Baseball Audio-Visual, Old School Style

In this 24/7 world of ESPN, YouTube, instant messaging and streaming video, most of the world gets their sports news instantly. Back in my distant youth, I had to wait until the 10:20 sports report on Channel 5 to hear the scores of the out of town games. And of course, I listened to the Cardinals games on KMOX radio since only about 25 games a year were on television.

I say this because a friend of mine (Thanks FryGuy!) loaned me a CD of the soundtrack of the 1994 PBS produced “Baseball” miniseries by Ken Burns. It contains lots of baseball songs, with a few famous radio calls mixed in. The most famous call on the CD was “The Shot Heard Round the World”, Bobby Thompson’s home run to win the NL Pennant in 1951. Video link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrI7dVj90zs. Side note: Back in ’94, I recorded the 9 part “Baseball” miniseries on VHS tapes. (Remember those?) But it took me years to watch it all the way through. I remember being home sick for multiple days one time, and my wife popped the tapes into the VCR for me while I was lying there on my death bed. (Remember VCRs? They go with the VHS tapes). The series was excellent; the soundtrack only so-so.

The best recording of baseball related “stuff” that I’ve ever heard is “Baseball’s Greatest Hits” from 1992. I had that on cassette tape. (Do you at least remember those??) I still have the tape. Some of the great items from that soundtrack include:

- Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First” routine. Need I say more. The soundtrack is worth it for this alone. You wanna see that? Of course you do.

- The Thompson home run call is also on this recording

- Steve Goodman’s song “Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request”. I know, I know. You’re wondering how a die-hard Cardinal fan could like a song about the Cubs. Well, it’s a funny song, talking about the lifetime of suffering a Cub fan has to endure. I hate the Cubs, but I have a lot of respect for Cubs fans. They have a brutal life. It’s a great song, and right on cue, I found it on YouTube.

- Lou Gehrig’s retirement speech. “Today, I consider myself the luck-luck-luck-iest man on the face-face-face of the earth-earth-earth.” (Fake echo effect included, as in the scene where it is discussed in the movie Sleepless in Seattle)

- Tommy Lasorda, the great Dodgers manager, being interviewed after a game after his pitcher had given up a game winning home run to Dave Kingman. He was none too happy and much of the interview was bleeped out. Funny stuff.

- A reading of the famous poem, Casey at the Bat. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you need some edu-ma-cation. You may hear that outstanding recording right here . . .

Great stuff, great memories. Which is a good thing, since the Cardinals are getting beat by the Phillies tonight. And since we’re facing Roy Halliday tomorrow, this series might not end well.

Thanks for reading.