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!
When I was a kid in upstate New York, my uncle Bob would take me to Albany to see the Dodgers play. It was a rare and wonderous treat. When we couldn’t go, I’d listen to the ball games on my grandpa’s short wave console radio. That was a chance to vicariously celebrate my grandpa as well!
Bob Uecker…need I say more?
Listening to the radio as a kid on a farm in western Iowa made me feel like I was at the ballpark ! The good play by play announcers communicated the spirit of the team, the city they represented and the individual spirit of the players. And we all felt connected because we loved baseball and, our country ! Sounds a bit corny now…but I almost felt patriotic listening to major league baseball games ! Finally, as a 12 year old boy, I got to see some of my heroes in person when my dad took me to a Kansas City Athletics-New York Yankees game down in Kansas City. What a thrill on a hot summer day!
I like listening on the radio because it allows me to follow the game while doing something else at the same. Probably more important, it takes me WAY back to my childhood when everyone was listening to either the Brooklyn Dodgers (my favorite), the Yankees or the NY Giants. Great memories!
I enjoy listening to the baseball on the radio because it feels like you are in the arena in real time and it makes the radio listening experience the old-fashioned way even more better.
I’m 72, it takes me back to my youth. In the early 50’s we lived maybe 2 blocks from a local baseball stadium and team . Ah, yes, that really was the good old days .
It goes back to when I was only 5 or 6 years old in the mid 1950’s. The Herman family lived across the street from my parents. Their house had a big screened in portch on the shaded east side of the house. In the summer on Saturday and/or Sunday afternoons, Mr. Herman’s brother would come over to listen to the St. Louis Cardinal games. I would lay down on the rug on the concrete floor and listen to the Cardinal games with them. Then when I was in Peewee baseball, at the end of season they would take us 100 miles to see a Cardinal game at the old Sportsman’s Park up on North Grand Avenue. The first game was against the Milwaukee Braves. The first Milwaukee batter hit a fly ball so high I knew it had to be a homer in. Until the shortstop backed up into left field and caught the fly ball. Best memory is seeing Stan Musial hit a home run.
I enjoy listening to baseball on the radio because I have been doing that since I was a kid. Had a small transistor radio that I had to connect the antenna to a radiator in my room to get better reception. I tell my granddaughters that “I can see it on the radio.” Now with a good radio I can even listen to a game from New York, Baltimore, Cleveland and sometimes even Pittsburgh it the weather is right.
I listen to the Atlanta Braves on the radio when either the t.v. isn’t a convenience or it’s not broadcast on it. I’ve discovered catching the game on the radio combined with my imagination is a lot of fun! Plus, it’s nice not always being tethered to a t.v. There’s not much better than sitting out on the deck grilling some delicious food and sipping on some ice tea while listening to my favorite team play ball.
I have been coming to AZ for spring training on and of from 1976-1987, at which point we started coming for the full spring season rooting for our Giants in 1988. We even bought a condo close to the park, Scottsdale stadium, so we could walk to the games. We were able to do that until two years ago when my wife and I had leg problems. It looks like it will get better and we will be walking to the park again next year.
Radio in all forms is one of my great loves in life. Sports announcers calling play-by-play on radio are gifted story-tellers who paint the scene through their words. I still prefer to get news at home via radio, rather than TV or digitally, since the medium is so relaxing.
I go back listening to Phillies baseball for over 55 years. When I was younger radio was the main way to stay in touch with your team. TV telecast were maybe on some weekends and none during the week. So my love for listening on the radio stays with me even today and is my favorite way to enjoy the game .
I agree with other commentators that it is nice to be able to listen to the radio while doing other activities, not “glued to the tube.” Also, one of the benefits of radio is that (most) announcers give a great play by play description getting into the emotion of the game much more than the TV commentators.
Listening to Bob Uecker’s stories and jokes are the best. If you can pick up 620 AM for Brewer’s games, do it. Plus, sitting in the backyard, drinking beer, and listening to baseball is one of summer’s cherished times.
It’s simple. It reminds me of my childhood days of playing baseball with the neighborhood boys. One doesn’t see those pickup games these days.
have you ever been to a baseball game in person? There is no talk, whether I’m there in the park or at home I’m listening on the radio. Since the early 1960’s I’d sit with my friend and his Mom and listen to the SF Giants on KSFO 560 a.m. as she would play solitaire the whole game. In person you get no description,but on the radio the announcer’s see MUCH more than you do sitting in the crowd, so I would always have my ” Lloyds 9 volt transistor radio in it’s genuine synthetic leather case” and listen to my giants, so like Yogi said ” Let’s play 2 !”
I not only listen to The Detroit Tigers on the radio but also take my radio to The Big House in the Fall and listen to The Wolverines along with 115,000 fans in the largest college stadium in the nation. Very exciting. I’m one of the Michigan Marching Band photographers and work on the 6th level of the new press box. I’ve been doing this for 62 seasons now.
dg
I actually prefer the radio call to the tv call. When a game is well called i can readily imagine the action in my head, and feel more like being at the stadium then staring at the sterile tv screen
I love to lean back, relax, close my eyes and listen to the action being described to a tee
My dad listens to the radio.
I own a CC radio, I bought it specifically to listen to my team (Phillies).
I’ve been listening to baseball for more than 60 years, it’s really my choice of sports
Listening on the radio makes baseball come alive, I just enjoy the sounds over the airwaves, it brings me back to my youth
The radio allows you to imagine the field, the players and you hear the crack of the bat or the ball being caught in a mit. It reminds me of my youth and when I played. It is in a sense pure.
I listen to Baseball on the radio for a few reasons, I can take it with me. I don’t have to call my own balls and strikes because the tv announcer is gabbing about something totally unrelated to the game. and, most of all it’s nostalgic!! at home I like to listen to the night games on one of my old tube type radios in the dark , with just the dial light for light. It brings back lots of memories and it’s fun to “see” the field and the players in my mind and it just makes the game more fun for me!!! Russ in Richmond, Maine, USA
There’s just something very relaxing about tuning in sports on my CC Pocket Radio. Totally different experience than watching the tube as I engage more with friends and Have to use my mind to visualize all the action. Great memories of staying up late with my first transistor radio as a kid too!
I’m leaving this comment in hopes that I can win this for my dad. Although he’s full of life at age 86, he’s pretty much blind from macular degeneration. Watching MLB on TV is a daily necessity! But the play by play commentary from the television announcers drives him crazy because they don’t describe what’s happening. He would love to listen to games on the radio again. We’ve tried streaming but he doesn’t have a smart phone or internet access, plus his vision makes it nearly impossible. He would enjoy listening to baseball on the radio because it would be the next best thing to actually being there!
I listen on the radio because I am usually busy doing something else and can’t focus in on a tv or whatever. I enjoy the play by play and sometimes even take my radio to the games with me to get a better understanding of what’s going on with the game by the local team broadcasters! [Indians +Pirates]! Also, I like Dxing far away games in other cities, Baltimore, New York St. Louis to name a few! I used to listen to the games on the radio when I was a kid all the time when I was a kid, it’s something I’ve carried over into late adult hood! 🙂
As a True San Francisco Giant fan @ age 10 I use to listen to my beloved team on my pocket transistor Radio. It was such a magical experience and “Time” for me to listen to Willie Mays hitting a Home Run, Stealing a base or 4 and fielding a almost certain Home Run. Today I still listen to my Sony Pocket transistor radio and Mute the TV announcer just to hear the play by play om my pocket radio.
In my youth the thrill of purchasing a 9 volt battery to power my transistor radio for
a summer of baseball broadcasts was as thrilling as collecting the cards that went with the sport. In addition to 3 local teams my friends and I would marvel at the ability of the little radios to pick up a signal , after dark , of a teams a half of the country away. The occasional fade in and out of the AM signal and the surprise with the reemergence of the game as it played out. The fun of experimenting different ways to make a signal better so we could listen to classic announcers like Lou Boudreau of Cleveland Indians or Ernie Harlow of the Detroit Tigers made for a evening that brought the sights and smells of a ballpark without being there….
As a boy, I listened to ML baseball games all the time with my father. We were way too poor to go to the games and we didn’t have a television yet. We didn’t mind, though, because the radio announcers created a magical visual, which made us feel just like we were in that ballpark. My father has passed on, but I still prefer listening to ball games on the radio. That wonderful feeling of old time ball games is still recreated by skilled announcers today.
Nothing beats listening to a baseball game on the radio!
My father grew up with it, and he got me listening to baseball on the radio from a young age.
I enjoy not only the games but the great announcers like the great Dizzy Dean calling the game. He and others paint a picture in the mind of there listeners that can not be at the game.
Dwight Martin
To be honest, I was not that big of a baseball fan as a kid. I would watch or listen to the games with my Dad. I would ask him, who are you rooting for Dad? And he always said “the underdog”. So I said, O.K. I’ll take the other team. It really didn’t matter who won or lost, it was time spent hanging out with my Dad made the baseball memories special. Now that he is gone, especially when I hear a game on the radio I think back on those times and wonder who’s the underdog in this game.
When there was only radio and the nostalgia of seeing my Dad glued to the radio, play by play, rooting for the St Louis Cardinals and screaming loudly every now and then!!
I grew up listening to baseball on the radio. When I listen to bb on the radio i can picture everything in my mind what the announcers are saying. I don’t need to be near a tv when bb is on as long as i have my radio.
Love going to the games, but I always have my radio in my ear! I can ‘see’ the game better listening to the play by play than I can from the nosebleed seats! Go Astros!
Baseball on the radio sitting on a chair or bannister on the front porch is the living essence of mid 20th century America, my early childhood and the childhood of my parents. The baseball game announcers were real artists. The were able to simultaneously paint images of the game and tell stories – all to the musical accompaniment of the organ and the roar of the crowd. Radio broadcasting may in fact represent the last vestiges of 20th century technological Americana.
I like listening to baseball on the radio because I can get all the background information of the players and also interesting facts – plus listening to the radio, is a comfort.
I like to go to the park and take my CCRadio with me. (can’t afford the seats on the green). So I go for the nose bleed and radio in hand, enjoy the game.
Always listened to baseball on the radio. Took a transistor to the ball game to catch play by play. My first purchase upon graduation from USMC Boot Camp in 1968 was a transistor. Every place I was stationed during my 30 years service, i was sure to have a radio. And now being retired, I use over the air radio, satellite and internet radio. My night table radio stays on most all night. And a radio travels with me any where I travel. I count the C Crane radios I have among the best I have ever owned. Thanks – Semper Fi
I like to listen to the S.F. Giants as I go about my day or evening doing my chores and duties. My wife has severe dementia and I don’t have time to sit in front of a TV. I have to multi task as much as I can.
I listen to basketball 🙂
I even like listening to the game on the radio while I am actually at the game.
Baseball in Milwaukee means it’s summer and Bob Uecker is broadcasting his 47th year of Brewers baseball. Baseball broadcasts have changed very little in my lifetime while TV and music seem to have left me behind. That’s a real level of comfort wherever I’m driving, working in the garden, or enjoying the warm summer evenings of baseball season.
It takes me back to a simpler time when the AM 50,000 watt clear channel stations ruled the airwaves-Cubs(WGN-720), Reds(WLW-700)Pirates(KDKA-1020),Cardinals(KMOX-1120),and many more late nights tuning the dial
I can enjoy a meal, clear the table, rinse dishes, load the dishwasher and not miss a moment of a game!
I listen to baseball because watching it would take too long!
I always think that baseball is a visual game. I have the MLB At Bat app, and I listen to the Mets or Yankees playing with the other team’s broadcasters. Vin Scully always made baseball a radio game. Where you paint word pictures, and you are in control of the broadcast. You are not on television, and you are the camera man, the director, etc. When I listen to the Mets or Yankees in New York, and you are there with them. Even if it is late at night for West Coast games. Thank you.
I was in fourth grade, walking on the playground with my friend Curt, and I had my transistor radio, listening to game 7 of the 1960 World Series. Radio let me hear the crack of Bill Mazeroski’s bat, and Mel Allen’s excited voice told me the series was over. I’ve been hooked on sports radio ever since, loyally following our usually disappointing but often exciting Seattle Mariners. I listen in the car, on the patio, working in the yard, you name it, I’m hooked.
It’s nice listening to a broadcast to envision the game, plus my eyes don’t get tired from looking at a tv screen, give me a crane radio anyday!
I can imagine I am between the announcers in the radio booth.