Broadcasting Baseball

There is a long-standing relationship between broadcasting and sports, and nowhere is this more evident than in the marriage of baseball and radio: a slow sport perfectly suited to the word-painting of broadcasters.
This work covers the development of the baseball broadcasting industry from the first telegraph reports of games in progress, the influence of early pioneers at Pittsburgh’s KDKA and Chicago’s WGN, including the first World Series broadcast, the launch of the Telstar Satellite, the Carlton Fisk homerun in the 1975 World Series, which changed how baseball is broadcast, through the latest computer graphics, HD television, and the Internet.

Eldon L. Ham is an adjunct professor of law at Chicago-Kent College of Law. He has published broadly on sports.

Eldon L. Ham
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 280
Bibliographic Info: 20 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2011
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4644-5
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8635-9
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vi

Preface      1

Introduction      5

1. Watching Radio      9

2. The Talking Box      20

3. Little Cat Feet      32

4. Going, Going—Gone!      44

5. Murderers, Monkeys, and Radio Men      58

6. Radio Wars      72

7. A Game of Infamy      84

8. The Game of Our Fathers      98

9. The Quantum Leap: Television      115

10. The Game of the Week      126

11. The Great Home Run Chase      139

12. Holy Cow      154

13. Seashells, Balloons, and Walk- Off Home Runs      168

14. All’s Fair in Love and Baseball      184

15. A Word from Our Sponsor      200

16. Wagging the Dog      213

17. The Prodigal Game      233

Chapter Notes      241

Bibliography      256

Index      265

Finalist, 2011 Book of the Year—ForeWord Reviews
“Ham…offers baseball enthusiasts an accessible popular history of the game’s ninety-year relationship with radio and television. The book provides a sound examination of big-league baseball on radio and television, grounded in an interesting retelling of some of Major League Baseball’s most significant events…Ham gives readers an enjoyable account of a couple initially wary of each other, but bound for synergistic glory…all readers will encounter facets of the broadcasting baseball story that they never anticipated”—Nine.