My Voices of The Game

When I was little, I wanted to be a broadcaster. It was Vin Scully and the late Curt Gowdy that sparked that idea. I couldn't imagine any two voices that could induce such a career path.

Just as ESPN's Jon Miller admitted to Curt Smith on XM Radio's "Baseball Confidential: Voices of the Game," I, too, played a baseball simulation game and filled it in with crowd noises and the voice of broadcasters. Most of the time, it was my own childhood voice altered a bit to sound "older." Sometimes, the voice of the late Don Drysdale would come out. Though I'll admit that I couldn't nail those voices like Miller did when he was younger, but it was definitely part of the love I had for the game.

For many of us, broadcasters definitely helped shape the game for me. Growing up in Southern California, I was privileged to have several at my disposal through the magic of radio and television.

On Sunday, our television set alternated with the Los Angeles Dodgers and California Angels road games. On Channel 11, Vin Scully would welcome us from somewhere in the National League. After three innings, Jerry Doggett or Ross Porter would join in to keep it going before Scully came back in the seventh. You had a professionally produced broadcast with the Dodgers in grey and a long view of the road ballpark. That was when you saw Steve Garvey or Dusty Baker hit a long one.

When the Dodgers are home, the Angels would fill in on Gene Autry's Channel 5 from elsewhere in the American League. Don Drysdale was the play-by-play during my formidable years. His is the voice I remember the most...and love to hear. It was a polished Southern California voice, a tinge of Hollywood from a perfect surfer dude look that drew me to the Angels broadcasts.

However, it's been said that the true medium for the game is through radio. I strongly believe this even today with satellite radio giving us all of the games at our disposal. Back then, we only had terrestrial radio and amplified modulation. That meant the errant, yet faded voices from afar were captured into a clock radio as if I lived at those places.

Aside from the Dodgers (on KABC) and Angels (on KMPC) radio broadcasts, my childhood obsession with baseball included the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants. Respectively, KFMB and KNBR had more than enough power to extend its signal up and down the Pacific coast. Because of the miracle of amplified modulation and clear channels, the voices of Jerry Coleman, Lon Simmons and Lindsey Nelson arrived at my San Fernando Valley home fighting for radio signal space by my bedside.

After leaving my hometown, I began to wander endlessly to various spots on the Earth. Cable television took over from good ol' radio for my electronic fix on the game. I was lucky to welcome TBS and WGN into my Bay Home area in late 1980's and early 1990's. Two generations of Carays fought for time on my television set. On the home front, Hank Greenwald and Ron Fairly kept me apprised with the Giants during the region's short-lived baseball renaissance. On the other side of the bay, legends such as Bill King and Lon Simmons spoke of the greatness of the Bash Brothers somewhere on the dial. Sad part about the A's was you used to not find them for a while on the radio. They also chose a TV station out of San Jose for their TV coverage. Not that it was a bad thing unless you come form an old school North Bay family that pledge allegiance to The City.

Somewhere along the way, I lost interest in the broadcasting of the game. I could not quite lock into the reasons why. Maybe it was because the game was changing as was the national broadcasting contracts. Jack Buck helmed CBS television's coverage of the game and TBS was a semi-regular mainstay with Skip Caray, Pete Van Wieren and Don Sutton celebrating the most successful ball club of the 1990's. Even moving to the Washington, DC didn't help to bridge the game back through the medium of radio and television. I hate to say it, but FOX killed it for me.

Coming to the Midwest changed all of that. Here is where I discovered the mystique of Bob Uecker and the following he has throughout Wisconsin. It was looking down to Chicago where Ron Santo and Ken "The Hawk" Harrelson represent their side of town on the airwaves for the cheers of their team's faithful. Then, there's Bert Blyleven and his telestrator, circling everyone in the Metrodome with an acknowledgement of their love for the game.

Brief runs with XM satellite radio also help in bringing back the love for the baseball broadcast. Not to mention the lull moments when I am on travel. On my last trip tom Los Angeles, I had an instinctive feeling about something at a restaurant. I looked up and the Dodgers were on the air on several televisions throughout the joint. It wasn't the video from the screen that captured me. It was Vin Scully's voice. An unforgettable voice that can only mean one thing to a child of Southern California: Dodger baseball.

In all, the most memorable broadcasters are those with the most distinctive home run calls. It is the way Vin Scully inflexed the term "it's gone" when a Dodger takes one a country mile. It is this year's Ford Frick Award winner Dave Niehaus with his "My Oh My!" that rings out throughout the Pacific Northwest. Love him or dislike him, you have to cheer when John Gordon calls out his renown "Touch 'em all" for a Twins round tripper.

The broadcast and the broadcaster are definitely part of the fabric of this game. It ties into one's loyalty to their team. The broadcast team represents the image of the ball club and its fans. These are facts that still tie us together to the game. It is an old familiar voice telling the story of the game beyond just the strike count and the action on the field. Even if it our own pretending to be Don Drysdale while playing on an old simulation game.