There was an obituary in this past Tuesday’s New York Times for a fellow by the name of Nate Allbright. He was 87, and to my knowledge, I had never heard of him before. This actually seemed more that a bit odd, because the caption above the article stated that Mr. Allbright had been the “Voice of Dodger Games…” As a once devoted Los Angeles Dodger fan (I attended 56 home games one year and mooched every ticket), I was fairly certain the only voice of the Dodgers in my lifetime was Vin Scully (and perhaps Red Barber). I recall routinely hearing Scully fondly refer to Barber, but the name Allbright wasn’t ringing a bell. Given his age and my affinity for my hometown Los Angeles team, Nate Allbright seemed like someone I should know.
As I read the obituary, I realized that Allbright had been the voice of Brooklyn Dodger games he didn’t actually attend. As the story noted, for cost savings purposes he had been employed by the Dodgers during the 50’s to broadcast games remotely, creatively re-enacting the contests as though he was actually there. He would begin his broadcasts by saying “Welcome to Ebbett’s Field,” and his accounts went to stations on the Dodger network throughout the eastern United States from Cleveland to Miami.
Using Morse code teletype feeds (something like B1W for ball 1 wide) he would deploy sound effects to recreate the game on radio. The article noted that over the span of a decade, he broadcast over 1,500 games without ever seeing one. Fifty two stations apparently carried the Dodger network the first year and that number doubled in year two. He apparently had sound effects to mimic all the needed sounds; the crowd roar, the slap of the ball in a glove, and he could make the noise of the bat cracking the ball by using his tongue on the roof of his mouth. Apparently, if the teletype jammed, or if a feed was delayed, he would buy time and narrate several fictitious foul balls or feign a slight rain delay by crinkling a cigarette wrapper. According to Dodger Owner Walter O’Malley, Allbright was so good at his craft that O’Malley once suggested they should skip playing the actual games and just let Nate do his thing.
Actually, thanks to the advent of television putting an end to the need for Nate’s recreating talents, he actually did get the opportunity to do just as O’Malley suggested. The obituary noted that he broadcast fictitious games during the baseball and football labor disputes, creating entire imaginary games that never actually took place. He did this according to him, largely because of the demand of fans to listen to games on the radio…even if they weren’t real.
When I was a kid, I laid in bed many nights nestling my beloved transistor radio while listening to Vin Scully magically paint a vivid picture of Dodger games. His words seemed like poetry to me, and in my mind I could clearly s stars like ee Garvey, Lopes, Russell, Cey, Yeager, Sutton, Baker, Monday, Smith and so many others. Sometimes, when things went well, I would leap from my bed and run out to see if my dad was still listening (or watching) so we could celebrate together. I don’t have the time to sit and listen to baseball games on the radio anymore and I haven’t listened to full game since I stumbled across the broadcast the night Cal Ripken broke the consecutive game streak (I was listening while driving to North Dakota). But though it’s probably been almost thirty years, I remember the magic of those Dodger games like it was yesterday.
I never heard one of Nate Allbright’s recreated broadcasts, but they must have been something to hear. He sounded like a talented man, who was able to use his skills to weave simple teletype messages into a believable baseball experience. I’m not really sure why, but hearing of his passing saddened me, I guess because it made me think of yet another bygone thing I used to love but no long have time, or the attention span, to enjoy.
I hope you have a truly wonderful weekend. Whenever you are, maybe you can set aside a few hours to take in America’s pastime. If you can’t make to the park, maybe you can at least catch part of a game on the radio. If you don’t have a few hours, perhaps you can at least take a few minutes to listen to a special song. If you do, I think you might smile.
Have a great weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment