Dave Niehaus, Voice of Mariners, Dead at 75

Comments

Dang. A nice man and a great announcer. Sad news.

J.R. on November 10, 2010 at 5:52 PM

Swung on and belted! Deep to left field! It will.... fly away! My, oh my! Get out the rye bread, it's grand salami time!

He will forever be imprinted on my 8 year old soul.

lukeiscool on November 10, 2010 at 5:56 PM

I feel very sad about this, more than I expected. Maybe it's because Dave Niehaus' voice takes me all the way back to childhood, listening to the Mariners games in the car with my family, or secretly with my brother in our room when we were supposed to be asleep. But at least the fans got to express how much we loved him when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Fly away, Dave.

Bub on November 10, 2010 at 5:59 PM

One of the great voices of the game. I consider it a privilege to have grown up listening to two greats call the game of baseball. Ernie Harwell and Dave Niehaus.

McGee on November 10, 2010 at 6:00 PM

Thanks, Dave.

DOUG. on November 10, 2010 at 6:01 PM

Oh, my gosh. Dave Niehaus. What a giant. It's funny how far inside your head a baseball announcer gets; I must have spent ten thousand hours listening to his voice coming out of tinny radios. I expect I'll be hearing it again quite a bit in the next few days. They should rename Royal Brougham Way after him.

From TV, I will also remember the truly spectacular jackets, especially in the early days of the M's.

Fnarf on November 10, 2010 at 6:11 PM

Fantastic announcer, grew up with him and he will always be my favorite. I remember during the playoff runs, muting the TV and turning on the radio so we could hear him call the game. I also bought a small portable radio so I could listen to him while I was supposed to be sleeping. A grand salami on rye with mustard is for lunch tomorrow in remembrance!

bigdman on November 10, 2010 at 6:12 PM

Wow. His voice will be in my head for many years. RIP.

benjammin509 on November 10, 2010 at 6:12 PM

@6.. yeah niehaus boulevard ( or whatever) would definitely sound better than royal brougham way.

reverend dr dj riz on November 10, 2010 at 6:16 PM

I learned so much about baseball from him. I brought a radio to every game he announced - even at the ballpark, it didn't feel like Mariner baseball unless his voice was in my ear.

Thank you so much, sir - may you rest in peace.

karion on November 10, 2010 at 6:17 PM

I feel like I've lost an uncle. He was a huge part of my childhood and the Mariners. http://donutrunner.blogspot.com/2010/11/…

danhowes on November 10, 2010 at 6:20 PM

He may not have called the best game, but he never mailed it in. He was blessed with a wonderful voice and was fortunate to share it, and the game he loved, with millions.

I'll always remember that voice echoing through the Kingdome concourses, and in the men's rooms. Somehow, his voice made pissing in a trough a cool thing.

@6 You certainly know who Royal Brougham was - father of Seattle sports. They'll find another street to name after Niehaus. We can add to our meager sports heritage without removing some of the history.

Sir Vic on November 10, 2010 at 6:22 PM

@12, I've just recently read some pretty repulsive things Brougham wrote on the topic of black players, so I'm not in a very charitable mood.

Fnarf on November 10, 2010 at 6:26 PM

@13 Ah, fair enough. I don't give much quarter on that issue, either.

Sir Vic on November 10, 2010 at 6:33 PM

Sad news. God speed, Dave!

Cracker Jack on November 10, 2010 at 6:34 PM

I will buy mustard and relish immediately. Thanks for all the years Dave.

Danger on November 10, 2010 at 6:34 PM

worst news I have heard in a while. Baseball won't be the same without hearing his voice

wisepunk on November 10, 2010 at 6:38 PM

Oh man. First Sparky, now Dave. The last few days sucks. :(

Cow on November 10, 2010 at 6:40 PM

I'll miss you so much, Dave. I always get slightly weirded out when I watch/listen to baseball on other networks and I don't hear you narrating the game.

on November 10, 2010 at 6:44 PM

Thanks, Dave.

WS on November 10, 2010 at 6:53 PM

I'm actually in tears.

Hawke on November 10, 2010 at 6:58 PM

Not only is this the passing of a great man, but something we will never see again. Dave called the very first game of the Seattle Mariners... he has been their radio announcer ever since. Through the ups and the downs his voice still made the game interesting.

Even if they find that "voice" of the Mariners it's doubtful they will become an institution such as Dave over the years. Career paths are different now. Make your name for yourself and move on to another market.

Godspeed Dave!

kmq1 on November 10, 2010 at 7:15 PM

Forget a street. Safeco needs to rename the park Niehaus Field. I grew up listening to some of the east coast's greats, but Niehaus was always my favorite. The grandfather of Seattle.

flippingthroughrecords on November 10, 2010 at 7:40 PM

Wow, what a loss, he was pure class. I loved his Hall of Fame induction speech.

I made sure my kids have grown up listening to baseball on the radio at night during the summer. It won't be the same. Not even close.

Action Slacks on November 10, 2010 at 7:41 PM

13, oh noez! Tear down the Lincoln Memorial, take Ty Cobb out of the HOF, dig up Gandhi and desecrate his body!

Basehead on November 10, 2010 at 7:42 PM

Very sad. Seattle baseball won't sound as good for a long time, if ever.

Wikipedia has audio of his greatest call, The Edgar Double: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dave_N…

Superfrankenstein on November 10, 2010 at 8:11 PM

My oh my...A great one.

SeMe on November 10, 2010 at 8:36 PM

"Right now, the Mariners looking for the tie. They would take a fly ball, they would love a base hit into the gap and they could win it with Junior's speed. The stretch... and the 0-1 pitch on the way to Edgar Martínez swung on and LINED DOWN THE LEFT FIELD LINE FOR A BASE HIT! HERE COMES JOEY, HERE IS JUNIOR TO THIRD BASE, THEY'RE GOING TO WAVE HIM IN! THE THROW TO THE PLATE WILL BE ... LATE! THE MARINERS ARE GOING TO PLAY FOR THE AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP! I DON'T BELIEVE IT! IT JUST CONTINUES! MY, OH MY!"

danewood on November 10, 2010 at 9:19 PM

This hit me in the gut for all of the reasons mentioned above (though I didn't grow up with Dave; I only started hearing him locally when I moved to the area in 91), but then I got to thinking that he always seemed like such a happy guy, who'd had a great, well-celebrated life and got to keep doing the thing he loved right up until the end. Any of us should be so lucky.

Thank God the Hall of Fame inducted Dave while he was alive, so that he got the accolades he was due.

This is all going to feel like even more of a punch in the gut in the Spring, when he isn't there to call games from Peoria, AZ...

Peter F on November 10, 2010 at 9:43 PM

This got me to stop crying for a minute and actually laugh a little - Niehaus on Almost Live, reenacting the same call that Superfrankenstein mentioned @26:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcA5w0ztM…

Peter F on November 10, 2010 at 10:06 PM

And there goes a sizable chunk of my motivation to listen to Ms games. No matter how awful the teams were -- and there have been some truly, legendarily bad ones over the years -- Dave's voice drew me in. Game in, game out I'd listen and feel his frustration and share the rare moments of joy.

I just hope the M's don't do something truly stupid like hire the recently laid off John Miller or Joe Morgan to replace him.

gnossos on November 10, 2010 at 10:10 PM

And to make it all worse, Glenn Beck is still alive.

JesseJB on November 10, 2010 at 10:35 PM

It's such a shame his last season was so godawful. Near the end of the season, I remember the M's looking like maybe scoring a run or some such craziness, and a dumbass base running maneuver got the guy doubled up to end the inning, and Dave said, "My. Oh.

[long pause]

My."

You could just hear the profanity in that pause.

Class act, great voice, impossible to imagine anyone else doing it. I think I'll just mute the TV during games and imagine Dave doing the play-by-play.

Catherwood on November 10, 2010 at 10:57 PM

goddammit

funkathrusta on November 10, 2010 at 11:05 PM

We really need to start a campaign to rename Safeco --- Niehaus Field.

flippingthroughrecords on November 10, 2010 at 11:11 PM

@31 Jon Miller does radio for the Giants 5 days out of the week, so that seems unlikely. ;)

RIP to a baseball great. I had the privilege of listening to him do a few games after I moved to Seattle, and I don't think I've ever heard a single announcer whose sheer love for the game of baseball shone through in his commentary as much as Dave.

lies and perfidy on November 10, 2010 at 11:28 PM

Ugh, this SUCKS. It's such, such bad news. I feel like he practically raised me. I grew up listening to Dave, falling asleep to late night M's games only to wake up when something crazy happened and he was screaming at the top of his lungs. My dad and I listening in the car whenever the game was on. Watching endless hours of games on KSTW-11. It's a crime that he wasn't able to announce a World Series, and the club should be ashamed for preventing him from doing so. He deserved it more than any of us.

"My Oh My" was his signature, but he had so many great calls:
"Swung on and BELTED!"
"Get out the rye bread and the mustard, Grandma, it’s grand salami time!"
"It just CONTINUES!"
"Looooooooooooooow and outside..."

And, of course, 'Fly, Fly Away', which I think is a bit more apropos than 'Rest in Peace'...

lordbison on November 11, 2010 at 10:39 AM

I was literally undone when I heard this last night. Was surprised by how hard it hit me, as in 'bawling my eyes out like a baby'. And what a ultra-crappy year this last season was, Dave's last, as it turns out. Suxxx big time.

RIP Mr Niehaus. You will never be forgotten.

merry on November 11, 2010 at 11:53 AM

Dave Niehaus, Voice of Mariners, Dead at 75

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