Vin Scully, the late Los Angeles Dodgers’ play-by-play announcer, was one of the nicest guys in MLB sportscasting.
That’s according to writer Kirk McKnight, but, then again, he might just have been starstruck.
“Talking to him, to me, was my pinnacle achievement,” he said.
“Talking to somebody you’ve listened to your whole life, who you know is the best broadcaster not just in baseball but in all of sports, period, just the graciousness with which he spoke to me, saying, ‘Please, call me Vin,’ and having the mindset that I had another interview, and just the 25 to 30 minutes that we had are probably my favorite of the whole book.”
McKnight talked to dozens of MLB announcers and compiled their words in a new book, “The Voices of Baseball: The Game’s Greatest Broadcasters Reflect on America’s Pastime.”
Although this is a second paperback edition, it includes “broadcasters I wished I’d had the (first) time around. Bob Costas is now in the book. Bob Uecker is now in the book. Tim McCarver, a lot of household names are now in the book,” McKnight said.
This is the first in a series of articles about Arizona authors to read this summer.
A Wickenburg resident, McKnight is associate editor for the Wickenburg Sun. With Spring Training taking place not so far from his town, he put out the word he would like to chat with the announcers. Most readily agreed and he figures there are two millennia of broadcasting experience in his book.
“It is a tour through baseball’s ballparks and key moments over the past 70 years through the perspectives of 50 play-by-play broadcasters, including 11 Hall of Famers like Vin Scully, Bob Uecker, Dick Enberg and Bob Costas,” he said.
“I interviewed these 50 broadcasters, and they shared their most memorable moments, their inspiration, and, basically, their craft in general.”
McKnight always loved writing, although his first love was screenwriting. That was frustrating and didn’t pay the bills, so he looked for another outlet.
“I thought, ‘Well, why not follow my passion?’” he said. “I came up with the idea specifically for baseball, to talk about the different, unique ballparks in baseball. (Then) instead of me telling the story, why not find broadcasters to tell the story because those guys have been around forever.”
This book is not just about ballparks, however. He wanted to see the parks from the inside, from the people who work there.
“You want to get the essence of something like Cal Ripken Jr. breaking Lou Gehrig’s record,” he said.
“Fortunately, for me, I spoke with John Miller, who not only broadcasts now for the Giants, but had broadcast for the Baltimore Orioles when Cal Ripken was breaking Lou Gehrig’s record.
“He was able to fill me in on everything that led up to that that night and how it centered around the ballpark.”
“The Voices of Baseball: The Game’s Greatest Broadcasters Reflect on America’s Pastime”
(2023 edition; $36)
Amazon and other online outlets
