Mark, from over at marksephemera, sent me an email a few weeks ago. In it, he explained that he had found an audio file (er, actually a few files) while getting distracted online and had culled together an Indians-Senators game from 1939, using Audacity.
He gave me a link to the file (which may or may not still exist at: http://markaubrey.org/files/IndiansSenators1939.mp3 (Caution: 73 MB file ahead!)
The audio is the broadcast of the game from WJSV in Washington. It starts around 4:00 pm which happens to also be the 4th inning, if memory serves. The broadcast then continues for the remainder of the game.
The trip back in time conjures up images of fancily dressed men and women out for an afternoon of baseball. The announcer often refers to the women as "the fairer sex" and makes comments about certain players and the cat calls from the females in the crowd. Ah, life was such a simpler time. Wait, that's not much different then today. Though today, the cat calls tend to be much more vivid. The crowd in the game sounded a bit thin. A quick box score check, and we find that 5,000 people attended the game. Hey isn't that how many people attend Nationals games now? Okay, okay, that was a cheap shot - especially given that my family will be in DC this coming week and will be taking in a Nationals game while in the Capital City. I digress (often).
I listened to the game over the course of three commutes to work (to work, home, then to work the next day). I have to say, the game was a bit slow-going there for a while, but then the Senators came to life, and I found myself engrossed in the action. I was YELLING at the sound coming from my car's speakers as if the game were live. Mark was gracious enough not to tell me anything about the game, and I did not look up any stats before listening to it. I wanted to hear it for the first time as if it were really live. The Indians rallied in an incredible 6-run inning! I was cheering right along with the fans that yelled out along with each step across home plate. I was surprised at how many of the fans seemed to be cheering no matter who scored or who hit the ball. There were some "boos," but mostly it was just cheering and the sounds of folks having a great time at the ball park.
What I found myself listening for was the commercials. There werent any. Now, I don't know if those were edited out, but it didn't sound like it. Between innings, the announcers took turns talking about the game (or mostly about upcoming personal appearances). It was wonderful. Instead of the game sounding like a series of commercials interrupted by a ballgame, we had a ballgame with a few "commercials" worked in. If there was any music to be heard, I don't remember it - no walk-on tunes, no popular music blaring in the background, not even an organist that I recall.
Maybe I just have an old soul, but I loved every single moment of the program, and I cannot thank Mark enough for taking time out of his day to put this together for an Indians fan!
If you are interested in the box score, you can find it here: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1193909210.shtml
--David, you're welcome. Yes, the file is still there. The lack of commercials is because there weren't (m)any.
ReplyDeleteThe only editing I did was cleaning up some pauses and fusing two files together.
If others want to see the circuitous path that I was on, read my post about it.
Glad you liked it.
And just last week the Nats drew 24,495 for a game against the Phillies.
ReplyDelete