One of my Facebook Friends posted a picture of an old transistor radio, and asked how many used one of them. I had one, eerily similar to the one in the picture, but mine had an ear-phone, that plugged in to it. I mentioned that I used to listen to Giant's games after my bedtime, and recalled the names, Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons, of the Giant's announcing team back in the 1960's. Going back -- in my memory -- I could hear their voices, and remembered how vividly they made images in my mind with their words. I also remembered getting "in trouble" for listening to the games after bedtime, because I'd get so involved in a game, that I'd forget I was in bed, and supposed to be quiet. My dad would open my door, lay a couple-of-dozen Anglo-Saxon favorites on me, and tell me to get to sleep. As I'm typing this, I'm thinking that he just wanted me to shut-the-heck-up, because he never did the obvious punishment of taking my radio away...
Hodges and Simmons are, in a way, one of the reasons I decided to study English. Another was my Great-Uncle Henry, who used to like to play word games, and always had a pun to share. Sometimes the puns were real "groaners," but others were extremely funny, and others very thought provoking, but that's beside the point... I didn't mention that I have a list of "All-Time Favorite Baseball Announcers," and that they are on the top of the pile, as far as I'm concerned.
I started listening to the games in 1961, when most TV's were Black and White, and you might be able to watch a game on the weekend, but never during the week (before the decade was out, Channel 2, KTVU, Oakland/San Francisco, started to televise games in mid-week, particularly with the Dodgers). Russ and Lon made me feel like I was sitting between them, watching the game unfold in front of me. On TV, you may have gotten a picture (in Black and White), but Russ and Lon made you see the green grass, the reddish dirt, and crisp, clean white lines, in your mind, something I'm not sure that today's kids could do that, anymore...
Yes, I've been a Giants fan since I was a kid, I used to, kinda, liked the Dodgers for a time, but with the team they had? Koufax, Drysdale, Maury Wills, John Roseborough, Duke Snyder... and the play-by-play announcing of Vin Scully? That was back before we moved to the Bay Area, and I got to see the Giants. My first game was a Pirates/Giants game at Candlestick Park, in 1961. My dad, and his friend from work, Alex, took me in Alex's new Cadillac, we sat in the upper deck, and darned near froze to death as the sun set. There was a guy in the next section, a couple of rows down, pulled out a "Mummy Bag" (a sleeping bag that covers everything but your face), it was that bad...
It wasn't long after that, that I bought that transistor radio, so I could at least listen to the games... My dad didn't like the Giants (he really didn't like the Pirates, either, but they were close to where he grew up), and used to gripe about the "two big niggers," referring to Willie Mays and Willie McCovey. As ugly as that sounds, it's pretty indicative of my dad's attitude on race, and it's how I was raised, I'm sad to admit... I was fortunate to have my dad around for 18 years after I retired from the Navy, and had time to spend with him as an adult. I asked him why he persisted in calling black people by that insulting word, and he explained it to me in such a way, that I understood... I had made it my goal not to use such words, especially around my children. Even at age 10, I knew my dad was wrong to use such language regarding other people, and out of rebellion, more than probably anything, I became a full-fledged Giants fan.
Of the current crop of Giants announcers, I only have good things to say. It's hard to bad-mouth a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and besides, Jon Miller and I probably listened to a lot of the same games (we're the same age). Dave Flemming is also making a name for himself, and working beside a Hall of Famer can only make him better.
Kruk and Kype? They have to be the best of the current best, and I could be a little biased, here... I HATE it when the Giants games are on FOX or ESPN. The Network Guys are always biased towards the teams from the East, and know very little about players from the West, probably because the games out here are after their bedtimes? Whatever... Duane and Mike make the games fun to watch. Being former Giants themselves, the are able to develop a rapport with the guys on the team that the Network Guys can't, and pretty much don't even try.
While I'm on the subject of Baseball Announcers, let me be clear, Joe Buck isn't worth the sweat from a dead camel's testicle. He is, without a doubt, THE WORST BASEBALL ANNOUNCER IN THE GAME! There, I've said it.
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