(it seems having a cartoon likeness on the team’s website is not considered much of a perk)
In a unique incident Tuesday night that some Mets fans can only hope provides Wayne Hagin with inspiration, Altoona Curve (Eastern League, AA) play-by-play announcer Dan Zangrilli quit his position as the team’s director of broadcasting, leaving in the middle of a game against the Erie Seawolves. From the Altoona Mirror’s Corey Gieger :
Zangrilli called the first three innings of Tuesday’s game against Erie at Blair County Ballpark, then went off the air, as usual, for the middle innings. His assistant, Mike Passanisi, always handles the middle innings of home broadcasts, and occasionally he stays on for the remainder of the contest when Zangrilli would be handling other duties.
Passanisi stayed on the air for the remainder of the game, and nothing was mentioned about Zangrilli.
“I started the game, and then I wound up — it became apparent that we weren’t going to be able to move forward any longer,” Zangrilli said.
“It came to a point where I realized that there were some compromises that weren’t going to be made, and I had to move on,” Zangrilli said.
Asked to clarify if he meant compromises he expected the franchise to make, Zangrilli said, “Correct.”
Curve general manager Rob Egan would not disclose any specifics about what led to Zangrilli’s decision.
“We’re not going to get into what happened and all that,” Egan said Wednesday afternoon. “We just have philosophical differences, and he left the team effective immediately.”
Zangrilli said the differences were not an isolated or recent occurrence.
“It became apparent over an extended period of time that there wasn’t going to be any movement by either party,” he said.