Cubs Mariners Car Fire Screengrab: Marquee Sports Network
By Sam Neumann on

There’s probably no other sport, or broadcast for that matter, where the game will be momentarily interrupted by a car on fire on a nearby highway. But baseball isn’t any other sport, and the Chicago Cubs broadcast on Marquee Sports Network isn’t any other broadcast booth.

As smoke infiltrated T-Mobile Park on Saturday night in Seattle, Jon “Boog” Sciambi and Jim Deshaies wanted to figure out what was happening on the outskirts of the ballpark.

During an at-bat in the home half of the fifth inning, Seattle Mariners catcher Seby Zavala dug in against Cubs ace Shota Imanaga. The smoke didn’t interrupt the 2-1 game or the 2-0 count, but both Sciambi and Deshaies couldn’t help but notice that something was burning.

“It feels like it’s gotten hazy down there,” said Sciambi. “T-Mac, am I making stuff up?”

Sciambi was not making stuff up. And Taylor McGregor chimed in with the sideline report that a car was on fire on State Route 99.

“There’s a car on fire on the interstate, just outside the stadium,” McGregor said. “You’re looking live. And it is definitely hazy in here from the smoke.”

As for the Mariners’ ROOT SPORTS broadcast, it captured the fire only as it was being extinguished.

Whether it was a metaphor for Seattle’s performance at the plate this season is not for us to say, but it only furthers the point that you never quite know what you’ll see when you tune into a baseball broadcast. Saturday, a car was on fire. And as for Sunday, well, it’s anyone’s guess what could happen.

[Awful Announcing on X]

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann