As a boy, the late great Mississippi writer Willie Morris discovered that the minor league baseball game he was listening to on the radio was not a live event as he had thought. In 1979, Morris told California sportswriter Scott Ostler that in the mid1940s he always listened to his favorite legendary baseball announcer “The Old Sportsman”. Morris was not taken aback when he learned the games were not live but instead thought that his favorite announcer was a genius. “The Old Scotsman made the game take on a life of its own. He would have a flow of history with a casual pop fly while a double play resembled a stark clash of old enemies. The Scotsman deserved acknowledgment on earthen urns," concluded Morris. Morse Code and later Western Union telegraph were sent to the radio stations for re-creation. The announcers preferred recreating the games to doing live games. If the telegraph went silent, the announcers would use their imagination; for example, they would insert a fight in the stands, a cat or dog running onto the field with all the players trying to catch up to the varmint, a slow walk by the manager to the pitching mound or an umpire argument. Sounds were pumped in with tape recorded stadium sounds. The radio crew would create their own sounds from within the radio booth. Examples included the sound of the bat hitting the ball, the sound of a ball hitting the catcher's mitt made by hitting a pillow with a hand and foul ball sounds made by hitting cardboard. Once an announcer in Iowa by the name of “Dutch Reagan” had a player foul off 40 pitches before the telegraph was back up and running. Dutch went on to become a Hollywood actor and later on got into politics. It seems that history is repeating itself with a modernized re-creation of baseball. This weekend Major League Baseball returns, and the game will have a much different look. The major change will be how the announcers broadcast the games. The Atlanta Braves will travel to New York to play the Mets this Friday, but the Braves' announcers will be back in Cobb County in their own TV booth at Truist Park. The Mets' TV crew will send the Braves a live video feed of the game, and the TV trio of Chip Caray, Jeff Francoeur and Tom Glavine will use their knowledge to describe what they see. None of the visiting MLB teams will have their radio and TV crews traveling with their teams this season. The Braves' play-by-play announcer Chip Caray told an Atlanta sports journalist that the new way of announcing will take some getting used to. “It certainly will be very different until we actually do it. I really hope the fans will be back with us before the season ends. Fans give us energy that gives special meaning to certain plays or games.” Sports and television have been good for each other and especially the fans. I remember watching the Army-Navy football game that featured Roger Staubach and saw the first live replay of a particular play. I did not think much of it at the time, but the NFL took off running with the idea, and by the late 1960s replay was happening in every NFL game. The creation of cable TV brought more sporting events into our homes. Ted Turner made the next big step with his deal to purchase the Atlanta Braves. That brought MLB to rural America and that made this Mississippi boy very happy. We could watch Turner’s Braves every day on his Superstation WTBS. Other improvements to TV sports were the addition of stereo sound and satellite TV. There seem to be no limits to what is on the horizon. Dale McKee is a native of Waynesboro and has been writing sports in Mississippi since 1973. His column appears in several weekly papers throughout the state. You may contact him at ddmckee18@yahoo.com
