If you’re a “true” baseball fan then you know Spring Training has begun and you’re excited to see your favorite team back on the field or hear about it on the radio and you’re counting down the days until regular season play.
Perhaps your love for the game came about on your own backyard ball field, or going to the game with your Dad or Grandpa, or sneaking your radio under the covers to hear the game broadcast late into the evening. We found an awesome article on the relationship of announcers, commercial radio and fandom that really hit to the heart of what we often hear – radio is community and sports radio is no exception, in fact it may be the inception.
Vice Sports Writer Mabel Rosenheck wrote – When we listen to games on the radio, we commune with our cities and our fandoms. Why radio particularly persists has something to do with nostalgia, certainly, but it also has to do with particular relationships of privacy and publicity that were created in the first half of the twentieth century and which are still with us in the twenty-first.”
There are folks who regularly call us to try to figure out what options they have for receiving the game. They love the play-by-play of their favorite announcers and often take a pocket radio to the game so they can listen while they watch. If you’ve been to a game – it makes more sense. So much of the time you have no idea what just happened if someone was injured or there’s a delay, but if you have a radio – the announcer keeps you informed and is communicating throughout the game what’s happening and what might happen (this hitter has 4 home runs, or has struck out the last 6 at bats).
We’ve written before about how Sports Radio is one of the few areas of radio that actively grooms talent and often keeps long term local talent because of the knowledge base required in order to have credibility in a particular market. If you grew up watching the Cubs and are an avid fan, it would be tough to pick up those roots and go over to cover the Giants on a deep level. Sports listeners expect their announcers and broadcasters to know who played 1st base for a club in 1972 and when a particular player retired or was traded. ListeEners know when you’re not credible and will tune out. The best announcers are story tellers, they make you feel like you are watching a game with a good (very knowledgeable) friend who is introducing you to each player.
Baseball continues to be a radio favorite and if you’re a true fan, you’re a part of this special community. It’s game day and you wear the hat or t-shirt or at least sport the colors. You can be out walking and have something in common with a complete stranger who is representing the same team and while listening you can enjoy the action and share in the camaraderie knowing there are others listening the same way you are.
Enter to Win! Please tell us in the comments – “Why do you enjoy listening to baseball on the radio?” and be entered to win a CC Pocket Radio. Drawing to be held 4/10/19. Please, one entry per person.
*Only comments from 2019 will be entered into the drawing.
2019 Winner!
Congratulations to Chris Hosford for winning a new CC Pocket Radio! Thank you to everyone that participated and good luck with any contests we do in the future!
2018 winner!
Congratulations Bill Cain for winning a brand new CC Pocket Radio! Thanks to all who participated. We value our TRUE C. Crane fans too. So many enjoyable comments that took us all WAY “back in the day” as if we were there with you! See you next contest!
I can imagine that I’m right there in the thick of things when I hear mlb on the radio. I can be hitting or pitching or diving after that slider at short stop – I’m right there!
Because I have the opportunity to listen to Bob Uecker entertain me with his stories in between pitches.
Yes! He’s the best! Go Brewers!
Smell of field & sounds of the crowd. Memories of enjoying the game with good friends
Listening to the game on the radio is just like being at the ballpark. You can see the action in your mind’s eye as it is told to you by the announcer, along with all of the information that he throws in with it. And you can do it while listening from your easy chair. Play Ball!
love baseball and love radio,even when i go to the la dodgers game I LISTEN TO RADIO,and ccrane is keeping radio alive.thanks bob.
I like listening to baseball games on the radio because it is relaxing.
I still remember listening to ball games when I was young under my covers when I was supposed to be sleeping. In my imagination I was there at the ballpark. The announcers spun out their tale keeping me excited as I listened intently. Some how at 62 it still does the same magic when I listen to a game now.
The reason I enjoy listening to baseball on the radio is, you can see what the announcers are saying in your mind and imagine what is happening on the field, and it let you capture a part of your youth ( for some of us) when that was all there was and you had to watch the game in your head though your ears.
On warm summer nights with the window in my room wide open, as a young boy who was supposed to be asleep in bed, my transistor radio brought me right there – into the park, watching my idol Mickey Mantle. As the pitch came his way, I was almost able to see the spin on the ball and feel the breeze created by his mighty swing. When he stood there and took the pitch, I could visualize how much that ball was off the plate. But when my radio announced the “CRACK” created when he made contact, I could see that poor ball soaring out of the park, or its whiteness blending into the green grass. Such warm, enduring memories are the result of a wonderful technology combining itself with my youth and America’s Pastime… Baseball. Thanks you for the opportunity to express this!
It’s all about imagination!!
I enjoy listening to night games. I can listen to the home town team (Phillies, but unfortunately, their flagship station is now on FM and the other AM stations are local low powered ones) or I can tune into other games like the Mets, Yankees, Orioles, and other teams. Plus listening on the radio, I do not need to use my eyes, so I do not have idle hands. I can work on a project and listen at the same time. Also looking into getting a handheld radio since the one I have is old and has analog tuning. I have been happy with C. Crane products in the past, but have not gotten a radio yet.
How I miss beloved John Miller the voice of the San Francisco Giants listening on the radio on a foggy Bay Area night now that I am hunkered down in Los Angeles with the detested Dodgers!
I love radio.
Radio was my introduction to baseball as an adult, driving home from work after games had begun and hating to change the radio station. My announcer sucked me in w his voice and word pictures. I live how they weave their stories into the field action: the excitement and despair as the team rises and falls. I knew I was a goner the day I realized I knew the umpires names. Can’t wait for opening day, and yes, I will have a radio in my pocket 💜
When I was a kid the transistor radio became a common item. The ole guy next, Dan, sat with his radio under the maple tree and listened to the Sox. He would have a beer and would always have a popsicle for me. We’d listen to the game most summer days. Now I’ve got the maple tree and a beer. Keep some popsicles in the freezer too for the grandkids.
Back in the day about every kid almost had a pocket transistor radio. We listened to music and our favorite sports. A transistor radio was a part of us when we played outside playing baseball or one hand touch football and listening to games or just hanging out with friends . It is a great invention
I began listening to St.Louis Cardinals games on KMOX in 1978 with my little bedroom alarm clock radio. Listening to the games that way keeps you in a family of true fans. You’re more connected and involved than watching TV.
listening to baseball makes me feel as though I am right there at the game even though I am only on the radio. It more enjoyable to imagine what is going on listening to the commentator
I love listening to America’s game on your great products. Your guys radios are the only radios in my house. Paul
Listening to baseball games on the radio brings back rich memories for me. I grew up in the Cincinnati Reds heyday in the 70’s. I use to listen to every game I could by listening to a small transistor radio that I’d keep under my pillow and listen to my heroes, Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Ken Griffey, Tony Perez, and Joe Morgan. A true basball fan can relate to this I’m sure.
I got interested when I was little because of my parents having the baseball games on. I loved hearing “Bye, Bye Baby” + the excitement from announcer voices. But…I couldn’t understand why they’d get so frustrated when things didn’t go right. So I’d respond, “Mom/Dad, it’s only a game!.” Then I found out why when I got hooked & started asking more & more questions. I’ve been hooked ever since & still consider it the best sport around!
The Bob Uecker. Nuff said.
You, sir, are 100% correct!
Why baseball on the radio? Do you have to ask? OK then… For the same reasons I would rather see a game (“lets play two”) at a ball field or a ball park instead of a stadium. Warmth, character and personality! Swing at any one of those three pitches and you’re guaranteed a hit! And we all know… All the hits have always been on radio.
My love of this game goes beyond all others
I actually listen from start to finish of most games. I still listen on conventional Radio if possible. I do not own Sirrus radio. As of yet.
When I was growing up there was only one game per week televised so I listened to Mutual Radio Network or KMOX or KDKA. Radio was a venue that made my day.
Would I be able to listen to any game from any location in the US.
Unfortunately not all. Some games are blocked in local areas so you can’t listen. It will only reach 200-250 miles. On a good day/night long distance is possible.
Growing up we always listened to baseball on the radio because they had to explain everything better . We would turn down volume on TV and listen to the radio.
It’s the theater of the mind:-) The announcers are almost like family to you. They’re with you day and night from April until early November some years, bringing you every hit, pitch & amazing catch from your local MLB team. Radio connects people to their teams like no other broadcast medium–no screen required! You could be hundreds of miles away from the ballpark and still feel like you’re there. For me, it’s my beloved Boston Red Sox. WTIC AM-1080 out of Hartford, CT is the strongest affiliate where I live. I have a tabletop CCRadio EP on my desk by my bedroom window–reception is amazing! Joe Castiglione and Tim Neverett will once again be the friendly soundtrack to my lazy, hazy, crazy New England summer. Who knows–I might not need streaming apps as much as I thought!
Baseball sportscasters paint pictures with words and make the game vibrant at the park!
Ahhh – listening on the radio takes me back to sneaking my transistor radio into school and rushing to my locker in the afternoon (when all real baseball is played) to catch the score in the early innings.
I have long enjoyed baseball on the radio with Internet radio adding a bonanza to one of my favorite pastimes. The lack of game clock and pace of baseball make it a broadcasters’ medium. Recognizing this, baseball puts its broadcasters in its Hall of Fame. I can listen in the car with windows down on a summer evening. Or on the back deck with night coming on, my feet up, nursing a cold beverage another inning. I have a favorite team and I have come to genuinely feel its announcers are friends who don’t let me converse so much. The team plays almost every summer day and my buddies in the booth carry me through rain delays, routs, extra innings, streaks, and rallys that take the lead back and others that don’t. Like old friends, I have heard most of their stories and know their idiosyncracies. The crowd buzzes audibly in the background. Drama erupts spontaneously, but mostly this listener hangs out with his pals, recalling summers past, evaluating new superstar wanna-bes, and believing this season our team will still be playing on long-shadowed afternoons or chillier nights of fall.
Hello… I started listening to the St Louis Cardinals in the early 60’s as a kid with a AM/FM radio from Woolworths. My first radio. And to me it was(and still is) a far richer experience to just listen to the announcers and how they describe the play of the game. Thanks for the chance to win.
Just as written so beautifully.
Every detail laid out the announcer step by step allowing my mind and heart to take hold my imagination beginning to run with chill, goose bumps Boom the Hit my feet and arms beginning to feel alive third base my announcer states.
I begin to stand with joy can you see it.
Totally amazing to listen on the radio
Amazing try it you will never turn back.
I still remember sitting at the local barber shop on Saturday nights getting hair cuts with my father. And the barber always had baseball games on the tube radio in his shop. It seemed so American.
“High and outside — ball one” — having the radio with you at the park helps understand everything that’s going on, including the “color” commentary on the players & umpires on occasion; much better than watching where the announcers just talk about everything but the game it seems like. You can’t beat having the ccrane radio hooked on your belt at the game with the hi fidelity earphones that come with it — I recommend highly.
I can enjoy the game while doing anything I choose rather than being glued to the tv
I grew up listening to baseball games with my father in his 1966 station wagon. The car radio was the only radio that would pick up the signal from WJR Detroit (to Omaha Nebraska). As our family are all Detroit Tiger fans, we took every opportunity to “go for a ride” with dad when ever the Tigers had a night game – and atmospheric conditions were just right to bounce the signal our way. When the Tigers clinched the pennant in 1968 we listened to the game via a phone patch from a Detroit area HAM radio operator sent into my dad’s basement office though his HAM radio set up. When the Kansas City Royals began broadcasting in the Omaha area, I rarely missed a game and the game was ALWAYS on in the kitchen in my parents home. To this day I have a baseball game on the radio or via MLB radio on a daily basis and most nights fall asleep trying to catch some of a west coast game through the static of a distant station. I often gives me comfort and brings back great memories of time well spent with my father just sitting together, sharing a Coke and listening to the game on a warm summer night. I do not particularly care to watch baseball on TV – but there is ALWAYS a game on the radio.
I have listened to the “Reds on Radio” as long as I can remember. As a youngster my grandpa was my listening partner. I continue to be an ardent listener, even to the point of muting the TV and using the radio for play-by-play!
It’s nostalgic. It takes me back to the simpler times of my childhood. Summer, radio, baseball, Kool-Aid, hot dogs, Schwinn “Stingray” bicycles…
Not a baseball fan but would love to win the radio
I started listening to Seals (San Francisco, Pacific Coast Leauge) Basball games on portable radios since my high school days back into the late 1950’s. There is nothing better than being outdoors with a portable radio listening to the play by play , even at a game while watching the action on the field!
Radio is still the best!
Because it is a sport without a clock!
Because I like the announcers on radio better than the TV announcers, I just prefer radio
I am a longtime Cubs fan and I love to listen to their games.
Our world today is so much a visual connection with television, videos, Facebook, etc. The TV announcers do not even have to give a play by play description because it is on the screen right in front of our eyes. It is so relaxing to listen to a proficient and colorful radio announcer who can bring the game alive and let your imagination visual the game in your mind. I find I even concentrate more on the game while listening over the radio than I do by watching it on TV.
Reminds me of childhood
Baseball is a wonderful radio game. I have spent most of my 80 years listening to baseball. It is a most satisfying way to enjoy a sport that I love.
Memories of DXing AM broadcasts of all kinds, especially baseball from far away was so interesting. It is the magic of radio that maintains the interest in exploration of wireless over just easy internet streaming. Baseball and AM radio just belong together.
Baseball is the perfect sport for radio. Baseball allows time to paint a mental picture of the game, there’s no time constrain. I can set on the porch, gaze out over the fields and be transported to the diamond.
My Amazon name is Radio Man. I collect radios including 3 CCrane models. I usually have a radio on somewhere in the house or garage at all times. If I am not listening to music I have some sort of sport event on. To me a radio means I have easy and instant contact for news, sports and emergencies at all times. Wouldn’t be without one!!!