When I told people that I was a semifinalist to be the Orioles new PA announcer, they were impressed.  Their automatic response was, "That would be so cool!" even after I explained the long hours, having to report a full two hours before game time, staying for extra innings if necessary, then having to get up the next morning for my regular job as a middle school teacher.  We're talking 15-16 hour days at least-- and I had some serious trepidations about it.  "I'm kind of worried they'll actually offer it to me," I'd say.  "It'd be hard to turn down, but I don't know how I'd pull it off."  "Yeah," they'd say,"but it would be so cool..."  

Matthew Byars is a middle school English teacher at St. Paul’s School for Boys and the founder of the Baltimore Writing Lab. This piece originally aired on WYPR, Baltimore, on September 7th and 8th, 2012.