Did Texas Rangers’ Announcer Have On-Air Stroke?
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Lee Blankenship/Workbook Stock/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — It was the bottom of the eighth inning as the San Diego Padres took on the Texas Rangers when the audience heard the Rangers announcer have what sounded like an on-air medical meltdown, which some took as a sign of a stroke.
Dave Barnett’s play-by-play of Monday night’s baseball game took a bizarre turn when he began to speak about a botched robbery and henchman in the midst of the game.
“[The] Go-ahead run is at fifth … on what Adams is insisting on calling a botched robbery. What actually happened was his henchman …,” the announcer rambled incoherently.
Monday night’s broadcast went silent for several seconds as Barnett’s microphone may have been switched off. Many fans now fear that the veteran announcer was having a stroke.
Barnett eventually recovered, and this morning the Rangers told ABC News that the long-time announcer believed the incident “to be the recurrence of migraine headaches.”
This is not the first time something like this has happened to an on-air personality on live television. Last February Serene Branson, a seasoned CBS Los Angeles reporter, gave a garbled report during the Grammys. She was later diagnosed with migraine-related symptoms.
Doctors say sometimes the symptoms pass quickly, but that incoherent speech could also warn of a stroke.
“Part of a blood vessel can rupture, such as a balloon in an aneurysm. Those need to be treated early,” Dr. Jim Moody, a neurosurgeon at Methodist Dallas Medical Center, told ABC News.
Barnett did go on to finish the rest of Monday’s game, but he’ll sit out the next two while he undergoes further tests.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio