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 agree with all posted—esp.1’st 3 para.at top fits my feelings perfect–all my radios working great-thank you for being there
I used to sit with my dad when I was young and listen to the Astros and all the games with him. Favorite time of my life.
Reminds me of summer nights as a little boy listening to the Phillies games with my Dad, especially after coming home after playing Little League. Beautiful.
When I was child I would spend time in Cleveland each summer visiting my Aunt and Uncle and my cousin who was the same age as me. At that time not many games were on TV but all the Indians games were on radio (and still are). My uncle was an avid Indians fan and listened to every game. While I was there I enjoyed listening to the game with my Uncle and cousin. Usually while I was visiting, we went to a game at the old Cleveland Stadium. Now, as an adult, I often listen to the Cleveland Indians on radio as can’t be tied to the house to watch every game on television. Whether relaxing outside or working on the lawn during the summer, I always take a radio if there is a ballgame on at the time. If traveling by car during a game I also listen. I even have a radio in my office where I catch any daytime baseball game that is being plated while I work. When I go on vacation somewhere far from home or camping, I also catch the ballgames and it sometimes takes a very good radio to pull the game in so it can be heard clearly. So I have been listening to baseball on the radio since I was a very young boy and still continue to do so at the age of 66. Hopefully I will pass this on to my 4 grandchildren.
Baseball on the radio AM of course
= Summer. It’s as if you’re listening to a radio drama, only its live! It’s the only sport I like.
Baseball on radio is like great music.
The commentary is like no other sport. Long live Baseball on radio. I grew up with it. Hot dogs, hamburgers on the grill ….Mel Alan.
Radio brings you right there to the ballpark–no matter where you are. You can hear the crowd, as background noise; sometimes on a hot day, you can even feel the heat on the field (All this, of course, presupposes a good announcer!). The night the Cubs won the series, I was listening on my car radio–even though no local stations had it, I was able to find a spot to pick up WGN, and had to sit there. When they won, more than one passerby wanted to know why I was yelling my head off. MLB on the radio also brings back memories of my father listening to games on his radios.
The sounds of a baseball game on the radio seem perfectly tuned to the pace and ambience of a summer afternoon, and they really compliment the important leisure activities of weekends in the warm months: drinking a cold beverage in the shade of a tree in the backyard, eating grilled food in the shade of a tree in the backyard, dozing off in the shade of a tree in the backyard…
You can close your eyes and use your mind.
Living in Southeast Connecticut, I am right smack in the middle between Boston and New York. It’s always fun listening on my CC Skywave to the Red Sox and also the New York Yankees. It’s really intriguing when the Red Sox and Yankees play against each other as I can switch to both stations to hear the favoritism from each side as I not only have the CC Skywave but also the CC Radio 2E Enhanced. LOVE the reception. C Crane radios are among the best for AM DX as well as Shortwave listening. I love listening rather than watching as I listen while doing outdoor activities. Thanks for making these great radios.
The Tickets , beer and hotdogs cost too much and you never miss a play.
Not a baseball fan but enjoy the shortwave / Amateur Radio aspects of my C Crane SSB Radio. I use a SDR program to find stations then enter the frequency into my Skywave SSB Radio.
Growing up, used to listen on KFI to the Dodger games by Vince Sculley and Jerry Doggett; sponsored by Unocal and Farmer John…just plain magic…
When I listen to baseball on radio I am back in my youth, listening on my dads transistor out in the yard on a warm summers day. My uncles got me listening instead of watching, it seemed to be their preferred medium.
Men all gone now, but never forgotten. Of course, now I’m the old man of the family. But oh, those memories of Mantle and Maris, Stottlemyre and Ford. Life moved slower, but seemed more savored then.
As a person who has always been totally blind, baseball was the sport the announcers could most completely connect me to as I listened. There’s enough time between pitches, and enough individual performance in each play, to allow a good announcer to bring me all the same information everyone else could see. So long as there’s a radio broadcast, I have a front row seat to any game. What’s more, I can always have all the mustard I want on my dogs, and any beer I spill is cheap.
Years ago even when I was sitting in the stadium, my trusted radio gave me a play by play run down of the game. It was educational and informative. I was a devoted listener and student when I was at home. Listening to the ball game conjured up wonderful memories. Both complimented each other – the visual and the audial which made for a perfect game.
I like listening to baseball on the radio because no matter what I may be busy doing, I can always feel like I’m there! Minus the pricey concessions lol
As a lifelong Phillies fan and senior, I’ve had to endure a lot of losing seasons. Radio has been my medium for most of those years, especially in my youth when far fewer games were on TV. As a east-coaster, the biggest challenge was away games against the Dodgers and Giants, which started at 11 pm in my time zone. As a kid, I used to program my clock radio to come on at that hour, but nine times out of ten, I slept right through it. I don’t know why my mother and father never complained.
While we’ve suffered lots of losses in Philadelphia, we’ve also enjoyed some great sportscasters, including three who were enshrined in the Hall of Fame: Byrum Saam, Harry Kalas, and Rich Ashburn (who was both a major league player and broadcaster). Those guys made listening on the radio especially enjoyable.
Listening to baseball on the radio today reminds me of my Grandfather…we used to listen to Pirates games on the radio in his living room on KDKA in the early to mid 70’s. I still prefer baseball games on the radio and savor the memories of my time with my Grandfather that each game rekindles.
I enjoy listening to baseball on the radio because we don’t have any teams locally to go and watch – I can be there when they’re on the air.
Love to hear the sound of the crowd. Been listening to baseball for over 70 years.
The sound is so much better than the TV!
When I listen to baseball on the radio, I remember my Father.
I’m right there along side the announcer.
I like the radio to listen to late night shows. They hardly ever have a baseball game late on at night, but when I do, I will listen.
A man without a C. Crane pocket radio, is a man stranded without listening to a great baseball game. Listening in to the ball game announcer as well as being there makes the whole baseball game experience truly remarkable.
Great product!!
I love listening to radio broadcasts of baseball because it reminds me of my youth, when that was all there was, and it was just like being there!
Play by play announcers on radio pay paint the picture so much better than TV announcers who speak driver to fill time.
I enjoy the announcers play by play, the excitement in their voices, and my imagination creating the game in my mind.
listening to the game while on the beach,paradise!!
In my thoughts I combine having watched the Detroit Tigers on television with having gone to Comerica Park where I saw several games and then listening to the later innings on my radio on my pillow top as I fell asleep as the perfect way to begin the new “2018 Baseball Season.”
I especially love to listen to baseball on my CC2E because of the way it’s designed to reproduce the human voice. The commentators sound like they’re right in the room with me, the crowd noise sounds like the stadium and not a bunch of
static. A hot dog and a cold one, and you’re at the game !!!
I am a senior baseball fan who grew up with the Washington Senators. “First in war, first in peace, last in the American league’ I grew up listening to Arch McDonald, before the feed was live. Arch was able to take you right to the ballpark through your imagination. I really love the away games, because you could hear the teletype in the background, but you paid no attention to it. When someone hit a homerun, Arch would call: “There’s a long fly ball to deep left, it’s going, going, gone! A home run for whomever, and then you would hear the gongs go: bong, bong, bong, bong. Arch would come on and continue with the teletype. Man, did I love that. I really used my imagination, but it was so entertaining. I still love listening to the game, because I love baseball!
Well, I don’t own a TV, so radio is my only option. Right now I own a radio that is pretty worthless and pretty much every time the blows my signal wigs out. I’d love to own a Crane so that I can go out to the ballpark every day.
Listening to a baseball game on the radio reminds me of when I was a kid and followed my favorite team almost every night. The announcers description of the plays let the audience visualize the action on the field.
Early on I learned the pleasure of baseball on the radio when we arrived at Uncle Joe’s house for a summer picnic back in the 50s the TV was on in the living room and the radio was on with the same game because it sounded better on the radio the gameplay was more descriptive on the radio. picked up the habit at that time still to this day if the game is on the radio I’ll have the TV sound turned off when I’m watching the game
We love our CC RADIOS and CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT THEM!
The Cubs radio announcers are far more interesting, than the TV talking heads. They keep us interested with history, tidbits, and anecdotes, that they know or look up, quickly!
When I am on the tractor in the middle of a field with my CC pocket radio, I am at the game! Especially since my volume control is stuck on loud, earbuds or not! Guess it’s time to buy a new one! Unless I can win one. Still love my CC pocket!
If there’s one thing that tells you that AM radio is still alive in the warm season, it’s AM radio’s coverage of baseball. Yeah, you can hear that on those stations’ FM local translators, but they don’t skip at night on a clear channel frequency when you are driving out in the middle of no where.
Not Big on Baseball but I remember listening to Winston Cup on the Radio as a young boy.You would sit there trying to imagine the cars running around the track. Ah the Good Old Days
Because you can close your eyes. And visualize you’re there. I like to sit in the truck, while doing this.
In 1954 when the Cleveland Indians were in the world series I was 8yr. old ,they would bring a radio into the class room so we could listen to the games. From then on I would listen to the games on the kitchen radio. That got me going ,on baseball and the radio.
I grew up in Atlanta and one of my best memories as a child was sitting on the side of the bed with my Grand-dad listening to the Braves…on his transistor radio! As we didn’t have A.C., I remember the windows being open & the sound of the pedestal fan drawing in air on those hot summer nights. That was in the mid-fifties…
As an older adult, I cared for my Mom the last 7 years of her life, and she never went to bed without her transistor radio- (she called it her ‘poo-too’ !) She loved the Braves as well, but loved even more ‘luxuriating’ in bed with that little hand-held radio! Thanks, C.Crane, for helping make my Grand-dad’s, my Mom”s, and my ‘stay-at-home’ baseball fans’ memories lasting ones. 🤗❤⚾
I have been listening to the Toronto Blue Jays broadcasts since 1977 and went to the opener that year for the very first game. I mute the TV and listen to the radio broadcasts while watching it. I like listening to the broadcast of the play-by-play by the announcers like the late Tom Cheek as well as Jerry Howarth and their successors. Without the visual aid of TV their broadcasts are way more descriptive of the action and centered around each individual play as it is happening.
Because i love being outside enjoying the weather while fishing and listening to the ballgame.
Radio was my connection to home. When I was a boy stuck at the Ohio School for the blind 200 miles from Home, the mighty sound of WJR took me back home where, my Grandma and Grandpa might be listening as Kaline stepped to the plate. Ernie Harwell, brought the excitement level to a head on that September Tuesday evening as the Tigers Win in the bottom of the ninth, and beat Baltimore for the American league crown in 1968. I wanted to cheer, but, couldn’t because one of my room mates might rat me out later. They couldn’t know that I was listening to the radio after hours, but, there I was with the 760 spot on the dial with a little Cuban backround, but coming through clear bringing me the good news. But, if the Tigers weren’t playing, there Were the Cards on KMOX, Red Rush and Bob Elson with the White Sox on WMAQ, Or herb Carneal andRay Scott on the Twins broadcasts on WCCO, and of Course Bob Prince on the Buckos on KDKA. And, I heard it all on my little five transistor GE pocket radio tuckt under my pillow. Wish I could go back there again.
I love listening to baseball on the radio because my minds eye is pretty amazing. I can see the ballpark, the teams, the fans and the announcer. The play by is sometimes better than the tv counterparts. It also takes you back to an earlier time. A time when all the big games were on the radio. A simpler time when true entertainment was free of politics, it was just the game. And it was amazing. My best memory was of the home run derby when Harmon Killevrew was featured, our own Idaho baseball great.
because I like to listen on the radio espc when i’m at the ballpark to follow the game more closely and it helps me to be more focused on the game being a big redsox fan that both my wife and I are and it also drowns out other distraction as well thanks
I remember growing up in Fresno, CA and listening to Lon Simmons on KSFO, SF Giants announcer in the early 60′ s/70’s. We had a classic Philco AM radio that would pull in the San Francisco Giants radio games, static and all in Fresno nearly 300 miles away from Frisco I was glued by the theater of the mind and Lon Simmons announcing…”The say hey kid” just hit another home run to win the game for the Giants. Willie Mays. I’m 62 years old and now living in the Bay Area and it seems like just yesterday. The golden years of AM sports radio and the flagship station for the San Francisco Giants, KSFO. Epic memories of AM radio, static and all.