It's too early to tell for sure, but if last week's auditions for the Pepsi Reds Rally Pack are any indication, it's going to be fun at Great American Ballpark.

The Pack will be 12 cheerleading entertainers who will perform on-field and in the stands at home games, shooting T-shirts into the crowd, giving away Pepsi and balloons, doing what they can to get the baseball crowds fired up.

Pack members - six at every game - will be paid on a per-game basis, says Reds marketing rep Jennifer Black.

Auditions were for 20 finalists, whittled from the original 80. They were young - late teens to mid-20s - and mostly male - 15 of them.

Actually it was more of a party. Hopefuls warmed up with party games, then backflipped, unicycled, pretended to be velociraptors, discoed, break danced, snorted and shouted.

Yeah, but why? "Because I can't imagine anything more fun than being on the team," said Tammy Amico, 27, of Maineville.

"Because I'm used to having fun jobs," said Andrew Marler, an 18-year-old high school student from Hillsboro. "I used to work at Kings Island, so I'm used to having fun jobs. I'd rather play ball, but this is the next best thing."

"Because I love getting a crowd moving," said hopeful Jeff Ferrar, an 18-year-old cheerleader from Milford High School, still breathy from his backflips.

Or, as 23-year-old Jonathan Troyer of East Walnut Hills said, "Hey, you get paid to have fun. It's just like a big old party."

The Reds will notify the 12 winners by the end of this week.

E-mail jknippenberg@enquirer.com