The Reds Were On The Radio!
The Reds Were On The Radio!
Harry Hartman was the OG
Ninety years ago this week, the Reds (minus 7 players who took the train) became the first team in MLB history to travel by air, flying from Cincinnati to Chicago in two American Airlines planes. Radio station 700 WLW put a transmitter on one plane and broadcaster Red Barber covered the trip live.
When I uncovered that nugget, I went down the rabbit hole on Reds radio broadcasters. It’s a pretty great tradition in this town! Three of Cincinnati’s radio voices have been honored by the baseball Hall of Fame: Marty Brennaman, Red Barber, and Waite Hoyt. Before Marty, legendary sports broadcaster Al Michaels sat in the Reds booth. And what can we say about Joe Nuxhall, a Cincinnati fixture for decades?
Baseball on the radio will always be special to me. Like many of you, I grew up with Marty and Joe on WLW. To this day, sitting in the backyard with the ballgame on the radio is often preferable to watching the game, even though it’s available on my television every night too.
You know, Cincinnati has been home to plenty of baseball firsts. First professional team. First team to travel by air. First night game (May 24, 1935). The Reds played in the first game broadcast on television, a contest against Brooklyn on August 26, 1939. First team to make a million fans lose their mind because they refuse to try to win a championship. (That one may not be official.)
They were not, however, the first team to broadcast their games on the radio. That distinction goes to the Pirates and KDKA. On August 5, 1921, announcer Harold Arlin described the action in an 8-5 win over the Phillies.
Cincinnati’s first radio broadcast was two and a half years later, on Opening Day 1924. But full radio coverage of the Reds did not begin until 1931, when Harry Hartman of WFBE (later WCPO) convinced Reds owner Sid Weil to allow more broadcasts. (Forty games had been covered in 1929, with coverage helmed by Bob Burdette.)
Hartman technically wasn’t the first, but he still deserves credit as Cincinnati’s original play-by-play broadcaster. Weil was afraid that descriptions of the games over the radio would hurt attendance at the park, but Hartman was insistent. His argument was that, since the games would be broadcast during the day, the primary audience would be women. Hartman theorized that this would only encourage women to learn more about the game and the more they learned, the more they’d come to the park. Similar debates were being had in big league towns across the league.
Hartman’s proposal was to broadcast all home games. He intended to broadcast the road games, as well, but without actually leaving Cincinnati; he’d re-create the games via telegraph updates. He also served as the PA announcer at Redland Field, so he’d be pulling double duty.
Weil finally agreed (though he held firm on banning Saturday and Sunday broadcasts). The games were an immediate smash hit, and Hartman became a star. Legend has it that he developed the common refrain “Going, going, gone” for a home run, though I’m not sure that can be confirmed. On 3-2 pitches, Hartman was in the habit of saying “the string’s run out, here comes the pay ball.”
One day, Hartman was switching back and forth from radio duties to PA duties when he set the PA microphone down without switching it off. A group of, shall we say, boisterous fans were bellowing complaints to the second base umpire at the time and those jeers were soon blasting from the Redland Field speakers to the entire crowd. No reports survive to inform us if the umpire was amused.
Hartman later said that the game in 1939 when the Reds clinched their first National League in two decades was his most memorable broadcast. It was a crisp September afternoon at Redland Field, with 17,421 fans on their feet. When hurler Paul Derringer struck out the Cardinals’ Johnny Mize to end the game, Hartman recalled: “The game was over. I opened my mouth. No sound. I choked up. But the screaming of the fans told the radio audience what happened.”
It was his most memorable moment, perhaps, but as it turned out, Cincinnati’s pennant nearly cost the broadcaster dearly. Before the season, Hartman had wagered some fellow broadcasters that the Reds would win the National League. When it came to fruition, Hartman convinced the editor of The Sporting News, the most important publication in baseball, to print an ad jokingly requesting his colleagues pay up on their end of the bet.
We don’t know if those fellow broadcasters saw the ad, but baseball’s commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, saw it. He was not happy. As Hartman recalled, Landis laced into him: “Why you pitiful this and that, you fat thus and so, you know I won’t stand for any betting by anyone connected with baseball. Get off the air and stay off until you hear from me!” Hartman wrote an apology letter and Landis grudgingly forgave him.
It was still the early days of baseball broadcasting, but Hartman was one of the favorites. He won national contests to name the country’s best broadcaster twice, in 1932 and 1936.
Hartman decided to hang up his microphone after the 1941 season. And if you need any more evidence that it was a different time, for the rest of his life, Hartman toiled as a promoter for boxing and wrestling matches. He’s mostly forgotten in Cincinnati these days.
Until now.
This week at Cincinnati Magazine: The Reds Put Together Another June Boom
Here we go again! The Second Annual Cincinnati Reds Post-Memorial Day Surge is upon us, and it is spectacular. It’s nearly impossible to remember at this point, but less than three weeks ago your Redlegs were in last place in the National League’s Central division, nine games under .500. It’s true, I promise! History books will show that the season had been filled with injuries and subpar performances and Nick Martinis. Things were trending in the wrong direction.
And then, practically out of nowhere, Cincinnati caught fire. Building off a shocking sweep of the Dodgers in the last week of May, the Reds won 12 of 15 games, culminating in a seven-game winning streak that vaulted the Reds all the way up to second place in the division. Even more surprising, despite still being two games under .500 entering play on Tuesday, the Reds are currently in possession of one of the NL Wild Card spots. What a time to be alive.
So how did we get here? Read the rest of this week’s Reds column over at Cincinnati Magazine.
What’s Chad Watching?
This is two-plus weeks of my movie watching, so I won’t bore you too much. Only saw two of these movies in theaters. The Fall Guy was pretty okay! I Saw The TV Glow was…well, I’m not quite sure. But it was interesting!
Three of the movies above were on my list of films to watch before going to Japan later this summer. Your Name is spectacular. Can’t wait to watch it again. Good Morning was the next movie on my watchlist from legendary director Yasujirō Ozu; it was good, though not nearly as impressive as his best, Tokyo Story. Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola’s debut featuring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, was even better on this rewatch than I had remembered.
Finally, Hit Man is the latest from inner circle Hall of Fame director Richard Linklater. Starring Glen Powell, who seems to be having a moment right now, it’s available on Netflix. I recommend it.