I was 5 years old when I really started paying attention to the Red Sox. That was in 1967, and my hero was Yaz. Just the year before, some guy named Ken Coleman replaced the legendary Curt Gowdy as the play-by-play announcer for the Sox. From 1966 to 1971, Coleman and his partner, Ned Martin (who died last year), were the radio and TV voices for my baseball team. Then, he left and went to work in Cincinnati. He was broadcasting to Grump and his Reds during the '75 Series. In 1979, he returned, and until he retired in 1989, worked with Jon Miller, then Joe Castiglione on Sox radio.
Ken Coleman died yesterday. He was 78.
Gowdy, Coleman, Martin, Miller, Castiglione... Johnny Pesky, Dick Stockton, Ken Harrelson, Bob Montgomery, Sean McDonough, Bob Starr. There's a list of all the Red Sox broadcasters since 1927 at redsoxdiehard.com.
Until 1994, when I left Maine, these were the voices in my head. They were there in the car, in the garage, in the kitchen, in the bedroom and in the living room. They went with us on our summer ice cream runs and on long drives to my grandparents' house. They were there when I went camping and when I snuck out of bed to watch a late game with my dad.
Whenever the Sox were the Game of the Week on national TV, Dad would turn down the sound on the TV and listen to the radio. The guys who covered a different game each week didn't cut it. He wanted to listen to our guys. They knew us, suffered with us. They were on our side.
Good bye, Mr. Coleman. Thanks for being there.
The title of this post is taken from his most common home run call.
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