Rays broadcasters deliver incredible on-air Vanilla Ice retrospective

MLB broadcasting news has been on a sour note of late, with the Baltimore Orioles’ treatment of lead commentator Kevin Brown taking up most of the coverage. The American League East Division once again took the spotlight but for a much more light-hearted reason. The Tampa Bay Rays broadcasters injected some fun into their broadcast.

How much fun? Try a Vanilla Ice career retrospective! Andy Freed and Doug Waechter delivered the goods. The two talked about an upcoming Concert Series the team is hosting at Tropicana Field. Doug and Andy both said that they wanted to stick around for that concert, and then kept on talking about the 80s rapper.

They even joked about potentially being on stage and “showing some dance moves” during the banter. Then they laughed and talked about having the hairstyle back in his heyday as well.

Rays broadcasters Andy Freed and Doug Waechter turned the top of the fourth inning of Friday's game into a Vanilla Ice career retrospective.

It starts the only way it can with "Stop, collaborate and listen." pic.twitter.com/CSn3SjEiAH

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 19, 2023

Then, they pointed out something extra: That Vanilla Ice has already been in a Rays Concert Series before! In 2010, he participated in a concert series that took place in July of that year.

Fun is always nice to have during broadcasts, especially during baseball broadcasts, which do feature a good amount of dead air with no action. So, announcers will have to fill the gaps. Frankly, this was one of the better instances of filling those gaps that we’ve seen in some time.

Especially considering that they filled out the airtime with lyrics from one of Vanilla Ice’s signature songs. That makes us wonder: What would other songs sound like? You have to imagine that someone out there in the world has debated going, “Bye, bye, bye!” after a strikeout.

[Awful Announcing]