James R. Walker - Crack of the Bat: A History of Baseball on the Radio

Pat Hughes

The radio voice of the Chicago Cubs since 1996, Pat Hughes has preserved and celebrated baseballs greatest announcers by producing, writing, and narrating his Baseball Voices series of CD s. Hughes created tributes to legendary announcers, including Mel Allen, Red Barber, Marty Brennaman, Jack Buck, Harry Caray, Milo Hamilton, Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons, Harry Kalas, Dave Niehaus, Bob Prince, Ron Santo, and Bob Uecker. The series is available at www.baseballvoices.com.

The 1979 hit single Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles is familiar to TV trivia fans as the first music video on MTV . While music videos have mostly departed MTV , for baseball fans, radio broadcasts remain a daily delight. It seems radio and its baseball radio stars were lowered into their graves a bit prematurely. Baseball on the radio is as healthy as ever, despite the televising of nearly every big league game. Millions of baseball fans make sure that one of the buttons on their car radio connects them to their teams radio voices. As a result, local broadcast rights contribute record revenues to MLB teams, and ratings remain strong despite many competing sound options. In fact, baseball has been a leader in packaging its radio broadcast for the information age media. MLB has been among the first to put games on the Internet and satellite radio. Over the nearly one hundred years of baseball broadcasts, the lure of the game for listeners has been a constant. In a world of unlimited channels, content is king, and baseball provides more than six months of engaging content every year.

In Crack of the Bat, Jim Walker has carefully documented how the great experience of the national pastime on the radio came to be. It was an arduous journey. Owners debated the value of baseball broadcasts for nearly twenty years. About half of them believed radio was a powerful tool for selling the game and bringing fans to the ballpark. The other half, as crazy as it sounds now, thought radio gave the game away and hurt attendance. While the outcome now seems a forgone conclusion, it was the proradio passion of the Cubs owner, William Wrigley Jr., and his president, Bill Veeck Sr., that saved baseball on the radio when other owners threatened to ban it. The managements belief in the promotional power of radio and later television is a major reason there are so many loyal Cubs fans today.

As the radio voice of the Chicago Cubs, I am proud to be part of this passionate proradio tradition. The Cubs welcomed radio, with as many as five Chicago stations carrying the games at the same time in the 1930s. I follow the brilliant legacy of wonderful Cubs announcers, including Quin Ryan, Hal Totten, Pat Flanagan, Charlie Grimm, Bert Wilson, Jack Quinlan, Lou Boudreau, Vince Lloyd, Jack Brickhouse, Harry Caray, and, of course, my longtime partner, Hall of Famer Ron Santo. Jims book documents the contributions of many great announcers, including eight often-forgotten pioneers who helped invent the craft in the 1920s and 1930s. He also devotes a chapter to modern announcers and shows the massive influence of Red Barber and his most distinguished pupil, the incomparable Vin Scully. Barber was the first announcer to emphasize extensive daily preparation, to provide detailed, vivid accounts of the game, and to let the crowds roar, not mere words, punctuate the great moments in the game.

While Crack of the Bat honors the great announcers of the past, it also shows how baseball broadcasts have adapted to changes in the broadcast media over the years. After the Second World War, the rapid increase in radio stations led to the development of vast team networks. Over the next three decades, as many teams limited the number of games broadcast on TV , radio was baseballs superhighway to fans across the nation. The book then brings readers right up to the present, by showing how MLB uses its backbone radio broadcasts to feed the newer media. It also shows that, despite technological change, the qualities of great announcing are timeless.

The effective baseball announcer exhibits at least eight exemplary skills. They are as useful today as they were forty years ago and will be forty years from today. The professional announcer

1. starts with solid, accurate reporting;

2. is fair to all, including players, managers, front-office executives, and umpires;

3. has a pleasing voice that wears well over the long season;

4. possesses a lively sense of humor and a distinctive personality and knows how to tell a good story;

5. draws on a rich vocabulary and command of the language;

6. creates a home run call that is distinctive and original;

7. senses the drama of the game and recognizes its crucial turning points; and

8. develops a thorough knowledge of all things baseball: the rules, the history of the game, and the facts and figures that come from extensive preparation on a daily basis.

Announcers also benefit from the good luck of calling the games of great teams, which elevates their own status. However, several Hall of Fame announcers, such as By Saam, Jack Brickhouse, and Bob Uecker, never covered a World Series winner. While the technologies that deliver the game to the fans have and will continue to evolve, the elements of announcing excellence remain constant.