Bill King

I want to write a quick post about Bill King. I've been an Oakland A's fan all my life. I was born into it. But I didn't really take notice until I was old enough to follow the game on the radio. That's about the same time that Bill King took to the airwaves to call the games. Bill King passed away yesterday morning or so, and it's a sad thing. I didn't think something like that could affect me that much, but it does. I've listened to him nearly every game of every season for over 20 years. He is my idea of what baseball sounds like. He painted the word picture of a game like no other. He was certainly an artist.

This became clearer to me this year more than any other. I subscribe to XM radio. They broadcast every MLB game during the season. I noticed pretty early that the quality of announcers across the league is pretty low, especially compared to Bill King. Bill's use of the English language and his ability to describe the moment was truly unparalleled. He had grace, opinion, eloquence, charm, and knowledge of the game like no other I've heard. He made you picture every moment of every play by tapping into your minds eye with his description of the action. Ellis to Crosby to Johnson wasn't just a double play, it was theater. There was suspense and thrill and emotion. Your heart skipped a beat just so you wouldn't miss a moment of the call. Holy Toledo! 

If you listened to him for a while you began to get a bit of an idea of what he was like in person. He seemed to love food and was famous for eating odd things during the broadcasts. Whole onions and strange concoctions having to do with cheese. He loved going to restaurants on the road. You would often hear about dining escapades during each stop of a roady. He seemed to love the arts, museums, ballet, the symphony, literature, etc. He had so many passions. Truly a modern renaissance man, he sailed his own boat and taught himself Russian so he could read Tolstoy in the original...

He would feel right at home as a character in a Kerouac treatise.

I loved listening to him. He was a bigger part of my life than I realized. I'm going to miss him.