We hear their voices every time we tune in to a contest:  giving us the details of the situation, the status of the game, the events that have led us to where we are, and what's to come.  Without them, the game is merely pictures without background, an unfinished tapestry open to speculation and interpretation to anyone.

However, when these men and women lend their voices, their knowledge, their insight and opinions to what we see, the image is complete.  We can fully grasp the nuances that would escape us, pick up on slight shifts and changes that take place, and get a much fuller view of what we are watching.  We turn from a casual observer to a more in depth viewer, where before we were merely browsing, now it is almost as we are entranced with the unfolding of the epic battle.

This is a tribute to some of those broadcasters that have transcended sport and time, and really made games more interesting and entertaining.  Thanks to each of these, and others, my interest in sports was planted, fed, cultivated, refined and has led to this quintessential harvest of eclectic posts and facts.


THIRTEEN QUINTESSENTIAL ANNOUNCERS:

 1.  Harry Caray:  Caray had an illustrious career that spanned six decades, from 1945 when he broke in with the St. Louis Cardinals, through 1997.  Caray was a fantastic announcer, not so much for his ability, but for his ability to keep people entertained.  Sure, he butchered names, and was an unabashed homer when it came to announcing, but who cares? 

Caray spent twenty four seasons with the Cardinals, from 1945 to 1969 before he was fired by August Busch and replaced by a man you will find further down in this list.  He then spent one season as the lead man for the Charlie Finley owned Oakland A's before tiring of Finley's interference.  He then went on to the Chicago White Sox and was an immediate hit and was embraced by the Chicago community.  However, after eleven seasons there, he left the south side of Chicago for the ivy covered walls of Wrigley Field.

The White Sox were floundering, as owner Jerry Reinsdorf had just attempted to float a pay TV deal for the White Sox, which went over, to quote Keith Moon and John Entwistle, both of the Who, would go down like a "lead zeppelin."  The Cubs were on WGN, one of the first cable superstations like WWOR in New York, or TBS out of Atlanta. 

Caray was known for his coke bottle barrel rimmed glasses, his butchering of names, and for singing "Take Me Out to The Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch at home games.  He passed away in February 1998 at the age of 83.  His legacy lives on in Chicago, and in broadcasting, as his son, Skip, and his grandson Chip, both have had great careers behind the microphone.


 2.  Red Barber:  Barber called games across four decades, for the Reds, Dodgers, and Yankees.  He is best known for calling games at the old Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, especially when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.  He also broadcast the first major league baseball game that was on television, back in 1939. 

When he suffered a bleeding ulcer and missed time in 1948, Branch Rickey executed a TRADE to get a replacement announcer.  Rickey dealt catcher Cliff Dapper to the minor league Atlanta Crackers in exchange for another name that will appear on this list. 

Barber became an institution, widely admired for his folksy style of play-by-play. He was also well respected among people concerned about Brooklyn's reputation as a land of "dees" and "dems."

Barber was well known for his signature catchphrases, which included:

• "They're tearin' up the pea patch" -- used for a team on a winning streak.
• "The bases are F.O.B. (full of Brooklyns)" -- indicating the Dodgers had loaded the bases.
• "Can of corn" -- describing a softly hit, easily caught fly ball.
• "Rhubarb" -- any kind of heated on-field dispute or altercation.

He and Mel Allen were the first recipients of the Ford C. Frick Award in 1978, and was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995.  He passed away in 1992, at the age of 84, having seen things that one would never have even imagined when he started.


 3.  Harry Kalas:  Kalas is a classic throwback voice in the world of broadcasting.  You can hear him in Philadelphia calling Phillies games, NFL radio broadcasts on the Westwood One network, and he is the voice of NFL Films, that has sent goosebumps down the arms and spines of fans everywhere for years.

Kalas started announcing in 1961 with the minor league Hawaii Islanders while stationed there as a member of the United States Army, and began his career in the bigs with the Houston Astros in 1965.  He replaced Bill Campbell as the play by play man for the Phillies in 1971, and has been there since.  He was paired with former Phillie, Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn, for twenty seven years before his passing of a heart attack in 1999.

Kalas has also been working for NFL Films since 1975, and has become an institution in professional sports thanks to that.  He received the Ford C. Frick Award in 2002, and is still calling for the team at the age of 72, and will continue to do so through at least 2009 when his contract expires.


 4.  Phil Rizzuto:  Rizzuto spent his entire playing career in the glory days of the New York Yankees, from 1941 to 1956.  He was even the American League MVP in 1950, and was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame as a Veterans Committee selection in 1994. 

Rizzuto broadcast Yankee games on radio and television for the next 40 years. His popular catchphrase was "Holy cow." Rizzuto also became known for saying "Unbelievable!" "Oh, man" or "Did you see that?" to describe a great play, and would call somebody a "huckleberry" if he did something Rizzuto didn't like. He would frequently wish listeners a happy birthday or anniversary, send get-well wishes to fans in hospitals, and speak well of restaurants he liked, or of the cannoli he ate between innings. He also joked about leaving the game early, saying to his wife, "I'll be home soon, Cora!" and "I gotta get over that bridge", referring to the nearby George Washington Bridge, which he would use to get back to his home in Hillside. In later years, Rizzuto would announce the first six innings of Yankee games; the TV director would sometimes puckishly show a shot of the bridge (which can be seen from the top of Yankee Stadium) after Rizzuto had departed. Rizzuto was also very phobic about lightning, and sometimes left the booth following violent thunderclaps.

Four of Rizzuto's broadcast partners have been inducted into the Hall of Fame for their work behind the mic (Mel Allen, Red Barber, Joe Garagiola, and Jerry Coleman) while Tom Seaver was inducted for his on the field work. 

Rizzuto passed away in his sleep last August at the age of 89, but he will never be forgotten by Yankees fans.


 5.  Vin Scully:   Words cannot describe with any justice the long, storied career of Vin Scully as a broadcaster for the Brooklyn, and then Los Angeles, Dodgers.  Scully has been the voice of the Dodgers for now 59 seasons.  That stint is the longest affiliation a broadcaster has had with any one team in the storied history of professional sports. 

Scully has been named the California Sportscaster of the Year 28 times, won the Ford C. Frick Award in 1982, was named Broadcaster of the Century by the American Sportscaster Association in 2000, and was awarded a Life Achievement Emmy Award for sportscasting and was inducted in the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995. 

Scully was recruited by none other than Red Barber, and stepped in for him during the 1953 World Series after a salary dispute between Barber and Gillette, the sponsor for the feed.  Scully became the youngest man to call a World Series, at the age of 25, a record that still stands to date.  Scully is still under contract for this season, at the age of 80.


 6.  Bob Uecker:  No list would be complete without Mr. Baseball himself.  For more information on Uecker, take a look at A Tribute to Ol' Ueck, written by me last August.


 7.  Ernie Harwell:  As I mentioned earlier, Harwell is the only announcer to actually be traded for a player.  Harwell filled in for the hospitalized Red Barber in 1948, and stayed with the Dodgers through the 1949 season.  He then moved on to the rival New York Giants from 1950-53, and even called the famed "Shot Heard Round The World", Bobby Thomson's ninth inning blast off Ralph Branca that gave the Giants the pennant over the Dodgers.

He then spent 1954-59 with the Orioles, but his legacy was born when he joined the Tigers in 1960. He was a member of the Tigers crew until his retirement in 2002, at the age of 84.  Harwell has a plethora of awards and accomplishments, including the Ford C. Frick Award in 1981, the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1989, the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Radio Hall of Fame in 1998.

In 2001, Harwell was the recipient of the prestigious Ty Tyson Award for Excellence in Sports Broadcasting, awarded by the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association.  Harwell's 1955 essay "The Game for All America", originally published in The Sporting News and reprinted numerous times, is considered a classic of baseball literature.


 8.  Jack Buck:  Buck replaced Harry Caray in St. Louis following the 1969 season.  He had been on the Cardinals radio network since 1954, but ascended to the lead role following Caray's departure.  He received the Ford C. Frick Award like so many of the names on this list, his coming in 1987, and was inducted in the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995.  He also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. 

Buck also covered the NFL and even was the voice of the NHL's St. Louis Blues for their first couple seasons before giving way to Dan Kelly.  His son, Joe, is a national broadcaster for FOX now.  Jack Buck died in 2002 at the age of 77 from a combination of illnesses, a death that shook the St. Louis community. 

In his career, he called 11 World Series for national audiences, 17 Super Bowls, and four baseball All Star Games.


 9.  Curt Gowdy:  Gowdy began his Major League Baseball broadcasting career working as the No. 2 announcer to Mel Allen for New York Yankees games on radio and television in 1949-50. There he succeeded Russ Hodges, who departed to become the New York Giants' lead announcer when the Yankees and Giants decided to broadcast a full slate of 154 games, instead of sharing the same radio network and announcers for 77 games each. Two years later, in Boston, the Red Sox and the Boston Braves followed a similar path, with each team opting for its own networks and announcers. Jim Britt decided to stay with the Braves, opening the top spot on the Red Sox' broadcast team.

In April 1951 at the age of 31, Gowdy began his tenure as the lead announcer for the Red Sox. For the next 15 years, he called the exploits of generally mediocre Red Sox teams on WHDH radio and on three Boston TV stations: WBZ-TV, WHDH-TV, and WNAC-TV. During that time, Gowdy partnered with two future baseball broadcasting legends: Bob Murphy and Ned Martin. His nagging bad back caused Gowdy to miss the entire 1957 season.

He left the Red Sox after the 1965 season for NBC Sports, where for the next ten years he called the national baseball telecasts of the Saturday afternoon Game of the Week and Monday Night Baseball during the regular season (and the All-Star Game in July), and the post-season playoffs and World Series in October.

Curt Gowdy was present for some of American sports' storied moments, including Ted Williams' home run in his final at-bat in 1960, Super Bowl I, the AFL's infamous "Heidi" game of 1968, and (after the 1968 pro football season) the third AFL-NFL World Championship game (Super Bowl III) in which Joe Namath and the New York Jets defeated the NFL champion Baltimore Colts. He also covered Franco Harris' "Immaculate Reception" of 1972, Clarence Davis' miraculous catch in a "sea of hands" from Oakland Raiders Quarterback Ken Stabler, to defeat the Miami Dolphins in the final seconds of a legendary 1974 AFC playoff game, and Hank Aaron's 715th home run in 1974. In an interview by NFL Films, he said his most memorable game was Super Bowl III when the Jets upset the heavily-favored Colts 16-7 after Namath guaranteed victory.[citation needed] Gowdy endeared himself to long-suffering American Football League fans when it was learned that in an off-air break towards the end of the game, he asked rhetorically: "I wonder if that (S.O.B.) Tex Maule is watching?", a reference to the Sports Illustrated writer who for years had denigrated the AFL. On-air, in contrast to his contemporary announcers of NFL games, he avoided their hyperbole and transparent adulation of players, and gave steady, non-partisan, but colorful descriptions of AFL games. Gowdy was also known for the occasional malapropism, including a consoling comment just after the Red Sox lost the 1975 World Series: "Their future is ahead of them!"

Gowdy died in 2006 of leukemia at the age of eighty six.


10.  Bob Prince:  Prince was an American radio and television sportscaster and commentator best known for his 28-year stint as the voice of the Pittsburgh Pirates, with whom he earned the nickname “The Gunner” and became a cultural icon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Prince was one of the most distinct, colorful and popular voices in sports broadcast history, known for his gravel voice, unabashed style and clever nicknames and phrases, which came to be known as "Gunnerisms." His unique manner influenced a number of broadcasters after him, a list that includes Pittsburgh Penguins voice Mike Lange and Pittsburgh Steelers color analyst Myron Cope among others.

Prince called Pirates games from 1948 to 1975, including the World Series championship years of 1960 and 1971. Nationally, Prince broadcast the 1960, 1966, and 1971 World Series and the 1965 All-Star Game for NBC.

In 1966, Prince popularized a good-luck charm known as the Green Weenie, a plastic rattle in the shape of an oversized green hot dog that Pirates fans used to jinx opponents. ("Never underestimate the power of the Green Weenie," he liked to assure listeners). The hex symbol had started in the dugout with trainer Danny Whelan. Prince picked up on it and began talking about it on the broadcasts. No one thought to trademark the Green Weenie, so tens of thousands were sold in 1966, but Prince, Whelan and the Pirates didn't profit from it.

Prince died of mouth cancer on June 10, 1985 at the age of sixty eight, and was posthumously awarded the Ford C. Frick Award in 1986.  In 1999, Prince was selected for the Pride of the Pirates award, a lifetime achievement honor given annually to a member of the organization.


11.  Jack Brickhouse:  Known primarily for his enthusiastic coverage of Chicago Cubs games on television from the late 1940s until the early 1980s, Brickhouse was a throwback to the old days of broadcasting.   He received the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983.

He covered national events from time to time, including the World Series, even though the Cubs never got there. The voice on the audio track of the famous Willie Mays catch in Game 1 of the 1954 Series at the Polo Grounds belongs to Brickhouse. He was doing the game on NBC television along with the New York Giants' regular broadcaster, Russ Hodges.

Brickhouse also covered many other events, sports and otherwise, such as professional wrestling. Prior to the Chicago White Sox getting their own TV network, he often did Sox games as well. And for many years he covered the Chicago Bears on radio, in an unlikely and entertaining pairing with famous Chicago gossip columnist Irv Kupcinet. Brickhouse was also a boxing commentator. Fights he called include the 1949 fight between Jersey Joe Walcott and Ezzard Charles and the 1951 fight between Johnny Bratton and Charley Fusari. He also did Chicago Bulls basketball games for WGN-TV from 1966 until 1973.

Brickhouse died in 1998 at the age of 82 of cardiac arrest following surgery to remove a brain tumor.  It was the second devastating blow to the Cubs and their fans that year, as Harry Caray had passed away not three months earlier.


12.  Marty Brennaman:  Not much positive can be said about the Reds announcer, who has been a long term institution for Cincinnati fans.  Brennaman took over the role from Al Michaels in 1974, and has been there ever since. 

He was awarded the Ford C. Frick Award in 2000.  He also has been named the Ohio Sportscaster of the Year 12 times and the Virginia Sportscaster of the Year four times. 

I said that you can't say much good about Brennaman.  I say that as a Cubs fan, based on comments he made earlier this season during an April game between the Reds and Cubs at Wrigley Field:

"This is the kind of thing, quite honestly, right now, that makes you want to see the Chicago Cubs team lose. Among all baseball fans, and I can't attest to the Yankees or Red Sox, because we don't see them with any degree of regularity unless it's inter-league play, but far and away the most obnoxious fans in baseball, in this league, are those who follow this team right here. Throwing 15 or 18 balls onto the field, there's absolutely no excuse for that, and that is so typical of Chicago Cubs fans. It's unbelievable."

"You simply root against 'em. Ya'know, I've said all winter they talked about this team winning the division, and my comment is they wont win it, because at the end of the day, they still are the Chicago Cubs, and they will figure out a way to screw this whole thing up."

Brennaman is getting his comeuppance, however, as the Reds continue to flounder, while the Cubs own baseball's best record to date.


13.  Howard Cosell:  No list of broadcasters would be complete without Cosell in the mix.  Cosell covered it all in his time on the mic, from boxing, to football, to the Olympics, and even a bit of baseball mixed in.  He was outspoken, critical, and was controversial well before any other commentators came across that way. 

Cosell took his "tell-it-like-it-is" approach when he teamed with the ex-Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher "Big Numba Thirteen" Ralph Branca on WABC-77's pre- and post-game radio shows of the New York Mets in their nascent years beginning in 1962. He pulled no punches in taking members of the hapless expansion team to task.

Otherwise on radio, Cosell did his show, Speaking of Sports, as well as sports reports and updates for affiliated radio stations around the country; he continued his radio duties even after he became prominent on television. Cosell then became a sports anchor at WABC-TV in New York, where he served in that role from 1961 to 1974. He expanded his commentary beyond sports to a radio show entitled "Speaking of Everything".

Cosell rose to prominence covering boxer Muhammad Ali, starting when he still fought under his birth name, Cassius Clay. The two seemed to be friends despite their very different personalities, and complimented each other in broadcasts. In a time when many sports broadcasters avoided touching social, racial, or other controversial issues, and kept a certain level of collegiality towards the sports figures they commented on, Cosell did not, and indeed built a reputation around his catchphrase:

"I'm just telling it like it is."

Cosell was the 1995 recipient of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. After his wife of 46 years, Mary Edith Abrams Cosell, known as "Emmy", died in the fall of 1990, Cosell appeared in public less and less until his passing away in 1995 from a heart embolism at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants