Have your pencils and scorecards ready, Chicago Cubs fans. A new voice is booming out of the Wrigley Field public address system.
Making his debut with Monday’s game against the Washington Nationals: Jeremiah Paprocki, who, at 21, is younger than anyone on the Cubs’ current roster.
Paprocki also is the first Black person in the role made famous by gravel-voiced Pat Pieper, who was the ballpark voice of the Cubs for their first 59 seasons at Wrigley Field until shortly before his death at 88 after the 1974 season.
When Pieper began as announcer, there was no sound system. He had to hustle along in front of the stands, shouting through a 14-pound megaphone he lugged around. The ballpark’s first loudspeakers weren’t installed until 1932.
More recently the position was held by Paul Friedman (1995-2010), then Andrew Belleson, whose 10-year run ended after last season. Friedman filled in as Wrigley’s PA announcer for the first month of this season.
Born and raised in Chicago, Paprocki said in a video the Cubs posted online Monday that his mother fostered his love of baseball and the Cubs, starting him on the path to this job.
“I wouldn’t be a Cubs fan if it wasn’t for my mom just because she was the person who brought me to these games,” Paprocki said. “And being here to experience the game-day experience and hear public address announcers allowed me to shape my craft and become the PA guy that I am today.”
Paprocki is a graduate of Chicago International Charter School-Northtown Academy and is a first-semester senior at the University of Illinois-Chicago, where he picked up some PA announcing experience, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, which first reported his hiring.
It was during a spring break trip to Florida in March when he first heard about the Wrigley Field opening.
“I started freaking out because I was in Miami and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, like, the time is now!’ ” Paprocki recalled.
His sample submission and subsequent online interview impressed the Cubs enough to roll the dice despite his relative youth.
“It’s been a dream of mine since I was a kid, sitting in these stands and actually mimicking the PA guy and pretending that I was in that seat,” Paprocki said. “Now I’m finally in that seat.”
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