GaryMrMets
07-01-2004, 12:53 AM
http://yesnetwork.com/announcers/article.asp?article_id=206
Reagan began career in baseball
http://yesnetwork.com/images/talent/small/pepe_head_sm.jpgBy Phil Pepe
Special to YES Network Online
June 8 2004
For millions of Americans, following their favorite baseball team is as easy as flipping a switch. But it wasn't always that simple. Before there were satellite dishes, or even television, fans could only follow the progress of their favorite team in their morning newspaper or on radio.
In the 1930s, fans in and around Des Moines, Iowa, listened to broadcasts of Chicago Cubs games described by the warm, smooth voice of a young announcer called "Dutch" Reagan, who wasn't even at the ballpark. As was the custom of the day, he would sit in a studio and recreate the play-by-play received by Western Union teletype (let grandpa explain what that was), using sound effects to duplicate the crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd.
From his humble beginning as a sports announcer, Reagan would move on to become one of Hollywood's bright, young stars in an era when actors like Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, John Wayne and Cary Grant were bigger than life figures who invaded our consciousness and kept us entertained.
But "Dutch" never forgot his roots or abandoned his love of sports. Reagan starred as the ill-fated Notre Dame running back, George Gipp, in "Knute Rockne - All American," and as Grover Cleveland Alexander in "The Winning Team."
To this day, when I read about the great Alexander, who was an epileptic and an alcoholic and won 373 major league games, the face I see is Reagan's. When Alexander strikes out Tony Lazzeri of the Yankees with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh inning of the seventh game of the 1926 World Series in Yankee Stadium, it's not "Old Pete" Alexander throwing those pitches, it's Ronald Reagan.
In 1966, Reagan was out of work (he would be elected Governor of California that fall), and so was I, my newspaper having been ripped out from under me. I tried freelancing, books, magazine articles, and came up with the brilliant idea of contacting famous people from all walks of life and asking them to recount their best baseball memories. One letter was sent to Pacific Palisades, California.
About two weeks later, much to my surprise and utter delight, I received a letter in return. It has been hanging on my wall all these years. Regrettably, the signature has been obliterated, and the paper is slightly yellowed, but the letter, typewritten, remains legible.
It's dated July 21, 1966. And it reads as follows:
"I don't think a single incident in any of the games I broadcast as a sports announcer impressed me so much as the last few weeks of the National League season, I believe it was '35 or '36 (ed. note: It was 1935). At any rate, the Chicago Cubs came to a point where their only mathematical chance for winning the pennant lay in winding up the season, 21 games in all, without a defeat. I don't think anything in baseball has ever matched that.
"I was broadcasting the Cubs games at the time, and as the totals started to mount, and they reached 15, and then 16, without a defeat, and you just couldn't believe it would happen, they went on and finished the season winning the last 21 games without a break (actually, the Cubs won 21 straight and clinched the pennant, then lost their last two and finished four games ahead of the Cardinals). This, I believe, certainly was the biggest and most sustained thrill that I ever had in broadcasting baseball.
"I hope this serves your purpose.
"Best regards,
Ronald Reagan"
Acclaimed author and former Yankees beat writer Phil Pepe is a regular contributor to YES Network Online.
http://yesnetwork.com//images/talent_article/reagan_0608.jpg
Reagan, seen here with Harry Caray at Wrigley Field, started his career as a Cubs announcer as well.
Reagan began career in baseball
http://yesnetwork.com/images/talent/small/pepe_head_sm.jpgBy Phil Pepe
Special to YES Network Online
June 8 2004
For millions of Americans, following their favorite baseball team is as easy as flipping a switch. But it wasn't always that simple. Before there were satellite dishes, or even television, fans could only follow the progress of their favorite team in their morning newspaper or on radio.
In the 1930s, fans in and around Des Moines, Iowa, listened to broadcasts of Chicago Cubs games described by the warm, smooth voice of a young announcer called "Dutch" Reagan, who wasn't even at the ballpark. As was the custom of the day, he would sit in a studio and recreate the play-by-play received by Western Union teletype (let grandpa explain what that was), using sound effects to duplicate the crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd.
From his humble beginning as a sports announcer, Reagan would move on to become one of Hollywood's bright, young stars in an era when actors like Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, John Wayne and Cary Grant were bigger than life figures who invaded our consciousness and kept us entertained.
But "Dutch" never forgot his roots or abandoned his love of sports. Reagan starred as the ill-fated Notre Dame running back, George Gipp, in "Knute Rockne - All American," and as Grover Cleveland Alexander in "The Winning Team."
To this day, when I read about the great Alexander, who was an epileptic and an alcoholic and won 373 major league games, the face I see is Reagan's. When Alexander strikes out Tony Lazzeri of the Yankees with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh inning of the seventh game of the 1926 World Series in Yankee Stadium, it's not "Old Pete" Alexander throwing those pitches, it's Ronald Reagan.
In 1966, Reagan was out of work (he would be elected Governor of California that fall), and so was I, my newspaper having been ripped out from under me. I tried freelancing, books, magazine articles, and came up with the brilliant idea of contacting famous people from all walks of life and asking them to recount their best baseball memories. One letter was sent to Pacific Palisades, California.
About two weeks later, much to my surprise and utter delight, I received a letter in return. It has been hanging on my wall all these years. Regrettably, the signature has been obliterated, and the paper is slightly yellowed, but the letter, typewritten, remains legible.
It's dated July 21, 1966. And it reads as follows:
"I don't think a single incident in any of the games I broadcast as a sports announcer impressed me so much as the last few weeks of the National League season, I believe it was '35 or '36 (ed. note: It was 1935). At any rate, the Chicago Cubs came to a point where their only mathematical chance for winning the pennant lay in winding up the season, 21 games in all, without a defeat. I don't think anything in baseball has ever matched that.
"I was broadcasting the Cubs games at the time, and as the totals started to mount, and they reached 15, and then 16, without a defeat, and you just couldn't believe it would happen, they went on and finished the season winning the last 21 games without a break (actually, the Cubs won 21 straight and clinched the pennant, then lost their last two and finished four games ahead of the Cardinals). This, I believe, certainly was the biggest and most sustained thrill that I ever had in broadcasting baseball.
"I hope this serves your purpose.
"Best regards,
Ronald Reagan"
Acclaimed author and former Yankees beat writer Phil Pepe is a regular contributor to YES Network Online.
http://yesnetwork.com//images/talent_article/reagan_0608.jpg
Reagan, seen here with Harry Caray at Wrigley Field, started his career as a Cubs announcer as well.