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Bill Bowers, Braves P.A. announcer
Job: Public address announcer, Atlanta Braves
What I do: You may not know his name or face, but if you've ever been to a baseball game at Turner Field, you know his voice. Bowers, 56, is in his 10th year as the Braves announcer. He sits in the press box, on the first-base side, and works with the BravesVision team, the folks who run the huge high-definition TV screen above center field and other signs throughout the stadium.
He announces the lineups, the batters as they come to the plate, and pitching and other lineup changes. He communicates with umpires about lineup changes and time between innings to accommodate television.
Before the game, Bowers studies the opposing team, especially the pronunciations of their names. "You have to keep up with changes the other teams make so nothing surprises you," he said. "Players come and go. I have to keep up with what they do, how they're doing."
Bowers also makes the many public service announcements, commercials and emergency pages during the game.
He has freedom to embellish -- a little -- the batters' names. "It's great to know how they like their names announced," he said. His favorite? Javy Lopez, the former Braves catcher. "It's a name that rolls out there."
But Bowers doesn't inject home-field bias when announcing members of the other teams. He admitted that a little sarcasm might creep into his voice when he says, "Let's have a warm Atlanta welcome for the New York Mets." But it's all in fun, he added.
What got me interested in this: Bowers was an all-state catcher in high school in Virginia and studied communication and acting at Virginia Commonwealth University. "For a baseball fan, being a baseball PA announcer is a dream." He said it took him 46 years to get to the major leagues. "It's the only thing in the world I'm world-class at."
Best part of my job: "Watching the fans go crazy. We have the best show in professional baseball and the best place to do it," he said. "I've been richly blessed in this job."
During Bowers' tenure, the Braves have won nine division titles and Turner Field has hosted four League Championship Series, one World Series and an All-Star Game. And he got to announce the All-Century Team.
Most challenging part: "Getting the name right, no matter who it is -- getting it right according to what they say. They're not all going to be as easy as [Braves catcher] Todd Pratt."
What people don't know about my job: "People think we're friends with the players. It's just not that way," he said. While he knows the players, they don't go to dinner together after the game.
Bowers says he's been to the dugout only twice. In fact, when he met former Braves ace Greg Maddux, the pitcher said to him, "It's great to put a face with the voice."
What keeps me going: "A love of baseball, but also the camaraderie and family that BravesVision is in my life," he said. "I work with great people, really professional, yet it's a fun place to work."
Preparation needed for this job: "If you like it, find some way to do it and do it all you can," Bowers said.
He advised getting a communications degree and taking as many speech and drama courses as possible. "I'm really acting," he said. "You need showmanship to do this."
He also advised taking voice lessons and doing voice impersonations to learn a variety of inflections and variations.
Bowers worked for radio and television stations "from Fort Lauderdale to Peoria" and was the announcer for the sports teams at Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus when he got the job with the Braves.
In the offseason, he does voice-overs, and when the Braves are on the road, "I go home to Americus to spend time with my children," he said.
- By Karl Ritzler, for ajcjobs. Got an interesting job that you love? E-mail your story to jobseditor@ajc.com.
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