What’s more American than baseball, hot dogs and, well, Tom Hanks? Thanks to the Oakland Athletics, you can have them all at once.
The Major League Baseball team announced Friday that they have enlisted the two-time Oscar winner to record shouting from the bleacher aisles as if he was a hot dog vendor selling munchables you’d find while enjoying an in-person baseball game.
“Hot dogs here! Colossal hot dogs! Not a ballgame without a hot dog! Who wants a hot dog?” he will be heard shouting when his voice is piped in during the Oakland A’s home games at Oakland Coliseum. He’ll also be heard hawking peanuts, soda, scorecards and programs.
Hanks, who is a native of the San Francisco Bay area, is no rookie when it comes to baseball or peddling frankfurters: he played Jimmy Dugan, manager of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League team the Rockford Peaches in the 1992 film “A League of Their Own.” And, according to USA Today, he actually was a vendor in the Oakland Coliseum when he younger.
Fox Sports tried out a new look Saturday, teaming up with Silver Spoons Animation to create a virtual CGI crowd in the stands, sound effects and all, using Pixatope software. Reaction from baseball enthusiasts about the fake fans was not pleasant, for the most part, calling it “ghoulish,” “atrocious” and “pathetic.” We have higher hopes for the Hanks idea.