For further information, contact the MBL Communications Office at (508) 289-7423 or e-mail us at comm@mbl.edu

For Immediate Release: November 11, 2009
Contact: Gina Hebert 508-289-7725; ghebert@mbl.edu

WOODS HOLE, MA—Radio announcer Carl Beane, "The Voice of Fenway" will speak about athletes as role models at the next Falmouth Forum Friday, December 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the MBL’s (Marine Biological Laboratory’s) Lillie Auditorium, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole. Beane’s lecture, titled "Athletes—Today's Role Models Good or Bad?" is sponsored by the MBL Associates and is free and open to the public.

Athletes have been role models for decades, but now more than ever those who can do special things with a bat, ball, stick, racquet, or club command the most attention. While some athletes have taught important lessons about dealing with life’s problems, others have displayed inappropriate behavior including abusing drugs and alcohol. In his lecture, Beane will discuss how parents can deal with these situations and will highlight athletes who have thrilled—and those who have disappointed—us from the 1920s to today.

Carl Beane is best known as “The Voice of Fenway Park.” He has been the Public Address Announcer at Fenway Park—home of the Boston Red Sox—since 2003. Beane announced the first two games of the 2003 World Series as the Red Sox became Champions for the first time in 86 years. Beane also announced the first two games of the 2007 World Series.

Born and raised in Agawam, Massachusetts, Beane is a 1971 graduate of Agawam High School and a 1972 graduate of Career Academy School of Broadcasting. He has been a sports radio broadcaster since 1972. Beane has worked for a number of radio stations, and has done national updates for ESPN Radio, Sirius Satellite Radio, Westwood One, Associated Press, and MetroNetworks. His voice can be heard in "The Baseball Experience" at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Beane also taught sports broadcasting and play-by-play classes at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting in Needham, MA. Beane is also the national spokesman for The American Diabetes Association and is narrator for Talking Books at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, MA.

A buffet dinner is available before the lecture at 6:00 p.m. in the Swope Center located near the auditorium. Dinner tickets are $25 and must be purchased in advance at either Eight Cousins Children’s Books, Main Street, Falmouth, or at the MBL’s Communications Office in the Candle House, 127 Water Street in Woods Hole. Dinner seats are limited and tickets are only available until they sell out or until 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 1. All tickets are nonrefundable. For more information contact the MBL’s Communications Office at 508-289-7423.

All Falmouth Forum lectures, performances and presentations are for the Cape Cod community and are sponsored by the MBL Associates. Forum events feature topics in the arts, humanities and health and are always free and open to the public.

The series will continue throughout the winter. The remaining lectures in the series are:

January 8
Herman T. Epstein Endowed Memorial Lecture - "Starting at Standing Rock: Following Custer and Sitting Bull to the Little Big Horn" - Nathaniel Philbrick, author

January 22
"Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Two Works in Progress: Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River, Colorado; The Mastaba, Project for The United Arab Emirates" - Christo and Jeanne-Claude (the artists responsible for such memorable wrapped pieces as "The Gates" in New York's Central Park)
Note: Lecture tickets are free, but required for the Christo and Jeanne-Claude lecture. Tickets will be distributed on a first come, first served basis.

March 5
"The Big Dig or The Big Pig?" - Dan McNichol, award-winning author of The Big Dig and The Roads That Built America

For more information and for full lecture descriptions, visit http://www.mbl.edu/falmouthforum

The MBL is a leading international, independent, nonprofit institution dedicated to discovery and to improving the human condition through creative research and education in the biological, biomedical and environmental sciences. Founded in 1888 as the Marine Biological Laboratory, the MBL is the oldest private marine laboratory in the Americas. For more information, visit www.MBL.edu.