…the broadcaster must see to it that in his announcement that are very few….’breaks on the air.” For, with the breaks, the listeners immediately imagine that something has gone wrong with his set. Besides, he did not buy it just to listen to dead silence.
So I found myself more than ever falling back on general description. And that is where the imagination comes in… You must make each of your listeners, though miles from the spot, feel that he or she, too, is there with you in that press stand, watching the movements of the game, the color, and flags; the pop-bottles thrown in the air; the straw has demolished; Gloria Swanson arriving in her new ermine coat; McGraw in his dugout, apparently motionless, but giving signals all the time…” (52-53)
For here was the most advertised athlete in the game, one whose name appears in headlines more often than the President’s, BR at bat—with the bases full. One little crack—just a solid connection between ash and leather, and the series would be over. The chance that was immortal Casey’s was now the Babe’s. he had the Ws in the hollow of his hand. (58-59)
"Mr. Graham McNamee,
Station WEAF,
195 Broadway, N. Y.
"Please accept our sincere thanks for your wonderful broadcasting of the first game of the 1924 season between the Giants and the Brooklyn Dodges. Your knowledge of the game and your colorful description made a hit here; and it was no ordinary bunt but a powerful wallop that has had us talking ever since.
"The Hospital is really a home for some eight hundred patients, a majority of whom are playing their last game and waiting for the exit gates to open. Their little Main Street is quite narrow, and the radio is bringing the world to their feet, as it were.
"I wish you could see all these helpless men listening to your voice; some are blind and many bedridden, but the smile on their faces as the game progressed certainly would repay you, had you any doubts as to the success of your reception.
"One old fellow remembers McGraw when he played on the Olean, N. Y., team, and another was the chum of Willie Keeler. Everyone, in fact, has a baseball remembrance, and whenever we want to start a fight we get Johnny and Jimmy, who are here twenty years, to talk about Merkle and the time he failed to touch second. Both claim the Cubs stole that game and none dare to dispute them.
"As Roxy would say, 'God Bless You.'"
(184)