MEL ALLEN: Voice of the Yankees

FP
Jun 18, 2018
5 min read

I love baseball on the radio. I love baseball history as well and there are some radio broadcasters who gained national attention since MLB was founded. On each Padres day off I will be presenting one of these men here on the blog via Wikipedia. Today I have chosen an amazing man whose birthday was two days ago on the 16th!

Meet Mel Allen who later in his career became the voice of "This Week In Baseball" and many other projects. He is best known as the first "voice of the Yankees. Here's what Wikipedia had to say:

Allen was used as a color commentator for CBS's radio broadcast of the 1938 World Series. This led Wheaties to tap him to replace Arch McDonald as the voice of the Washington Senators for the 1939 season, who was moving on to New York as the first full-time radio voice of both the Yankees and the New York Giants for their home games. Senators' owner Clark Griffith wanted Walter Johnson, a former Senators pitcher, instead of Allen, and Wheaties relented.

In June 1939, Garnett Marks, McDonald's partner on Yankee broadcasts, twice mispronounced Ivory Soap, the Yankees' sponsor at the time, as "Ovary Soap." He was fired, and Allen was tapped to replace him. McDonald himself went back to Washington after only one season, and Allen became the Yankees' and Giants' lead announcer, doing double duty for both teams because only their home games were broadcast at that time.

He periodically recounted an anecdote that occurred during his first full season (1940) as Yankee play-by-play man. Hall of Fame first baseman Lou Gehrig had been forced to retire the year before after having been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal illness. Speaking with Allen in the Yankee dugout, Gehrig told him "Mel, I never got a chance to listen to your games before because I was playing every day. But I want you to know they're the only thing that keeps me going." Allen broke down in tears after Gehrig departed.

Allen's stint with the Yankees and Giants was interrupted in 1941, when no sponsor could be found and both teams went off the air, but the broadcasts resumed in 1942. Allen was the voice of both the Yankees and the Giants until 1943, when he entered the United States Army during World War II, broadcasting on The Army Hour and Armed Forces Radio.

After the war, Allen called Yankee games exclusively. By this time, road games were added to the broadcast schedule. Before long Allen and the Yankees were fused in the public consciousness,[9] an association strengthened by the team's frequent World Series appearances. Allen eventually called 22 World Series on radio or television, including all but one in the 17-year stretch between 1947 and 1963. He also called 24 All-Star Games.

After Russ Hodges departed from the Yankee booth to become the longtime voice of the New York (and starting in 1958, San Francisco) Giants, the young Curt Gowdy replaced him as Allen's broadcast partner in 1949 & 1950, having been brought in from Oklahoma City after winning a national audition. Gowdy, originally from Wyoming, credited Mel Allen's mentoring as a big factor in his own success as a broadcaster and became the voice of the Boston Red Sox from 1951 to 1965. Red Barber, the former Brooklyn Dodgers announcer who had served as Allen's crosstown rival and frequent World Series broadcast partner, joined the Yankees' booth in 1954 and teamed with Allen until the latter's dismissal a decade later.

Among Allen's many catchphrases were "Hello there, everybody!" to start a game, "How a-bout that?!" on outstanding Yankee plays, "There's a drive, hit deep to right. That ball is go-ing, go-ing, gonnne!!" for Yankee home runs, for full counts, "Three and two. What'll he do?" and after a robust Yankee swing and miss, "He took a good cut!"[6]

Allen lost his voice late in the fourth and last game of the 1963 World Series, in which the Dodgers swept the Yankees in four games and their longtime announcer, Vin Scully, paired with Allen on the national telecast, spontaneously took over from him for the end of the game after he could no longer talk, telling him soothingly, "That's all right, Mel." (Scully had announced the first half of the game, and Allen had begun to announce the second half.)

On September 21, 1964—prior to the start of the World Series—the Yankees informed Allen that his contract with the team would not be renewed for 1965. In those days, the main announcers for both Series participants always called the World Series on NBC television. Although Allen was thus technically eligible to call the 1964 World Series,

Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick honored the Yankees' request to have retired Yankee star shortstop Phil Rizzuto, Allen's sidekick in the radio booth, join the Series crew instead. It would be one of only four Yankee World Series going back to 1938 that Allen had not broadcast, and the first since 1943 (which he'd missed due to his Army service).

On December 17, 1964, after much media speculation and many letters to the Yankees from fans disgruntled by Allen's absence from the Series, the Yankees issued a terse press release announcing Allen's firing; he was replaced by Joe Garagiola. NBC and Movietone dropped him soon afterward. To this day, the Yankees have never given an explanation for the sudden firing, and rumors abounded. Depending on the rumor, Allen was either homosexual, an alcoholic, a drug addict, or had a nervous breakdown.

Years later, Allen told author Curt Smith that the Yankees had fired him under pressure from the team's longtime sponsor, Ballantine Beer. According to Allen, he was fired as a cost-cutting move by Ballantine, which had been experiencing poor sales for years (it would eventually be sold in 1969).

Smith, in his book Voices of Summer, also indicated that the medications Allen took to see him through his busy schedule may have affected his on-air performance. (Stephen Borelli, another biographer, has also pointed out that Allen's heavy workload did not allow him time to take care of his health.)

Allen became Merle Harmon's partner for Milwaukee Braves games in 1965, and worked Cleveland Indians games on television in 1968. But he would not commit to either team full-time, nor to the Oakland Athletics, who also wanted to hire him after the team's move from Kansas City. Despite the firing in 1964, Allen remained loyal to the Yankees for the remainder of his life, and to this day—years after his death—he is still popularly known as "the Voice of the Yankees."

The Yankees eventually brought Allen back to emcee special Yankee Stadium ceremonies, including Old-Timers' Day, which Allen had originally handled when he was lead announcer. Although Yankee broadcaster Frank Messer, who joined the club in 1968, replaced him as emcee for Old-Timers' Day and other special events like Mickey Mantle Day, the Yankees continued to invite Allen to call the actual exhibition game between the Old Timers, and to take part in players' number-retirement ceremonies.

In 1978, he was one of the first two winners of the Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting, along with Red Barber.

Allen died at 83 on June 16, 1996 -- to Yankees Voice John Sterling, "a Sinatra, or Crosby, or Astaire" -- by then, the Grand Old Man of Broadcasting. This book chronicles a stirring, then despairing, and ultimately redeeming life.

YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO HEAR ALLEN CALLING THE 1949 PENNANT SUDDEN DEATH YANKEES VS. RED SOX GAME IN 1949.

CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO GET CURT SMITH'S BOOK ABOUT MEL ALLEN.