Here we have a real rarity..Play By Play of the late Jimmy Dudley..Dudley was with the Cleveland Indians mostly on radio from 1948-67..He was fired from the Indians after the 1967 season..It was said he and partner Bob Neal didnt get along..
Seattle was awarded an American League Franchise for the 1969 season..Owned by Dewey Soriano and Former Indian owner Bill Daley, it was a disaster from the start..Playing in an antiquated ballpark(Sicks Stadium), the team was rushed into play due to factors beyond their control..One bright spot was the Broadcast team of Jimmy Dudley and Bill Schonely on KVI-570.
Here are 3 rare clips from March 28, 1970..The next to last game for the Seattle Franchise. Schonely was later known as the primary Broadcaster for the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA.
Interesting notes:
Mike Hegan, current Indian Broadcaster, had just bought a home in the Seattle area, but with the pending Milwaukee move, that was now up in the air..
Ted Kubiak, now Indian minor league manager at Class A Lake County, turned a double play with Gus Gil, for the last 2 outs of the game..
Roy Foster, mentioned in the Mike Hegan Clip, played 1970-72 with the Indians, afer 2 decent power seasons, his numbers dropped off a lot by 1972 and he was out of Major League Baseball by the end of the season.
The audio clips are courtesy Mike Fuller at
http://www.seattlepilots.com/
A great Historical site detailing the Pilots History..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Pilots
Wikipedia article on the Pilots
While I love baseball, and part of that interest is reading about teams that move from one city to another or disband, the main attraction here is hearing extended work of Jimmy Dudley, arguably one of the better Tribe announcers of all time..
Of course, younger fans remember Jimmy Dudley as the "Garfield-1-2323" man on local tv commercials
Also "Kahns, the weiner the world awaited, ya, hear."
ReplyDeleteI'll never forget listening to Jimmy Dudley calling the game when Herb Score was hit in the eye by a line drive off a (hated) Yankee bat. In the kitchen, listening to the radio on the counter on that hot night, I was all excitement, having overcome the recent unpleasantness: "What's with Al Lopez? We're down three-zip in the W.S. and he's going back to Lemon?" Whatever. Herb Score was to be the fireballing resurrection of the Feller era.
ReplyDeleteBoom!
Knocked out of the game and his career. Not really out of baseball; he became my favorite (better than Jimmy Dudley--and that was saying something) announcer, even though it sounded like he had a mouth full of marbles.
Go, Tribe!
I have a letter hand signed by jimmy dudley sent to my grandmother July 30 1969 is it with anything
ReplyDeleteLetter from 1969 signed by Jimmy Dudley July 1969 worth
ReplyDeleteloved jimmy dudley's broadcasts. he had that cool southern accent and wouldn't you know they fire him for Neal. yet one bad move after another by the Indians. it never ends in clevelan
ReplyDelete