The Minnesota Twins are taking a page out of the book of their American League Central division rivals.
As the Detroit Tigers did with play-by-play voice Jason Benetti, some of Minnesota’s players gave the team’s announcers some words to slip into the broadcast. Benetti slipped some words in that included Funkytown, yellowtail, Fortnite, pineapples, and perpendicular.
But the Twins asked Cory Provus and Trevor Plouffe to get a little more creative.
The players made @CoryProvus and @trevorplouffe get a little creative with these 😅 pic.twitter.com/qSULMA68Uf
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) August 22, 2024
Since Provus took over for Dick Bremer in the Minnesota Twins’ broadcast booth, the team’s commentary has been praised, leading to a three-spot jump in Awful Announcing’s local MLB announcer rankings for 2024. And we could see why, as they did their best to squeeze in some player-chosen words during a recent series against the San Diego Padres.
Plouffe was asked to add a touch of humor to the broadcast with the line, “60 percent of the time, it works every time.” Provus was given a more challenging task: He needed to seamlessly incorporate the quirky words “push pop,” “eviscerate,” “snicker-doodle,” and “hopping crickets” into his everyday commentary.
Provus and Plouffe successfully integrated all of the player-suggested phrases into their commentary during the Twins’ recent series against the Padres. While the Twins struggled on the field against the current National League Wild Card leaders, it seems Provus and Plouffe had a much easier time dealing with what was thrown at them out west.
Despite the awkwardness of some phrases, Provus and Plouffe delivered their lines with ease. While they certainly raised eyebrows, many of those at home probably put it off to the cost of doing business and don’t pay much mind to some throwaway phrases. Little did they know that Provus and Plouffe were playing a game of their own.
Plouffe assured fans on Instagram that the bizarre dinosaur conversation he and Provus had during the series was unrelated to the social media challenge.
Go figure!
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Like Benetti with the Tigers, this might be a rite of passage for first-year broadcasters joining new teams. While neither Provus nor Plouffe is new to the Twins’ organization, this challenge seemed like a good way to demonstrate their eagerness to fit in with the players and the fans.
