My grandfather watched baseball with the volume off so he wouldn’t have to listen to announcers. I listen to baseball on the radio and would do the same, but that would make the game difficult to follow.
The Red Sox have a great lead radio commentator in Joe Castiglione. At the opening of today’s game in Houston, Castiglione made a quick sketch of the field–odd blocks of sunlight lay over large portions–and proceeded to announce the first pitch. Castiglione’s comments are always concise, well worded, well timed–all I need. The color commentator working with him isn’t bad, but he takes the color away. Over the radio, color, for me, is applied in the stretches of “dead” air between comments, when there’s crowd noise, game sounds.
In his use of space, Castiglione reminds me of another Boston radio personality, Eric Jackson, whose “Eric in the Evening” jazz program has aired on WGBH for over twenty years. In officiating baseball, one can only pause for so long. But, with music radio, time is in the DJ’s hands. Eric Jackson’s pauses are long, sometimes comically so. A song can end and 10, 15 seconds can pass before Jackson speaks. ““That was“Wayne Shorter“on sax…with“.”
One evening several years back, Jackson played a set of blues on his program. I forget the specific song, but after it was over, Jackson paused like I had never heard him pause before. It must’ve been a half minute of absolute silence. When he did return, it was in the same soft voice, except this time in a tone of mock alarm.
“My goodness,” Jackson said, “Someone let the blues in.”