Sitting in the Chicago Cubs radio booth last week with Pat Hughes as he munched on popcorn during his one-inning break, our conversation turned to the baseball grind. Announcers, like players and coaches, are working almost every game during the 162-game season, taking long flights on getaway day, arriving in new towns in the middle of the night and reporting to the ballpark the next day several hours before the game. Lack of sleep is a given for six months of the year, and some days are harder to get through than others. Yet in the 27 years I’ve known Hughes since his arrival at WGN-AM 720 in 1996, I couldn’t recall seeing him in a bad mood at the ballpark. Was I mistaken, or was Hughes just able to disguise a bad day better than the rest of us? “I try to check reality at the door,” he said.