August 5, 1921: Baseball On Radio

Harold Arlin. Yes, that thing in front of him is a microphone,

not a tiki torch or a giant chesspiece.

August 5, 1921, 100 years ago: For the 1st time, a game in what would eventually be called Major League Baseball was broadcast on radio.

Radio station KDKA had gone on the air in Pittsburgh, at 1020 on the AM dial (hence the time of this post), on November 2, 1920, broadcasting election returns, and announcing that Warren G. Harding had been elected President.

So they were a natural to be the 1st station to broadcast baseball. On August 5, they brought their equipment across town to Forbes Field, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and set up to broadcast the Pirates' game against their cross-Pennsylvania rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies.

Harold Arlin was the announcer, as he had been for the Election Night debut. He was an engineer working for the station's owner, the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. Although he had no background in the nascent radio industry, or in anything else that required the use of his voice, like stage acting, the company assigned him to call the game.

Forbes Field

The Phillies scored a run in the 1st inning, but the Pirates scored 2 in the 2nd. The Phillies came back with 3 in the 3rd, including a home run by Cy Williams. The Pirates closed to within 4-3 in the bottom of the 5th, and then took a 5-4 lead in the 6th.

The Phillies tied it in the top of the 8th. George "Possum" Whitted led off the bottom of the 8th with a single. James "Cotton" Tierney drew a walk. Three straight singles followed, by Ray Rohwer, Tony Brottem and Jimmy Zinn. This forged the final score: Pirates 8, Phillies 5. Zinn, who pitched 6 innings of relief, was the winning pitcher.

Jimmy Zinn

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Westinghouse must have been satisfied with Arlin's work: The next day, they assigned him to become the 1st person to broadcast a tennis match over radio, a Davis Cup match in which Australia beat Great Britain.

On October 8 of that year, he became the 1st football broadcaster, again at Forbes Field, watching the University of Pittsburgh beat West Virginia University 21-13, in a rivalry that would later be known as "The Backyard Brawl." On September 14, 1923, he became the 1st boxing announcer over radio, going to the Polo Grounds in New York, to announce Jack Dempsey's wild comeback to knock Luis Firpo out and retain the Heavyweight Championship of the World.

But after 1921, Arlin never broadcast the Pirates again. He became known as radio's first celebrity interviewer, conducting interviews with William Jennings Bryan, Lillian Gish, Will Rogers and Babe Ruth. He later moved to Mansfield, Ohio, and ran Westinghouse's plant there.

Eventually, radio helped baseball regain popularity during the Great Depression. At first, team owners were afraid to "give away" games, for fear it would cause attendance to drop. The opposite happened: People who were now hearing games for the first time wanted to see them, and they were willing to play.

The Pirates didn't start regular broadcasts of their games until 1934, with Jimmy Murray and Walter E. Sickles. Starting in 1938, their main announcer was Albert "Rosey" Rowswell. When a Pirate hit a home run, he would imagine a little old lady with an apartment window facing Forbes Field, and yell, "Open the window, Aunt Minnie, here it comes!" Then he would smash a light bulb, to simulate the ball breaking Aunt Minnie's window, and say, "Too late!"

In 1947, Rowswell was joined by Bob Prince. Rowswell's last year was 1954: By this point, television began to take over -- KDKA aired Pirate games on Channel 2 -- and fans could see that what was behind the outfield fence at Forbes Field was Schenley Park and the Carnegie Library, not apartments, so Rowswell's Aunt Minnie shtick was no longer any good.

Prince was known as "The Gunner," and one of the great "homers" of baseball broadcasting. His "Gunnerisms" included this line, for when the Pirates, or "Bucs" or "Buccos," came from behind to win: "The Buccos had 'em all the way." A ball just foul was "foul by a gnat's eyelash." And, long before John Sterling began using the phrase with the Yankees, Prince said a two-run deficit was easy to overcome: "We need a bloop and a blast!" If it was three runs, he would make it, "A bleeder, a bloop and a blast!"

In 1969, Steve Arlin, grandson of Harold, became an original San Diego Padre. On June 18, 1972 -- the day after the Watergate break-in -- Steve was penciled in to pitch for the Padres against the Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium. It had been 51 years since Harold Arlin had broadcast a game for the Pirates, and Bob Prince invited him to call the game with him. Steve pitched a 2-hit shutout, and the Padres won, 1-0. Harold died in 1986, age 90; Steve followed in 2016, age 70.

Prince (left) and Arlin, June 18, 1972

Prince was fired after the 1975 season. Unlike Arlin and Rowswell, he received the Baseball Hall of Fame's award for broadcasters. From 1976 to 2008, the voice of the Pirates was Lanny Frattare. His partners included former Pirate pitchers Steve Blass, Jim Rooker and Bob Walk. Walk is still part of a Pirate broadcasting team that also includes Greg Brown, John Wehner, Joe Block, Kevin Young, Matt Capps and Michael McKenry.