Tris Speaker was a famous baseball player & is in its Hall of Fame. He
died on Dec.8, 1958 in Lake Whitney,TX. He was one of the early radio
announcers of baseball. My question is: Was he an announcer from
'31-33, announcing games for the White Sox & Cubs? Total baseball VII
lists him as an announcer for the Cleveland Indians in '49, I believe.
Omnivorous,
Although I was hoping for a more extensive, detailed
documentation on Tris, given the parameters of the question, you have
definitely submitted a sucessful answer. Could you please resubmit
your comment as an answer, so I may rate & tip you. Thank you so very
much & please excuse my tardiness. I am just now going over all the
questions & responses to see if I missed any promising leads.
Bluestreak
Bluestreak --
Speaker was definitely a Chicago radio announcer in this period. I
have an AP article from Chicago titled "Less Lively Ball is Slow on
the Ground, But as Fast in Air as Old One, Says Speaker." The article
appears May 8, 1931 in the NY Times and describes him as a radio
announcer "specializing in baseball." It doesn't indicate whether
he's broadcasting for the Cubs, White Sox or both.
By 1935 he's back in baseball, managing his first year for Kansas City
in the American Association.
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA
Bluestreak --
I sent a note to a friend who has worked for the Chicago Sun-Times,
thinking that she might have access to their archives. Though she's
too busy to look right now, she made a suggestion that you might find
helpful in future research:
>Try the Museum of Broadcast Communications; Bruce Dumont is the
executive
>director. It had been housed in the Downtown Cultural Center; it may
have
>moved recently to Navy Pier or to the new Goodman Theatre Center in
the Loop.
They're available on the web:
http://www.museum.tv/index.shtml
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA
Onmivorous! You're back with me! Always great to hear from you. I
started as a baseball researcher. I have one reference to Speaker's
announcing career in Chicago and am seeking further documentation.
Yours is my second reference. I'd like something substantial to
forward to Total Baseball so they can update their Speaker entry. I
also have stuff that Speaker was a Cleveland spring training hitting
coach and helped their outfielders get their stuff together. I don't
believe that he ever went on the road with them as part of the team
though. My references seem to indicate that '49 wasn't the only season
that he served as "expert commentator" in the broadcasting booth" for
the Indians. But I'd like to have independant confirmation. Alway
glad to hear from you, omnvorous! P.S. I have an article from Baseball
Magazine where Speaker complains that his name is not Tristram. He
says some writer just assumed it was and he was never able to stop
everyone else from jumping on the bandwagon. I also see it everywhere.
Poor Tris. What's a Texan to do.
Bluestreak --
The NY Times publication of the AP article (dateline: Chicago) was
"Less Lively Ball is Slow on the Ground, But as Fast in Air as Old
One, Says Speaker," May 8, 1931. It describes him as a radio
announcer "specializing in baseball." It doesn't indicate whether
he's broadcasting for the Cubs, White Sox or both. It doesn't say for
what radio station he's broadcasting.
I pulled this reference from Proquest Historical Newspapers, which has
articles indexed and on-line at major libraries. It obviously would
also be on microfilm at some libraries.
In doublechecking here, I tried some alternate strategies but there
just isn't much on the Internet about early days of radio. At one
time, I worked for Zenith Radio and knew a number of contacts for
historical sources in Chicago. Zenith had owned WJAZ; WGN was
broadcasting in the early 1930s (and would be the first guess for
where Speaker was announcing); I believe that WFLD was too.
It's interesting to see the hostility of baseball owners to radio
broadcasts. "Radio Ban Expected by American League" says an Oct. 20,
1932 AP story. Particularly opposed are the Philadelphia, NY and
Washington DC franchises which even ban telegraph reports for
broadcasters to use in a play-by-play.
Several alternate searches were tried:
"early radio" + Chicago + baseball
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA
Omnivorous,
I want to thank you so much, for your continued help. I just
now emailed the museum to see if they have any documentation that they
might pass my way. If they do, I'll pass it on to Total Baseball, so
they can correct the under-crediting of Tris as an expert baseball
broadcaster. Again, you have my thanks. I also wanted to get your
imput on my remaining 48 unanswered questions. I have 30 answered. Are
you finished working on my list? I haven't had much activity in the
last 3-4 days, & I'm wondering if the researchers have worked on my
list as much as they're going to. I'm going to ask a few others, like
luciaphile, sparky4ca, johnny_phoenix & journalist. I could just as
easily post 20 different questions. Any thoughts? Bluestreak
Bluestreak --
I am indeed a baseball fan, though there are admittedly bigger
fanatics. Are you going to put my old acquaintance John Schulian in
there, even if he's writing other things? Knew him back when he was
in Chicago (and came close to going to write for the NY Times.)
Just this morning I saw Stump's reference to Frances Fairburn Cobb in
one of the books on my library shelf.
I'll take a look at Thurston. Luciaphile and I bounced some ideas
around on Emil Hauser. Luciaphile has some great library access.
Thank you for the kind comments and best regards,
Omnivorous-GA
Bluestreak --
The claim re: Speaker and the Indians is worth checking. The Indians
brought Jimmy Dudley on to announce in 1948 and he became a Cleveland
baseball legend on the radio. In 1949, Speaker was already helping
Hank Greenberg with player development for the Indians, according to
Internet references that I've seen. I can't swear that Tristam WASN'T
broadcasting then, as I came along as an Indians fan in 1950. But
again, it might be nice to have a second source.
Google search strategy:
"Tris Speaker" + radio + Indians
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA
Thank you Omnivorous,
You sound like a baseball fan. I am too. I'm creating the
first sports writers directory. I have about 600 writers and I'm still
working on about 100 of them. I posted a few here, but I've got lots
more for a future day. Good work on Speaker. Any chance you might look
in on James Thurston, dancer? You have all my appreciation for
helping me so much. Bluestreak
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