He's the one who's pumped you full of advertisements for the past four seasons as the Mallards' public address announcer. You know, the ones that come inning after inning after inning 34 times a summer.

And if you think it was a grind to listen to 120 commercial messages a night, then imagine trying to fit all of them in between announcing hitters, birthdays and anniversaries.

And every between-innings promotion the team can think of.

"All of a sudden you get to the ninth inning and you're trying to read as many as you can between pitches," Sims said. "You want the fans to get up on their feet and be excited and in between it's almost like, 'This pitch is sponsored by such and such.'

"I've got to imagine, and certainly no disrespect to the companies who advertise, but I've got to imagine me reading in the ninth inning of a game is annoying as heck."

That won't be happening this summer.

When Mallards fans arrive at Warner Park for tonight's Northwoods League season opener against the La Crosse Loggers, they'll see a video board mounted above the left field wall. It's an addition — the headliner of this year's list of offseason changes to the Duck Pond — that will cut the number of announcements Sims has to make to around 35, Mallards general manager Vern Stenman said.

"I don't need to go through as many lozenges any more," Sims said with a laugh.

Stenman is the first to admit adding the video board isn't a revolutionary idea. But it's a big step in an effort to improve the franchise's presentation of its product without losing sponsors, who have been very receptive to the change, Stenman said.

He points to the reaction Sims' final announcement of the night would elicit in years past as proof it was time for the team to rethink its approach.

"The crowd would always go wild," Stenman said. "And to me, the more I heard that, the more you start sensing that maybe we're missing something here a little bit."

With fewer advertisements to worry about, Sims, who's worked as a stand-up comedian in the past, will be free to use his sense of humor.

And the presence of instant replays and player bios on the screen also will turn the focus of the crowd back to what's happening on the field — a baseball game — instead of the multitude of things transpiring around it.

"Every little step that we can take toward making it more about baseball is important," Stenman said. "I've always said we are a carnival to a certain degree. We always will be, and I think that's what a lot of people like about us.

"But as you look five and 10 years down the road for the team ... your fans are going to be baseball fans, and you need them to be baseball fans, because sooner or later (they are) just going to want something else."

The Mallards have made a few other tweaks to their home heading into their eighth season. All of those, though, have been made with an eye to the future.

Stenman is hopeful the team's deal with the city for a major renovation of the stadium — the field would be rotated 180 degrees — will be done later this summer, and the bulk of this year's batch of improvements are things that will be of use down the road.

Those include a statue of the franchise's millionth fan — then 10-year-old John Olsen of Elkhorn is high-fiving team mascot Maynard G. Mallard — which will be unveiled at tonight's opener, a new burger joint called Maynard's, an expanded souvenir stand and an addition to the Duck Blind seating section in right field.

"We've got to make something happen and something has to be different every year, otherwise it wouldn't be exciting," Mallards owner Steve Schmitt said. "So we've got to look forward to something new and different, something challenging. Every year is the same. Every year, we go into it and hope it's going to turn out and have a couple risks and hope the risks turn out OK."

SEASON OPENER

Who: Madison Mallards vs. La Crosse Loggers.

When, where: 7:05 p.m. Thursday, Warner Park.

Tickets: Available at www.mallardsbaseball.com, by calling 608-246-4277 or at the gate.