The Voices of Baseball: The Game's Greatest Broadcasters Reflect on America's Pastime

by Kirk McKnight

Overview

A fascinating tour of baseball’s greatest moments and iconic stadiums, told through the reminiscences of 50 play-by-play broadcasters.

With careers spanning two to three times that of an average player, baseball’s best broadcasters have no shortage of history to offer. They have witnessed opening days, no hitters, slugfests, and perfect games, all from arguably the best seats in the house. Broadcasters know their clubs, their stadiums, and their teams in a way that no one else can.

In The Voices of Baseball: The Game's Greatest Broadcasters Reflect on America's Pastime, Updated Edition, Kirk McKnight provides an in-depth look at each of Major League Baseball’s thirty ballparks from the perspectives of the game’s longest-tenured storytellers. Fifty broadcasters reflect on their most iconic calls, fondest memories, what makes their ballparks unique, and more. This updated edition includes 14 additional broadcasters, two new stadiums, the latest World Series calls from the booth, and a special tribute to the recently-departed Vin Scully.

With decades of broadcasting between them, their stories encapsulate some of Major League Baseball’s biggest moments. Generations of baseball fans will all enjoy the historic and triumphant memories shared by some of the game’s greatest broadcasters in The Voices of Baseball.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538177013
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/12/2023
Edition description:	Updated Edition
Pages:	364
Sales rank:	687,993
Product dimensions:	6.35(w) x 8.98(h) x 1.11(d)

About the Author

Kirk McKnight is an American author specializing in interview-based sports books ranging from the diamonds of baseball to the Zamboni-swept ice of hockey. McKnight’s other books include The Voices of Hockey: Broadcasters Reflect on the Fastest Game on Earth and Batting Clean: Why Dale Murphy Belongs in Baseball’s Hall of Fame. McKnight currently serves as the associate editor for The Wickenburg Sun, a weekly Arizona newspaper. He resides in Wickenburg, Arizona.

Table of Contents

Introduction: In a Word, “Theatrical” 1 Joe Castiglione & Ken “Hawk” Harrelson at Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox) 2 Chip Caray, Pat Hughes, Len Kasper, Bob Costas, & Steve Stone at Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs) 3 Vin Scully & Charley Steiner at Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles Dodgers) 4 Dick Enberg, Terry Smith, & Rex Hudler at Angel Stadium of Anaheim (Los Angeles Angels) 5 Ken Korach at RingCentral Coliseum (Oakland Athletics) 6 Denny Matthews, Ryan Lefebvre, & Rex Hudler at Kauffman Stadium (Kansas City Royals) 7 Mike Wilner at Rogers Centre (Toronto Blue Jays) 8 Ken “Hawk” Harrelson & Steve Stone at Guaranteed Rate Field/Field of Dreams (Chicago White Sox) 9 Jon Miller & Gary Thorne at Oriole Park at Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles) 10 Eric Nadel at Globe Life Park in Arlington/Globe Life Field (Texas Rangers) 11 Tom Hamilton & Jim Rosenhaus at Progressive Field (Cleveland Indians/Guardians) 12 Jack Corrigan & Wayne Hagin at Coors Field (Colorado Rockies) 13 Dave Wills, Andy Freed, & Charlie Slowes at Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay Rays) 14 Greg Schulte & Tim McCarver at Chase Field (Arizona Diamondbacks) 15 Rick Rizzs & Aaron Goldsmith at T-Mobile Park (Seattle Mariners) 16 Jon Miller at Oracle Park (San Francisco Giants) 17 Bill Brown & Robert Ford at Minute Maid Park (Houston Astros) 18 Dan Dickerson at Comerica Park (Detroit Tigers) 19 Greg Brown at PNC Park (Pittsburgh Pirates) 20 Bob Uecker, Brian Anderson, & Jeff Levering at American Family Field (Milwaukee Brewers) 21 Marty Brennaman at Great American Ball Park (Cincinnati Reds) 22 Tom McCarthy & Jim Jackson at Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia Phillies) 23 Ted Leitner, Dick Enberg, & Jesse Agler at Petco Park (San Diego Padres) 24 Dan McLaughlin, Joe Buck, & Tim McCarver at Busch Stadium (St. Louis Cardinals) 25 Charlie Slowes at Nationals Park (Washington Nationals) 26 Howie Rose & Wayne Hagin at Citi Field (New York Mets) 27 John Sterling & Michael Kay at Yankee Stadium (New York Yankees) 28 Dick Bremer at Target Field (Minnesota Twins) 29 Dave Van Horne at LoanDepot Park (Miami Marlins) 30 Jim Powell & Chip Caray at Truist Park (Atlanta Braves) 31 This Was a Parking Lot, Now It’s Turned into an Outfield 32 And That’s a Life: A Tribute to Vin Scully Bibliography Index About The Author

Editorial Reviews

If you have a love for baseball and, specifically, broadcasting, this book is for you. It’s an opportunity to get first-hand insight from many of the game’s top voices on some of their fondest memories behind the mic, while also capturing some of the pristine details of the ballparks each of them have called home. Baseball is a beautiful game and that beauty shines through each page.

Brian Goudsward

Baseball broadcasters usually have longer careers than those of the players whose games they call. It’s that unique perspective that gives their recollections a compelling context…. [T]here is plenty of rich baseball lore here, and it comes straight from the mouths of those who have been there.

Booklist

Kirk McKnight has done all baseball fans a great service. He’s bought you a ticket and takes you along with him right into the ballparks and right into the game. If you love baseball, you’ll love this read!

Ted Leitner

In The Voices of Baseball, Kirk McKnight serves up a detailed and unique cross-section of baseball history. This history is told by baseball’s broadcasters, using the sport’s ballparks as the backdrop. Each chapter is focused on a different MLB franchise, and McKnight immerses us in that team’s ballpark—its stories, eccentricities, top players, and games—through quotes from the team’s play-by-play voices. McKnight’s latest work is a gem for baseball fans of all ages—either to relive memories or to take a plunge into baseball’s past.

Sam Brief

President Bill Clinton's appearance on the Baltimore Orioles' broadcast of Cal Ripken's record-breaking 2,131st consecutive game is one of the many stories that brings McKnight's book to life. The Baltimore chapter is one of the book's best, thanks to the storytelling ability of announcer Jon Miller, who now works in San Francisco. Miller talks about his call of Ripken's fourth-inning home run being drowned by Clinton's reaction. Other behind-the-scenes tales include how Ripken was dealing with a fever that week, amid the stress of approaching the record, and how he didn't want any kind of ceremony once the game became official in the fifth. Teammates practically shoved him out of the dugout to do a victory lap. The stories behind Ripken's record is an example of how McKnight went far beyond his original plan to describe the ballparks.

The Salt Lake Tribune

Whenever there’s a picture of Vin Scully, I smile and listen in my mind even though he’s no longer talking. Kirk McKnight has awakened that audio, and with it the audio of many of the other baseball broadcasters of our era. What a grand way to visit all our ballparks.

Marc Katz

There are baseball books about ballparks, and ones about broadcasters. What author Kirk McKnight has done here is to fuse the two, getting broadcasters who know the parks well to describe them and the players and dramas that have enlivened all 30 current major-league stadiums, as well as some from the past.

The Christian Science Monitor

The Voices of Baseball takes you through all the teams and all the ballparks in a fascinating, storytelling way from some of baseball's most spellbinding oral historians. Kirk McKnight sends you on a journey from Safeco Field in the Pacific Northwest to Marlins Park in South Florida, spinning accounts of historic games from students of baseball history. You'll be entertained by the descriptions and accounts of some of your favorite voices.

Bill Brown

It's one of the oldest expressions in the history of man: "If only these walls could talk!" In the case of Kirk McKnight's informative and entertaining The Voices of Baseball, the walls do talk—or certainly they come alive in the words of some of the most prominent broadcasters in the game's history. What an idea Kirk had. Let's face it, I would buy a book to hear Vin Scully's tales alone, but Kirk also spoke with Frick Award recipients like Jon Miller and Eric Nadel—just to name a couple of the announcers whose recollections grace the book. If you are a fan of baseball and a fan of broadcasting (and Kirk does as good a job as anyone has ever done blending the two), I highly recommend The Voices of Baseball. Baseball is a sport for storytellers. If you close your eyes and use your imagination, the walls talk in his book.

Ken Korach

Players may come and go, but the connection for many baseball fans to their favorite team remains constant thanks to the voices that describe the games. Kirk McKnight does a wonderful job profiling the people whose passion for the game in their accounts, win or lose, maintains that love affair for fans.

Jack Corrigan

Voices of Baseball is a great read. Kirk McKnight gets a knock with his ground-level look into baseball’s historic ballparks and iconic plays that make them special venues. The moments and memories that make each stadium unique is perfectly captured by the home team radio and television broadcasters that paint the pictures and tell the tales in brilliant fashion. A well written baseball book for the ages.

Paul Venosdel

Whenever there’s a picture of Vin Scully, I smile and listen in my mind even though he’s no longer talking. Kirk McKnight has awakened that audio, and with it the audio of many of the other baseball broadcasters of our era. What a grand way to visit all our ballparks. - Marc Katz, retired sportswriter, Dayton Daily News

From the Publisher

07/13/2015
McKnight, a sportswriter and blogger, nicely captures baseball’s best moments, players, and places through the eyes of the folks whose job it is to paint pictures with their words—baseball announcers. Each chapter focuses on one team, its ballpark, and its announcer, so it is sometimes hard to figure which of these is the key element of the story, but McKnight’s choice to present each story in a announcer’s unique voice makes them lively and charming, and each chapter comes together in its own special way. Of course, some memorable moments are more dramatic (like Joe Castiglione reminiscing about the Red Sox breaking the curse of the Bambino) than others (the Angels’ announcer bragging about nicknaming David Eckstein “the X Factor”). Most of the announcers McKnight interviews focus on more recent history and new ballparks, but he is smart enough to include to chapters on past ballparks, dear departed announcers, and living legend voices to convey the profession’s rich lineage and create a work that is a testament not only to the baseball’s TV generation, but also to its golden age. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Baseball broadcasters usually have longer careers than those of the players whose games they call. It’s that unique perspective that gives their recollections a compelling context. This volume combines the memories of 33 broadcasters with capsule histories of the various ballparks that have housed Major League teams through the years. Thus, the announcers reflect not only on what happened on the field but also on the nature of the field itself. For example, current Cubs TV broadcaster Len Kasper offers insight into the one-of-a-kind ground rules related to Wrigley Field’s ivy-covered walls and the anomalies created by Chicago’s ever-changing weather conditions. Like many of the other interviewees, Kasper includes anecdotes about his predecessors behind the mike, which extends the reach of the book to such announcing icons as Harry Caray and Red Barber. Although the emphasis on stadium histories seems somewhat of an unwieldy organizational strategy, there is plenty of rich baseball lore here, and it comes straight from the mouths of those who have been there.

Booklist