IIt was another dark, dreary morning. Standing at the window, watching raindrops patter against the glass, my mood was as gray as the weather.
After a while, I knew what I needed to do.
I went to the telephone and dialed a number. Moments later I was greeted by a familiar voice.
“Hello, this is Dave Niehaus.”
Right away, I felt better.
Now, I’m neither a doctor nor a psychologist, but I do have a pretty good remedy for the winter blues. To make the icky feelings go away, spend a few minutes chatting with Niehaus, the Seattle Mariners’ longtime broadcaster and a man who could probably take the most arcane subject and make it sound cheery.
My friends, have you seen IRS Publication 554, the Older Americans’ Tax Guide. My, oh, my!
And if the topic is baseball, well, lowly spirits soar.
“For me,” Niehaus said, speaking from his Eastside home, “the baseball season begins after Christmas. That’s when I start thinking about spring training. I spend the winter up here, and by the Super Bowl I’m really looking forward to going to Arizona.”
A new baseball season, he added with obvious anticipation, “is the rebirth of life as we know it.”
Niehaus, who heads to spring training in Peoria, Ariz., on Feb. 27, has been broadcasting baseball longer than many of us have been alive. He joined the Mariners for the inaugural 1977 season, meaning the 2006 season will be his 30th with the team. Before that he spent 10 years calling games for the then-California Angels. And before that he was on the air for Armed Forces Radio and a Los Angeles radio station.
By his count, this will be his 46th season as a baseball broadcaster. And, the good Lord willing, he is looking forward to many more.
“The day it’s not fun anymore, I’ll step away,” he said. “But I’m one of those guys who’s lucky enough to say that I’ve never had to work a day in my life. When I go out the door, I’m headed to the ballpark.”
Niehaus was at a grocery store the other day, buying baseball fan magazines so he can bone up on opposing teams and their various offseason acquisitions. At the same time, he is trying to assess the kind of squad the Mariners will have this year.
He wonders, for instance, if pitchers Gil Meche and Joel Pineiro will bounce back from disappointing 2005 seasons, if third baseman Adrian Beltre will rediscover the power he had before signing with Seattle as a free agent a year ago, and if new catcher Kenji Johjima, another Japanese import, can be the All-Star team officials envision.
“I’d be lying if I said I was not rooting for the Mariners,” Niehaus said. “You can’t live with these guys for six months, day in and day out, and not want to see them do well. And frankly, if they are doing well, it becomes a much better story to tell.”
More than being a Mariners fan, though, Niehaus is hooked on the game. He enjoys watching football and college basketball in the offseason, but believes no other sport quite captures the unique character and daily drama that is baseball.
The game, he said, “is an everyday tale. If you’re losing and losing and losing, like we’ve done the last couple of years, you still get to the ballpark every night and you’re thinking this could be the game that turns it around. And if not tonight, then tomorrow night.
“I’ve done 12 or 13 no-hitters and I’ve never seen any two no-hitters that are alike. I’ve done over 5,000 games and I’ve never seen any two baseball games that are alike. This is hard to explain, but in baseball there’s something to look forward to every day. It still seems to me that in every game you see something you’ve never seen before.
“The beauty of baseball,” he went on, “is that it’s not regulated by a clock. It’s not regulated by the 94 feet of a basketball court. Every ballpark is different. Fenway Park has the Green Monster, there are the far reaches of left field in Yankee Stadium, and even Safeco Field has its own particular character.”
Have you ever been to a baseball game, had it go into extra innings, and just wished the darned thing would end? Well, not Niehaus.
“When we’re doing a game and it gets to be the 14th, 15th or 16th inning, I want it to keep going to the 26th inning so we can have the record for the longest game (in major league history),” he said. “To me, the perfect baseball game is one that goes on forever.”
For all his passion, for all the joy he has brought to fans around the Pacific Northwest with his colorful broadcasts, Niehaus is aware that some folks simply do not like baseball. To many of them, the game is boring.
Asked about this censure, Niehaus sighs.
“I’ve heard people say that,” he said, “but I don’t understand it. If you ask me, the people that think baseball is boring are just not paying attention to the magic of the game.”
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