Bosserman: Baseball looks something different after six decades of change

A few weeks ago, I saw the obituary of Bob Wolff who died at the age of 96.

Unless you are a senior citizen, the name is probably not familiar. But to me, Bob Wolff was a big part of my life when I was a youngster. He was the voice of the Washington Senators from the late 1940s until the team relocated and became the Minnesota Twins in 1961.

Growing up, I can’t tell you the countless hours I listed to him and his partner, Arch McDonald, broadcast the Senators games on both radio and television.

My family was baseball up and down, everything from the Senators to the Staunton Braves with youth baseball mixed in. His death brought to mind how the sport has transformed over the last 60 years or so, from the 1950s when I was a boy until the present.

Basically, the game rules haven’t changed much, perhaps the designated hitter the biggest thing. But how it has evolved elsewhere, particularly in the media, is a different thing altogether, and it is interesting to see how it has come to be.

Growing up as a kid, Kiwanis Baseball was the summer activity for most youths in the area. The season started the first Monday after school was out in June and continued until it took up again. As today, the games were played in Gypsy Hill Park, although now it is a spring rather than summer sport.

It was the old softball diamond where I got my first taste of play. Back then, the teams were picked differently. Rather than by adults, the five or six best players in the league were designated as team captains. The league players would sit in the bleachers, and each of the captains would select his players by rounds until all were taken.

The captains knew the skill of each player, because there were sandlot pickup games going on all the time. It was a common site to see baseball gloves on the handlebars of bicycles.

As for the games we played, what I remember is there were no batting helmets, only soft felt caps. So when you were batting, you had to be loose, and could never dig in at the plate for fear of being beaned.

And unlike today where youth players have molded rubber cleats, even we as young kids had sharp metal cleats. It was always a chore for infielders to avoid being spiked, especially on slides at second base.

The first local baseball I remember is being in the second row of the covered wood grandstand at the present Moxie stadium for Staunton Braves games. That’s where my family sat. I don’t know how young I was for my first-ever game, but I know it was far less than six.

Through my youth, I got to know the players. Unlike today’s summer collegiate players mostly from out of the area, they were all local, players by night but postal carriers, salesmen, teachers by day. Names like Earl Logan, Joe Hemp, Max Miller, Ted Bosiack, just to mention a few, stick in my mind.

My parents would follow the Braves everywhere on the road, to Linville, Shenandoah, Cragsville along with a lot of other people. It was a family affair as well as a community gathering. And in those days, you could get a hotdog and a drink for a quarter.

When not playing the game or following the Braves, there was always the Washington Senators. My dad had lived in DC a short time, and frequented Griffith Stadium where the major league team played. So, I inherited the Senators as my team. Unfortunately, they did not win many games over the years, but they were my team.

That’s where Bob Wolff and Arch McDonald come in. Whether listening to them on radio, or following their broadcasts on Channel 5 on a black and white 17-inch television, we as a family religiously followed our Senators. It was a real treat to go Griffith Stadium, usually for a Sunday doubleheader.

Now to fast forward. After Wolff and McDonald who are in the baseball hall of fame for broadcasters, came Dan Daniels and John MacLean with the expansion Senators. Then there was a three decade break with no baseball in Washington.

With the relocation of the Montreal franchise in DC in 2005, baseball was back. And what a difference.

Today, I still enjoy listening to a baseball game. Charlie Slowes who has been the voice of the Nationals since the return of baseball to DC is top-notch as far as I’m concerned. And his partner Dave Jageler is not far behind.

Famous voices

During my lifetime, I’ve been blessed to listen to many broadcasters on both radio and television — Ernie Harwell, Vin Scully, Red Barber, Dizzy Dean, Kurt Gowdy, Chuck Thompson, Joe Garagiola to mention a few.

And don’t forget local broadcasters. Our own Ron Hartlaub who now writes for The News Leader, was one of the best.

Although radio hasn’t changed that much, TV has for a major league broadcast, from black and white of the 1950s, to full color on digital 60-inch screens.

Today, there’s the center field views of home plate with the strike zone framed, pitch count, velocity of each pitch, views of the game from every possible angle, distances in feet that the runner at first is off the bag that changes as he moves, close-up views in the dugout, slowed down motion of the pitch as it approaches the plate, replays so slow you can see the type of rotation of the ball, and so on.

Then on home runs, you get the velocity of the ball, the angle off the bat, and the distance it was hit. They have even been able to give the velocity of a throw from the outfield to third base, or from the shortstop to first or the speed of an outfielder running down a fly ball.

Close plays? Once again, action is slowed to see if a runner is safe or out, or the ball fair or foul. Umpires can now be overruled by a decision on replay from New York. Hit by a pitch? Video can provide whether the ball grazed the uniform, or like the other night, whether a ball hit the cleat near a batter’s big toe.

Many of this stuff as been available this year for the first time. No wonder a fan told me the other day, he would rather watch a major league game on television than be there in person.

And things have also changed in the Valley League.

At a recent Braves game, someone asked me where he could get a score of another contest.

I told him to go to the Valley Baseball League website. It’s amazing what you can find there.

On a regular night, there’s a running score by inning of each game as it is happening, and instant up to date standings and news articles.

I happened to visit the site the other night for the championship game between Charlottesville and Strasburg. For every inning, each pitch for each batter was printed out, and exactly what happened.

And during the season, most teams have broadcasts over the internet.

And I remember first tweeting updates on Braves games when that was in its infancy while covering for the News Leader.

All that is a big difference from a half-century ago.

Youth baseball

And lastly, youth baseball. Unlike when I was growing up, in some leagues, registration is now online. Schedules are done by computer, rainouts, statistical data and other information is on line.

But social media can be a problem. I remember a few years ago where two parents got into a squabble on Facebook on which of their kids was the better player. It later spilled over into a confrontation at a game.

“There’s good and bad stuff,” Debbie Gregory, president of the Staunton Cal Ripken League said of social media.

“It’s bad in that anybody who has any type of complaint will air it out on social media rather than going to the source and finding out. But it’s good in that you can post practices and makeup games.

“And text messaging is great. I use it all the time to communicate with the coaches. That’s even better than social media.”

On the dark side, social media can be used in wrong ways.

Last week, it turned out to be the downfall for the Atlee junior league softball team in the Little League World Series. A team member posted an inappropriate photo on Snapchat of a half-dozen players gloating of a win over a just defeated opponent by using wrong hand gestures.

Little League disqualified Atlee for unsportsmanlike conduct and awarded the win to their opponent.

As far as baseball and the way it is communicated in the future, who knows what the next 50 years will bring. If it is any thing like the last 50, we are in for a treat.

Ken Bosserman is a sports writer for The News Leader. Contact him at kbosserman@newsleader.com