Growing up in Washington, Dave Niehaus was the voice of my childhood. And teen years. And young adult years. And my early fatherhood years. Toward the end, in the years before his passing, he started to lose it a bit, regularly getting overly excited over what ended up being routing flyouts. But his voice and enthusiasm stayed the same. It was perfect.
Now that we'll be losing Rick Rizzs to retirement after this season, I'm thankful that Aaron Goldsmith has elected to stick around in Seattle. I know we came close to losing him to St. Louis a couple years back, but the possibility that he'll end up being the Niehaus for my kids makes me very happy.
Cricket not baseball and international cricket not hometown cricket but despite him being dead for 5 or more years now, I’ll always hear Richie Benauds voice when thinking about cricket, he was just the soundtrack to summer through my whole childhood in a way that football announcers, no matter the football code, never manage to hit the same way the stick and ball sport announcers do
So, so true, Joe. I was fortunate to have Ernie Harwell keep me company six innings a night when the Tigers on the West Coast. What a fabulous way to drift off to sleep as a teenager.
I was blessed in terms of local sports broadcasters, being born outside of Los Angeles in 1960. Vin Scully for the Dodgers, Bob Miller for the Kings, and Chick Hearn for the Lakers.
When I was in high school I worked at a radio station in Vermont that carried Expos games called by Dave Van Horn and Duke Snider. A two or three hour nap, with interruptions for local commercials.
I really think all the knocks on Sterling as are overblown. Who cares if you didn’t know if a home run was out or not for ten seconds? It was a fun listen, extremely entertaining, and you couldn’t help but love him and Suzyn. I’m really going to miss him.
We lived near Akron from 1978 through 1980. It was a treasure listening to Joe Tait and Herb Score. We moved to Nashville early in 1981 and the best thing about it was the location. I could pull in broadcasts from St. Louis, Dallas, Detroit, Cincinnati, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York and Atlanta. Late at night I could even occasionally pull in the Dodgers and Vin Scully. As a lifelong Phillies nobody can match Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn. Even though the Phillies stunk when I was a student at Villanova in the late 1980s, I rarely missed a game on radio. Your view on hometown announcers is 100% on the money!
Excellent, just excellent. I grew up in Houston with Hall of Fame announcer Gene Elston. Never forgave Milo Hamilton who, through no fault of his own, was hired to replace Elston. Elston was smooth, kind, and a great guy. Nice to my mother when he met her.
Elston used to sell his own scorebooks he created in order to keep score. When he died, I bought the remaining supply from his son (or I’m pretty sure it was the remaining supply). Every time I keep score, which is every game I attend, it gives me a touch of joy to look down and see the copyright sign and Gene Elston’s name there. That’s an Astros scorecard, not a basic one and not any other kind.
John Sterling was right there with Hawk Harrelson on my most despised announcers list, but agreed that it means he was doing his job. He seemed like he was a perfect fit for his team -- pretentious and bombastic in a way that made total sense.
I was fortunate that the only hometown announcers I had until 2010 were Ernie Harwell, longtime Red Sox announcer Ned Martin, and Dave Niehaus. I was also really spoiled.
Giants broadcaster Hank Greenwald was great. In 1995 or '96 I laughed so hard that I almost drove off the road when Hank said, "Hook gets the ball and Leiter gets the hook." (reliever Chris Hook was being brought in for starter Mark Leiter).
Hank wrote a book I think called, "This Copywrited Broadcast" and he would joke about a time in the future when we would have "this pitch brought to you by..." "the mound visit brought to you by..." "this call to the bullpen brought to you by..." I couldn't imagine that happening, but here we are. Baseball is a game of stories, and most broadcasters are wonderful storytellers. It's sad that those stories have to be squeezed in, or left untold, because listeners have to be told that this pitch is being brought to them by...
I am not a Yankees fan. I have listened to John Sterling a fair amount because you only get the hometown broadcast on satellite radio when you are in the car. The guy was supper annoying in a lot of ways, but to his credit, he always seemed super prepared and, as someone who was listening as a fan of the visiting team, I always felt like we was complimentary of the visitors. Even when the Yankees would be destroying my team, he would come up with something positive to say about even the worst players on the opposing team.
The advent of MLB on satellite radio was wonderful. Because of the nature of my work in the mid '10s, I was able to listen to a LOT of broadcasts from local announcers I would have never heard otherwise. And I absolutely love baseball on the radio. It is such an evocative sport and I'm able to fill in the visual blanks pretty easily.
Jack Buck made me the baseball fan I am today! I am so grateful!⚾️
Growing up in Washington, Dave Niehaus was the voice of my childhood. And teen years. And young adult years. And my early fatherhood years. Toward the end, in the years before his passing, he started to lose it a bit, regularly getting overly excited over what ended up being routing flyouts. But his voice and enthusiasm stayed the same. It was perfect.
Now that we'll be losing Rick Rizzs to retirement after this season, I'm thankful that Aaron Goldsmith has elected to stick around in Seattle. I know we came close to losing him to St. Louis a couple years back, but the possibility that he'll end up being the Niehaus for my kids makes me very happy.
Cricket not baseball and international cricket not hometown cricket but despite him being dead for 5 or more years now, I’ll always hear Richie Benauds voice when thinking about cricket, he was just the soundtrack to summer through my whole childhood in a way that football announcers, no matter the football code, never manage to hit the same way the stick and ball sport announcers do
So, so true, Joe. I was fortunate to have Ernie Harwell keep me company six innings a night when the Tigers on the West Coast. What a fabulous way to drift off to sleep as a teenager.
"This is the old left-hander, rounding third and heading for home."
I was blessed in terms of local sports broadcasters, being born outside of Los Angeles in 1960. Vin Scully for the Dodgers, Bob Miller for the Kings, and Chick Hearn for the Lakers.
When I was in high school I worked at a radio station in Vermont that carried Expos games called by Dave Van Horn and Duke Snider. A two or three hour nap, with interruptions for local commercials.
I really think all the knocks on Sterling as are overblown. Who cares if you didn’t know if a home run was out or not for ten seconds? It was a fun listen, extremely entertaining, and you couldn’t help but love him and Suzyn. I’m really going to miss him.
We lived near Akron from 1978 through 1980. It was a treasure listening to Joe Tait and Herb Score. We moved to Nashville early in 1981 and the best thing about it was the location. I could pull in broadcasts from St. Louis, Dallas, Detroit, Cincinnati, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York and Atlanta. Late at night I could even occasionally pull in the Dodgers and Vin Scully. As a lifelong Phillies nobody can match Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn. Even though the Phillies stunk when I was a student at Villanova in the late 1980s, I rarely missed a game on radio. Your view on hometown announcers is 100% on the money!
Excellent, just excellent. I grew up in Houston with Hall of Fame announcer Gene Elston. Never forgave Milo Hamilton who, through no fault of his own, was hired to replace Elston. Elston was smooth, kind, and a great guy. Nice to my mother when he met her.
Elston used to sell his own scorebooks he created in order to keep score. When he died, I bought the remaining supply from his son (or I’m pretty sure it was the remaining supply). Every time I keep score, which is every game I attend, it gives me a touch of joy to look down and see the copyright sign and Gene Elston’s name there. That’s an Astros scorecard, not a basic one and not any other kind.
John Sterling was right there with Hawk Harrelson on my most despised announcers list, but agreed that it means he was doing his job. He seemed like he was a perfect fit for his team -- pretentious and bombastic in a way that made total sense.
Matt Spiegel has a great podcast series called "The PBP: Voices of Baseball".
Well worth a listen to understand the craft of the baseball pbp guy & the romance.
Tom Hamilton's episode is great for Cleveland fans out there.
Episodes https://share.google/20ZX19Lm4VoDjrYbP
I was fortunate that the only hometown announcers I had until 2010 were Ernie Harwell, longtime Red Sox announcer Ned Martin, and Dave Niehaus. I was also really spoiled.
Giants broadcaster Hank Greenwald was great. In 1995 or '96 I laughed so hard that I almost drove off the road when Hank said, "Hook gets the ball and Leiter gets the hook." (reliever Chris Hook was being brought in for starter Mark Leiter).
Hank wrote a book I think called, "This Copywrited Broadcast" and he would joke about a time in the future when we would have "this pitch brought to you by..." "the mound visit brought to you by..." "this call to the bullpen brought to you by..." I couldn't imagine that happening, but here we are. Baseball is a game of stories, and most broadcasters are wonderful storytellers. It's sad that those stories have to be squeezed in, or left untold, because listeners have to be told that this pitch is being brought to them by...
Thanks for this, Joe.
I am not a Yankees fan. I have listened to John Sterling a fair amount because you only get the hometown broadcast on satellite radio when you are in the car. The guy was supper annoying in a lot of ways, but to his credit, he always seemed super prepared and, as someone who was listening as a fan of the visiting team, I always felt like we was complimentary of the visitors. Even when the Yankees would be destroying my team, he would come up with something positive to say about even the worst players on the opposing team.
The advent of MLB on satellite radio was wonderful. Because of the nature of my work in the mid '10s, I was able to listen to a LOT of broadcasts from local announcers I would have never heard otherwise. And I absolutely love baseball on the radio. It is such an evocative sport and I'm able to fill in the visual blanks pretty easily.