Listening to Sports on the Radio

I have a friend who sits out in his woodshed in Maine and smokes and listens to Red Sox games. He even whittles wood along the way. Another remembers to this day Lon Simmons calling the plays for the World Series. He hears it in his head: “Ground ball, right side, off McGuire’s glove, Phillips has it, flips to Eckersley…in time! The A’s win!” 

So much better than the TV guys, radio announcers know how to create a sense of space in the mind of the listener. You see the field, can place the players in a fan on the court. One guy describes the action as the other fills in the blanks with insight gained from years in the sport. 

It goes back all the way back to our boyhood, up late on a country night. “Havlichek 

stole the ball! Havlichek stole the ball!”