Shannon Landers wanted to work through a specific situation.
“Let’s pretend like we’re in the eighth inning, and it’s a tie game,” she said into the headset she wore as she stood on the infield warning track at Petco Park early Tuesday evening.
On the giant screen looming over left field, a video of a Cubs batter hitting a ground ball to second base began. An audio engineer at a table set up just below the broadcast booth went to work on an iPad.
There was a button to push when the ball left the bat to play a sound effect representing the crowd’s anticipation, another to push to elicit a cheer when the crowd realized it would be a routine out and a third button seconds later for a bigger cheer at the moment the out was made.