Casey at the mike has experienced 43 seasons

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Bob Casey's work space is known affectionately as "The Hole," a cramped bunker behind home plate at the Metrodome.
The Twins' public-address announcer for all but a handful of games during the franchise's 43-year history in Minnesota, Casey shares the place with a couple of TV cameras, their operators, tangles of wire and cable and, supposedly, a rat named "Charlie" who lives behind the wall. A pane of cloudy plexiglas protects them from screaming foul balls.
"I've been here so long that I think everyone takes it for granted," Casey said, craning his neck to peer at his surroundings. "Someday this whole thing will come crashing down, and I'll be buried back here and nobody will find me." He would never disappear so inconspicuously.
Casey's raspy, growling baritone can't be replaced. His sarcastic sense of humor and infamous slips of the tongue would be tough to forget, too.
If the 21-year-old, Teflon-covered stadium smells like stale hot dogs and looks like a giant pool table inside, then it sounds like Bob Casey.
"I think that voice is synonymous with Twins baseball," team president Dave St. Peter said.
This weekend, the 78-year-old announcer joins outfielder Bob Allison and become the 12th member of the Twins' Hall of Fame.
He predates the Metrodome by a long time, though.
Casey's career, which also includes announcing gigs with the Minneapolis Lakers and the Minnesota Vikings, got its first big boost in 1951 when he filled in for local broadcasting legend Halsey Hall at a Minneapolis Millers game.