Major League Baseball

Hot dog vendor lands dream job with Cubs

Published May. 10, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

Before the baseball season started, Andrew Belleson was working at his parents' hot dog stand at a strip mall in suburban Chicago.

Now, the 24-year-old has a job as the public address announcer for the Chicago Cubs.

So how did he make the jump from hot dog vendor to a seat next to Wrigley Field's organist?

According to the Chicago Tribune, the Cubs' PA announcer told the team he was taking a new job and wouldn't be available for the season — with less than two months before Opening Day.

"Obviously, we didn't have a lot of time to do a search for the next voice of Wrigley Field," Wally Hayward, executive vice president and chief sales marketing officer for the Cubs, told the Chicago Tribune. "But we needed to make sure the next voice really fit the ballpark."

The Cubs' front office worked with Careerbuilder.com to create an online contest that would help them find their new announcer. Almost 3,000 fans submitted video auditions. Belleson sent his submission in only a few days before the deadline, at the urging of his sister.

He was one of only 25 submissions chosen to try out at an empty Wrigley Field in mid-March — and one of only four to be called back for a second round of tryouts, the Tribune said. That final tryout included team owner Tom Ricketts and Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks as well as other Cubs executives scattered throughout the ballpark to make the final decision.

And now Belleson can be heard at every Cubs home game announcing the next batter, promotions or general announcements to fans from his seat in the press box next to the stadium's organist and lighting director.

"It still feels like a dream. It's not real yet," he told the Tribune. "Sometimes I wake up and still think I have to go to the restaurant and work."

share

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Major League Baseball