Baseball Broadcaster Impressions: Radio

With spring training underway I've had time to listen to a few radio broadcasts the past couple of days. I think it's known that I do love listening to sports on the radio. Whether that is sports talk or listening to a game on the radio.

I especially love listening to baseball on the radio. Baseball is the only sport that is easy to listen to on a radio. Football, basketball, and hockey are difficult to listen to because you can't quite get an image in your head at what's happening. Baseball though you can imagine everything that is happening. You can see a batter in the box crushing a home run to left field. You can imagine your favorite pitcher throwing a pitch. You can imagine it all.

Baseball though has a lot of dead periods during games. Between pitches, outs, and at bats there is a dead spot in the action that requires to be filled in during the broadcast. And the best radio broadcasters know how to fill in those spots with stories.


The best example I can come up with from just a few days of spring training involve Bob Uecker and his partner Joe Block. During the first couple of innings during the dead spots of games Uecker, who we all know is a natural storyteller, was talking about old Tiger Stadium because Block is from Michigan. Uecker told this story about how Ernie Harwell had nets placed in front of the broadcasting booth at Tigers Stadium because of foul balls. Uecker said he didn't like that because he wanted to catch the foul balls that came toward the broadcasting booth.

It wasn't much of a story but it was nice to hear during the dead spots of the games. Uecker's partner Joe Block just described what was happening in the game with parts of awkward silence between pitches and at bats. It was boring to listen to and made the game feel like it was dragging on forever.

Now I know that calling a game on the radio can be difficult. Especially in baseball where there are dead periods in the game. I know that everyone is not a natural storyteller or has the experience of a Bob Uecker or Vin Scully. But it's not hard to tell a story, even if it's a little story and has nothing to do with baseball. Hell I've heard plenty of stories from Jon Miller that had nothing to do with baseball and everything to do with his love of boats.

It was during that Brewers broadcast that a radio announcer should be able to do two things during a broadcast:

1. Call the Action: Obviously the most important part is actually describing what is happening on the field. Also it would be nice if the announcer said what the score was, how many outs, what inning it is, who is pitching and batting. Much to my surprise Ed Farmer calling the White Sox games left these little details out of his broadcast.

2. Storytelling: Once again you don't have to be an elaborate storyteller like Scully. Or tell one of your many baseball stories like Uecker. But it would be nice if you said something during the dead spots of the game. Even if the story has nothing to do with baseball. Let the fans get to know you a little bit.

One other thing that drives me nuts during radio broadcasts is the presence of analysts. What is the need of an analyst during a radio broadcast? There isn't a replay they can show to break down what just occurred. Basically the analyst in the booth will just describe what the play-by-play broadcaster had just said. Analysts in the radio booth are completely useless.