The baseball postseason begins this week, first with a tiebreaker game and then a pair of wild card games. While football has taken over as America's favorite sport - thanks to television - baseball remains the romantic sport best heard on the radio.
It was on Oct. 3, 1951, Russ Hodges made his frantic and famous call on Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World." While New York Giants fans will forever cherish the three-run walk-off homer that put their team in the World Series, their memory of the occasion surely would not have been as vivid and exciting without Hodges' memorable call.
Hodges was but one of the many in a golden age of broadcasters, as his New York City peers included Red Barber, Vin Scully, Mel Allen, Ernie Harwell and Marty Glickman. It's indeed a rare skill to summarize the occasion aptly and not be overwhelmed by it. Some announcers rise to the challenge, others fall victim to it. But either way, what they said at the spur of the moment, in complete spontaneity, would be preserved for posterity.
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