100 years of baseball on the radio on Thursday

 

The first: Harold Arlin on KDKA 

I had given up on it.

I don't like to be a pest so, eventually, I just stop trying. Just how I am. In this case, the writing felt like it was on the wall, no matter how much I wanted it.

Yet, I'll celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first baseball radio broadcast on the air Thursday night in Brooklyn, NY USA.

The Renegades will be on the road that night and we'll be there with them.

Oh, did I say, "We?"

Zach Neubauer -- he's the one who made this happen -- will be along for the ride. So will Sean (Adams, of course). And it looks like Spencer Pierce will join us also.

The game will be heard on Z93 (with thanks to Chris Marino, Chuck Benfer, and Jeff Semancik) as well as hvrenegades.com. Thanks to Steve Gliner and Joe Ausanio on the Renegades' end for allowing this to happen.

It will be the first Renegades' road broadcast since the 2019 NY-Penn League semifinals, also in Brooklyn. It will be my first road Renegades call since 2010...also in Brooklyn. I called the day before at Staten Island.

We're planning a day of content creation to go along with the game broadcast. Zach and Sean are planning on filming some fun stuff, so keep your eyes open for that. I'll have headsets ready for Zach and Spencer, while Sean will likely pass on joining us on the air.

Of course, I'll focus on the game but I'm planning to talk up a lot of the history of baseball broadcasting -- especially on the radio. It will be 100 years to the days since Harold Arlin first stepped into Forbes Field to call the Phillies and Pirates on KDKA in Pittsburgh (or East Pittsburgh at the time).

Red Barber in the "Catbird Seat" in Brooklyn, USA (ignore the TV cameras)

It's also cool to be calling the game from the "Catbird Seat" in Brooklyn, so named in honor of Red Barber's perch at Ebbets Field. There was another redhead who worked in Brooklyn. I wonder what happened to him?

I'm hoping you'll all tune in and that everyone loves the broadcast.

Sports on the air -- baseball on the radio -- means so much to me (obviously). It's been the soundtrack to a lot of things in my life. It's also been something I've studied extensively.

So I knew I needed to be on the air on Aug 5. I had resigned myself -- mostly due to COVID -- to doing "Doubleheader" and going heavy on the history of the business.

I won't quite get to live out my big idea, which was to treat each inning of the broadcast as a decade of baseball on the radio, but I'll compromise on it. My idea was too grandiose, admittedly, where I wanted to make the earlier innings sound a little rawer, with thoughts from a "color commentator" being reserved until the middle of the inning (like it was in the very early days) with no commercials or just commercial reads and lots of static.

Instead, I'll thread in goodies and even some audio if I can.

To that end, I have a question: What is (in your opinion) the best baseball radio call? I realize sometimes it's not easy to tell if it was on the radio or on TV so I'll leave it open and whittle down where necessary.

So, again, I ask: What's the best baseball call (hopefully on the radio)?

It could be Vin's call of the Koufax perfect game? Red Barber calling one of the great moments in the '47 World Series. It could be Roger Maris and his 61st home run (HOLY COW!). It could be anything. Maybe it's something that grabbed you from the minors or high school or college baseball or Little League.

What is it? I'd love to compile a list to talk about on Thursday's broadcast.

Let me know as we plan for the broadcast!