It’d be easy to get overly fired up about the results of the games in the first two weeks of a major league baseball season, but why? There’s way too much baseball to be played to fully eliminate anybody just yet. Even now, only the Atlanta Braves are as may as six games out of first place in the NL East. What fires me up is the mere availability of baseball on an everyday basis. Call me kooky, but is there anything quite as great as doing just about anything outdoors on a warm summer night listening to a ballgame on the radio? Here in Michiana, my broadcast of choice is the Cubs. Pat Hughes has a voice and a passion for the game that lends itself to baseball. Even as a non-Cubs fan, I really miss Ron Santo; he was the consummate homer. Keith Moreland was solid, and Ron Coomer is OK, but no one could ever fill Santo’s spot in the booth. After dark, I still enjoy listening to the Cardinals on KMOX, 1120 on your AM dial. Mike Shannon still has the love for the Cards, the kind one would expect of someone with five decades of service with the same organization. The Jack Buck I remember still resonates in my memory; yeah, we get KMOX in Kansas, too. Some of you may know who Dan Kelly was; he worked some Cardinals games, especially when Buck was working for CBS Radio’s Monday Night Football broadcasts. Kelly called an average baseball game, but the man made hockey come alive on the radio. Different people have different gifts. It doesn’t have to be quite as dark outside to catch the Reds on 700 WLW out of Cincinnati. Marty Brennaman also has a voice made for the game, and former pitcher Jeff Brantley is solid in the booth Sadly, the team won’t live up to that standard this year. I catch the White Sox on radio some, but prefer to listen to Hawk Harrelson on TV. If there are classifications for broadcasters (and since this is my column, there are) I’d give Harrelson an “objective homer” label. I have no problems when a broadcaster leans toward an intended audience, as long as when the team stinks up the place, it makes its way into the calling of the game. Harrelson does that. He gives the other team props when its called for. I like it when an announcer can give the audience an “it sucks that it happened against us, but that was a great play.” All the greats do this. So many of us in my generation remember NBC’s Game Of The Week on Saturday afternoons, where we met Tony Kubek, the recently passed Joe Garagiola, and Vin Scully. Because of my intense dislike for all professional teams Los Angeles, I really wanted to not like Scully. That lasted maybe three pitches. I think it must have been a privilege to be able to listen to games on the radio on the drive home, and have a guy like Vin Scully giving the descriptions and accounts from places on the east coast. If it’s 7:30 here, it’s 4:30 in L.A., and if you gotta be stuck in traffic, there are a lot worse ways to spend the time than listening to a ballgame, and Scully made it all the better for generations of Dodger fans. I feel just the slightest tinge of jealousy; I grew up listening to Denny Matthews and Fred White broadcasting the Royals. The former is a hall of famer, the latter won multiple broadcasting awards. These days Scully, the last remaining active Brooklyn Dodger (as it were), works only west coast games, and even skips the occasional road trip. But, thanks to the power of satellites in the 21st century, we can get a last listen this season from just about anywhere. He’s retiring after this season and 70 years of broadcasting. To put that in perspective, how many of us have attended funerals of those close to us who didn’t live that long? I plan to listen every chance I get to Scully during his last go-round. It’s cliche to say they don’t make them like Scully anymore, but they do. It just takes some getting used to. Meanwhile, as the games progress, the hype regarding the Chicago Cubs remains justified, even after losing two of three at home to the seemingly ever-struggling Colorado Rockies. Don’t look now, but the Rockies are only a half-game behind the Dodgers going into the weekend. Losing a series at home is not cause for concern. Losing consecutive series at home may start the lookout, and then maybe think about hitting the panic button. Really, it’s just starting to get good. Last, but certainly not least, I wanted to pass along a bit of information. One need not be related to a student-athlete in uniform to attend a spring sports event. In the hurry-up world we all live in, why not kick back and catch a ballgame nearby? Or a track meet or a tennis match? I’ll admit, high school golf doesn’t lend itself to mere observation well, but any other time you’d walk around on a course without paying, you’d be trespassing. And if you really need to relax, go people watch at one of my favorite places to do so; find a T-ball game someplace. Just make sure you interact with other people there; if you watch a T-ball game from your car through binoculars, it won’t be a relaxing activity for very long.
