Whistler

[RBritt]

What's the story on him? Did one of our fans fight him and get his ass kicked?

[Dallas_Dawg]

What's the story on him? Did one of our fans fight him and get his ass kicked?

Bump

[shannondawg]

You talking about the baseball game? I was thinking it was my radio acting up. He has got a set of pipes on him if so. Wouldn't want to be sitting around him.

[Todd4State]

The Twitter rumor is that the Whistler got into an altercation with one of our "older fans" and was arrested. Allegedly the Whistler was intoxicated as well.

[bulldogcountry1]

How do their own fans even put up with that? It's insane.

[Boodawg]

I thought I remember last year them doing an interview with him, and saying he was a preacher.

[bulldogcountry1]

I don't know about the preacher part, but I have seen him being interviewed. He seems like a nice enough guy who thinks he's just supporting his team, but you gotta be a pretty big arsehole to keep up that shtick for so long. It has to affect attendance. I know I couldn't take it.

On the other hand, DNF field is missing the character it used to have when it comes to fans trying to make it a little harder on the opponent. The Loungers still get on the outfielders, but the grandstand is pretty tame and generally inattentive. I haven't seen much energy since the Vandy series a couple years ago in response the the whistler.

Yeah, winning helps.


Edited to add that the whistler I was thinking of was from Central Arkansas. He was deafening, but still could show some restraint.

[maroonmania]

I don't know about the preacher part, but I have seen him being interviewed. He seems like a nice enough guy who thinks he's just supporting his team, but you gotta be a pretty big arsehole to keep up that shtick for so long. It has to affect attendance. I know I couldn't take it.

On the other hand, DNF field is missing the character it used to have when it comes to fans trying to make it a little harder on the opponent. The Loungers still get on the outfielders, but the grandstand is pretty tame and generally inattentive. I haven't seen much energy since the Vandy series a couple years ago in response the the whistler.

Yeah, winning helps.

Exactly, ANYONE who is any fan for any team who keeps that up during the entire game has no consideration for other people at the game that are near him. Doesn't speak much for him being a preacher if he is purposely going to do something that annoying to other people.

[Boodawg]

Thought I remembered him being a preacher.

This story originally appeared in July 2014.

Vanderbilt fan Preacher Franklin said he was asked to stop constantly whistling during the College World Series Wednesday because of complaints by ESPN.

But Michael C. Humes, a spokesperson for ESPN, said he checked with the producers of the College World Series, and they were not aware of any issues with the telecast during the final game.

Preacher Franklin said repeated chirping by him and Jeff Pack nearly got them tossed from the game after a member of the ESPN crew confronted them in the third inning of Vanderbilt's national championship-clinching 3-2 victory in Omaha.


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"An ESPN guy came down, and he was a smart aleck," Franklin said. "He stood right beside me, and then two policemen came down with him. The ESPN guy said, 'You've got to stop this whistling, you're interrupting our program.' I said, 'Who in the (expletive) are you? You ain't nobody to me. You need to go find you a seat.' He looked like a bouncer; a big ol' guy."

Franklin said the individual who approached him was wearing an ESPN shirt with credentials.

Pack declined to comment.

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"The cop was nice," Franklin said. "He said, 'Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to stop whistling.'"

Franklin asked the officer if he thought he was the only one in the park whistling, and the officer said no but that he and Pack were the only ones disrupting the ESPN broadcast.

Franklin later admitted he and Pack were aiming their whistles at the ESPN microphones positioned over their heads in sections 107 and 108 of TD Ameritrade Park where many in the Commodore Club, players' families and faculty had purchased tickets.

Franklin told the officer ESPN should turn up its volume so that their whistling couldn't be heard.

He said the officer then threatened to throw him and Pack out of the park and possibly take them to jail.

"I ain't never been to jail and I wasn't about to go over something like this so I said, 'OK then, I'll shut up,'" Franklin said.

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After the officer left, Franklin said Connie Wiel, the mother of Vandy first baseman Zander Wiel, told him that the incessant whistling annoyed some of Vandy's fans and asked that he and Pack do it only after a big play was made by the Commodores.

"She said the policeman told her, 'Y'all can whistle like that, just keep it toned down,'" Franklin said. "So we started doing that."

That lasted only for a couple of innings. By the seventh, the duo was back to whistling non-stop.

"We were doing the same thing we were doing in the first inning," Franklin said. "At that point we didn't care; there were only three innings left and we were looking to win a national championship. And darn it, we did and that's awesome."

Franklin, who is from Smyrna, attends most of Vandy's games home and away in his motor home. He said the whistling is aimed to energize the Commodores whether they're at bat or in the field.

Franklin said when he and Pack whistle during games at Vanderbilt's Hawkins Field it has a different effect than what happened in Omaha because they do not sit close to each other.

"He sits right behind home plate and I sit behind the dugout," Franklin said. "So you don't hear us going non-stop like it was in Omaha. We just ended up having seats right next to each other for that last game."

[rcsteph1]

^^^^^^BOODAWG beat me to it.


here's a link from a story on him from CWS:

http://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/college/vanderbilt/2014/06/27/vanderbilt-whistling-fans-espn/11519789/

[Political Hack]

Any preacher who will ask someone "who the hell are you?" Is ok by me.

[JDog13]

Was hilarious the Vandy fans calling an older woman with a cowbell annoying, yet they were praising the whistler.

[Mjoelner34]

"I ain't never been to jail and I wasn't about to go over something like this so I said, 'OK then, I'll shut up,'" Franklin said.

I bet he "ain't never" been to English class at Vandy either.

[MSUDawg99]

"I ain't never been to jail and I wasn't about to go over something like this so I said, 'OK then, I'll shut up,'" Franklin said.

I bet he "ain't never" been to English class at Vandy either.

And I bet he ain't never been a preacher a day in his life either. I ain't buying that story.

[JDog13]

And I bet he ain't never been a preacher a day in his life either. I ain't buying that story.

That grammar. Geez.

[MarketingBully]

That guy has to be the biggest asshole I have ever seen. Please Vandy don't make it to the CWS. That guy sucks donkey balls.

[blacklistedbully]

If at all possible, if this guy is at any future games, it would be great if one of our fans could take a cowbell and ring it incessantly right next to his ear.

[dickiedawg]

And I bet he ain't never been a preacher a day in his life either. I ain't buying that story.

After reading the article, it says his name is Preacher Franklin, not that he is a preacher.

[MSUDawg99]

After reading the article, it says his name is Preacher Franklin, not that he is a preacher.

Yeah that thought occurred to me after the fact, also. Just his name, not his profession.

[fevans]

I'm assuming this is the "Preacher" in question:

https://www.facebook.com/preacher.franklin

[fevans]

Looks like he named his dog "Whistler" and he has a whistle on his collar. You'd think he have given him a dog whistle. Ain't it cute?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1111308895570063&set=a.203924129641882.52232.100000728895250&type=3

[MSUDawg99]

I thought that blanket was maroon & white at first. Ha.