Voices of Summer: Ranking Baseball's 101 All-Time Best Announcers (2 page)
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Authors: Curt Smith
PEEPUL'S CHOICE (RANKING BASEBALL'S 101 ALL-TIME BEST ANNOUNCERS)
SOURCES
395
BIBLIOGRAPHY
197
"The boys of summer come and go. The voices
of summer stay with you for a lifetime."
Jayson Stark
"You're the only link between the public and
the game. You want to talk about a fat
lady in a yellow hat sitting in the stands, or
about the players, the sky, the weather, you're a
wild bird. You're free."
-Curt Gowdy
re you sitting comfortably?" British broadcaster Julia Long
often asked her audience. "Then I'll begin." Radio baseball
began August 5, 1921, over America's first station, KDKA,
from Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. From distant sites-Fenway Park,Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds-the medium ferried a cargo of big-league prose.
In 1925, only ten percent of Americans owned a radio. Sixty-three percent did by 1933. On August 26, 1939, Ebbets Field housed the first televised
game. "Millions come to the park each year," said Ernie Harwell. "Others
can't or don't." Voices became their eyes and ears.
We hear them everywhere: the porch, the car, even the Internet. "All
sports do play-by-play," mused Red Barber. "Only baseball's shows your
soul." Bob Costas suggests baseball even on the Olympics. "It's what I'd done,
who I was."
Some announcers etch a team: the Pirates' Bob Prince, or the Cardinals'
Jack Buck. Others recall yearning for a sense of time standing still: Barber, Mel
Allen. Some spin almost existential pleasure: Harry Caray's"Holy cow!"
All show eloquence in varied tone and form. Dizzy Dean said, "Pod-nuh,
you ain't just a-woofin' "-"pod-nuh" being anyone who loved the game.
In the early 1950s, NewYorkers debated Willie, Mickey, and the Duke-also,
the Yankees' Allen, Dodgers' Barber, and Giants' Russ Hodges. Later the Bay
Area compared Lon Simmons and Monte Moore. Sixties TV matched CBS's
Dean and NBC's Bob Wolff. Critics liked Wolff. Viewers liked 01' Diz's mix
of Ma Kettle, Billy Sunday, and Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Buy a drink, start a fight. Who was better: Yanks' Phil Rizzuto, or Mets'
Lindsey Nelson? Presently, same town/choice: John Sterling, or Gary
Cohen? Who is more of a hoot to hear, ESPN's Jon Miller or Fox's Joe Buck?
"Before we talk," said Plato, "let us define our terms."
A schoolboy compares players, parks, and managers. Voices of Summer
ranks baseball's best-ever 101 mikemen from the more than a thousand
calling it. Judging can be dicey, like throwing darts in the fog. Criteria help.
The ten areas below are scored on a 1-10 point scale. Perfect score: 10 times
10, or 100 points.
Each Voice's total decides his rank from I (Vin Scully) to 101 (Harold
Arlin). Each's essay airs high- and lowlights, turning points, and play-byplay-ultimately, a life and work. For the complete ranking, see page 392.
This book does not claim infallibility. It does try to be fair.
"On the field often not a heck of a lot is happening," said Chuck
Thompson. Announcers try more or less to compensate. In the end, many
seem as family as your Uncle Fred. The criteria:
LONGEVITY: Harwell played the bigs for 55 years; Gordon McLendon, three.
CONTINUITY: Scully is the post-1949 Dodgers. The Astros are Milo
Hamilton's eighth team. NETWORK: Al Helfer did Mutual Radio's 1950s
regular/post-season. Byrum Saam never called a Series in 38 years. KUDOS:
Which Voices won a Peabody Award; nearly retired The Sporting News
"Announcer of theYear"; and almost became National Sportscaster of theYear?
(For those of you keeping score, Red, Joe Garagiola, and Curt Gowdy; Allen
and Caray; Costas, respectively.)
LANGUAGE: Ralph Kiner said, "The Mets got their leadoff hitter on only
once this inning." Bob Murphy bred "The happy recap"; Hamilton, "Holy
Toledo!"; Marty Brennaman, "This one belongs to the Reds!" POPULARITY:
In Pittsburgh, Prince was Mr. Baseball. The Northwest deems Dave Niehaus
more exciting than the game. PERSONA: Joe Angel speaks in English and
Spanish. Earl Gillespie became the "Fish Net Man." Nelson's 350 jackets
made him broadcasting's Beau Brummel. One hangs in Cooperstown.
VOICE: Van Patrick's pipes could fill the Mormon Tabernacle. Miller
mimes Scully in English, Spanish, and Japanese. KNOWLEDGE: Jack Buck
said, "Baseball fans know their sport better than fans in other sports."Which
announcers blur baseball and boccie ball? MISCELLANY: Garagiola wrote a
best-selling book. Bud Blattner was world table tennis champion at 16.
Thompson grew up in a boarding house that rented to Connie Mack.
Below, an example. Seeing the Red Sox win the 2004 World Series, this
Voice would have picked the Cubs in '05.
VINCE LLOYD
Which team has the most announcers? (The Yankees, with 21. Other leaders:
Giants 16, White Sox 15, Braves, Cubs, and Red Sox 13, Dodgers 11, and A's
and Cardinals 10.) Which has none? (None.) Does ex-Cubs Voice Ronald
Reagan crack the list? (He got detoured.) What of those who nearly made it?
(They are saluted: John MacLean, Nat Allbright, Jack Quinlan, Charley
Steiner.)
Some Voices have an identical point total: Longevity, continuity, network
coverage, and kudos break the tie. Since they change, ratings even five years
from now may, too. Let today's reader screech, curse, or stomp over any
pick. From a rhubarb, baseball never wanders far away.
"Here lies the summit," Edmund Burke once described a colleague. "He may
live long. He may do much. But he can never exceed what he does this day."
Game Six, 1952 World Series: Allen and Barber, on NBC TV, climb a summit
of syntax and vocabulary, an elegance of phrase and mood.
Mel terms John Mize "a sentimental hero, in any case." Rizzuto and Pee
Wee Reese show "shortstopping by two great exponents of the art." "We
acquainted you yesterday,"Allen reminds a listener. Cameramen, atop the roof, silhouette "the uneven fringe of shadow." Mel glowingly introduces Red, who
dubs him "the pot calling the kettle black."
Big Jawn (Mize) becomes "the storybook fella." A "trickle ball [reaches]
the right side." The Yanks are "down a game and down a run." The see-saw
day is "enough to give you the high spirits." It evoked your first visit to the
park-fielder crouched, batter cocked, and pitcher draped against the
stands-above all, surety that there was no place on earth that you would
rather be.
As Scully says, "Pull up a chair." Recall play-by-play wafting from a
friend, or passerby. Hail the enduring word. "The sky overhead is a very
beautiful robin-egg blue," Barber said in 1936, "with very few angels in the
form of clouds in it." Remember: "Football and basketball carry the
announcer," notes Hank Greenwald. "The announcer carries baseball."
Only God has a monopoly on truth. Likening Voices, we make do with
fact, instinct, and an almost Tinker Bell kind of faith.
