Tired of watching basketball? Relax with baseball on radio

Because I don't plan to watch the NBA playoffs on television, I can finally rest my eyes.

They need a break.

I don't enjoy pro basketball, and that makes watching those games more of a chore than relaxation under any circumstances.

Besides, the NBA season drags on too long.

I don't know how many hours I spent watching high school and college basketball in person or on television, but my eyes were working overtime.

Boys or girls. Men or women. It didn't matter. I watched. I couldn't get enough of it.

I had some marathon sessions in front of the tube during the NCAA tourneys, and it just confirmed to me once again how television has assumed control of American sport and so many lives.

I was rushing to and from meals or having my dinner delivered to the house. I didn't want to miss anything.

Where do ESPN and CBS find all those announcers and sideline reporters and producers and directors and camera men or women? Covering the NCAA tournaments (toss in the NIT, too) must be a logistical nightmare.

Anyway, I finally hit the wall as a viewer. Hard.

I don't want to see another basketball game until November.

I need a break, something new, something, frankly, with potential excitement too subtle for the television camera lens but not for the imagination.

I am ready for baseball.

Unlike football and basketball, sports that appeal to me much more in person or on television, baseball is a game for thought and speculation -- and for radio.

I don't need television for this game of numbers and nuances in which time is subordinate to circumstance.

I think baseball is the only sport that really translates well to radio. The pace is slower, and that allows a perfect opportunity for good announcers -- and I do stress the word good -- to work a spell over their listeners.

The good baseball announcer becomes a storyteller.

Maybe it's because I grew up in the radio era of baseball, but this was the true gateway to the land of myth and magic.

I would sit on the back porch or on the floor before the RCA console or in my bedroom supposedly asleep or at my grandparents' homes in Rockford and listen to a variety of styles of speech, cadences and catch phrases.

The baseball announcers on radio during my youth became close friends even though I never met them. They could put a baseball diamond in my mind's eye.

Television can't do that.

When there was a line single to left-center, the good radio announcer told me how many times it bounced before the center fielder picked it up.

Who needed television?

The announcer told me about the pitcher staring in for the sign or the hitter tugging at his jersey or the outfield shaded to the right.

In those days, baseball fans didn't need television to picture Al Gionfriddo racing back to catch Joe DiMaggio's drive or Cookie Lavagetto breaking up a no-hitter or Bobby Thomson hitting his famous shot heard 'round the world.

I love hearing recordings of the old baseball announcers with their distinctive calls.

Russ Hodges, who became famous for his "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!" call of the Thomson blast in 1951, thrilled his listeners every day with "Tell it 'Bye-Bye, Baby!" when a player hit a home run.

Mel Allen had his "How about that!" and "Red" Barber liked to say, "They're sittin' in the catbird seat," when a team or player was playing exceptionally well.

"That ball is loooong gone," was the way Ernie Harwell would describe a home run.

Of course, Chicago baseball fans know all about Jack Brickhouse's "Hey-Hey!" and Harry Caray's "Holy Cow!"

Although I prefer baseball on radio to television, I do have one major request for all announcers.

Don't forget the score.

Barber's best-known innovation for broadcasters was using a three-minute egg timer, an hourglass, on his desk in the booth. Every time the sand ran down, he repeated the score and flipped his timer over.

Dozens if not hundreds of radio announcers have adopted this prop.

I welcome the return of baseball -- on radio.

For me, there's nothing better because it allows my imagination to take over completely.

I can sit on the deck on a hot and lazy summer day, close my eyes and see it all.