L.A. Times: Gil Stratton, 86, a Southern California sportscasting fixture (RR)

From Brando to Von Zipper to umpiring in the PCL…Gil Stratton did it all. “take for instance the story about the spy we had in our barracks…”

Gil Stratton, a longtime presence in Southern California sportscasting as the voice of the Rams, as the host of horse racing from Santa Anita and as an anchor on Channel 2 news and KNX 1070 Newsradio, died Saturday of congestive heart failure at this home in Toluca Lake, according to his wife Dee. He was 86

...Stratton joined the Army Air Forces during World War II, being inducted on stage in Chicago after a performance of “Best Foot Forward,” and was trained at the gunnery school in Las Vegas. But he spent much of his time umpiring service ball, a skill he had picked up while going to college. Years later, he would remember calling Joe DiMaggio out on a third strike at a game in Westwood and having the Yankee Clipper remark to him, “It was a little low, wasn’t it son?”