If only her voice could change the way the Mets play
Public-address announcer making big-league history
NEW YORK — The Mets are deep in a season that defies adjectives. Puzzling? Disappointing? Maddening? Bizarre? All apply, which is why Marysol Castro considers herself a voice of hope. Or maybe a voice of reason. Hers is one of those voices you don’t realize you’re hearing when you hear it, like the one that says “This is ‘NBC Nightly News’ with Lester Holt.” Her audience is averaging about 29,000, triple what it would be if she did the same job in Miami, about a third less than if she did it in St. Louis. She is a public-address announcer for the New York Mets.
Castro, 44, is in her first season at Citi Mets. “That allows me to sound warmer,” Field. She is all too aware of how fleeting she said. “When I’m using my visitors’ first place can be — or, for the Mets, was. voice, I’m not smiling.”
She has lived through the heartbreaking Andtherearetimeswhenshetriesto purgatory of last place, the recent climb fire up the crowd by giving the next batinto fourth in the National League East ter’s name a little extra oomph. and, just when you figured all the adjecBut we are talking about the Mets. tives had been exhausted, the anomalous “When you’re down by a ton, I’m not August. getting into that rah-rah voice,” she said.
“Those first 11 games were great,” she “I’m getting into, it’s serious but we’re said recently. “Then the rest happened. still in this. ‘No. 9, Brandon Nimmo.’ ” Istillhavetoshowupandbethevoice, The Mets know all about being down right?” by a ton. This is the team that was oblit
It is a voice that die-hard Mets erated by the Washington Nationals noticed from, well, Day 2. “I thought: 25-4 on July 31, the worst loss in team “Oh, cool, a female PA announcer,” history. The Mets also know about being @Bryanuf wrote June 1 on Twitter. “I up by a ton, as when they beat the Baltimore had no idea that was only the second day Orioles 16-5 on Wednesday and the on the job for @marysolcastro, the first Philadelphia Phillies 24-4 on Thursday, female PA announcer for the Mets. Congrats becoming the first National League team on making history!” She is also the to score at least 15 runs in back-to-back first Latina announcer in Major League games since 1933, according to the Elias Baseball. Sports Bureau.
It is probably best not to tell the Mets Castro did not have to deal with any of crowd that Castro grew up in the shadthe lopsidedness. The big loss and the big ow of a certain stadium in the Bronx that wins came in away games. is home to a certain American League Still, she said, “I would have loved to team. “In the early ’80s, it was all Yanannounce Jose Reyes as a pitcher” in the kees all the time,” she said, “but obviWashington game. Reyes, an infielder ously in 1986, when I was in sixth grade, who was an entertaining and energetic everybody loved the Mets. Ron Darling, shortstop when he was younger, was sent he’s so cute. Keith Hernandez, he’s so hot, in to pitch the eighth inning. The Nationhe’s so great. Now I pass those guys in the als scored their last six runs on him, hallway.” including two homers.
So she has converted to the peculiar Castro had been an English teacher at denomination that is the Mets. Her Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn, job is not just about saying the words — and a television reporter before the lines like “Here is your lineup for your Mets hired her. She had worked for ABC New York Mets” never change — it is News, WPIX-TV and ESPN, among other about finding the tone that sets, or capoutlets. (She is one of two public-address tures, the mood in the stadium. She said announcers the Mets hired in the spring. she told the team’s producers when she The other is Colin Cosell, the grandson auditioned, “I don’t want to sound too of bombastic sports broadcaster Howard rah-rah-rah.” She said that would sound Cosell, who is often credited with having “inauthentic.” declared “Ladies and gentlemen, the
Still, she sounds a certain way when Bronx is burning” during Game 2 of the she is introducing Mets players, and it is 1977 World Series at Yankee Stadium.) different from the way she sounds when But being a voice of the Mets is differshe is announcing the other team’s playent from working as a television reporter. ers. She smiles when she announces the “I don’t have to have my hair and makeup done, which is great,” she said.
Her usual gameday outfit is “ripped jeans and a T-shirt, and my hair is in a ponytail,” she said. “It is highly plausible to show up in sweatpants, but you never know when the Wilpons will show up.” (The Wilpon family owns the Mets.)
On game days, she arrives a couple of hours before the first pitch and goes over the lineups. During games, “I have trained myself to watch the specific spot where Mickey stands,” she said, referring to the manager, Mickey Callaway.
“If he’s putting both of his hands over his ears, he’s going to question the play,” she said. “Or if he steps out of the dugout, does he have a piece of paper in his hands, because if he does, the double switch is coming. We wait. It’s not like someone’s calling us and saying, ‘Hey, guys it’s going to happen.’ ” She has help from a spotter in the announcer’s booth.
She was hired after two auditions. At the first, she asked, “What kind of voice do you want? What kind of delivery do you want?”
“I said, ‘I’ve got a lot of different registers, tell me what you want,’” she recalled. “They said, ‘Your speaking voice on the phone is great. If you can pronounce the Latino names in Spanish, that would be great.’ I said, ‘OK, perfect.’ ”
The second audition was at Citi Field, using the public-address system.
“I said, ‘OK, you’ve heard my voice, because I’ve done “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” with 3 million of my best friends around me, and I’ve flown down to cover hurricanes while they’re coming ashore.’ I said, ‘I’ve got my furniture-selling voice, I’ve got my Marysol voice, you tell me.’ They said, ‘We like the Marysol voice.’ ”
So she introduced Asdrubal Cabrera, the infielder whom the Mets traded to the Phillies last month, with a Spanish pronunciation. “No one had ever heard it come out of the loudspeaker like that. The radio guys would say, ‘Never heard it like that before, but we guess that’s how it’s pronounced.’” She also introduced Adrian Gonzalez, the first baseman whom the Mets released last month, after checking with him. “He said, ‘Yeah, that would be really cool, folks in Mexico would be happy.’ ”
The reaction at home, when Castro told her two sons that she was taking the job, was less enthusiastic.
“The 9-year-old went, ‘Really, it couldn’t be the Yankees?’ ” she recalled.
Her 12-year-old said, “There aren’t many women who have that job.”
“He went to the computer and he said, ‘You’re the second woman to do this. Holy smokes.’ Then he said, ‘Is it taco Tuesday? Because I’m hungry.’ ”