This broadcaster got internet famous overnight -- after nearly 40 years of calling Double-A games

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Larry Ward, the longest-tenured broadcaster in Double-A baseball, has served as the voice of the Chattanooga Lookouts since 1989. In fact, that's his nickname: The Voice. He started calling games for the Lookouts at historic Engel Stadium and then remained with the team for the entirety of their run at AT&T Field (2000-25). Ward can now be found in the broadcast booth at Erlanger Park, a beautiful new facility located in a former industrial site in southwest Chattanooga.

Over the course of those 37 seasons, Ward has pretty much seen it all.

"It's been an adventure," he said, "to say the least."

It doesn't matter how long you've been around when it comes to baseball, as you never know what you'll see at the ballpark. This cliché applies to what took place at AT&T Field on April 23 of last season, with Ward's enthusiastic and somewhat baffled reaction resulting in something that had never happened before: He went viral. All it took was the combination of a bizarre play and his long-time catch phrase.

Holy cats!

The Lookouts, Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, were hosting the Columbus Clingstones (ATL) at AT&T Field. With runners on first and third and two outs in the fifth inning, Columbus' Chandler Seagle shattered his bat on a slow roller to short. The bat flew into the infield and the ball ricocheted off it before Lookouts shortstop Dominic Pitelli could make the play, resulting in one of the most unlikely RBI singles in baseball history.

"I have never, ever seen that in my 45 years of calling baseball,” said Ward, trying to make sense of it all. "Holy cats!"

The play quickly made the rounds on social media and in online news articles, with Ward's call becoming part of the story as well. "Holy cats, have you ever seen this before?" went one typical headline.

Ward doesn't quite know the origin of "Holy cats!" He speculated that it was something he said when he was a kid, growing up on a ranch in eastern Oregon, that "stayed in the back of my mind."

"What's really strange is that I've said, 'Holy cats!' for years," said Ward. "And all of a sudden when I come in for the next game [after the viral call] the people in the office say, 'Hey, you're a pretty popular guy. … They ended up [making] a shirt for me with my signature on it. I sent T-shirts to family members. 'Holy cats, dad, how did you do it?' It's been fun. It's just one of those things that happened."

Ward is now settling into the Lookouts' Erlanger Park era. Tune in to a broadcast and, if the situation calls for it, you might hear him say "Holy cats!"

"I love the fact that people enjoy what I say and when I say it in describing the game of baseball," he said. "That's my job."