It’s a Beautiful Day for Baseball!

It’s a Beautiful Day for Baseball!

I just heard that the great Joe Tait died.  The news was not unexpected; he was old and had several health problems.  Still…

This I know, Joe’s voice was the theme music of my youth.

It was Joe who would let me know that “The Cavs are going right to left on your radio dial” when I tuned in to listen to my team lose again and again.

It was Joe who made me jump out of my seat when “Cleamons got a rebound!” (one of the greatest moments in Cavs history).  It was Joe who made me feel like I was at the old Richfield Coliseum instead of in my bedroom.  He was the best radio announcer I have ever heard.  And yes, I know that every team in the NBA thinks that their announcer is the best, but Cleveland was right; no one was better than Joe.

Joe Tait was the radio voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers.  He also did radio and TV for the Cleveland Indians.  I can remember sneaking a radio to school so that I could listen to his opening day call.  Even if it was 30 degrees and snowing, which it often was in April, you can bet that the broadcast began with “It’s a beautiful day for baseball.”

Even at a young age, I knew that Joe Tait had mastered his craft, but it took a high school basketball game for me to truly appreciate his skill.  Joe would travel around Ohio and sit in with the local announcers for select games.  He usually came to my hometown once a year.  One day, I happened to turn on the radio just as a game was starting.  You guessed it, Tait was sitting in.  As the game went on, I was wondering what was happening.  The game sounded like any other.  The local guys were doing all the talking.  No Joe, not a peep.

Halftime arrived, and I could hear Joe’s canned voice doing a commercial for a local pizza joint.  The other two guys analyzed the first half, and then something extraordinary happened.  As the second half started, the local guys turned off their mics, and Joe Tait took over.  I soon realized he had spent the first half learning all the players and their numbers and sizing up each team’s offensive and defensive schemes.  He spent the second half announcing the game just as he would if the Cavs played the Bulls.  A 5’6” point guard became Mark Price and a 6’2” center transformed into Brad Daugherty.  It was unbelievable; Tait flawlessly announced the second half without hesitation, without a single stumble or a fumble.  He was sublime, and I was awed.

It wasn’t until I heard that second-half call that I truly appreciated Joe Tait.  I still think about what he did that night.  Know this: The kids were not wearing their names on the back of their jerseys; there was only a number.  Tait knew every one of them.  That man was smooth.

I read that Joe wanted to be a writer, that he wanted to paint pictures with his printed words on a page.  As an announcer, he did much more than that.  He spent decades making people believe they were at the sporting event instead of sitting in their living room.  I always smiled when told the Cavs were starting the game on the right side of my radio dial and moving to the left.   And no, I never wondered why the opposite wasn’t true.  I merely suspended disbelief, leaned back, and let Joe Tait take me courtside.

How many nights did I fall asleep after Joe said, “Have a GOOD night, everybody!” following another Cleveland loss?  Too many to count.

Not many of us will be able to say that no one ever lived who was better at their job than we were at ours.  This I know:  No one was better than Joe Tait.  He was the best.