Play Ball!
Monday was opening day of Major League Baseball season. For those of you who are serious baseball fans, we know you’ve been waiting since the end of last season for this day. Facebook is being lit up with longstanding personal rivalries between friends. Families have once again divided into their respective baseball camps with t-shirts and gear.
C. Crane always receives calls at this time of year for people trying to get the right radio to listen to the games. They want to make sure they don’t miss a game. Locally, the majority of fans fall into two camps. We have die-hard San Francisco Giants fans or Oakland Athletics fans. Mix that in with the LA Dodgers fans and it’s quite a group. There are many calls from people who are getting a pocket radio to take to a game so they can hear the radio play by play.
With all of the technology available, radio still has a place. From what we hear, it’s because of the local talent and on-air personalities. That’s not to mention the well-known “voices” that call the game. One of the program managers explained it to me like this. If you’re in Boston, are a Red Sox fan and you call into the sports show to compare today’s pitcher to a pitcher from 30 years ago, it doesn’t work to have a guy who used to be a broadcaster in San Francisco and is a Giants fan. The caller wants to talk to a guy who was at the game, or whose dad was at the game where there is a direct connection.
We know you love these guys so tell us – who is your favorite baseball broadcaster or your favorite team?
Baseball has begun!
My favorite team would have to be the Detroit Tigers. I grew up listening to all their games on AM radio. I especially liked the Twilight Double Header games – staying up late at night, staring out at the stars through my bedroom window with an old transistor pocket radio pressed between my ear and the pillow. The game couldn’t have been more real then my vivid imagination…it was as if I were there. That is the magic of radio.