Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame. For 1995 the Veterans Committee. selected four people: Richie Ashburn, Leon Day, William Hulbert, and Vic Willis. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America selected Mike Schmidt.
Bob Wolff received the Ford C. Frick Award honoring a baseball broadcaster.
Ralph Kiner:
Thank you. As you probably know the winner of the Ford C. Frick Award this year is Bob Wolff. Bob started his broadcasting in Washington, D.C. right after World War Two, and for those of you that remember the Washington Senators in those years and prior to those years, Washington was first in war, first in peace, and last in the National League(sic). Bob was a big part of that. That ballpark in Washington, Washington, D.C. was, well I had the privilege of playing in that ballpark, I actually it was not a privilege, left field fence as Harmon Killebrew will tell you when he broke in there, right down the left field line it was 402 feet, that was the shortest distance to left field. From there on it went out. But Bob also was a part of that, and on his plaque this is what it says. Bob Wolff is in his 50th consecutive year in sports television and his 57th year overall as a sportscaster. He began his professional career in 1939 on CBS radio in Durham, North Carolina while attending Duke University. He was a baseball player there and he got injured and he went to his coach and he asked his coach, “Do you think I have a future in the major leagues, or should I stay in broadcasting?” His coach says, “Stay in broadcasting.” Four years later he branched out to do television as a sportscaster on the old Dumont network station with WTTG in Washington, D.C. In 1947 in addition to his radio assignments Bob Wolff began the first of nineteen years telecasting baseball, starting with the Washington Senators, working the TV booth for the Minnesota Twins then followed. In Washington Bob Wolff was the toast of the town, in every way. For many years Bob Wolff was baseball in Washington. He excelled locally, regionally, and then nationally. Bob Wolff first drew national baseball acclaim in 1956 broadcasting the All-Star game in Washington, and he has several World Series assignments to his credit. He was signed in 1962 by NBC television as their game of the week telecaster. Bob Wolff is currently in his ninth year as sports director/anchor for News 12 in Long Island, New York. Bob, congratulations. (applause)
Bob Wolff:
I’m the leadoff man on this most auspicious occasion. I’ll be followed by two great hitters, as
you know, with great glove men as well, and two great pitchers, we will also salute a pioneer baseball man who will certainly lead us all to victory if need be. When I began broadcasting, if a broadcaster mentioned the word Brooklyn, he was sure to get a crowd reaction. Today that right word would be, Philadelphia! (cheers from Philadelphia throngs, Wolff chuckles) Now, I’m not used to seeing crowds like this, as Ralph said I broadcast in Washington. Over 200 buses from Philadelphia, two cars started out from Washington, one broke down. (laughs from crowd) Of course there were a few big occasions. The Presidential opener for example, that was always significant, if the Senators won that game they’d be in first place. Unfortunately they then had to play the rest of the season.
But winning or losing didn’t concern me when I made my debut as Washington’s first telecaster in 1946, I was in my 20’s, I’d made it to the big leagues and life couldn’t be sweeter. Few thought then that television would amount to anything and fortunately the man who hired me, Les Aries Sr., he did. There were only two TV stations in the country when I began, Washington, and New York on the Dumont network, and about 200 sets in Washington. Now I didn’t have one, but the audience was swelled by my wife Jane who would take the bus from our small apartment to the TV station to watch my flickering image, and in New York, my parents could go to Gimbel’s basement, and watch me on this new invention, and I take no credit for television’s later boom. I had ample opportunity to learn though my first lesson. When the red light came on, it meant go. Red light meant go, not stop. Start talking. And I discovered that while voice and style and technique were important assets, preparation and content are the keys to survival.
And there’s something else that all of my distinguished Hall of Fame broadcast colleagues have in common. Wearing well, game after game, and year after year. I also learned that while I was enjoying each game and admiring its artistry, the way to a sponsor’s heart was by selling his product. In those pioneer days I was the commercial spokesman, and as I rarely smoked or drank, I was uniquely unqualified for that job. There were no filmed commercials in those days, no tape, just me live. I was given cigar smoking lessons, cigarette smoking lessons, and spent a month in spring training learning how to pour beer correctly, with either hand. I was the first switch pourer in the major leagues. Now the trick was to get a perfect head while looking into the camera and extolling the brew. Now my career almost ended on a cascade of suds which erupted volcano style in my first on-camera pour. It developed that practice beers I’d poured in Orlando, had always been refrigerated at a colder temperature, and when I went on TV in Washington I’d been handed a warm bottle from the press room. At a post-game crisis meeting, my TV assistant, Joe DeMona, said this could be rectified with a refrigerator in the booth, assuring the right temperature, and that saved the day. But drinking the beer on camera every half inning brought about a new crisis. I was getting a little woozy from
that. A decision was finally made, hire a commercial announcer, John Batchelder, so I could get through the games. Now in those days I was the sole play-by-play man on TV. There were no analysts, no colormen. I also did the fifteen minute pre and post-game shows and welcomed John’s assistants. John proved to be a great beer drinker, every half inning. On those days of doubleheaders he started to stagger midway through the second game. I stood near him, ready to prop him up if he lurched forward. Now one day I had a brilliant idea, and brought John a bucket. “John,” I said, “first tell the folks how good the beer is, take a swig, hold it, when the red light goes off, spit the beer in the bucket.” The plan was great, but there was a problem with John’s timing. The light was still on when John’s steady stream went flying into the bucket, (laughter in crowd), live and on camera, and our sponsor soon went flying too. To put this in verse, and I’ve been known to go from bad to verse, (groans from crowd, chuckle from Wolff) “When the sponsor writes against your name what he wants to hear is not who won or lost the game, but how you sold the beer.” And that was TV in the early days.
Of course broadcasting the games was a daily delight, the Senators had some great players, including Hall of Famers, and league leaders. Unfortunately they just didn’t have enough of them on any one team. They played well, but remarkably, the other clubs seemed to play a little better. Clark Griffith, and Calvin had no other business to sustain them. Their business was baseball, they had to rely more on ingenuity than money, as did early TV. Now some days when the games got a little one-sided, I just gave the score. I figured our viewers knew which team was winning, not the Senators, of course. I was able to dwell on the artistry of the game on our team personalities. Like the well-traveled Bobo Newsome, the burley pitcher who was the Felix Unger of the pitching mound. Opposing players used to torment Bobo by throwing scraps of paper on Bobo’s domain. Bobo in the hot sun would dutifully pick up the litter to keep his well manicured spot unsullied. He received my neatness award for MVP, Most Valuable Plot. And Rocky Bridges, he used to amaze me, he could keep a chaw of tobacco on each side of his mouth, gave him wonderful balance he said, course when I interviewed Rocky about this I just couldn’t get too close. And Lou Berberet showed me something special the night he settled under a foul pop, threw away his catchers mitt and tried to catch the ball in his mask. A little ingenuity by a talented athlete.
I called a lot of records with the Senators, set against them of course. Like Mickey Mantle’s longest homer, we always kept the tape measure handy in Washington. Of course Washington had some great sluggers too, like Harmon Killebrew and Jim Lemon and Roy Sievers were members of my Singing Senators group, very harmonious team. I played the ukulele and there were Mickey Vernon, and Peter Runnels and countless more. Not to be overlooked was our biggest name player Carden Edison Gillenwater, that’s 23 letters, he was a big name in any league. And getting to Washington was another great break in my incredible good fortunes. I had taken my .583 high school batting average, my well-worn centerfielder’s glove to Duke University, intent on making the majors when I was injured as Ralph Kiner told you the coach said, “Bob, if you want to make the majors, just keep talking.” And I did. But more study time proved another great break and a valuable broadcasting lesson. I received a Phi Beta Kappa key, and it proved to me that success is possible with a little inspiration but a great deal of perspiration. My sportscasting career has been based on that principle. Preparation, I’ve given every assignment the best that’s in me.
And after Duke I was commissioned as a supply corps officer, sent to the Harvard Business School for training before going to Camp Perry, Virginia to go overseas with the Seabees. And talk about great breaks at Camp Perry I met Jane Louise Hoy a beautiful Navy nurse. This was the greatest break of all, but I was on my way to an advance base in the Solomons. Would Jane wait for me? And, would I return? Jane said she’d wait, and I returned in what I considered miraculous fashion. Overseas I discovered that the Harvard training was excellent for shipboard routine that didn’t apply to the mud and rain problems of advance base supply. I wrote a book with before and after pictures explaining that Navy regulations and procedures relating to advance bases should be revised and sent the book off to the Navy supply department. Within two weeks there were airmail orders to fly back immediately to Washington. I reported to Commander Hugh Hainsworth, received a letter of commendation, was assigned to rewrite the Navy advance base supply regulations and its training books. And that’s how I got to Washington. Jane and I were married in Bethesda Naval Chapel, and here in Cooperstown we’re celebrating fifty great years together. (applause)
While still in Navy uniform, in Washington, I began broadcasting sports on the Washington Post radio station, worked with excellent journalism model, their news director, my long time friend Bill Gold. I added TV to my schedule at Dumont TV. A few years later Paul Jonas, the Mutual Sports Director signed me for the football Game of the Week, and later the baseball Game of the Day, and then came TV assignments on all the networks.
In 1954 I also began a wonderful thirty-six years telecasting Madison Square Garden events. My schedule is bountiful, but I had one big ambition to fulfill, broadcasting the World Series. In 1956 the All-Star game was played in Washington, and the sponsor, Gillette, used me to represent the host city. I guess they liked my work as they asked me to broadcast the ‘56 World Series too. And I had the great fortune to be at the mike for the Don Larsen no-hitter. In the booth with me was Gillette’s talented producer, a fine gentleman, and long time friend Joel Nixon who is with us here today. And that World Series propelled me to two more Series assignments. Then I joined Hall of Famer Joe Garagiola on the NBC TV Game of the Week, and what a thrill that was. I’ve also had the pleasure of broadcasting with Hall of Famers Jack Brickhouse, and Chuck Thompson and Lindsey Nelson who I have heard and admired, I have heard and admired all those in the Hall. In the past nine years I have been the sports anchor at News 12 Long Island, and have done baseball specials, and play by play for Sportschannel New York and that’s been delightful too.
Now to make this journey even more complete our family is with us today including our son Bob a former crafty pitching star at Princeton, our son Rick, an excellent second baseman who played on the Harvard World Series team and later in the Detroit organization, and our daughter Margie, a superb athlete herself and the original bat girl for her brothers. And with Bob’s wife Susan, and Rick’s wife Patty, and Margie’s husband Tom Clark,with them are our All-Star team of the future, we brought with us our nine grandchildren, our All-Star nine. And I know they’re impressed because, one even asked me for an autograph.
The poet Ralph Humphreys wrote, “The crowd and the players are the same age always, but the man in the crowd is older every season.” I’ve been the man in that crowd for many years, and the joy is always there. The sights and sounds of baseball, the strategies, the ups and downs, the talk, the kidding, the roar of the crowd, the pleasure is constant regardless of time. Baseball gives adults a chance to relive their youth on or off the field. Kids, not burdened by adulthood don’t seek a bill of rights. Kids don’t have need for associations, agents, lawyers, committees or representatives. They depend on adults to provide opportunities to play the game, watch the game, and afford the game. It’s the obligation of adults to make this happen. It’s accomplished best by grown-ups who still remain young at heart. At the Hall of Fame’s first induction ceremonies, Babe Ruth reminded the spectators that kids are the backbone of the game, and Babe, they still are.
I’ve been so fortunate in my life and my career. My wish is that I’ve been able to contribute the same happiness to the lives of others they’ve brought to mine. I’ve had the good fortune to be at the mike and make the play by play calls of some of sports’ most memorable moments. But the calls, the call that’s the greatest in my life was the call made to me by Ed Stack, the Chairman of the Baseball Hall of Fame, with the historic news that I had been selected for the broadcast wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame. That to me is the greatest call of all. (applause) What does receiving this Hall of Fame honor mean to me? In one sentence, I feel as if I’ve gone to heaven before I died. I close with those words I repeated countless times during my career, “Let’s play ball, but first a word from the sponsor.” (applause)
Folks, they won’t let me do this professionally on the air, but what greater fantasy than singing, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” before a crowd such as this, including many friends who are here to help support this. (pause) The instrument is a ukulele, a few of may you may remember what a ukulele is. (strums ukulele and sings)
“Take me out to the Ball Game, take me out with the crowd. Oh, buy me some peanuts and cracker jack, I don’t care if I never get back, for it’s root, root , root for the home team, if they don’t win it’s a shame, because it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out at the old Ball Game.” Thank You, thank you very much.(applause)
One last note, I’ve made my contribution to those who follow. I’ve brought them a box of Kleenex for their use. (applause)
