Today marks a new beginning. The Major League Baseball playoffs officially begin. The second season will likely be filled with memories, personalities, and moments that generations of fans will relive forever. It was the alternative band Semisonic that coined the lyric, “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” With baseball turning the page to October, the sport once again said goodbye to some of its greatest voices on radio as they enter their own personal second season.
Baseball on the radio has always gone together like chilled lemonade on a hot summer day. The voices become friends. Their sound becomes our soundtrack. With every pitch comes a new chapter in a story where legends tell the tale. This weekend, baseball and fans around the country showed their appreciation for the love of the game delivered through the radio.
Far too often, the power of radio gets overlooked. Research continues to show a decline in usage of the medium as society shifts toward an on-demand content economy. But just like television, baseball on the radio continues to buck the trends of technology.
It’s appointment listening, where fans continue to flock. Whether they’re on the go, in the car, or listening through an app. It’s where friends come together to catch up on the day, talk about the team, and revel in the hometown voices that represent the club whose colors they share.
Need proof? This past weekend, baseball on the radio said goodbye to two more voices of local baseball lore.
Fitting Tributes
Howie Rose received a magnificent sendoff during his final home-game call, with fans around the country celebrating his career. The New York Mets provided some moments of glory during his more than four decades with the club in various capacities. But his tone, empathy, and ability to connect with Mets fans elevated him beyond being merely regionally beloved. He became nationally respected.
Sunday, the Seattle Mariners said thank you to Rick Rizzs after 41 seasons with the ballclub. The longest-tenured broadcaster in franchise history was given a moment to reflect on his career as he listened to messages from longtime listeners. The messages spoke of hope, loss, coping, laughter, celebration, and connection. In a region that doesn’t receive a ton of national notoriety, the celebration of Rizzs’ career became one of the most memorable moments of the final day of the regular season.
Rose and Rizzs are just the latest names to join the sport’s growing list of legendary broadcasters who have recently stepped away from the game. John Sterling, Bob Uecker, Greg Schulte, and Mike Shannon, to name a few.
But the show goes on while other sports and teams contemplate removing the option of radio completely. Audacy stated earlier this year that 2.4 million fans tuned in to local team’s Opening Day play-by-play coverage across broadcast and streaming. Additionally, 36% of MLB fans pair the radio call of the game with live television.
When national broadcasters take away local voices on television, radio remains the consistent local presence. When the playoffs begin, radio remains the consistent local presence.
Why?
Because the authentic sound that baseball on the radio provides captures something television can’t fully create. Instead of showing the picture, radio allows the broadcaster to paint it for the listener.
The Bond Of Hometown Calls
Rose, Rizzs, and their current and former contemporaries all understood that notion. Storytelling at its highest level. A runway to be authentic. A connection that continues more than a century after the first pitch was heard on the radio.
We talk a lot about how radio needs to tell its story better. We discuss changing the narrative from “radio is dying” to “radio continues thriving.” Far too often, radio fails to attribute its own success story to the very people who consume it.
Was there a greater example of the power of radio than when baseball said thank you to Howie Rose and Rick Rizzs?
Baseball on the radio may be the greatest example of the power of the medium, a demonstration that continues to be showcased year after year. It doesn’t need a screen, a highlight package, or a viral moment to validate its importance. It needs a voice, a game, and a listener willing to lean in and become part of the story.
For more than a century, baseball broadcasters have turned pitches into pictures, innings into memories, and games into moments that live far beyond the final out. The voices may change, but the connection remains.
Howie Rose and Rick Rizzs aren’t simply reminders of what baseball on the radio once was. They are proof of what it still is.
As another postseason begins and another generation of broadcasters takes the microphone, the greatest story radio can tell isn’t that it survived another season. It’s that baseball continues to give the medium another opportunity to demonstrate why it has always mattered.
Play ball. Welcome to the second season.
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