A natural fit for the Blue Crabs’ voice

Lehan living his dream as stadium’s public address voice

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by DALLAS COGLE Joe Lehan, a Calvert County native from North Beach, is the voice of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs for their inaugural season at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo

Joe Lehan is to announcing what Southern Maryland is to crabs. Separating either pair of complementary parts would not be right.

However, both pair of word associations have been combined to turn a childhood dream into reality.

Lehan is the public address voice of Waldorf’s Regency Furniture Stadium, home of the expansion Southern Maryland Blue Crabs and an ideal, elegant setting for watching baseball at the professional minor league level.

With no home television or radio broadcasts of the first-year outfit –– of the unaffiliated, eight-team independent Atlantic League –– Lehan is the official voice of Blue Crabs.

‘‘It’s always been kind of a fantasy of mine to do something like this,” said the 46-year-old longtime Southern Maryland personality in communications, as an on-air radio DJ across the region the last 28 years with a full-time career for 20 years now in community and government affairs with Comcast. ‘‘I remember as a little boy, Abe Pollin –– the owner of the Wizards and at one time the majority owner of the Caps – he started a circus to compete with Ringling Brothers back in 1975, 76, and it was called Circus America. And I remember going to the old Cap Centre and seeing this guy in the center ring with the top hat and tails, [announcing], ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, let me direct your attention to the center ring.’”

Lehan’s perfect reenactment of the circus announcer comes easy for him. That circus experience left an indelible mark on the young Lehan going forward, as he used his God-given announcing ability to become the official voice of his family events growing up.

‘‘At family Easter egg hunts with this make-believe microphone in my hand, I’d be, like, ‘Who’s going to find the golden egg?’” a nostalgic Lehan recalled, summoning the suspenseful tone he used to deliver the line in a strong tone from back in the day. ‘‘So I always had that urge. All the guys in my family have that tenor to our voice, fortunately or unfortunately.

‘‘For me as a child, I feared my dad just when he spoke.”

Lehan, a Calvert County native from North Beach, first realized his love for broadcasting and announcing as a teenager when he went to a radio station with his father, who was doing a local fishing report on-air in Prince Frederick as part of a sports show.

‘‘I was just in awe of the gadgets in the studio, and I kind of knew then — at that time I was about 15 –– that I wanted to do this at some point,” Lehan said. ‘‘So [whether it’s been my] career or part-time career, it’s been an adventure, it’s always been a fun thing for me to do. It’s something I always look forward to.”

Lehan’s announcing gig –– a side venture given his full-time job with Comcast –– has even been sweeter given the Blue Crabs hot initiation to their new confines. Lehan’s passionate flair behind the microphone, blending his wealth of experience in communications, was no more evident than Friday for the Blue Crabs’ much-anticipated home opener.

Over 7,000 fans packed the stadium to enjoy a bevy of pregame festivities –– which included parachuters, a brigade of bagpipe players and drummers entering beside the old-school, manual scoreboard in left field, a parade of Charles County Youth League’s talent of all ages onto the field accompanied by Blue Crabs mascot ‘‘Pinch,” and special recognition given to honored guests and dignitaries, among a plethora of musical and performance entertainment –– that served as the backdrop for the Blue Crabs’ history-making game in Southern Maryland.

Throughout all the pregame buzz, Lehan was a co-master of ceremonies alongside Comcast SportsNet’s Brent Harris, both clad in tuxedos at the podium located on the center of the infield.

‘‘There was so much going on, and just from my position I was in awe of what was going on,” Lehan said of the pregame environment for Friday’s home opener. ‘‘For a moment there, I didn’t believe I was in Charles County. Just knowing that I’m a small part of that ...”

Lehan noted that the toughest aspect of being the Blue Crabs announcer were the auditions for the job. He had to beat out a handful of others vying for the position. Little did he realize when he won the job that he would have such a ‘‘fantastic view” of the game from the press box, as he described it, located right above home plate overlooking the scenic atmosphere.

He has never performed stadium announcing duties before.

‘‘I really want to hit my stride before I get a little arrogance about me and try to come up with some [signature calls],” Lehan revealed. ‘‘We’re going to play with a few things and see what we can come up with.”