Minor League Announcer is Reading’s Iron Man

The man least interested in Reading's salute to Public address announcer Dave Bouman was the guest of honor himself.

During numerous interviews leading up to his special day Bouman told reports that he was honored Reading thought enough to celebrate the milestone, but that it was really nothing special.

“For me, I'm just a guy who does his job," Bouman said. “I show up and do my job. It's no big deal, but they want to have some fanfare about it.”

For the last 28 years Bouman's job has entailed sitting in a tiny press box and telling fans who was batting, who was pitching and what special promotion was coming. That amounts to 2,000 consecutive home games. Well, about that many anyway.

Late last season Reading officials attempted to calculate exactly how many consecutive games it was for Bouman. They couldn't determine an exact number, but are certain that 2,000 falls sometime this week.

Their best estimate had Tuesday being the day, so that's when the Phillies' chose to honor Bauman.

Regardless of the date, Bouman has become an institution in cramped FirstEnergy Stadium. All within the organization are amazed at Bouman's streak.

“When I got here in the 1988 season, I learned that we had a PA announcer who, at that point, hadn't missed a game in nine years,” Reading general manager Chuck Domino said. “I thought that was an accomplishment. Here it is 19 years later and he still hasn't missed a game.”