Posted by chicagomedia.org on July 29, 2009 at 10:52:52:
Radio's the perfect way to see a perfect ballgame
Steve Dahl
July 29, 2009
Mark Buehrle wasn't the only one who achieved perfection last Thursday. Even though I am a White Sox season ticket-holder, I missed his no-hitter in April 2007. Last week I found myself also missing his perfect game. I'm perfect in missing Buehrle no-hitters.
Every season, I sell about 30 games to friends to help defray my costs. Quite frankly, 81 home games are also more games than I care to attend. I had sold my tickets to Buehrle's baseball history long before the season even began. There's just no way of knowing when you look at the schedule in March. Perhaps I need a baseball astrologer.
I was on the road, with my two dogs and a suitcase full of Tommy Bahama shirts, to the other side of Lake Michigan. Initially, I was somewhat irritated that I apparently was missing the 18th perfect game ever thrown in baseball history. It was the first for a White Sox player since Charles Robertson hurled one in 1922. I was ultimately comforted by the knowledge that I'd sold my seats to a Cubs fan. There I was, dogs panting in the cargo compartment of my SUV, trying to eat a burrito and drive while listening to the game on the radio. Ed Farmer and Darrin Jackson had the call on WSCR, The Score 670.
While listening to Buehrle's perfect game, I was reminded of what drew me to radio as a career. It wasn't the first time that I had heard a perfect game called on the radio. A 10-year-old Steve Dahl used to sneak a transistor radio under his pillow at bedtime and listen to the legendary Vin Scully call Los Angeles Dodgers games back in the early 1960s. On Sept. 9, 1965, Scully's call of Sandy Koufax's perfect game changed my life. On that fall evening in Southern California, we shared a moment that taught me the incredible power of radio.
Vin worked the game, the crowd and his words like Koufax worked the count. I was there, watching the game in my mind. Missing only a stomachache from too many Dodger Dogs, I was transfixed. I always secretly listened to Dodger games as I drifted off. On that Thursday night my head was on the pillow, but I was on cloud nine. Vin Scully knew he was witnessing history, but he never let it overwhelm him. The crescendo was Koufax striking out the side in the 9th. Wow!
Last Thursday, Farmer and Jackson pulled me into U.S. Cellular Field for Buehrle's perfect game. It's been 44 years since I'd heard a perfect game called on the radio, but I felt like a kid again. This time I was hearing it through the voices of two former major-leaguers, who triggered verdant images of what was taking place on that field. When I finally made it to a TV and saw a replay of the Dewayne Wise miracle catch in the 9th inning, seeing it was almost anti-climactic. Baseball is best enjoyed on the radio.
Radio is going through a pretty tough time these days. A new ratings-measurement system that favors music over talk and the tanking economy have management cutting the very heart and soul out of it. It's the same in the newspaper business. Poor circulation and declining ad sales are turning once-thick dailies into something the size of a small-town gazette. We cannot stand by idly and let this happen. We are creating a generation without imagination. We are losing media that cause us to think and that engage our brains. I guess I'm perfect in that regard too. I'm involved in both.