Background Baseball

From left: Mel Allen, Bob Elson, and Red Barber.
These are the first three Ford Frick Award winners.

Hi, my name is Rob. (Hi, Rob)

And I have an old broadcasting obsession.

I have an Alexa, or as it's formally known, an Amazon Echo.

I play Question of the Day basically every morning, and sometimes play Jeopardy. But I'd like to have a sports trivia game.

I still have yet to find one, but I found something else: Background Baseball.

As it's described, "Stream the background summer time sounds of old MLB radio broadcasts from 1933-1973."

Oh.

My.

God.

Look, I know they exist on YouTube, but there's something different about this. The idea of just saying, "Alexa, open Background Baseball" and letting the "skill" randomly pick a game? Just awesome.

I'm not sure there's a 1933 game, because as I've discussed on my soon-to-be returning podcast, "Tales From the Booth," it's seems well-documented that the oldest existing full broadcast is the 1934 All-Star Game.

Indeed, when I asked Alexa to start Background Baseball, the first game to come up was indeed the Midsummer's Classic from the Polo Grounds in 1934.

So I went with the random option instead. The first game that was picked for me was the 1935 All-Star Game from Cleveland. Bob Elson, the third recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, called the action solo, save for pre- and post-game help from Ellis VanderPyl, a largely-forgotten early broadcaster for the Indians.

The American League won the '35 game, 4-1. Jimmie Foxx homered in the first inning. Of interest in the first game was how the A.L. actually changed their starting pitcher and catcher not long before the first pitch.

The game, along with many early broadcasts, was carried on multiple outlets. The '35 game broadcast that I listened to was on Mutual, but NBC and CBS were both on-hand also.

The next game on the agenda (and the one I'm currently listening to) is Game 4 of the 1943 World Series. By that time, the Series had an exclusive broadcaster, with Mutual being the selectee. Elson called the latter 4.5 innings, while the legendary Red Barber handled the first half of the ballgame between the Yankees and Cardinals in St. Louis.

Elson, it should be noted, was in the Navy by 1943, and received special leave from his military duty to call the Fall Classic. Thus Elson is the only person to call a World Series in uniform.

For more on Bob Elson, read this piece from SABR.

Barber should need no introduction. While Elson was the third to receive the Ford Frick Award, Red -- along with Mel Allen -- was the first (and second, as Red and Mel shared the award in 1978).

While Vin Scully was not a parrot of his mentor Red, it's fair to say that you can hear his influence.

Both broadcasters (Elson and Barber) provided vivid details of these games. There are no histrionics or cliches, save perhaps for Red calling himself "The Ol' Redhead."

However, to be fair, the broadcast is also lacking some personality. That would come along, with many colorful characters stepping behind the microphone, including baseball Hall of Famer Dizzy Dean, on TV in the 1950's.

This is straight reporting, with no pre-recorded commercials. In fact, the 1943 game makes it clear that Gillette is the sponsor, but there are no mentions of the sponsor during the game action. It is mentioned by Barber that part of the reason for it is that the shortwave operator knows when to mute the feed so that no sponsorships are heard on the relay of the broadcast to the troops overseas.

These are all marvelous time capsules. I can't stress enough that young broadcasters (and not so young) should listen to these to learn how to actually call a game. First and foremost, it's reporting that is important. As a radio broadcaster, detail is key. Elson and Barber are incredible at adding the flavor of what's going on. In the '35 game, Elson mentions a battle for a foul ball rolling down the line. He adds that a few "straw hats" fall off in the melee.

Again, there are no color commentators. No launch angles. Not over-regurgitating of stats.

That doesn't mean it's perfect. The fact that Bill Dickey is playing in a record-breaking game for the Yankees in the World Series is mentioned on several occasions, thus potentially beating the proverbial dead horse.

But there's also great info. Barber says that Yankees starting pitcher Marius Russo prefers to have his name pronounced as RUSS-oh, and not ROOS-oh. Elson, when taking over in the last of the fifth, says the latter and not the former. He eventually corrects himself without incident.

I can't recommend listening to these games enough, via Alexa, or on YouTube or anywhere else they can be found (I know they're on Archive.org, for instance).

As I finish the post, the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Braves are starting Game 1 of the 1948 World Series from Braves Field in Boston. Mel Allen and Jim Britt have the call of that one. If you don't like Native American nicknames, you would have hated Allen's opening.

That's a discussion for another time.