Through a Glass Darkly for July 2, 2009

• By BOB ANDERSON
• Advocate Florida parishes bureau
• Published: Jul 2, 2009 - Page: 1D

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Listening on the car radio as LSU won the national championship game brought back some unexpected memories.

Of course there were the memories of LSU’s amazing string of College World Series wins, including the one in which Warren Morris won with a dramatic homer.

I saw the previous championship games on television. Listening to last week’s game on radio was different, and that’s what unearthed memories.

Most of my childhood experiences as a baseball fan came via the radio.

When we finally got a black and white TV, I did get to see the Saturday afternoon games. That meant listening to the colorful Dizzy Dean.

Dean didn’t provide the insights into the inner workings of the game as well as Tim McCarver would do much later on national television, but he did tell pretty good yarns even if most of them seemed to be about him.

No television personality has the challenge of a radio announcer in broadcasting a baseball game. A TV announcer can let the cameras tell much of the story, and a little dead air doesn’t seem as obvious as it does on radio.

Though baseball has a lot going on between pitches, it takes an announcer who understands the game to convey the strategy.

When I was a kid, I loved to listen to the gravelly voice of Bob Prince tell me what was going on within the lines of the diamond and describe the thought process in the dugout as well.

Those were some of the memories that came back to me last week when I had to see the game through my mind’s eye as I did as a kid.

For a while the signal even began to fade, which reminded me of leaning close to the radio and trying to pick up every word through the static.

The games were easy to listen to when my beloved Pittsburgh Pirates played in Houston because a local station carried the Colt 45s.

The games weren’t so hard to hear when the Bucs played in St. Louis. The Cardinals had a clear channel broadcast that could be picked up pretty well most nights.