A walk(man) through history

The train rolled in NFL jerseys
to New York’s Penn Station, marking the half-way point of a journey between Boston and Baltimore. Out of the carry-bag came an old Walkman cassette player; a bulky reminder of how far we’ve come in the age of the IPod Touch.
In to the machine went the radio broadcast of a long-forgotten baseball game: the WGY "Radio 81" presentation of the Yankees and Tigers on May 26, 1971. In the booth are Bill White and Frank Messer. Around the fifth-inning, Phil Rizzuto shows up as if he’d been caught in a terrible traffic jam.
Detroit is the home team, and their starting pitcher is Canadian Mike Kilkenny. The Yankees have Mel Stottlemyre on the mound.
The broadcast is made spectacular by its simplicity, uncluttered by the maze of statistical information available today. There’s no mention of on-base percentage or walks-per-nine. No one mentions pitch counts or opponents batting average. Not that some of this could have found its way on to the air-waves; many of the statistics we’re accustomed to today had not been devised.
None of the balls were mashed, bashed, or hit all the way to Spanksville. The words "change-up", "splitter", or "slider" are never uttered. Everything is a fastball or curve. On once occasion, White notes that Stottlemyre is going to the "sinker" a little more often.
Scoreboard updates are frequent and basic:
"Boston leads Washington 3-2, Ray Culp is pitching for the Red Sox, Jerry Janeski for the Senators," says Messer.
And this gem:
"Houston is in San Diego. Al Santorini started the game, but he’s been replaced by Dave Roberts. We have no idea why."
Even the rudimentary commercial has an edge that clearly marks a less responsible time:
"Schaefer Beer. The one beer you want… when you want more than one."
"What’s going on here with all these knuckle berries?" yells Rizzuto.
When White tells him Martin has already made one mound visit and has to wait until the end of the at-bat to pull his pitcher, Rizzuto is floored.
"No kidding? Since when? Where was I when they changed this rule?"
In the end, Stottlemyre pitches a complete game, and the Yankees win 2-1. That ends Detroit’s seven-game winning streak. Not that many noticed; only 11,565 show up.
For this listener, an old tape of a meaningless game is a wonderful way to pass time, and perhaps gain a lesson in the value of simplicity.
The rapport between Messer and White is formal to the point of being dry. Rizzuto’s arrival changes that. When Tiger manager Billy Martin tries to pull Kilkenny with a 3-and-2 count on Roy White, home plate umpire Red Flaherty motions Martin back to the dugout.