Her voice has been around the Central Coast for well over two decades and now, CJ Silas is getting a chance to reach bigger audiences.
At Cal Poly’s Baggett Stadium, a voice booms over the public address system, and on Wednesdays, you might hear Silas on ESPN Radio.
If you’re a San Francisco Giants fan, you might’ve heard Silas’s voice a couple times this season at Oracle Park.
“This is what I've always wanted," Silas said. " Walking around that stadium, sitting in that chair, opening up my mic and announcing to fans in a major league stadium, there's nothing like it.”
She’s living a dream she’s had since she got in the sports broadcasting industry in the early 1990s and now, after multiple Major League auditions, she’s as close as she’s ever been to being the voice of a major league team.
“To me, specifically, her stories are super inspiring because she's hit a lot of adversity, have had a lot of setbacks,” Cal Poly junior and CJ Silas Show intern Annika Shah stated.
“I've just learned that it's never too late to keep working at your dream and to keep trying new things and to take advantage of the opportunities that you're given and to not say no,” Cal Poly sophomore and show intern Melina Hernandez added.
The word "no" isn’t in her vocabulary as she shared her story with her crew of interns on her ESPN Radio show and as she prepares for her weekly show, she’s reminded amidst the craziness of preparation that "it's supposed to be fun."
And it is even more so now with a handful of Major League series under her belt.
“I don't need to prove I'm credible anymore. I know more about baseball than almost anyone in any room I'm ever sitting in,” Silas stated.
But as a woman in sports, it’s always been an uphill battle, one that has featured countless rejections from other major league teams.
“I may not have failed, but I was rejected. I have so many rejection letters. I kept every single one,” she said, showing those around her that rejection isn't the end of one's dreams.
“It really demonstrated that it's so important to not give up on your dreams because it can come for you at any point in your career,” Hernandez said.
At the end of the day, Silas might not get the job, but she never stopped wanting it and she came to know through her experience that she is good enough to do it.
“It might be the right job for me, but I might not be the right person for that and it's not about my ability. That's a stress and it's emotional and it's exhausting.”
Silas has had multiple stints with different Major League teams over the years but her process with the Giants is the farthest she’s ever gone having now called Giants games against the Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies. She doesn’t know when or if the call for a permanent position is coming but she says she can now put on her LinkedIn, "Major League Announcer."
