Get out the rye bread and mustard, Grandma February 19, 2008

Well, finally: Dave Niehaus, voice of the Mariners from the very beginning, has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

There are too many great moments to share and remember. I’ve been lucky to live in places with great baseball announcers, with Vin Scully and Harry Kalas.

[OK, as I'm writing this, I'm listening to the news conference, and Dave just choked up thinking about how he wished his dad was here to see this. I'm seriously going to lose it.]

These great old men are part of an era that we are losing, what with show-off announcers, snarky announcers, and just dumb announcers now dominating the airwaves.

And people don’t listen to baseball on the radio like my Grandpa used to, as he was exiled to the dining room to listen to games while Grandma watched TV. Of course, I like to think that Grandpa was able to connect to a network of fellow, hapless Mariners fans, and loved those moments.

I get to listen to Dave still, thanks to technology, which is probably in my top 5 best things the Internet has provided to me. His famous lines are “My Oh My!”, which has become somewhat tiresome, and “It will fly away.” I don’t know when it started, but his best line is “Get out the rye bread and mustard, Grandma, it’s Grand Salami time!” because it’s just so insane and lovely.  I can’t find any other derivations right now, but he does mix it up sometimes.

He’s lost a step (like Karas), but he’s still the best, and I love him. I might cry