The Announcer

His name is Georgio. He is not Italian, nor does he live in Italy. He lives in Texas, with his parents, in his parents’ house, with an old oak tree out front carved with their names. And to this day he has not the slightest idea why a farmer and a country mother would name their Texan-born and Texan-raised son Georgio, but he quickly changed it to George on the very first day of school when he found himself and two other first graders throwing punches at each other over his name. He works as the baseball writer for a local newspaper, making the Texan baseball team Thunder look good on paper—and they have just lost their last game by twenty-three rounds. Life couldn’t get any better for him; it was easygoing, simple, and quite boring, until fate works its kinks and gives Georgio the most exciting times of his life yet.