Voices of the Game: The Acclaimed Chronicle of Baseball Radio and Television Broadcasting--From 1921 to the Present

How fortunate I was to grow up during the 1950's and be old enough to remember most of these announcers as they painted pictures for us through the medium of radio. Curt Smith does a superb job of bringing these names back to us. Dizzy Dean and Bud Blattner and later Pee Wee Reese, Harry Caray and Jack Buck, Bob Prince, Byrum Saam, Jack Brickhouse, Vin Scully, Ray Scott along with Herb Carneal and Halsey Hall, Earl Gillespie, Ernie Harwell, and, of course, Red Barber and Mel Allen along with many others are chronicled here in this historical book on the voices that brought the National Pastime alive via the medium of radio and later television. If you are not familiar with many of the names listed above, be good to yourself and educate yourself. The many men in this book made it possible for the fan to be able to say like singer Terry Cashman, "I saw it on the radio." I found this book to be a must to include in any baseball fan's library.

Simply put, this is THE definitive history of baseball announcing, with biographies of the individual broadcasters themselves interspersed with more big-picture observations concerning baseball and broadcasting in general. The book was clearly a labor of love for its author, a fact which should make his occasional forays into self-indulgence forgivable. Smith has a decided bias toward the late '50s and early '60s, the era of his own childhood; as the reviewer from Ohio noted, he makes too many critical comparisons between the different "Voices" (although THIS reviewer misses Harry Caray tremendously and considers Jon Miller one of the all-time greats); and he peppers the text with comments derived from his conservative political leanings. Nonetheless, the anecdotes are fascinating and the sheer scope of the work is most impressive. All that's needed now is a third edition to touch on the entry of Fox into the network landscape and other developments of the last decade.

Curt Smith's history of baseball broadcasting on both radio and television from 1921 to 1991 is a must-have for any baseball library and a fun overview of an oft-neglected topic. Many wonderful insights are revealed for the first time about local and network broadcasters, their comings and goings and their impact on the game itself. About the only drawback of this book and which keeps it from five stars is Smith's annoying habit of digressing into his personal opinions about various broadcasters, past and present. While this isn't too intrusive for announcers he praises, I for one was offended by his rude treatment of an announcer I grew up with as a Yankees fan in the late 1970s and who was my "Voice Of Summer" as surely as Mel Allen was to an earlier generation, in my case Frank Messer of the wonderful Yankees broadcast team of Phil Rizzuto, Messer and Bill White. Ditto his obnoxious diss at Gary Thorne of the New York Mets and ESPN who only happens to be one of the top all-around play-by-play men in the business today. Such comments are better suited to a media critic in the newspapers and not to a historical overview and in my opinion keep the book from being a flawless gem.

Curt Smith's history of baseball broadcasting, from the early days of radio in the 1920s to the present is a must read for those who have always been fascinated by the men who have broadcast the games over the years and want to know just why baseball has sadly declined in importance on the networks over the decades. It is shocking to see how in the 1950s, there were more than 100 regular season baseball games each year on all three networks, while today we barely see a quarter of that amount.The only thing wrong with Smith's book that keeps it from five stars are his annoying digressions into his personal opinions of certain broadcasters. As a Yankee fan who grew up in the late 1970s, I particularly take offense to his rude dismissal of Frank Messer, who broadcast more Yankee games than anyone other than Mel Allen or Phil Rizzuto as well as his total glossing over of Bill White, also a Yankee broadcaster at the time and the first black to broadcast regularly for a team. Jon Miller and Harry Caray, two announcers I dislike are overhyped as though they were gods while Gary Thorne, a solid professional for more than a decade on ESPN and the New York Mets is also treated rudely. Smith would have been well-advised to stick to the history and keep his opinions on announcers he doesn't care for to himself.

Curt Smith is one of the most eloquent writers around today. This chronicle of the great voices who have brought the game of baseball into our homes is an absolute treasure. From Graham McNamee to Ty Tyson up to Mel Allen and Jack Buck, all of the great baseball voices are brought back to life. Curt Smith does a masterful job bringing to life these men who had the rare talent of entertaining us with descriptions of a baseball game.