Only for Dave Niehaus fans

[Bil522]

This article was written by Corey Brock of The Athletic. What i can't get you guys is the podcasts of the interviews.....classic Dave interviewing Ted Williams in one and Buck O'Neil in the other. Here is the story

When he was a kid, Gary Hill Jr. spent hours listening to the Mariners on an old clock radio he strategically situated by his bed, stealing a few innings before falling asleep each night. Unless …

“There was an issue with the volume on the clock,” Hill said. “If I turned it even just a little wrong then it started to blare. I was supposed to be asleep, so I had to be really careful.”

Still, Hill risked it. He didn’t want to miss anything Dave Niehaus had to say.

It has been nearly a decade since Niehaus, who died in November 2010 at 75, called his last game. But for 33 seasons, he was the voice of the franchise, behind the microphone for moments big and small. And during the lean years — of which there were many — he was sometimes the only reason to tune in.

Hill, 42 and the executive producer/engineer for the Mariners’ radio broadcasts, is doing his part to make sure Niehaus’ voice lives on. He’s knee-deep in what’s become a four-year project to digitize every recording the team has saved, including highlights, pregame shows and games recorded on reel-to-reel, cassette tapes, MiniDisc and CDs. Some of the cassettes are starting to fray and Hill is still looking for a reel-to-reel machine.

The project has already taken a lot of time and isn’t close to being finished. But for Hill, who fell in love with baseball through one of the game’s remarkable storytellers, it’s all worth it.

“(Niehaus) is the one that got it started for me,” Hill said. “He really ignited the whole thing for me.”


Gary Hill Jr. (Corey Brock / The Athletic)

(Corey Brock / The Athletic)

(Corey Brock / The Athletic)

(Corey Brock / The Athletic)
Tucked away in a cabinet in the back of the T-Mobile Park radio booth are boxes upon boxes filled with recordings of Mariners games from a bygone era. For the most part, they’ve been collecting dust since the team made its move from the Kingdome to its current digs in the summer of 1999, but they are slowly beginning to see the light of day, thanks to Hill’s undertaking.

“There’s piles of this stuff everywhere, which is great,” Hill said, pulling out two boxes for inspection. “Having all of this at your fingertips, it’s … it’s the history of the organization.”

Bringing that history into the 21st century has taken some work. Many of the recordings aren’t marked, and some are missing, including the entire 1977 season, save the inaugural game — and that’s only because Neil Scott, the update anchor for SportsRadio 950 KJR, gave the team a cassette recording he made at home.

“Everything else is … somewhere,” Hill said.

Hill is thankful to have as much material as he does, calling it “a pot of gold.” Other teams aren’t as lucky.

“I’ve talked to people in other organizations and in some cases, that stuff is gone. And once it’s gone, the history is gone,” Hill said. “All the credit goes to Kevin Cremin. He kept everything.”

Cremin, the team’s former producer/engineer, discovered the audio shortly after taking the job in 1983. “It was a rude awakening,” Cremin said, laughing. “It was boxes and boxes. But I was pretty thrilled. I was a crazy baseball fan … so I knew instinctively we needed to save this.”

Cremin was able to transfer some of the games from the 1970s onto cassette tape, the new format of the time, and did his best to write down what was included on each. He burned through a lot of tape, as a single game often took three or four cassettes to cover in its entirety.

Cremin describes Niehaus’ work during games as “poetry,” but the team’s weekly “Mariners Magazine” show and pregame segments allowed the Hall of Famer to stretch his legs. In one, Niehaus spoke over the phone with hit king Ted Williams, talking about Cal Ripken’s 2,632 consecutive games-played streak, Williams’ 502-foot “red seat” home run at Fenway Park in 1946, and how he hit a home run in his final at-bat in 1960 at age 42.

The interview showed off one of Niehaus’ greatest strengths: his ability to put people at ease during interviews, conducting them like he was catching up with an old friend. “You know, you were probably the best of the best,” Niehaus said to Williams. “I don’t know about that,” the legendarily prickly and prideful Williams replied in an aw-shucks kind-of-way.

“That was just gold,” Cremin said.

When former Seattle catcher Dan Wilson sat in on one of the team’s recent radio broadcast, Hill was able to access the call from Wilson’s first home run with the Mariners in 1994. (“Wilson had never heard it before, which was pretty cool,” Hill said.) Hill recently digitized a game when Niehaus had reliever Norm Charlton sit with him in the radio booth while Carlton served a one-game suspension and another when Niehaus narrated manager Lou Piniella kicking his hat all around the field during a meltdown in Cleveland.

Hill estimates that since starting the project he’s listened to over 100 interviews between Niehaus and Vin Scully, Jim Bouton, Don Newcombe and so many more. There was the “At Home with Dave” segment, produced by Cremin, that featured Niehaus riffing on just about anything — Harry Carey, Randy Johnson’s no-hitter, that magical 2001 season. There’s even a reading of Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s iconic “Casey at the Bat.”

Hill’s biggest challenge when it comes to digitizing the audio archive? Finding the time.

He conducts the work at home from his laptop along with a cassette recorder, a compact disc recorder and a tangled artery of cords that make it all work. The team used reel-to-reel until about 1982, and neither Hill nor the team possesses a reel-to-reel machine. That particular challenge will have to wait. The most prevalent format is cassette, which the team utilized through the 1999 season, but the years haven’t been kind to many of them.

“It’s a race against time,” Hill said. “These tapes will not last forever.”

The Mariners used MiniDisc through the 2003 season, then switched to the much cheaper compact disc. Anything on CD is a snap to digitize, but everything else is recorded in real time.

Hill has prioritized his endeavor: The iconic games get digitized first, then highlights and pregame shows, primarily since they take less time than games. A lot of the work takes place in Hill’s home office, under a photo of Ken Griffey Jr. and Henry Cotto that Hill bought at a Kingdome auction many years ago. He tries to knock off a couple tapes in the morning before he leaves for the ballpark. The CDs are easy, so he can do those at the ballpark. Before going on a run, driving the kids to school, walking the dog or going to the store, he’ll start a recording.

On a rare evening away from the ballpark recently, Hill took his wife, Mary, to dinner at Bistro Baffi near their home in Burien. Before he left, Hill popped in the first game tape from Gaylord Perry’s 300th career victory in 1982.

In most cases, the tapes are labeled. Hill has Cremin to thank for that. But Hill has to listen to the ones that aren’t to figure out when they’re from, a process that has yielded a few gems.

“I’ve run across some pretty amazing stuff over the years; Dave Niehaus and Ted Williams. There was one that was not labeled, and it was Dave talking to Buck O’Neil at the time when Griffey was really rolling,” Hill said. “I’ve had some glorious finds so far. It’s been the greatest thing ever.”

No one asked Hill to undertake this project, and Hill would probably object to calling it a project anyway. Listening to Niehaus isn’t really work. It’s a treat.

“I feel like there’s so much more we can do with it,” he said.

Having these clips available at any time will help with easy, quick access for use during games or elsewhere. Maybe the archives will eventually find a larger audience.

“It would be nice if somewhere in the ballpark, you’re able to sit down, put on some headphones and listen to Dave call a game,” Cremin said.

It’s easy for Hill to get lost, if not completely immersed in the process. It still makes him smile when Niehaus drops his voice as he enunciates a pitch that misses “bawwwlll three,” or how his voice rises during a critical moment. Hill often wonders where the time went once he’s through with another session, but he’s never apologetic about time spent listening to Niehaus on the air.

“It is critical for me to save everything we can save, to save his voice,” Hill said. “We always hear the highlights, but he was so much more. When I stumble across half-innings, I’ll listen. And nothing exciting happens. But it’s all still so amazing.”

“To this day, I will still get goosebumps when I hear his voice,” said Mariners broadcaster Rick Rizzs, who worked alongside Niehaus for more than two decades.

There’s not a day that goes by when Rizzs doesn’t hear his old friend’s voice in his head. He misses Niehaus and is thankful Hill’s work will preserve a lasting memory of the greatest broadcaster to ever call games in Seattle.

“I think it’s so important what Gary’s doing,” Rizzs said. “People who have been around certainly remember Dave. But I love the fact now that fans who are younger can have a chance to hear that beautiful, melodic voice call games.

“A generation of fans need to know how good he was … what a great storyteller he was, how he was able to make the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up by creating that drama. Dave made you see and feel the game with your own imagination.”

[Sibelius Hindemith]

They lost the entire 1977 season of radio broadcasts? Given the organization we are talking about, why doesn't that surprise me? They could have hired some professionals to digitize and clean up all those recordings for a fraction of the price they pay for 3rd rate relief pitchers.

[Oso Dorado]

The good baseball guys are just gold. You can be driving down the road, and the voice is keeping you focused on the game, and the story is keeping focused on baseball, the past, the present and the future.
Dave was awesome. Give me Vin Scully, Hank Greenberg, Harry Carey...time passed - it was all good

[Petert]

For me it was Red Barber, Mel Allen, Lindsey Nelson. They were they voices in the box and brought the game to life. When I got older, and drove, it was Bill White, Frank Messer, and still, Lindsey Nelson. Dave was as good as any of them and better than most.

[Bil522]

Seriously the complete interviews Dave did with Buck O'neil and Ted Williams were worth my $36 yearly subscription to the Athletic.

Some of you mentioned Mel Allen and Red Barber.....here is the TV broadcast of the '52 WS...the complete broadcast

https://youtu.be/hqZnPQnxO9U

[D-train]

I wonder if there is audio of Lenny Randle blowing the bunt foul. btw this tops that in terms of Randle achievements.

https://twitter.com/Jomboy_/status/1166815802303090689

[Petert]

This is excellent. Looks like he would have bunted safely had he not detoured.

[Sibelius Hindemith]

They just had Gary Hill on KIRO710AM. Great guy.

I was also wondering, who should we be most annoyed with over the state of Mariner broadcast archives: the Mariners organization or KIRO?

[Moe Gibbs]

Us guys on the west coast have been blessed with great broadcasters. I really liked Joe Simpson when he was here.
SFG had Russ Hodges, Lon Simmons and Al Michaels [yes, THAT Al Michaels]
SDP had Jerry Coleman and Dave Campbell and a lot of lousy baseball to make interesting
Anaheim had Dick Enberg and Don Drysdale
OAK had Harry Caray and IMHO The Greatest Announcer Nobody Ever Heard Of....Bill King. Bill King also made some epic calls for the Raiders back when they were The Raiders.

I think the quality tends to drop off as you listen to MLB announcers that are inland.

[Petert]

They just had Gary Hill on KIRO710AM. Great guy.

I was also wondering, who should we be most annoyed with over the state of Mariner broadcast archives: the Mariners organization or KIRO?

I’m thinking it would be KIRO, mostly, as it was years before the now-standard claim “the accounts of this broadcast...” that we hear all the time and asserts the team’s rights to that content. I believe any recordings would have been KIRO’s property. However, I’m sure if someone on the Mariners org had any foresight, they should have been able to strike a deal for them or their preservation.

Who knows, maybe there’s a big batch of reels stashed in a Lucky Lager crate in Danny Kaye’s archives, somewhere.