Pittsburgh Pirates: Clear The Deck! Interview with Greg Brown
By Cody Potanko
Clear the deck…
Every announcer has a significant style to their game and within that style comes a few unique calls during the game. Although Greg Brown has many calls within that toolbelt, his most memorable calls is when you hear “clear the deck, cannonball coming!” Knowing this, I wanted to know where exactly where that call came from.
"BROWNS RESPONSE: “That came from a buddy of mine who is a barber in Bellevue who has been cutting my hair for a very long time. Now he’s not just a barber, but he now owns a theater/bar in Stowe township. He and I became really good friends, and he may have called me one night around midnight where I was at on the west coast road trip. He was at his house with his family, and they were sitting around and saying I have to have a home run call. I have been really slow to adopt a home run call because, to this day, I don’t want to take away from what the player has done on the field and have the announcer take center stage.” Continued: “He eventually told me that he got the call that I need to use. My friend is well aware I’m a big fan of Caddyshack. There’s a scene where Bill Murray’s character says at one point, cannonball coming, cannonball coming. His uncle or dad then said it needs something naval related to go with it, and then it clicked, CLEAR THE DECK CANNONBALL COMING! So I went with that and then one day at batting practice in the dugout, and the pitchers were batting. The pitchers were trying to hit homers during that practice, and I think it was A.J Burnett who hit the home run, and then I hear someone say my home run call. That made me think if these guys are picking up on that, it must be going over well.”"