IronPigs radio man gets his own callup to the bigs

FROM KEITH GROLLER

It may not have been as exciting as what his IronPigs radio broadcast partner Jon Schaeffer is doing this week, but IronPigs play-by-play man Matt Provence was given the opportunity to do the Phillies pregame and postgame shows on radio on Wednesday night.

Jim Jackson, who normally handles the pregame and postgame duties on flagship station WPHT (AM 1210) and all of the Phillies affiliates, including WSAN (AM 1470 AM) in the Lehigh Valley, was busy doing a Flyers preseason game.

It was Provence's first opportunity to do the Phillies and like the other IronPigs who recently got called "down" to Philadelphia since the Lehigh Valley season ended (Freddy Galvis, Brandon Moss, Justin De Fratus etc.), Provence wanted to make a positive impression.

"I thought it went pretty well," Provence said. "The pregame show was very structured and you had to stay within each time frame, but we did it on the concourse level at Citizens Bank Park and that was a lot of fun. The postgame allowed for more time and was very enjoyable. Hopefully I proved to them I can handle myself in that type of role, and if other conflicts arise, they will consider me."

Provence was back at his usual baseball home, Coca-Cola Park, on Thursday night scanning tickets as the IronPigs hosted a viewing party for the Phillies final home game of the season.

Schaeffer, however, was nowhere near Allentown's East Side.

He was on his honeymoon in South Africa.

The one good thing about the IronPigs losing in Game 4 of the International League finals last Friday night was that Schaeffer didn't have to feel bad about missing a Game 5 involving the IronPigs on Saturday.

That's because he married the former Kristin Lynch on Saturday at Beaver Stadium.

Provence was in attendance.

"It was on the club level at Beaver Stadium and on the one side you had windows overlooking the mountains and on the other side you had a view of the interior of the stadium," Provence said. "Like Jon, Kristin is also a Penn Stater, but I don't think she was too keen on getting married at Beaver Stadium at first. But then she saw it was going to take place in a renovated club level and it was really quite nice."

Provence said that Schaeffer was nearly correct on his prediction made in the summer of 2010 that the IronPigs would make the International League Championship Series and it would conflict with his wedding.

"Jon said he always has such bad luck, and even before Ryne Sandberg was hired and even before we had any inkling 2011 was going to be such a great year, he said 'You watch, the IronPigs will make Game 5 of the International League finals and I won't be there because I am getting married'," Provence said.

Schaeffer missed Game 4 on Friday night because of the rehearsal dinner, but at least he didn't miss Game 5.

While Schaeffer is on a safari on his honeymoon, Provence is big-game hunting as well. He will work the press room during the Phillies upcoming playoff games at CBP, but said it has been difficult to get the IronPigs out of his system.

"I just hope that 20 years from now, we're not looking back and wondering what might have been," he said. "We came within two games of winning the championship. You never know. It could be awhile until we're that close again."

BAND AID

The Whitehall-Liberty game at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium will be the featured game tonight on RCN-4. The Zephyrs and Hurricanes will be the second game on Service Electric TV2, following the live Parkland-Easton broadcast.

Hopefully, both cable companies will show at least a song or two from Liberty's famous Grenadier Band.

The band is heading to Hawaii to participate in the Waikiki Holiday parade on the day after Thanksgiving. Liberty will be the honor band for the parade, which will be extra special this year because it's the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

Liberty will perform at the USS Arizona Memorial earlier in the same week.

The band is conducting a raffle with the grand prize being getting to accompany the band on the trip to Hawaii. Second prize, courtesy of Air Products, is two tickets to the Phillies Caravan this winter.

I don't know if the TV people will show any of this, but I imagine the person winning the grand prize will be fairly pleased about it.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Phillies NLDS begins a week from Saturday on TBS. Joe Simpson (Braves) and Brian Anderson (Brewers) will work the series. TBS is building its postseason advertising campaign around the Phillies, by the way; not a surprise since the other National League entries don't have the same broad appeal.

TBS has all four division series and the National League Championship Series. Fox has the ALCS and the World Series.

http://www.mcall.com/sports/mc-finetuning-0922-20110922,0,5377178.column