Bassoonist

The personnel for one of the orchestras I play in have an odd habit of likening orchestral happenings to sports happenings whenever possible. For example, when introducing the role of the concertmaster to children at a kids' concert, they explain, "He's like the Tom Brady of the orchestra."

Last weekend's attempted correlation wasn't as successful as the conductor may have hoped. He announced to the audience, "The bassoonist you're about to hear perform the Gandolfi concerto (an extremely cool piece, by the way) is kind of like the Manny Ramirez of the Boston Symphony."

He must not follow sports - or Boston news at all, for that matter - very closely, because I doubt he meant anything like, "He's kind of that member of the BSO that everyone hopes will just leave already..." (Or that he has already left, since he remains principal bassoonist!)