Up your music and announcing game for Little League season!

By Adrian Cavlan

I have been involved in providing music for professional sports for a long time now… golly… it’ll be 20 years soon!

As you might imagine, I have seen and done a lot over those years, and so when my son started playing T-Ball in Little League a few years back, it wasn’t long before I realized that those little games could be made into a really big deal for the kids if I made it sound like a big league ballpark in there.

Oh, you should have seen their little faces… “Now batting for the Giants, #9, right fielder Brenton Wade!” And the parents’ faces? Just the icing on the cake : )

So over the few years my boy has been at it, I have tried to find a very simple, portable solution that would allow me to produce the desired result. It took a little hunting, but here’s what I do:

Each of the fields has an elevated “control room” built right behind home plate. Inside, there is a PA system that has a push-to-talk announcer’s mic, as well as a ⅛” AUX cable that is there for a person to plug in his/her phone or whatever for music playback.

What I decided to do was basically use that ⅛” AUX cable to take a feed from a very small mixing board that would allow me to push my voice and the music through it, fading and adjusting levels appropriately as needed.

The mixer I bought was this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009GU4UHY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The mic I use is this: (note the ON/OFF switch - you’ll thank me later!)

https://www.amazon.com/Shure-SM58S-Vocal-Microphone-Switch/dp/B0000AQRSU/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=3TQ7CNEEB3PDZ&keywords=shure+sm58s&qid=1583441882&sprefix=shure+sm58s%2Caps%2C200&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExMFNWNEE0OVdYMU42JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNDEyNjgxODVUUFBLN0pRRFZGJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA5NzYwOTkyV0s5TEU3T0NRNDMwJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

The mic stand I use is this: (disregard that little brass Euro-stand adapter in the photo)

https://www.amazon.com/InnoGear-Upgraded-Adjustable-Microphone-Snowball/dp/B07F82BPLV/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=desktop+mic+stand&qid=1583441970&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzMlMxUFVLRkRWMkRLJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNDI1OTcwMlcxTDMyOTBHMTVOSiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNTg0Mzk1M0hMTEVYRDJZME5USyZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

The mic cable I use is this:

https://www.amazon.com/GLS-Audio-Patch-Cable-Cord/dp/B00CTWOY36/ref=sr_1_15?keywords=4%27+XLR+cable&qid=1583443120&sr=8-15

And then I use my phone with a Spotify playlist I created for just this purpose to play the pregame, between inning and post-game music. WARNING: BE SURE TO PREVIEW THE MUSIC SUPPLIED BY SPOTIFY FOR *UNCENSORED* VERSIONS!! This could happen to you very easily and you DO NOT want that!!

https://www.spotify.com/us/