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!
Vin Scully. Nobody ever created a better verbal baseball game picture. You felt you were their at the stadium. My first team to root for was the Milwaukee Braves. Radio announcers brought these players to life and brought me much pleasure as a youngster growing up.
Baseball was my life from the age of four until present: 64 years of playing,attending,watching on tv, and listening on radio.
ahhhh just thinking about it brings me back to my childhood…. either outside during the day or under the covers at night hoping to escape notice of mom and dad and their admonition to “go to sleep”….
with radio you were able to smell the stadium grass and at night feel the lights and see the stars above the stadium
still applies today despite being of that “mature” age
I have always loved listening to the radio since I was a young girl. I am now 71 years old and I’d much prefer listening to baseball on the radio than sitting on hard bleachers at the baseball park.And TV isn’t much better. Too many commercials! Much more comfortable at home with my reliable companion, my radio!
I have followed many teams over the air waves. That is where I first was able to listen to and learn about such announcers as Vin Scully, Rus Hodges, Harry Caray and Jack Buck. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest in the 50s and 60s when there was nothing beyond AAA baseball, but the radio provided the way to become a life-long fan . Later, in Colorado, I finally had a major league team to follow on the radio!
Been listening to the Red Socks on the radio for over 60 years. first radio was a little transistor that you listened to with an ear piece. State of the art back then. I think it is the best way to see the game without having to be there….
Been listening to the Red Socks for over 60 years. First radio was a little transistor with a single earpiece. Listening to the ball game on a radio is the best way to “see” the game without having to attend….
I remember listening to the ’60 World Series on my small transistor radio, when “Maz” hit that classic home run to beat my beloved NY Yankees
I have always preferred listening to baseball games rather than watching on TV. Being in my 70s, this passion dates back to my pre – teen years when Houston was a Triple A farm club of the St. Louis Cardinals and later the Chicago Cubs. Later, when we received a major league franchise in 1962. I can still with fond memories recall Gene Elston and Loel Passe calling the games. Their descriptions were so picturesque I could visualize the ball breaking in the dirt and one of our batters swinging at that pitch. LOL!! At the time, I felt myself cheering in the stands as if I were present. In Houston, we have been blessed to have some fantastic radio announcers.
When my friends and I attended a game, we all brought our radios to listen to the play – by – play while watching the action live or playing sandlot baseball.
I recall carrying my small transistor radio with its less than desirable sound around whether walking or riding my bike or placing it by my pillow at night. Ah, what memories.
In today’s times, I still have that passion. I am glad as my vision is not nearly as acute as in prior years so it makes watching TV more difficult.
Thank you kindly for giving me the opportunity to share some wonderful memories and being considered for one of the modern day radios..
I’ve been listening to MLB on the radio since I was a kid. Used to listen to Jack Buck, and now Mike Shannon describe the Cardinals action as they bring it alive each and every game. Even though MLB game are now being brought to us on the FM band, I still prefer to listen to them on the AM band. Nothing like the unique sound you get that way.
It’s an American tradition.
Love baseball on radio, especially when you have an
enthusiastic announcer. Growing up, I listened to the Cubs and Tigers almost every day during the summer. I always had my baseball cards in front of me. Great times!!
Baseball takes me back to my youth !
A time of pleasure. A time of a less hurried existence. And I am in the game as well.
The “Fightin’ Phils” on the radio. I wish I could attach a pic with this, because as a kid on the way to Connie Mack Stadium in Philly, we’d pass the Atlantic Gasoline rifinery with huge balls of oil tank. One was painted like a baseball with stripes and their logo and “Hear the games on 560Kc WFIL Radio”. Always listened at home, as the games were only telecast on Sunday afternoons. At the Jersey seashore, the transistor barely picked up WFIL, and Dad would say how much he wished he could hear the games. I was only 9, but I knew that local WCMC 1230Kc carried the team, day & night. Pop was impressed. I loved listening to the descriptions so much..Imagining what was going on. It was great, EXCEPT in the fall of 1964! (Look it up Phillies Sports Fans) Truly LIVE theater of the mind.
This will be my 64th year of listening to the Boston Red Sox on radio.
1954 was my first year when Curt Gowdy and Bob Murphy called the games.
I have always preferred the radio over television because I can do other things while listening to the game.
Of course, baseball is not the only thing I listen to.
I enjoy news, plays, the Patriots, the Celtics, and many things on public radio.
I’ve been a Dodger fan living in the Central Coast since birth. My earliest memories of this awesome sport is being dragged with my brother & sister to a Dodgers vs Giants double header wondering when this long game would end. Now 35 years later I find myself tuning in on days I’m still at work to listen in on what iconic announcers such as the beloved Vin Scully bring baseball & some random factor or crazy unknown fact about each player right to me. I love it.
Growing up as a Phila Athletics and Phillies. fan, when I could not got down to Shine Park to watch a game, radio was the answer. I could even visualize Connie Mack, the A’s mgr sitting in his 3pc suit ,waving his program to send signals to coaches and runners. Radio. Saved the day.
Reminds me of the time before our family had TV, and we listened not only the ball games but radio shows.
Growing up as a Phila Athletics and Phillies. fan, when I could not got down to Shibe Park to watch a game, radio was the answer. I could even visualize Connie Mack, the A’s mgr sitting in his 3pc suit ,waving his program to send signals to coaches and runners. Radio. Saved the day.
A skillful baseball play-by-play radio broadcaster can create an image in the listener’s mind that is equal or superior to one created by being in the ballpark, thus creating a relationship between fan and broadcaster that can endure over decades.
I like to listen to the Phillies as I take my evening walk or sit outside and listen. It is easy to visualise what is going on. Sometimes the Phillies even win a game and someday spring may even come to New Jersey. Here’s hoping.
I listen for the love and memories I have and continue to have of the game that I have participated in on and off the field. I can think in terms of a day, a week, a month, a year, and/or a decade and have wonderful memories of our game called Baseball.
Been listening to radio since early 50’s, first transistor radio my parents bought me was the Zenith 8 transistor radio, man, I was King of the Hill with that radio, none of my Buddies had a Transistor Radio , it was great and I was so proud of that radio.
Oh, the memories, will be 77 this month
C.K. In Va.
Easy Listening…can listen while I work .
It transports me to a simpler time in a way no other medium can quite touch. I am there in the stands , I smell the hotdogs, I hear the call for peanuts as if it’s a call for battle by a Roman General …..
I got my first radio when I was six. It was loved it. I slept with it, the equine scent of the leather cover filled my senses with an imaginary saddle. I was fascinated by this whole new world and I remained fascinated to this day.
I enjoy listening on the radio because it lets me use my imagination.
In middle school back in the 50’s we would listen to the world series fully sanctioned by the teachers ( at least part of each series game).
Baseball on the radio has always been fun to listen too and I enjoy Baseball !!!
Listened to Tom Seaver pitch a no hitter for the Reds. Ditto Homer Bailey (twice), Heard Scooter Gennett hit 4 HRs in one game. Listened to Nolan Ryan’s no hitters. It was just like being there.
Listening to the game on the radio allows you to be “at the ballpark” no matter where you are. It is especially great sitting on the patio on a hot summer night in the east when your team is playing on the west coast.
Baseball on the radio takes me back to my youth. Listening to the Phillies playing the West Coast when I was supposed to be sleeping.
When I moved to the mountains in the late 1970s, the only program I could pick up on the radio was the Braves Network out of Atlanta. Each night, I’d go to bed tuned in to Skip Carey and the boys, listening to the Braves lose game after game. It was heart-breaking, so disappointing–even though I relished each time “Old Knucksy” (Phil Nikro) stepped up to the mound or the “Mad Hungarian” slowed up the broadcast with his crazy antics. Dale Murphy and Bob Horning were always a blast, but the combined might of their power-slugging was rarely enough to overcome deficits against the hated Dodgers or Reds. It was a lot of fun–especially when Joe Torre took over and led to the Braves on a 12-game winning streak to start the 1980 season–and a trip to post-season.
Love my CCrane radios!! I bought some for my 2 older brothers as well & they love ‘em too!!news.crane.
Because it is America’s game!!
Unique strategic game.
I can take my radio almost anywhere and listen to the Red Sox. You can’t take the wide screen tv to the beach or park to get the game.
Always better on the radio. Can listen while doing other things. Better broadcasters, more games to listen to.
I really started to listen to Detroit Tiger baseball broadcasts when I was given a clock radio for one of my birthdays. I could set the sleep time and listen to the game as I fell asleep for the night. Later I was able to learn how to get broadcasts from far away, Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. I was disappointed in 1960 when the Tigers replaced regular broadcaster, Van Patrick, because Strohs Beer replaced Goebel Beer as sponsor. Ernie Harwell was the replacement, so the disappointment didn’t last long. I have used radios from CCrane to listen to baseball and hockey games using SiriusXM radio in the aux jack for many years. This is the way a Detroit Tiger fan living in Minneapolis Minnesota can keep up with an out of town team that he has cheered for most of his life.
I see baseball better on the radio than being there or watching on TV. “Watching” Roger Maris & Mickey Mantle in 1961 made my summer job pass nearly effortlessly and while TV has improved immensely since those black & white TV days it has not surpassed radio. I wished I had had a crane radio a few weeks ago at a Red Sox game. I missed what radio would have supplied when for several innings the sun was in my eyes.
I listen on the radio as it brings back vivid memories of my Dad, who not only was a Baseball fan listening to games in what to me were far-off cities, but an armchair and many times in bed AM DXer. I don’t think that term was even know to him or me growing up…but that’s what he did. Chicago and St Louis and Boston were his favorite DX locations for baseball from the Mid-Atlantic.
I just love the sound of the baseball hitting the mit and the sound of the ball coming off the bat. You just can’t duplicate it. It’s just one of the many reasons I love baseball on the radio !
Because when I turn my radio on ,and sit back…mow the lawn…tinker with my chevy…sip a cold one…watch the twilight turn to dark on a summer’s night…talk with my neighbor, Dave over the backyard fence…no matter what I’m doing, if I’ve got the game on and I’m tuned in to the likes of Jon Miller and Lon Simmons…or Vin Scully…Ernie Hartwell…Red Barber…I’m in heaven! It’s summer, the game’s on the radio, and I’m right there behind home plate baby!!
In the evenings I spend my time cleaning buses. This is a very lonely and repetitive job. One can listen to podcasts, or music on an mp3 player or other device. There is only so much original thought, or so many songs one can listen to. Listening to baseball games is much more enjoyable as it is happening now. To hear Judge, Sanchez, or now Stanton make a smooth swing and place the ball over the fence is exhilarating. Then you get to hear the impressions of the colour man as he analyses the play. Nothing can compare with roar of the fans as Ichiro makes a throw from somewhere in the outfield to stop a runner from advancing, or indeed when he stretches a single to a double, at the age of 44! Long hours of blankness turn into hours of excitement. Nothing can compare to listening to a baseball game on the radio.
Brings back memories of historic games heard so long ago and where you were when and with whom. Who could forget the voice of Vin Scully.
I used to listen to the Washington Senators on my little transistor radio tucked next to my pillow as a child. I have always enjoyed hardball on the radio. It is still my preferred method of enjoying baseball.
As a child I would fall asleep listening to Cardinal baseball with Harry Cary and Jack Buck on KMOX radio. I have vivid memory of a distant time…Jack speaking to Joe Garagiola on the air discribing the summer nights of his childhood in the Hill District of St. Louis… with children playing in the streets as the adults drink beer and talked on the porches… all fleeing into the night to escape the brutal summer heat.
All doors and windows were open and every household had their radios, electronic consoles of the time, playing loudly and filling the neighborhood with the Cardinal broadcast,
Three Hall of Famers grew up on that street ! What a sight it was… without vision, a product of the theatre of the mind which paints a more vivid and lasting picture than any camara could ever.
We have long since relocated to Arkansas where I hear the games on KURM. On a good night I can can hear the flagship broadcast from KMOX on my CC Radio… which shows it’s age by the presence of a long abandon TV band.
To this day I best enjoy baseball on the porch with the warm night illuminated by the stars…and Mike Shannon’s call of Cardinal Baseball.
I stuck by the Phillies on the radio after the ’64 meltdown.
Larry N: with By Saam on WFIL, sponsored by “Three Ring” Balantine Ale, Philco Radio & Television (made on Erie Ave) from Connie Mack Stadium.
I just gotta’ hear the Cubs win the series again, and there’s no better way than on the radio!
It is totally Old School & relaxing. Brings back the good old days when my Dad (and me, his tomboy) & his friends listened to monumentous occasions. Listening created the vision and emotion from the broadcast. Simple & pure enjoyment.
U RIGHT..WELL SAID.
Lon E. Light
I like to listen in on baseball games on the radio because I can envision the action on the field.