Spinners voice lands his dream job

Dreams can come true. Just ask Lowell Spinners radio broadcaster Mike Demos.

Demos always wanted to be a play-by-play announcer ever since he was little. Growing up in Canton, Mass., he really wanted to do it for his favorite team -- the Boston Red Sox.

"I'm a lifelong, die-hard Red Sox fan," said Demos. "[I] grew up listening and watching all the games."

So Demos began to work hard to pursue his dream job.

Demos' journey got underway during his freshman year in high school when he started his first broadcasting gig calling local games. Demos hasn't looked back since.

When Demos enrolled at Elon University in North Carolina, he beat out juniors and seniors to become the play-by-play announcer for the football team. He would later do basketball and intern for the Atlantic Coast Conference.

After graduating in 2006, Demos took a job calling Rookie ball in Burlington, N.C. After the season, he became the play-by-play man for Siena College women's basketball. But that dream of calling games for the Boston Red Sox lingered.

As winter came to an end and the college basketball season started winding down in 2007, Demos began to look for a baseball job to occupy the summer months. During his search, he came across a press release put out by ESPN Radio and the Lowell Spinners announcing a "Dream Job Competition" to become the voice of the Spinners.

The job was perfect. Lowell is the New York-Penn League affiliate of his childhood team, the Boston Red Sox. It's located right in the middle of Red Sox Nation. Without any hesitation, Demos entered the competition.

The contest would be just like the ESPN TV show "Dream Job Competition" for a SportsCenter anchor, except, it would not be televised. Anyone was eligible to enter.

"They accepted anybody and everybody," recalled Demos. "You had people who had been in the business a long time. You had people who were relatively new out of college, people who were still in college and Joe Shmos off the street."

According to Demos, about 40 people showed up for the first audition. When it was Demos' turn, he went into a closed studio. They replayed the second inning of Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, when Johnny Damon hit a grand slam to put the Red Sox up big over the Yankees.

Demos' challenge: to call the play.

"You sit down, the producer points, and you go," said Demos. "You just do it."

Demos' call must have been pretty good because they asked him to return with the other finalists. But the next challenge was even more difficult.

At the second and final audition, the remaining few contestants were escorted into a big studio. Sitting in the room were an ESPN radio director, a sportswriter and the Spinners' media relations director.

"The pressure was on because you were being watched there," said Demos. "It was definitely a nervous time to be in front of a group of people."

This time Demos had to recapture one of the greatest moment in Red Sox history: the clinching moments of game four of the 2004 World Series when Boston ended their 86-year championship drought. It was no easy task.

"I didn't want to overdo it, but I didn't want to under-do it," said Demos. "I think the main thing I did was try to build up how important [the moment] was."

He must have done something right, because Demos won the contest and was selected to be the voice of the 2007 Spinners. Winning the Dream Job Competition has been everything Demos expected and more.

"Obviously this isn't Boston," said Demos. "But to be a part of the organization and work at a ballpark as beautiful as this, it's like a dream come true. I couldn't be happier."

"Lowell is like a Triple-A ballpark with a Major League staff. This is the big leagues."

Of course being in professional baseball does have its pitfalls. The expectations are tremendous. Every call is carefully monitored and every mistake is chronicled.

"Trying to live up to expectations is the biggest challenge," said Demos. "You have to be on top of your game here, this isn't practice anymore. This is the real deal, this is the Red Sox organization."

But Demos isn't too worried. He'll gladly take on that challenge if he gets to be a part of his favorite team.

"Who would want to leave here?" Demos asked. "It's just a great place to be, and I'm looking forward to the future here."