Crack of the Bat

James R. Walker is a professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Communication at Saint Xavier University. He is the coauthor of Center Field Shot: A History of Baseball on Television (Nebraska, 2008) and The Broadcast Television Industry. Pat Hughes has been the radio voice of the Chicago Cubs since 1996.

• ForewordAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: A Game in Words and SoundPart I. The Formative Years, 1920–361. Early World Series Coverage2. The Local Game Begins3. Inventing a New Craft4. The Baseball-Radio War5. The World Series Triggers a National Obsession6. Advertisers Expand Baseball CoveragePart II. The Age of Acceptance, 1937–607. Re-Creating Baseball8. Baseball Reluctantly Embraces Radio9. An Explosion in National CoveragePart III. The Television Years, 1961–Present10. Radio in the Age of Television11. The Modern Baseball Announcer12. Baseball Broadcasts in the Digital EraEpilogueAppendix: Number of Team Radio Stations by Year, 1936–2001NotesIndex

"Crack of the Bat will give you insight into the nostalgic power of baseball on the radio, and make you realize what you missed."-Hunter M. Hampton, Sport in American History "[Crack of the Bat is] a valuable resource for sport and media scholars alike that should encourage more work on sports radio's woefully under examined history."-Travis Vogan, Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television "Informed by the literature on the subject and the beneficiary of deep research in archival sources and oral histories, this book is based on sound scholarship, engages the general reader's interest, and will enlighten scholars in their study of the symbiotic relationship between radio and baseball."-John E. Miller, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society "Well researched, and equally well written and footnoted, Crack of the Bat is not only a welcome addition to electronic media research but would make an excellent addition to a history of sports in the media classroom."-Roger Heinrich, American Journalism "Crack of the Bat deserves to be on the reading list for courses in broadcast history and mass communication history."-Dave Ogden, Journalism & Mass Communication Educator "Once upon a time you had to go to a ballpark to experience a ball game. Today most of us enjoy baseball across several media, and almost always alone. A game on radio—or via television or Internet or news account—is not as good as being part of the crowd at the ballpark, but what is? This book. James Walker traces the history of baseball on the radio with unmatched love and erudition."—John Thorn, official historian of Major League Baseball and author of Baseball in the Garden of Eden