Memories from the Microphone: A Century of Baseball Broadcasting

Memories from the Microphone: A Century of Baseball Broadcasting

Voices of the Game Curt Smith is “…the voice of authority on baseball broadcasting.” — USA Today #1 New Release in Photography, Baseball Statistics, Photo Essays, and Photojournalism In this second in a series of Baseball Hall of Fame books, celebrate the larger-than-life role played by radio and TV baseball announcers in enhancing the pleasure of our national pastime. Commemorate the 100th anniversary of baseball broadcasting.  The first baseball game ever broadcast on radio was on August 5, 1921 by Harold Wampler Arlin, a part-time baseball announcer on Pittsburgh’s KDKA, America’s first commercially licensed radio station. The Pirates defeated the Phillies 8-5. An insider’s view of baseball.  Now you can own  Memories from the Microphone  and experience baseball from author Curt Smith. He has spent much of his life covering baseball radio and TV, and previously authored baseball books including the classic  Voices of The Game . Relive baseball’s storied past through the eyes of famed baseball announcers.  Organized chronologically,  Memories from the Microphone  charts the history of baseball broadcasting. Enjoy celebrated stories and personalities that have shaped the game—from Mel Allen to Harry Caray, Vin Scully to Joe Morgan, Ernie Harwell to Red Barber. Also discover: Images from the Baseball Hall of Fame’s matchless archive - Anecdotes and quotes from Curt Smith’s original research - Interviews with broadcast greats - Little-known stories, such as Ronald Reagan calling games for WHO Des Moines in the 1930s - Accounts of diversity in baseball broadcasting, including the TV coverage of Joe Morgan and earlier Hispanic pioneers Buck Canel and Rafael (Felo) Ramirez - A special section devoted to the Ford C. Frick Award and inductees since its inception in 1978 Also take a nostalgic trip down baseball's memory lane with other Baseball Hall of Fame books:   Picturing America’s Pastime, So You Think You Know Baseball , and Baseball Memories and Dreams . “Curt Smith, by far my favorite baseball broadcast historian, hits another literary home run with this new volume, documenting everything from the origin of Dizzy Dean’s nickname to Ted Turner’s brainstorm of a SuperStation. Through extensive research, he reveals that the Phillies once had three flagship TV outlets, that Milwaukee lost a team by failing to promote through television, and that Bill Campbell once co-hosted a radio/TV series with Connie Mack. Who knew?” ―Dan Schlossberg, national baseball writer, forbes.com “Curt Smith’s knowledge of the history of baseball broadcasting and its foremost practitioners is unsurpassed.” ―Bob Costas, 2018 Ford C. Frick Award winner “If your heart and soul is filled with baseball, I guarantee there is a radio broadcaster who put it there. Broadcasters are part of your family, every day, creating a picture and a soundtrack for your life. Thank you, Curt Smith, for bringing them to life–for me to remember, for everyone to enjoy!” ―Suzyn Waldman, New York Yankees broadcaster “Another quintessential Curt Smith book, another tape-measure grand slam by our treasured voice of authority on the voices that have endeared themselves and enchanted us throughout our baseball lives.” ―Ed Randall, long-time host of Talking Baseball and host of Remember When on SiriusXM Radio Curt Smith is a prolific author and baseball’s leading radio/television historian who wrote more speeches than anyone for former President George H.W. Bush― The New York Times terming his work “the high point of Bush familial eloquence.” USA Today calls him “the voice of authority on baseball broadcasting.” To Chicago Cubs announcer Pat Hughes, Smith is “simply one of the best baseball historians, ever.” Memories From the Mike: A Century of Baseball Broadcasting is his eighteenth book. In 1998, Smith joined the University of Rochester faculty as Senior Lecturer of English. He teaches Public Speaking using video, text, and lecture, and Presidential Rhetoric, etching how U.S. presidents from Calvin Coolidge to Joe Biden communicated through language and delivery. He is also a Gannett News Service columnist, analyzing politics, culture, and sport through what pollster John Zogby calls “his mastery of language.” Smith began his career as a 1970s Gannett reporter, 1980-82 The Saturday Evening Post Senior editor, and 1983-89 speechwriter for several Cabinet members of the Reagan Presidency. He was a 1989-93 White House speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush, addresses including the “Just War” Persian Gulf speech; address on the USS Arizona Memorial site on Pearl Harbor’s fiftieth anniversary that Senator John McCain termed “moving … thick with emotion”; and later Bush’s 2004 emotional eulogy to Ronald Reagan. In 1992, Smith released the updated version of Voices of The Game , the history of baseball radio/TV that Publisher’s Weekly called “monumental.” It became a Smithsonian Institution series that The Washington Post