Broadcasting a baseball game in the dark
Crafting the Call: A behind-the-scenes glimpse into re-creating a baseball game in 2024 the way Ronald Reagan and other radio pioneers once did
Before he was the President, before he was a Governor, before he was even an actor, Ronald Reagan worked in broadcasting. He was a sports announcer for WHO Radio in Des Moines, Iowa in the 1930s.
Back then, broadcasting was in its infancy, the radio equipment was heavy and enormous, and it was too expensive to send the team’s play-by-play announcer on the road. (The most expensive part was the cost of a long-distance phone call.)
Yet the games were broadcasted live anyway through a re-creation.
From the official Reagan library:
He would call Chicago Cubs games, but rather than being at the game, he would re-create the action from nothing but a slip of paper typed by a telegraph operator who was transcribing plays sent by Morse code.
On June 7, 1934, with the Cubs and the Cardinals tied 0-0 in the ninth inning, with Billy Jurges at-bat and Dizzy Dean out on the mound, the line went dead. Rather than lose his audience, Reagan improvised a streak of foul balls that lasted nearly twelve minutes until the wire came back. He would share this humorous anecdote with audiences for decades to come.
Ronald Reagan wasn’t alone. Re-creating games was common practice through the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and into the 1960s. It still occasionally occurred in the 1970s.
The announcer would have limited information on what was truly occurring in the game, which meant showmanship was encouraged and a little literacy license was acceptable.
It’s no surprise to learn that Reagan, who became known as “the Great Communicator,” was very good at these baseball re-creations.
H.R. Gross, who partnered with Reagan in the booth before becoming an Iowa congressman, claimed that his calls were so enthralling that some fans were convinced he was broadcasting live from Chicago.
In fact, re-creating baseball games is what led to Reagan’s break into acting. Reagan begged the Cubs to let him tag along for their spring training on Catalina Island, off the coast of Los Angeles. Yes, the Cubs used to train at Catalina Island. Their old ball field is still there. That’s a longer story for another post.
But while in Southern California, Reagan reconnected with a friend from Des Moines who was pursuing a singing career. Reagan was introduced to a talent scout and landed a screen test. He didn’t realize how well it went until he returned to Iowa weeks later to see a six-month contract sitting in his mailbox.
These broadcast “re-creations” are part of the lore of baseball and the history of radio.
As a nod to the past, Lansing Lugnuts play-by-play announcer Jesse Goldberg-Strassler does an annual broadcast re-creation. He’s been doing it for over a decade.
This year, I asked Jesse to setup a camera in the booth so we can see him, and his broadcast partner Adam Jaksa, call a game they can’t see. The results are this week’s edition of “Crafting the Call.” Here’s a clip.
👋 New to this Newsletter? Hi, I’m Josh, a former newspaper reporter turned baseball play-by-play announcer. I write about baseball, but it’s rarely about the actual games. I like to reflect on events from the past, look ahead to the future, and write about the intersection of sports and life. I also post links to my other side projects, such as “Crafting the Call” on YouTube. Subscribe to this Newsletter to ensure you don’t miss a post. It’s free, but tips are welcome to make the Substack sustainable. 👋
I’m in complete awe of what Jesse does.
The natural sound that he’s captured from games. The way he’s able to pump that sound onto the broadcast, then add larger crowd noise for big moments. Then the microphones in the booth so he can mimic the sound of a pitch going into a glove and the crack of the bat as the ball is hit.
Jesse does it each year as a tribute to the broadcasters who have come before us, giving himself a better appreciation of history and how radio has evolved.
During the episode, we discussed what lessons can be learned broadcasting a game blind to make you better when broadcasting a game you can actually see. Jesse also told the story of a talent scout coming to watch a young Ernie Harwell re-create a baseball game that he could not see from a radio studio.
Here is the entire episode and this is a link to all previous “Crafting the Call” episodes.
Crafting the Call is a YouTube series that I developed along with Jesse Goldberg-Strassler. Each week, we examine different aspects of baseball play-by-play announcing, offering our perspective as working professionals for fans, and advice for fellow broadcasters. To help support our work, subscribe, like, comment, or send us a suggestion for a future episode.
By the way, let’s be clear that Jesse is not calling a game off a monitor. That’s a remote broadcast.
Most notably during Covid, most teams did not send their broadcasting teams on the road to call the games in person. They worked off a TV monitor. They could still see the game, but were at the mercy of whatever the director showed them.
These days, almost every team in the majors and minors sends their broadcaster on the road. The most notable exceptions are the Angels and Blue Jays. They still are not traveling to away games.
At the network level, an increasing number of mid-level college games are called off huge monitors in studios. A lot of international sporting events have done this for decades.
But for these re-creations, Jesse can not see a thing. He’s a blind broadcaster, which is interesting because one of the main lessons we’re taught as radio broadcasters is imagine a blind person is sitting next to you.
Watching Jesse re-create a game got me thinking about whether I should try it next season. My ego is big enough that I’m confident that I could pull it off, but my pride is also strong enough that I don’t want to fail miserably either.
This year, Jesse got a 1-0 final score. (The actual game was over about 15 minutes before his actual broadcast ended.) Low scoring games are common in the Midwest League. But I’m in the very hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. What if I get another 16-14 game? How on earth am I supposed to keep up with all of that?
What do you think? Should I try it next year?