George Grapman wrote in message ...

Joel Rubin wrote:

This may be urban legend but is still funny. The re-creations would
start after the actual game to allow for the possibility of the ticker
breaking down. When this happened the announcer would have the batter
fouling off pitch after pitch. If need be....

The _Washington Post_ is delivered to my secret listening bunker. I
saw this article this morning and intended to forward it to an ex-RR
telegrapher. Since there are some dah-dah-dit-o heads here, I might as
post the link.

Come to think of it, those sounders communicated not with a dah-dit,
but with a clacka-clacka. I'll bet that somewhere along the way,
Reagan was in a movie in which a telegraph sounder clacked out a
message while someone asked, "what's that saying?" to which the
operator replied "the Yanks/Rebs are coming!"

I've got a few of those sounders. I rigged up a J-38 key to a tone
generator to practice for my blazing 5 WPM test. But I digress.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2004Jun5.html


Former President Had A Passion for Sports
He Played Football, Announced Baseball

By William Gildea
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 6, 2004; Page E01

.....
With radio becoming an integral part of American life in 1932, Reagan
auditioned for a sports announcer's job at WOC, Davenport, Iowa.
.....

Then came a four-year stint at a major station, WHO, in Des Moines.
.....

As inevitably happened in those days, Reagan suffered the agony of
having the telegraph connection go dead on him. It happened to him as
he recounted in "Where's the Rest of Me?" with the Cubs' Augie Galan
at bat. In his game description, Reagan already had the pitch on the
way when his in-house telegraph operator, Curly, slipped him a note
saying he had lost contact with the ballpark.

"So I had Augie foul this pitch down the left-field foul line. I
looked expectantly at Curly. He just shrugged helplessly, so I had
Augie foul another one, and still another; then he fouled one back
into the box seats. I described in detail the red-headed kid who had
scrambled and gotten the souvenir ball. He fouled one into the upper
deck that just missed being a home run. He fouled for six minutes and
45 seconds until I lost count. I began to be frightened that maybe I
was establishing a new world record for a fellow staying at bat
hitting fouls, and this could betray me. Yet I was into it so far I
didn't dare reveal that the wire had gone dead. My voice was rising in
pitch and threatening to crack -- and then, bless him, Curly started
typing. I clutched at the slip. It said: 'Galan popped out on the
first ball pitched.' Not in my game he didn't -- he popped out after
practically making a career of foul balls."
.....


Life imitates art. Or something like that.

The sound effects were interesting for these games. Some just had
generic crows noise in the background with the volume turned up when
something happened. Others were tapes a parks as you could hear the
vendors. A batted ball was two drum sticks (the musical, not the edible
part) hit together .

--
To reply via e-mail please delete one c from paccbell

Come to think of it, those sounders communicated not with a dah-dit,
but with a clacka-clacka.

*THAT'S* is what I heard, not a type writer but I didn't know how to describe
it!!!! That's it.:-)


~^Monitoring The Spectrum^~
Hammarlund HQ129X /Heathkit Q Multiplier
Hammarlund HQ140X
Multiple GE P-780's(GREAT BCB Radios)
RCA Victor *Strato- World*
RCA Victor RJC77W-K(Walnut Grain)
1942 Zenith Wave Magnet 6G 601M
Cathedral/ Ross#2311/Rhapsody-MultiBand
DX100/*SUPER-DELUXE Mod- DRIVEN*394/*Modded*398/399/402
OMGS Transistor Eight/Realistic 12-1451
Henry Kloss Model One/Bell+HowellSW
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Alpha Delta DX Sloper 57ft.
500ft. 12AWG. (non-terminated)
120ft. 12 AWG Long-Wire
2 Radio Shack Loop Antennas
Radio Shack Amplified Antenna
30X30 DiamondLoop(six section 830pf Cap)
* Diamond Loop mounted to Lazy Susan TurnTable*
*21/2X2ft.FiveSpoked~Penta-Loop~PancakeLoop*
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~Radio Shack 2Speed VOX#43-476~
~Ramsey Speech Scrambler~

(GO BEARCATS) wrote in message ...
Come to think of it, those sounders communicated not with a dah-dit,
but with a clacka-clacka.

*THAT'S* is what I heard, not a type writer but I didn't know how to describe
it!!!! That's it.:-)


The B&O Railroad still had a telegraph line in operation between
Cumberland MD and Connellsville PA up until 1985. It wasn't used
seriously for dispatching, but the older operators used it informally.
As long as the line remained up and needed no serious, costly repairs,
the railroad kept it.

That changed in November, 1985, when Wills Creek, swollen by heavy
rains, overflowed its banks. The floods tore down the pole line. That
was the end of the telegraph. To the best of my knowledge, this was
the last mainline telegraph line in the US.

In the late 70s, I took a lousy tape recorder with me into the
interlocking tower in Hyndman PA. I have a few minutes' worth of
poorly recorded audio. The sounder makes an appearance on that tape.

I still have the tape. I ought to turn that into an mp3 file and try
to get it posted to one of those RR-enthusiast Yahoo! groups.

Now even the interlocking towers are gone; Sand Patch for sure, and I
believe Hyndman as well.

Sic transit gloria mundi.