunity to fly out and film there for a few days. I honestly felt like a celebrity the whole time I was there. The company behind it got me my own room in a nice hotel in Hollywood, they got me a personal driver to pick me up from the airport and bring me around the city to the filming locations, and I was given my dressing room. It was honestly one of the most surreal things I have ever done. Sadly, that was only temporary, and I had to return to college when it was finished. It was a complete roller coaster going from a pampered actor in a Los Angeles film studio to going to some business class as an unknown student within days.

Some other super cool things I have done include crowd surfing the student section during a football game, appearing at a huge ball in Washington D.C., and even meeting the crew from ESPN College Gameday. Of course, a ton of other crazy stuff has gone on, but I can't get into all of it here.

Interview by Cristina Byrne Sternberg

Trash Pandas Social Media Manager Lucas Dolengowski

Of course, there is a Minor League Baseball Team called the Trash Pandas! Yes, the slang word for a Raccoon, you know, the animal that forages through garbage! 🦝

Lucas Dolengowski runs their social media and is constantly figuring out ways to stand out from the other 119 Minor League Baseball Teams. He likes to create comical memes and incorporate some banter into the brand; he also says he is "fortunate to work with many talented people who provide plenty of ideas."

Check out this exclusive interview and learn more about what it takes to be a Social Media Manager to the Rocket City Trash Pandas. The name that is responsible for the highest merchandise sales in Minor League Baseball before the first game.

Love it or hate it the Raccoon, or should I say The Trash Panda lives in Rocket City, and it doesn't look like it's going anywhere.

The Rocket City Trash Pandas is the Double-A affiliate to the LA Angels located in Madison, AL; their home opener at Toyota Field is on Tuesday, April 12th, against Pensacola Blue Wahoos.

Introduce yourself!

Hi! I’m Lucas Dolengowski and I’m the social media manager for the Rocket City Trash Pandas! I grew up in Orlando in the heart of the theme parks, and I’m a graduate of the University of Florida. I’ve been working professionally in social media for 5+ years now, including college athletics, golf, and football.

Have you always wanted to be a social media manager or was it something that you fell into?

I originally wanted to do sports broadcasting, specifically baseball. I did a lot of that for most of my college experience, but in my last year at UF I had an opportunity to work as a social media intern for the athletic department. I’ve always loved social and used it a ton personally, and two months into that internship I decided to switch career paths. A bunch of my friends from our college sports broadcasting program did the same thing I did and got into social – so many of them are working for big teams too. Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Falcons, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia Phillies, Tampa Bay Lightning, just to name a few.

What kind of pressures do you face when having to post for thousands of followers? 

I think the biggest challenge is constantly coming up with new content, or at least new ways to present recurring content. You have to keep things fresh online, or your fans will just tune out and engagement will go down. I’m competitive in that regard too – I want to be better and different than the other 119 Minor League teams. We’ve created such a fun and unique brand so far with the Trash Pandas, so my personal pressure is how we keep that going and stay in people’s minds.

Where do you find inspiration for content?

My media relations coordinator asks me this a lot, like “How do you even come up with this stuff?” Honestly, my brain just works in very weird and silly ways sometimes. I love memes and I love comedy so that factors into a lot of what I do. Minor League Baseball (and the internet as a whole) is a very copycat industry, so being able to take whatever trending content you see and spin it to your advantage is something I enjoy doing. I’m fortunate to work with a lot of talented people who provide plenty of ideas, too. It’s a very collaborative effort.

What are some challenges you face in managing social media? And how do you overcome them?

It’s an “always-on” sort of job. The ability to be connected to our professional social channels at all times is a blessing and a curse. Along with our broadcaster, our social media team covers EVERY Trash Pandas game during the season. It’s great that we get to watch baseball and post about it, but our “off days” are definitely much fewer than most other people in the front office. Taking breaks and disconnecting in the offseason is really important to reset your mind. The other challenge is digital envy – there are SO many talented sports creatives out there, many in organizations with a lot more resources to produce great content. I get jealous sometimes of their posts. It’s great for ideas, but you have to execute what you’re able to execute, control what you can control.

In your opinion, what do you think are your top 3 social media posts? And why?

This is our most viral TikTok, with over a million views. It became a bit last season for our athletic trainer, Yusuke Takahashi, to stare into the camera in pregame warmups. It’s just so simply hilarious, and simplicity usually wins on social. This is one of my personal favorites because it was a very “in the moment” type post that had nothing to do with us. Tennessee football fans were literally chucking trash onto the field because of a bad call from the referee, so I had to jump on it. Any trending topic or meme related to trash, garbage, or raccoons is fair game for us and usually performs really well. Finally, this walk-off homer from last season is maybe my favorite iPhone shot. I just had it on a stabilizer and there will certainly be thousands of higher quality videos in the sports world, but giving fans close-up access is really important to me. Emotion plays wonderfully on social. I got splashed with Gatorade and water, of course.

Between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok - how do you distinguish what content to post where?

Most of it just really depends on your age and demographics. Facebook and Twitter skew older, Instagram and TikTok skew younger. A lot of our marketing and sales efforts go towards Facebook and Twitter, making sure we put as much relevant information we can into posts. You almost have to “spoon-feed” details to fans – people can easily look up information on our website or at the link in the post, but most don’t want to take the time. Instagram and TikTok are where we hit on more pop culture and fun visuals. Fortunately for the Trash Pandas, we’re much more of a wide-reaching brand, as opposed to JUST a baseball team. We can get in on memes and trending topics, and that works for us. Society has such a short attention span – how quickly can you capture and hold someone’s attention?

Describe a social media hiccup/regret and what did you learn from that?

I don’t have one specific example, but I do tend to be a little sassy sometimes on our channels, especially when replying to fans. It works on TikTok and Twitter because those are more “fun” platforms, but I have to stay level-headed on other channels. Something very frustrating to me is when people ask us a question that would actually be quicker to just look up on Google, as opposed to waiting for a reply from the social team. We’ve set a good standard of quickly answering customer service questions because it’s a very important part of the job. But what if we weren’t that fast with replies? Or didn’t have the resources to properly answer customer inquiries? I’m a very independent internet user and know how to find things easily, but have to remember that others aren’t wired that way.

What are some skills a social media manager should have?

A skill I really value is copywriting ability. How quickly and how well can you come up with attention-grabbing captions? How’s your spelling and grammar? Do you proofread? Obviously, not everything has to be grammatically correct depending on your brand, but it’s still important. Nothing is more frustrating to me than watching other teams make spelling and grammar mistakes. You should be a multi-faceted content creator. Can you produce, shoot, edit, and post? It’s really nice to have creative support around you, but to a degree, you need to have some independence there.

What is the most important thing a social media manager should know?

This is certainly a learned trait, but you can’t take things personally. People online will send mean responses and have angry messages and post dumb comments – it’s the world we live in, unfortunately. Some things are definitely hard to ingest, but I usually try to take everything with a grain of salt. It’s mostly very funny to me. Comedy is my defense mechanism. I enjoy reading out our most outlandish/irrational comments in postgame meetings.

Describe a typical day for your off-season and in-season.

In-season is my favorite time to be a social media manager. We’ll have staff meetings every gameday to go over the operations for that night. We’ll showcase what giveaways or promotions we may have, new food items, lineups, pitching matchups…it’s all part of the ballpark experience. Once players start arriving in the afternoon, we’ll usually shoot batting practice or pitcher workouts. It’s nice to get out of the office at this time of day, soak up some sun and gameday atmosphere, gather true baseball content. Once the game starts we’re shooting game highlights, crowd shots, monitoring social feeds, answering fan questions, and ultimately posting score updates. In the off-season, we focus a lot on non-baseball events: Beer & Wine Fest, 5K Races, Christmas Light Show, 4th of July Celebrations, etc. We’ll also recap the season that just finished and begin planning for the next baseball season. It’s truly a year-round marketing effort.

In terms of engagement, what content does the Trash Panda Nation seem to respond to?

Sprocket, our mascot, is a fan favorite. His personality is supposed to be mischievous and fun-loving, and that plays really well as the face of our brand. With only one season under our belt so far, Sprocket content still gets more engagement than most of the things we post with players or coaches. People also seem to love groundskeeping videos. They really fall into that “oddly satisfying” genre. Cutting grass, painting lines, raking dirt – it’s all strangely calm and enjoyable to consume. Memes and pop culture references usually kill too. Again, we’re a lifestyle brand more than we are a baseball team.

Keep up to date with The Trash Pandas - check out their Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter

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Interview by Cristina Byrne Sternberg

Harrison Stone, athlete turned actor

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Harrison is an athlete who played NCAA Division 1 Tennis and was ranked #1 in high school for Alabama. He teaches tennis lessons at Atheltic Club Alabama in Huntsville. He is also a professional actor and has appeared in the TV series The Liberator, and NCSI: New Orleans, and the movie the Green Book to name a few.

I meet Stone on the set of Super Science Showcase, where these photos were taken, and briefly chatted with him about being an athlete and an actor.

DIBS: What are some things about being an athlete have taught you about being an actor? 

Work ethic and having a thick skin. When I was playing tennis growing up I had some coaches who would yell, scream and scare me. They consistently put a tremendous amount of pressure on me, and learning how to deal with the pressure from sports helped me better remain calm under the pressure of being an actor whether it’s auditions, callbacks, or onset. I also really learned the value of hard work from sports. If you want to be great at anything, you have to be willing to work hard at it day in day out. The work ethic I have from tennis prepared me for the grind of filmmaking. I also believe that being an athlete has helped me as an actor in terms of the physicality of taking on roles. I think acting is much more physical than people realize and I think that from sports I learned how my body moves and am better aware of it which helped me better attempt to execute a role I am playing.

Lastly, I believe that in both sports and acting, you have to learn that you are going to consistently fall down and fail, and you have to learn to pick yourself back up and continue working towards your goals. So funny enough, in both realms, I believe failure is a vital part of success.

DIBS: What are some similarities between an athlete and an actor?

That is a really interesting question. I think from my experience, with tennis, I would have to, day in and day out, work to perfect my stokes and my game. I think there is a misconception with acting that it is relatively “easy” and that there isn’t much to it in terms of muscle memory or a technique - that’s dead wrong. With tennis, my racket was my “instrument” whereas with acting it’s simply my body, but in both cases you have to consistently work out the given muscles to perfect the technique in each given field. I also think in both areas you have to learn how to deal with pressure under difficult circumstances. 

DIBS: Why do you think there is a misconception that sports and the arts do not go hand in hand?

I think it’s because usually people only do one or the other. But if you look at history. Many of the greatest actors of all time were incredibly good athletes and many great athletes do well acting in films/commercials. I honestly have no idea why they don’t go together but I personally love both and I have many friends in the industry that have been very successful athletes along with their acting careers. I feel like this is the crux of High School Musical haha!

DIBS: Why is having a creative outlet important for being an athlete? 

Well, I think both sports and the arts can inform each other and help a person be better well rounded. Whether they are more focused on one or the other, I believe by being both an athlete and an actor, I have gotten better at one because of the other and vice versa. 

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Check out his IMBD