ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 7, 1996 TAG: 9607080038
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
After a week of vacation in a locale where the television signal is remote, not remote-controlled, I came home and watched parts of five baseball games on the tube in two days.
It was then I realized, ``Holy Cow!'' Or something else Caray-esque.
It wasn't what I had missed on TV while watching beavers swim the pond and drinking Rolling Rock. And it wasn't what I missed while trying to correctly install six batteries in series in a used golf cart at the Bogaczyk Farm. It was the realization that even I was losing an appreciation for an art form I had come to treasure.
It is no wonder baseball has lost a generation. So has AM radio.
Next to a seat at the ballpark, the best place to enjoy baseball is next to a radio. One night on the farm I rediscovered that.
As the world has turned to boom boxes, headphones and compact discs, as satellite dishes have shrunk and cable TV has grown, baseball has lost its prime-time audience on the AM dial, where 50,000 watts aren't as strong as they once were.
In the home markets of teams, there are so many games televised, there's no loyalty to radio. Even from a distance, like our region's 280-mile drive to the nearest big-league stop, Baltimore, the charm of baseball on the radio is overwhelmed by about 500 cable TV trips to the ballpark per season.
Most people who watch baseball on TV today really don't watch a game. They check out a few hitters, then head for another channel, and only sometimes to another game. They can watch Smoltz or Seinfeld.
That's why baseball on the radio is much more compelling. You have to listen. You can watch a baseball game with someone else and discuss something else. On radio, if you really want to catch the game, you have to pay attention.
On a baseball telecast, you only see what the producer or director wants you to see, what the broadcaster is telling you to see. On radio, you can see the whole diamond, the entire ballpark. You can even close your eyes and do it.
One problem the game has is the cross-pollination of its broadcasters. Too many of today's new voices, having little appreciation for the nuances of calling baseball without a monitor in the booth, call a TV version of the game on radio. It's not enough of a word-picture. It doesn't translate, in either language.
Remember when CBS Sports, in its brief, red-inked years (1990-93) with the sport on the tube, had Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Buck work with Tim McCarver? It didn't work, and it lasted only two seasons. Buck, superb for 50 years on St.Louis radio, wasn't as good on TV, just as McCarver isn't as good on radio. Buck was accustomed to mostly working solo.
Jon Miller and Joe Morgan are an outstanding team on ESPN's Sunday night telecasts. If you really want Miller at his best, however, catch a Baltimore broadcast on Washington's WTOP (1500 AM). His attention to detail, his voice, force you to pay attention if you appreciate the game. On TV, you can see how Robbie Alomar crouches. On radio, Miller describes it.
Every October, you hear of kids falling asleep watching an early inning of the World Series. I don't remember the last time I heard anyone say a kid fell asleep listening to a ballgame. Hey, I don't remember the last time I fell asleep listening to a ballgame. I used to do that, and I promise to again.
When you live as far from the majors as we do, it takes an effort to listen to those far-off voices, whether they belong to Marty Brennaman, or Miller, or Ernie Harwell or Harry Kalas. They fade and return. On a clear night, though, it seems you can hear forever.
If you're in a car, driving a long distance on a summer night, there is nothing quite like listening to baseball. What's the difference between 660 and 770? It's the space on the AM dial between the Mets and Yankees. Kids used to memorize those 50,000-watt frequencies, just as they did batting averages.
If you think the game isn't the same, just listen one night. Alomar to Ripken to Palmeiro will sound just like Richardson to Kubek to Skowron.
Because it is.
LENGTH: Medium: 79 linesby CNB