Voices of the Game: The First Full-Scale Overview of Baseball Broadcasing, 1921 to the Present

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This exhaustive study, written by the author of America's Dizzy Dean, etc., is monumental. It is surely the definitive work on the subject, with profiles of virtually all the major broadcasters in the history of the national pastime and mentions minor ones, as well. Each section begins with an overview of political and social events in a given era, then turns to significant developments in baseball, thus placing the broadcasters in context, starting with Harold Arlin, who announced the first game over KDKA in Pittsburgh on August 5, 1921. Here are Grantland Rice airing the initial World Series play-by-play in 1921; the golden age, personified by Red Barber in Cincinnati and Brooklyn, and Mel Allen at Yankee Stadium; figures like Byrum Saam in Philadelphia, Harry Heilmann in Detroit and Curt Gowdy in Boston; TV and the era of the jockocracy, with the likes of Phil Rizzuto and Joe Garagiola. Impressive. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this mammoth volume Smith has recorded a history of baseball announcing during the last seven decades. All the great names in radio and TV are here: Vin Scully, Curt Gowdy, Red Barber, Mel Allen, Bob Prince, Harry Caray, and numerous others. The research is impeccable. Local personalities share the book's pages with national figures, and the author's critical evaluations are well founded and perspicacious. Interspersed throughout are sections of quotations by outstanding announcers from actual broadcasts of great moments in baseball. On the debit side the book is overlong and needs editing. Nevertheless, a unique volume and a good choice for most public libraries.Samuel Simons, Memorial Hall Lib., Andover, Mass.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.