Free Voices of Summer: Ranking Baseball's 101 All-Time Best Announcers by Curt Smith Page A

just to know it's there") and quaffed beer ("I'd see him," said
Jack Brickhouse, "and by the third he's crocked") and broadcast alone. ("I'd say,
`Get help!' " mused Saam. "But he kept doing ads, play-by-play, color. Maybe
he had more stamina than the rest of us.") Maybe he liked to talk.
    Born in Ohio, Bert moved to Cedar Rapids, played the trumpet, and
entered the University of Iowa. "I'd sing and broadcast on its station [WSUI]."
At 20, he junked engineering for commercial radio. No local outlet had baseball. Wilson convinced WMT A release read: "[He] sat on a housetop across
from the center-field fence bringing listeners play-by-play."
    By 1943, he (lid hockey, hoops, roller derby, Iowa football, Indianapolis
500, and Double-A baseball. Pat Flanagan needed an aide. An ex-sponsor suggested Bert audition. "Despite laryngitis,"WIND gusted, "he managed to talk
his way in. Retiring, Pat yielded the [city's] number one sportscasting job."
Soon Chicago brayed "I Don't Care Who Wins...." Wilson, of course, did.
    To Brickhouse, he "was a souped-up Elson." The Midwest Cheering
School of Milo Hamilton, Jack Quinlan, Harry Caray, and Vince Lloyd,
among others, began with IDCW2ALAITC. His first-yearers began 1-13.
Bert "almost went back to my trumpet." Instead, in 1945, MVP Phil Cavar-
retta hit a league-high .355, Andy Pafko had 110 RBI, and the Cubs won a
pennant.
    "At the team victory party," James Enright wrote, "[manager] Charlie
Grimm had a pair of shears. Everybody who had a necktie on contributed.
He had a quilt made." Soon its fabric, like Grimm's Fairy Tale, tore.

    "It was just a tease," a writer dubbed the World Series vs. Detroit. "You knew
we'd lose Game Seven." The 598-786 Cubs lost for the next decade. Bert
vowed: "We'll light a candle, not curse the dark." His eternal flame wafted
from the Kansas City Monarchs. Ernie Banks homered for the first time September 20, 1953.
    The Cubs' future two-time MVP/Good Humor Man hit 290 of his 512
homers at Wrigley. "He's the real McCoy," Wilson said in 1954. Most were
illusory.
    "I've had a good chance to see all the promising young rookies who'll be
fighting for a job this summer, and believe me, they look great," Bert
claimed, dreamily, one day next March.
    "The Cubs' infield generally is recognized as one of the best in the big
leagues already, and there are several outfielders who look like real major
leaguers. Pitching is a cinch to he much better, and the catching department was given a big boost when Harry Chiti [who would hit .2311, a
fellow built like Gabby Hartnett [and played like Gabby Hayes], came hack
from the service.Yes, it looks like a very interesting season for the Chicago
Cubs this year."
    This "one of the best ... real major leaguers ... very interesting" team finished 72-81. It also finished what business manager Jim Gallagher termed "the
biggest Cubs fan I've ever known."At Wrigley Field, hearts break every year. Bert Wilson's heart stopped heating November 5, 1955. IDCW2ALAITC was
44 years old.

    BERT WILSON

WAITS HOYT
    In 1960, Bob Costas, 8, moved from Long Island to Los Angeles. The car
radio became a trip-tik. Bob Prince meant western Pennsylvania; Earl Gillespie, the upper Midwest; Harry Caray, Cardinal Nation. By Nevada, Costas
heard Vin Scully. "We can hear the Dodgers," dad said. "We're almost there."
    In Cincinnati, Bob found why MarkTwain vowed to come for the apocalypse because the city lagged 20 years behind the time. "Given that," said
Ohioan and Hall of Fame librarian Lee Allen, "you marvel how it looked ahead."
    Firsts include professional team (1869 Red Stockings); charter member
of first N.L. and American Association year (1876 and '82, respectively); dual
nine-inning no-hitter (1917, Fred Toney and Jim Vaughn); park leased to the
Negro League ('20s Cuban Stars); and night game (1935).
    Another precedent stirred Costas. Unlike any announcer before or since,
Waite Hoyt's tense was past.
    The ordinary