Baseball on the radio

On Monday, when Salt Lakers woke up to 4 inches of new snow on the ground, baseball fans across the country were waking up to the dawn of a new major league baseball season.  While Salt Lake’s not big enough to host a major league club, we do have the next best thing: the triple A Salt Lake Bees.  Those of us that don’t live in one of the 30 major league cites have to wait until this weekend or later for the minor leagues to begin. 

I have trouble explaining why I love baseball.  It’s not at all like my love of cycling which is something I need to do just about every day.  Baseball, to me, is different.  I played ball as a kid.  I was a lanky infielder with overly aggressive base running tendencies, but I haven’t played a formal game since high school.  Even still, there are a few nights every winter that I yearn to hear some play by play from some distant, scratchy AM radio station. 

There is a rhythm to baseball on the radio.  A good announcer can make you believe you’re there eating peanuts at the ballpark by describing how the dusk gives way to dark.  Likewise, because he’s there every night of the 162-game season he eases the transition of spring into summer and from summer’s dog days into a crispy fall.

A good announcer can draw you in just enough to make you cognizant of the game, but not so much that you can’t do something else in addition to listening.  I like to listen to games in the evening when I’m tuning up bikes in the garage.  I’ve missed a lot of sleep because games went into extra innings.  But every pitch was worth it. 

For some, baseball on the radio is a cacophony of ads.  “Why do we care?” they ask, “that this call to the bullpen is brought you by Joe’s Auto Body and Glass?”

While they have a point—the call to the bullpen was really brought to you by the current pitcher who can’t get his stuff under control—those of us that know the rhythm of the game know when it’s OK to shut off our ears. 

We also know when to turn them on, mostly because the announcers give us clues.  Every announcer has a few corny catchphrases by which he’s known.  Dave Niehaus shouts “my, oh my!” whenever the Seattle Mariners do something good.  And for a grand slam he delivers this whopper:  "Get out the rye bread and mustard, Grandma, it's grand salami time!”  My all time favorite is the pre-game setting of the scene by breathing in the “smell of the freshly cut grass under a cloudless robin's-egg-blue sky on a warm spring afternoon.”  My, oh my, that’s some good hooptedoodle!

The Bees open their season Friday night in Las Vegas.  I’ll be tuning in all summer to hear Steve Klauke say “It’s up there. It’s out there, and it’s gone.”