WASHINGTON — In their final years before moving to Minnesota, the Washington Senators struggled to keep fans interested. They were never contenders. Their statistics, generally, were so meager that their broadcaster rarely cited them.

“I wasn’t too big on telling people, ‘This guy’s now hitting .202,’ ” said the broadcaster, Bob Wolff, now 92 years old. “I’d look for human-interest stories all the time to keep people listening to the game. I’d just say, ‘Well, folks, it’s 17-3,’ and they knew which team was losing.”

Wolff’s curiosity sustained him for 15 years in this city, and many more elsewhere in a professional journey that wound through Madison Square Garden and continues today for News 12 Long Island. His 74-year career is the longest in sports broadcasting history, as certified by Guinness World Records.

And, incredibly, Wolff recorded and retained almost all of it.

“He was an archivist at heart, in the best sense of the word,” said Gene DeAnna, the head of the recorded sound section of the Library of Congress. “He was not a hoarder, that’s not what I mean. He was systematic, organized, and had this sense of the future and the sense of the importance of his legacy to keep it and to take care of it, and we are very grateful that he did.”