Mark Owens, after more than 1,225 Braves home games, is stepping down as the in-game hype man announcer.
The former radio host on Q100, 99X, Rock 100.5, 92.9/the Game and Star 94 now has a full-time job at Impact Partnership, a financial marketing firm packed with other former Atlanta radio hosts like Heather Branch, Rob Stadler and Randy Cook.
The Braves job eats up at least 81 days out of the year. For him, the extra cash was nice but more quality time with his family now outweighs that.
Owens does a pregame show for the Truist Park audience and during the game itself oversees sponsor-driven classic games between half-innings. He, for instance, emcees the goofy, crowd-pleasing Home Depot Tool Race with characters like Hammerin’ Hank the hammer, B-Rush the brush, and Two-Bit the drill (which almost always loses). He also talks through the NAPA cap shuffle, which is like a digital version of three-card monte.
Then there’s RaceTrac’s Beat the Freeze, where a man in a superhero Freeze outfit (currently two different people who rotate the job) tries to outrun a chosen volunteer who gets a massive head start in a foot race around the outfield warning track.
The most common question Owens gets isn’t “Can you get me a free ticket to a game?”; rather, it’s “How can I race the Freeze?” He said he has nothing to do with it. Employees hunt the plaza before the game for willing volunteers wearing Braves gear and proper sneakers who look passably in shape.
Owens, now 44, is a lifelong Braves fan who graduated Harrison High School in Kennesaw.
When he got the Braves job, he initially saw it as a two-year gig. “It was Braves and beer and Vegas money,” he said, without revealing the admittedly modest pay. But in the end, he did it for eight times longer than that.
Owens said it took a few years for the fans to truly trust him. “They eventually realized I wasn’t some radio hack promoting my morning show. I’m a true fan. I love this team.”
He said the job isn’t exactly rocket science, but it can be a grind in August when temps exceed 90 degrees and it’s a midweek game against the Marlins. But he said what always kept him going are excited fans taking part in things like the NAPA cap shuffle, which is old hat for him.
“For them, it’s a bucket list moment and I feed off that,” Owens said. “If they’re having fun, I’m having fun. I vicariously live through them.”
He said he was planning to step down last year, but the World Series win made him decide to do it one more season.
“This was so I can say, ‘Home of your defending world champion Atlanta Braves!’ ” he said. “How often do you get to say that?”
The Atlanta Braves, now down two games to one in a five-game playoff series against the Phillies, could lose in the make-or-break Saturday afternoon game in Philadelphia. This means his Thursday night appearance when the Braves won the second game at Truist Park might have been his last as an employee.
Regardless, he won’t ever forget the World Series win in 2021 and taking part in the victory parade. “It’s weird but I’m looking forward to just being a fan in the stands,” he said.
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