One
of the first prominent American sportscasters, Mel Allen
established
himself as a sportcasting icon as the
Voice of the New York Yankees baseball
team from 1939 to 1964.
Educated as a lawyer, the Alabaman
also broadcast New York Giants
baseball games from 1939 to 1943, 20
World Series, 24 All-Star baseball games, a season of Cleveland
Indians
Major League games in 1968, as well as
14 Rose Bowl games, 2 Orange Bowls, 2
Sugar Bowls, and countless other major
sporting events.
Allen was present for nearly every
major Yankees’ event from Joe DiMaggio’s
56-game hitting streak in 1941 to
Roger Maris’s record-breaking 61 home
runs in 1961. It was Allen who introduced
Lou Gehrig to a packed Yankee
Stadium on July 4, 1939, preceding
Gehrig’s historic “Today, I am the luckiest
man in the world” farewell, and he
introduced a stricken Babe Ruth at his
sad 1948 adieu. He dubbed DiMaggio
“Joltin’ Joe,” Tommy Henrich “Old Reliable,” and
Phil Rizzuto “The Scooter.” His
endearing signature phrase was
“How about that!”
Allen came out of retirement in
1978 to call the New York cable TV coverage
of Yankee games through 1985 and served as host of the long-running
weekly syndicated television series,
This Week in Baseball, nearly until his
death.
A winner of numerous industry, listener,
and viewer awards, Allen was
the fourth person elected to the National
(U.S.A.) Sportswriters and Broadcasters
Hall of Fame in March 1972. In
1978, he and fellow New York sportscaster
Red Barber were the first to be
honored with the Ford Frick Award,
Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame
recognition for broadcasters. In 1985,
Allen was inducted into the American
Sportscasters Hall of Fame.
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