Doylealexander4444 ~ (louder please) DOYLEALEXANDER4444! ~ (a little louder please) DOYLEALEXANDER4444!!!!
That June, Beckett Baseball Card Monthly senior editor Pepper Hastings finally had enough of this medieval situation and decided to do something about it. In that month’s “Back Page” column, he wrote:
Our Mission: To obtain the number of a pay phone in each of the 26 major league stadiums.
The Ground Rules: The pay phone location *must* have a clear view of the stadium scoreboard. That way, the person answering can relay the current score and situation of the game to the caller.
…
Our Goal: To publish - before the beginning of the pennant races - a complete list of stadium pay phone numbers where up-to-the-second game information can be obtained from on-the-scene game correspondents (a guy on his way back from the snackbar, a conscientious usher, a kid on his way to the souvenir stand).
…
Our Rewards: Instantaneous scores during heated pennant races. Verbal interaction with real fans at stadia across the continent, not pre-recorded 1-900 number yakity-yak…
Pepper Hastings was a genius. After all, how better to find out what is going on in a baseball game than to actually speak with someone at the game? And, unlike the world of today, pay phones were everywhere in 1990. I’m pretty sure the rumor was that Mickey Tettleton’s 1989 power binge came from eating his Froot Loops while standing at a phone booth. It only made sense, then, for a national publication to centralize these pay phone numbers and provide them as a service to its readership in the heat of the pennant race.
The responses came pouring in to Hastings, who probably regretted the call to action the first time he had to verify one of the numbers
Repoz
Posted: February 13, 2012 at 05:25 PM |
16 comment(s)
Login to Bookmark
Tags:
history,
media
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: February 13, 2012 at 06:03 PM (#4060136)It's that new thing where you can now OWN your phone instead of leasing it from the telephone company. They've even got these new modular phone jacks to make it easy to plug the darned things in.
EDIT: And can we do a "where are they now" on Tommy Wheaton?
The death of pay phones outside stadiums was the last straw that finally convinced me to get a cell phone in 2008. I had friends waiting for me inside of Home Depot Center, and missed a David Beckham goal while finding the bank of dead pay phones and then searching for somebody to borrow a cell from.
The point is that in 1990 it was impossible for someone to know what exactly was happening in a live game if they weren't living in radio- or television-broadcast range of the game, and the world was a worse-place for it.
That's not entirely true. I seem to recall reading about a displaced Red Sox fan who would call a number to get a the radio broadcast via his telephone. One of the radio stations had a number you could call.
My Dad did this for years in the 70s and 80s during Nebraska football games. Certain games, (many actually) he'd call his parents back in Omaha and Grandpa would simply set the phone by the radio on KFAB and listen to Bremser ("Man Woman and Child....") or later Pavelka call the Huskers games. I recall the last time he did this we were visiting colleges (for me) and we were in Dayton, OH, when KU was close to upsetting Nebraska in '93. We were at a bar, and the place did not have the then very horrible ABC pay per view package which would get you access to out of market games. He hogged that pay phone for the entire 2nd half, must've handed out quarters to half a dozen people trying to use the phone. Expensive habit.
When I was in college ('89-'93) my roommate used to call the Boston Globe sports desk at about 11:30 at night to get the Pittsburgh scores.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main