Andy Pantini stages 'The Show' for Kernels' games

CEDAR RAPIDS — He's responsible for putting on 'The Show' every night at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

The pregame entertainment and announcements, the between-innings stuff, the scoreboard highlights — that's all Andy Pantini.

It can be pretty daunting at times.

'Sometimes it's stressful,' the IT and communications manager for the Cedar Rapids Kernels said. 'But it's also very rewarding, especially on nights where we do things like (salute) military heroes. When it goes well, it's great. When it doesn't go well, it's not so great.

'The nice thing is most of the time you've always got tomorrow. So you reload and try again.'

He admitted that, 'It's a change for me from being all about baseball to being about entertainment. As big a baseball fan as I am, it took me a couple seasons to realize that.'

The ballpark has been Pantini's office for more than two decades. He's in his 16th year as a full-time Kernels employee and worked part time before that as scoreboard operator and official scorer.

It has truly been a family endeavor. His wife, Lorilynne, is a regular ballpark visitor and his parents, Tony and Shirley Pantini, worked for years at the stadium's information window.

'There couldn't be that much better of a job,' said the 50-year-old Pantini, who also works games as an off-ice official for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders and is the voice of Linn-Mar football on the public-address system. 'One thing that really helps here is that our staff is great and we've been together a long time.

'This season is probably the most turnover we've had, but it's more adding people. With the growth of our organization, pushing off into more and more stuff, there is always something going on, and we just can't handle it all.'

Pantini writes a daily script for home games that sets out exactly what's going on the scoreboard and PA-wise from the minute the on-field announcer signs on to the final pitch of the game. He works closely with Metro Studios, the sports production company that handles in-game video.

He said he'll be doing more actual directing of 'The Show' this season.

'That'll be a good change for me,' he said.

His other duties with the Kernels include working on the team's website and being in charge of media relations. He also does things with the Waterloo Bucks, the collegiate Northwoods League baseball team the Kernels purchased a couple years ago.

'It's a lot of fun, the best job you can have,' he said. 'You get paid to do baseball, and that's pretty good.'