Growing up as a pre-teen kid in the 70s it was always kind of a game to huddle underneath my bedcovers with an AM radio either listening to Ken Coleman or searching for far-off games from across the eastern seaboard. On a lucky night I might even get a faded KMOX, all the way from St. Louis. Tonight, as my wife slept to my left, I tuned in to the last few innings of the Sox-Yanks, put earbuds into the iPhone, and did my best to surreptitiously listen in (and now, type this post). Whereas 30 years ago I was doing my best not to be found out by my mom and dad, today I did my best not to roust my tired wife. Three decades have passed, and transistor radios may be mostly obsolete. But the digital, wireless joy of late comebacks and heroic homers feels just as it did back then.
What a game.
8 replies on “New Technology, Same Old Feeling”
I’ve similarly been hooking up the iPhone to my stereo to get good, clear 3G audio of Sox games here in Upstate New York.
I heard Games 4 and 5 of the 2004 ALCS on the radio, and in some ways I prefer it to TV. Reminds me of being a kid, going up to Maine in the summer, and listening to Sox games while (supposedly) falling asleep. Can’t be beat.
Ive listened to at least twice as many Yankee games on the radio as I have watched on TV. It really is the only sport that is as good on radio as on TV…
Hundreds and hundreds more games did I listen to by way of my “Realistic” (Radio Shack) AM/FM/cassette deck with its mono speaker I got for my eighth year. Nightly. Thank you, baseball. My radio took a few (three? five? who cares) C cell batteries. For no short while I was quite certain that C cells must be the best batteries ever invented as they were the pods that made my radio work off the mains.
XM has allowed me to listen to Sox games via radio for the first time since I left New England, and it is truly a joy. The few innings I was able to grab from this game, however, were not — they were the fourth and fifth, both ending in a double play after the Sox had escaped one the batter before. I was beyond frustrated.
I ended up following the game on my brand-new Blackberry, following on the stripped-down phone version of GameCast. It wasn’t the same, but it was better than nothing. When MLB releases the 2009 games for iTunes purchase, I will most definitely be buying this one.
Same experience growing up, but in the early 80s. I would actually look forward to going to bed – sneak out the radio from under my pillow and usually fall asleep to the dulcet tones of White and Rizzuto. Occasionally I’d get caught, but that only helped me to hear more of the game.
weren’t White and Rizzuto on tv? Actually, as much as I like to listen to baseball on radio, I realize that most of my Yankee rooting experience was done in front of the tv. We haven’t had very good radio announcers and maybe that’s the reason why. At this point, I find Sterling and Waldman unlistenable.
Agreed 100%, there’s nothing like lounging out on the porch on a sunny day with the game on in the background. It just *feels* like summer. Listening while doing microscopy is not quite the same, but pleasant anyway. :)
What app. lets you listen to games?! You may have just changed my (social)life for the next few months..