If
you're a baby boomer and grew up in Cleveland, there is no doubt you remember
Indian broadcaster Jimmy Dudley, who died last week at age 89 in Tucson.
"So long, and lots
of good luck, ya heah!" was Dudley's signature close to all Indian
broadcasts…broadcasts he opened with "Hello baseball fans everywhere."
In between those lines
was sandwiched some of the best baseball play-by-play of all time. Jimmy
Dudley was the Indians from 1948 to 1969, when he was unceremoniously
dismissed by Tribe General Manager Gabe Paul. Reacting to a power play
by Bob Neal, Dudley's play-by-play partner, Paul brought Herb Score from
TV to radio and left the Voice of the Indians for some 20 years without
a team at the start of the 1970 campaign.
Dudley began with the
Indians when Cleveland baseball history had reached a crescendo. It was
the year of the Tribe's storied World Series victory over the Boston Braves
and the never-to-be forgotten one game playoff with the Red Sox. Bill
Veeck was the owner of the Indians, and another broadcasting legend, former
Indian shortstop JackGraney, was Dudley's sidekick in the booth.
Not only did Cleveland
race to the pennant, outdueling the Sox and the mighty Yankees, they did
it before behemoth crowds at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium, as Dudley
would say, "on the shores of beautiful Lake Erie."
By 1954, Dudley had emerged
as the Number One Indians broadcaster, although Graney continued in the
booth. Again Cleveland had a season to remember. It was a season that
saw the Indians finish ahead of their arch nemesis Yankees, but lose to
the New York Giants and Willie Mays in four games. The Series will be
forever remembered for Willie Mays' over-the-head catch of a VicWertz
drive, that could have changed the outcome of Game One and perhaps the
entire Series.
As it turned out, however,
that game and that Series set the tone for the remainder of Dudley's broadcasting
career in Cleveland. In the next 13 years only once, in 1959, did the
Tribe make a serious run at the pennant. Frank "Trader" Lane
was general manager and "the Rock" -Rocky Colavito- was the
hero on the field that year. In fact, the charismatic Colavito was both
hero and heartthrob, the idol of millions of fans in Northeast Ohio. Unfortunately,
even with the Rock, who hit 42 home runs, and Tito Francona, who came
off the bench to hit .363, the Indians were no match for the "Go-Go"
White Sox of Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox. It was a season of heartbreak
for Indian fans and particularly for Dudley, who, in the game that eliminated
the Tribe from contention, actually dropped the call for a split second
as first baseman Vic Power grounded out to end the team's pennant hopes
with five games remaining.
Not only were the Indians
out of the race, "Trader" Lane sent Colavito to Detroit for
Harvey Kuehn in a post-season deal that sent the Indians spiraling into
oblivion for the next two decades.
Despite this, and the
fact that the Indians would play to home crowds that sometimes numbered
in the hundreds, Dudley continued to resonate.
He was born in Virginia
and his southern accent had a rythmic lilt. Many of sports' greatest broadcasters
(Mel Allen, Red Barber, Ernie Harwell, Lindsey Nelson) had Southern roots.
Dudley was perhaps the most melodic of them all.
He complimented the nature
rhythm of his voice with catch phrases such as, for a 3-2 count, "the
string is out."
There was a dark side
to Dudley's tenure in Cleveland. While he loved the fans and the fans
loved him, he and his third partner in the booth, Bob Neal, never got
along. In fact, they never spoke. While other broadcast teams (Bob Elson
and Don Wells in Chicago; Bob Prince and Jim Woods in Pittsburgh) would
conduct a constant banter throughout the game, Dudley and Neal were never
heard together. Neal was perhaps the more versatile of the two as a football
broadcaster, morning radio host and sports commentator, but Dudley remained
the Indians Number 1 voice. Dudley did the first three innings and the
last three of every game. Neal found himself in the small, overhanging
press box at Municipal Stadium for the middle three innings, something
that ate at him constantly. It was Neal's frustration, coupled with his
front office clout that unseated Dudley in February 1970, just prior to
the start of a new season.
With such short notice,
Dudley was unable to land a play-by-play position in 1970, but the following
year he resurfaced in Seattle as voice of the new Pilots franchise. But
the franchise fizzled after one season, leaving Dudley again without a
major league play-by-play assignment.
He moved to his beloved
Tucson, where the Indians had trained until their recent move to Florida.
Jimmy did some broadcasting for the Toros Triple A team and Arizona State
baseball, but his days as a major league broadcaster were over.
He returned to Cleveland
from time to time to do commercials for an aluminum siding company, but
he and wife Angie found life quite accommodating in the desert. It was
only in the past few years that the Alzheimer's with which he was afflicted
took a serious toll. Jimmy was unable to attend last year when he was
inducted into the Broadcaster's Wing of the National Baseball Hall of
Fame in Cooperstown. He was represented by family members.
It is said, however,
that Jimmy Dudley knew of his enshrinement and knew that baseball and
its fans had given back a small part of what he gave to them as the Voice
of the Tribe and one of the game's broadcasting legends.
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