From Round Up to Sandlot: Bill Dungjen debuts as voice of Traverse City Pit Spitters
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
If you frequented the Round Up variety show and open mic that played on Thursday nights at the Hayloft Inn on M-72 between 2004 and 2020, you might recognize the new public address announcer’s voice at Traverse City Pit Spitters’ minor league baseball games this summer.
That’s Cedar resident Bill Dungjen—a musician, sometime DJ at the WNMC college radio station, former Glen Lake School theater director, and now the baritone in the booth behind home plate. The Pit Spitters, two-time champions of the unaffiliated Northwoods League, opened their home season on May 29 at Turtle Creek Stadium. It’s Dungjen’s job to welcome fans to the ballpark, urge them to stand and remove their ballcaps for the national anthem, announce the starting lineups, get them excited for the hot dog races, t-shirt cannon giveaway, and “dad bod” competition between innings, and remind them to stick around for fireworks after the game.
Dungjen, age 52, found a job on Indeed.com and auditioned in March for the Pit Spitters’ on-field personality host. But the moment assistant general manager Sam Connell and promotions manager Lauren DeWitt heard him speak, they exchanged affirmative glances and booked him for the booth.
“We heard Bill talking and thought, ‘this guy’s got a real good voice’,” said Connell. “So we had him do a PA (public address) read for [a local advertisement]. Bill read it through once. We both knew we had our guy. That voice was a perfect fit.”
Connell described the public address announcer as the glue that holds together the experience of being at the ballpark. Without him you wouldn’t know who’s coming up to bat, or when a pitching change occurs. You wouldn’t know who is in the starting lineup. You wouldn’t hear announcements or upcoming promotions during the game.
“It’s important we have someone who can portray our messaging to the fans as clearly and distinctly as possible,” said Connell.
Dungjen’s only training was when he announced for a three-game round-robin high school tournament last month at Turtle Creek Stadium between Glen Lake, Suttons Bay and Harbor Springs. He loved applying his voice as the “calming hand on the tiller,” he said. Dungjen is excited to attend all of the Pit Spitters’ 36 regular season home games (between now and early August) in the “best seat in the house”—right behind home plate, where he can study each pitch.
Over the next few nights, he’ll build on the over-the-loudspeakers interaction with the on-field promotions team, the kids tossing frisbees, running three-legged races, and high-fiving Monty, the team’s blue, furry mascot—antics that form an integral part of drawing families to Minor League baseball games.
Dungjen’s best baseball experience—before this one—came in the mid-1990s when he was wandering around a Chicago northside neighborhood one summer day and happened upon Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs and considered the crowned jewel of Major League ballparks. However, he grew up a Tigers fan here in northern Michigan. As a child he went to Tiger Stadium in Detroit and later took his father-in-law to Comerica Park. He remembers listening to Tigers’ legendary announcer Ernie Harwell on the radio while driving around Leelanau County but also finding old clips on the Internet of Red Barber calling play-by-play for the Brooklyn Dodgers or New York Yankees.
“There’s a little poetry in it,” Dungjen said about announcing ballgames over the radio. “It’s poetry, but also so concise—the way you can explain to the listener what’s going on with just a few simple phrases.” … Down in the count, 0-2, the hitter chokes up on the bat … or the runner takes an extra step in his lead off second base …
Dungjen won’t be announcing the games live over the radio, but he’s excited to lead fans in baseball’s time-honored communal rituals.
“When we get to the seventh-inning stretch, I get to take the mic and lead fans in singing ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame,’ everyone in the ballpark will know what to do and when to do it. How great is that?”
