“I can still hear Ned Martin of the Red Sox reciting poetry about the mountains in Anaheim,” said Waldman, the pioneer announcer and former star of musical stage who’s been calling New York Yankees games for decades. “I can still hear Curt Gowdy with that Wyoming twang.
To be sure, from satellite radio and streaming services to FM stations and cell phone apps, baseball fans nowadays have all sorts of options for tuning in their favorite team — even all 30 teams — whether their car features AM radio or not.
“Joined at the hip,” said longtime New York Mets announcer Howie Rose, who is 69. “What radio has meant to baseball and vice versa is probably the quintessential symbiotic relationship.”FILE – Former New York Yankee baseball star Phil Rizzuto, who played in games during cooler weather, took no chances as he broadcast Baltimore-New York game from the radio booth in Baltimore, Md., April 18, 1962.
“Some clubs resisted the advent of radio, as they later would the introduction of television, believing it would deter attendance at the game,” the 76-year-old Thorn said. “But like the introduction of night baseball in 1935, radio had already brought major league games to the working class, and especially to women.”
FILE – Russ Hodges, right, who has broadcast Giants games in New York and San Francisco for 18 years, interviews centerfielder Willie Mays on Aug. 30,1966 in San Francisco. Many baseball fans, especially older ones, originally fell in love with America’s pastime by listening to ballgames on AM radio.