Heiss The Fan
Erik Heiss, 26, was a Philly sports nut, working in Manhattan for MLB.com, writing copy for announcer Casey Stern, acting his usual reserved self at work - former class clown, he graduated to being the mascot at West Deptford High School (an eagle) then at Monmouth University (a hawk).
The two guys would give each other endless grief - Stern's a Mets fan, Heiss rises and falls with the Phillies. "I guess growing up in South Jersey," he says, "if you don't follow the local teams, you get beat up. That is the way we roll."
Stern figured there had to be some way to bottle this essence of Philly fanaticism.
Which is the backstory to the weekly video blog you can see today at 12:30 at MLB.com, where the goateed goofball in a backward Phillies ballcap is (slightly) transformed into Heiss the Fan, which means fan of all things Philadelphian. (Old episodes are archived.)
Heiss presents a two-minute standing feature on the latest Phillies feats, illustrated with Pythonesque cut-outs, such as his ever-crowding bandwagon that chugs across the bottom of the screen, and "The Grub," which are graphics of pretzels, hoagies and cheesesteaks that he issues for the best performances. No other team gets special treatment on MLB.com's Midday Show. He may have started something.
"I get paid to watch baseball," he says, slowly, letting the beauty of those words sink in. "It's not that bad. The hours don't allow a regular life. But I'm a 26 year old, hanging around, watching baseball."
He put in time with Comcast Sportsnet, then NBA TV before he began writing and editing the Fast Cast, which is MLB.com's quick daily summary of the latest baseball news. His job is freelance. He moved up to voicing the Fast Cast this season. Then Stern gave him his opportunity - if he could come up with something - and Heiss figured he's just be his manic self, but with grub like cheesesteaks to give out.
His first show followed Aaron Rowand's appointment with the centerfield wall in May. The Phillies went five and one after that. Heiss figured he was good luck. Then they tanked a little. He figured he was bad luck. Then he realized he probably wasn't having a huge impact on the won-loss column. He plays it loose.
"The Midday show is sort of like late-night comedy in the middle of the day. It's Web TV. Your audience is ... who knows? You can have more fun than if you're just being SportsCenter."
For today, he says he's got some split-screen silliness up his sleeve to honor the series-splitting recent play of the Phillies. It has something to do with how splits aren't always bad. Like banana splits. Or his cousin Christina, who did nice splits. Or atomic splits, which, he has to admit, are even more powerful than Ryan Howard.