Twenty Baseball Tickets

Another notable joke that demonstrates the uncanny ability of guys to intuitively join in on a joke with little or no verbal communication occurred while working at Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, Georgia.  There were four of us spread out along three walls in the room.  At some point, Keith turns to D'Ann and ask her to call WGST radio in order to win twenty tickets to the Atlanta Braves game.  She immediately snapped back that he could call himself.  He replied that the station specifically stated that the tenth lady who called would win.  D'Ann gave in at this point and asked someone to call the station.

Before I go on any further let me say that the date was April 1st.  That probable means something to most people but for those not from around here, it is "April Fools" day in the USA.

At the time Keith asked D'Ann to call the station, I am sure he was really trying to win those tickets.  All three of the other folks in the room were huge baseball fans.  Me on the other hand saw an opportunity for a prank.  When D'Ann ask for someone to call the station, David immediately pulled out the phone book and looked up the number.  This was before the internet and online lookups.  He even tried calling the number multiple times only to get the busy signal before I could get the joke going.

I had immediately jumped up and walked across the hall to where Rick was sitting and asked for his direct phone number.  Where upon I wrote it boldly on a sheet of paper.  I explain in a few seconds that D'Ann was about to call him trying to win twenty tickets to the Braves game.  That's it!  I then walked back across the hall and stood behind D'Ann and displayed Rick's phone number.  David glanced up once and the game was on.  Rick took the call with, "WGST playing the hits all day long".  He asked her if she could tell him who wrote "Stairway to Heaven".  She was excited to know this one and replied "Led Zeppelin".  He acknowledged her answer and informed her they would send the tickets to her home address.  

When I got back in the room, D'Ann was real excited but also a little skeptical.  She was not totally buying into the whole thing.  I asked one of the receptionist to call her and ask her about the tickets in order to remove her skepticism.  It helped but she was not totally convinced.  I then called D'Anns mom and explained what we had done.  I asked her to call D'Ann and tell her that a couple of her friends had called her to find out if that was her D'Ann who just won the tickets.  She did this about an hour later and that removed all doubt.  We all wanted to go with her to the game and other people in the department inundated her with request as well.

David, Keith, Rick and I all figured her mom who lived with her would spill the beans that evening.  We thought that safer than us cowards doing it at the office.  Unfortunately, her mom only perpetrated the joke further.  Except for her, her entire family knew about the joke.  We were a little stumped and did not know how to end the joke so we decided to just let it ride.  

Over the next month, folks would drop by and ask if she had received the tickets.   On one of these occasions, she proclaimed that she was going to call WGST and find out about her tickets.  I immediately jumped up and got Rick's direct phone number from across the hall.  Rick was not there so it was up to me to answer the phone.  I displayed the number for David to call as I had done before and went to answer the phone.  I answered it the same way that Rick had done before.  D'Ann explained the situation and complained about not receiving the tickets.  I asked if she knew the date that this happened and she spouted out, "April 1st".  I intentionally paused for a long time at this point before asking if she knew the significance to that particular day.  Again, there was an even longer pause from her side.  Finally, I heard her exclaim "Oh My God" from across the hall.  I told her that this had never happened before and that we would have to put her on the radio.  She begged me not to do this. 

When I went back across the hall, D'Ann was explaining that it had all been an April Fool's joke perpetrated by the radio station and that there were no tickets.  When she left the room to tell everybody else, we gave each other hi-fives and they congratulated me on blaming the whole thing on WGST.  We were feeling pretty good at this point.

As "bad" luck will have it, her husband brought the subject up that night at supper by asking if she had received the tickets.  D'Ann launched into the whole explanation about WGST playing the joke on her.  This literally caused her entire family to fall to the floor laughing.  Went they finally were able to communicate the real story, we were all in serious trouble!  Let me just say that it was not a pleasant time to be in the office that next morning.  You have heard the expression, "If looks could kill"?  Refine that to, "If looks could mangle".

In a way, I blame her own family for letting this go on so long.  What do you think?  The worst part may be that Keith and David really did wanted those Brave tickets.