I suppose you could trace my love of radio back to baseball, to be honest. I spent many a night listening to games before baseball on TV became so prevelant with the advent of cable and satellite. Back in the day, you sat in your easy chair, sipped lemonade and listened to your team on the radio 145 times a year.
This is exactly what I did with my father. He introduced me to the game and we went to many games a year, since the ballpark was within a dozen or so miles of my house.
While it was a treat to go to the game or -wow- get a game on television, it was just as fun for us listening on radio. Maybe even more fun.
One of the neatest things here in this century is XM Radio and being able to listen to announcers from every big league team. That was always a dream I had as a youngster.
Baseball's radio play-by-play began in the 1930's. While it was fairly easy for the broadcasters to announce the home games to the locals, it was near impossible to do the same for road games.
The announcers would re-create the game using sound effects and ticker tape news - like a radio show - and broadcast the away games that way.
One of the more famous at doing such was former President Ronald Reagan; it was one of his first radio jobs.
See more about play-by play recreation:
What's on the Air Tonight
Class in America: Ronald Reagan
The Money Pitch
Wrigley Field; the Unauthorized Biography
Plus you can listen to many old games on mp3:
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| Find all the above at the Internet Archive |
Lots more here, here, here and here (check the right side of that last site too.)
