Please don't foul the P.A. announcer

Philip Hochberg, the lawyer and longtime P.A. announcer profiled in Monday's Maryland Lawyer, showed his true grit last weekend at the BB&T Classic basketball tournament in Washington, D.C.
(Hochberg, a sports lawyer, announced Redskins games for 38 years until 2001 and has announced George Washington University basketball games and University of Maryland football games for more than 30 years.)

While announcing the Maryland game against Virginia Commonwealth University Sunday night, Hochberg became an innocent bystander in a crash collision between Terp Bambale Osby and the scorer's table. Hochberg put his left arm up when he saw the 6'8", 250-pound center falling toward him, but it was clearly an unfair fight.

I'm sure the BB&T crowd would have forgiven the 65-year-old an "injury time out" from his announcing duties, but the old pro went right on calling the game while the medics bandaged up his swollen and bleeding hand. Talk about tough!

The Terps didn't fare any better - they lost to VCU, 85-76. Hochberg reported Tuesday that his hand is still swollen but at least he's getting a free DVD of the collision from the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which aired the game and replayed the scene on its sports show.

"It's the first time in 50 years of doing basketball P.A. that that's happened," Hochberg wrote in an e-mail. "I'll survive."

Iíll bet you lawyers out there have some stories of your own about unusual injuries on the job - care to share?

-LIZ FARMER, Legal Affairs Writer