Old School Announcing

We got this text from Clare last night:  “I’m sitting in the comfy chairs of the library thoroughly enjoying listening to the White Sox on my mlb radio app.  I just love listening to Ed Farmer do the game.”

Farmer is a South Side native and former Sox pitcher; his style can best be described as a no-excuses homer.  Ed wants the Sox to win, but he’ll always tell you why they don’t when they don’t.  He's also is a mean storyteller.

I can remember one from when Clare was in kindergarten, and we were doing Saturday volunteer work at her school for something called Market Day; my job was to deliver groceries.  I had the radio on to hear Farmer talking about his cup of coffee with the Orioles; Cal Ripken Sr. was one of the Oriole coaches.  “He’s talking to a group us with a cigarette in his mouth.  He smoked it all the way down with the ash just hanging there.  You know that Cal Ripken Sr. died of lung cancer, yes?”

Chicago radio announcers are a varied lot.  I go back to the days of Bob Elson, who spent a quarter-century doing White Sox games.  At least, I think he did them.  As a friend of mine once put it:  “With Elson, you didn’t know if the radio went dead or what.”  Indeed, “the Commander” was fond of long pauses.  Still, that didn’t keep him from receiving the Ford Frick Award from the Hall of Fame.

And then there was Ron Santo, he of the toupee that caught on fire during a broadcast from Shea Stadium.  Santo lived and died for his Cubs, which was why I loved listening to him when they were losing; never has the expression of pain been so heartfelt.  That said, I really did like Santo’s replacement, former Cub Keith Moreland.  He was sharp, like Farmer, with a country twang that harkened back to Red Barber.  I was genuinely sad to see Moreland step down after last season.

As for Harry Caray, he was the ultimate frontrunner.  If fans mourned Caray’s passing in 1998, I doubt that many former players did.  Among the many Caray took a dislike to was Cardinals’ third baseman Ken Boyer.  This is Bob Uecker doing Caray on Boyer, from David Halberstam’s October 1964:  “Well, here’s the Captain, Ken Boyer.  Boyer haaaaaaasn’t had an RBI in his last 52 games….I don’t understand why they continue to boo him here at Busch Stadium….Striiiiiiike one, he doesn’t eeeeven take the bat off his shoulder…here’s striiiiiiike two…and strike three….He nevvvvvver took the bat offffff his shoulder.  I don’t know why they’re booing him [p. 259].”  Substitute Bill Melton for Boyer, and that was Caray doing Sox games.  The Cubs were welcome to him.

And Ken “Hawk” Harrelson?  I think “he gone!” soon, and he won’t be missed at all.