Doug McIntyre Signs Off for the Last Time

A man I consider to be legendary in the radio business signed off for the final time this morning after 22 years on KABC radio in Los Angeles.

In 2009, I was in Los Angeles for an extended weekend trip, which included some Dodgers baseball games. I arrived at LAX in the morning hours and after I got my rental car, I tuned the car radio to 790 and headed for Uncle Bill's Pancake House in Manhattan Beach, a staple for me when in Los Angeles. I tuned the car radio to 790 KABC because it was then the Dodgers radio home and there were chances to hear the legendary Vin Scully throughout the day, along with other Dodgers highlights, such as they were in 2009.

I had never heard of Doug McIntyre to that point, but as he talked and told stories, I could tell I was glad to have found him. In the days before the listening convenience provided by iHeartRadio, Tune In, and the plethora of other listening apps, listening to a Los Angeles radio station from Texas was not as easy as it is now, so I did not listen often, but I would tune in as I could.

McIntyre is and has been an amazing story teller, practically every day I have ever listened to him, I would hear him tell amazing stories and sometimes they would include historical references if that was helpful for his story. His is a first class mind for that sort of thing, and especially for talk radio.

I am glad that by a fluke I tuned back in to him just in time to hear his final two days of broadcasting this week with an interesting array of guests and topics. McIntyre was very appreciative to his listeners and that was very evident these last two days.

For me, as a talk radio listener since before I was a teenager when I got my first Emerson AM/FM/cassette tape clock radio, Doug McIntyre now moves on from radio and to whatever is next, and he joins in my memory names like Ricci Ware, Brad Messer, Carl Wigglesworth, Papa Joe Chevalier, Eliza Sonneland, Bruce Williams, and Mike Richards, who used to sign off every show with "And don't let anybody, steal your joy!" in his Texas twang.

Doug McIntyre signed off on his final show this morning referencing what he would be doing next, and he suggested that sleep would be on his list, since his show has run daily from 5am to 10am each morning. Playing off of the idea that he would get to sleep in and not have to wake up in the pre-dawn hours of the day any longer, he closed by saying, "From now on, I will be living on the sunny side of the street." And he closed out the show with a portion of Louis Armstrong performing On the Sunny Side of the Street.

And that was it. What a way to leave on ones own terms.

Thank you Doug McIntyre for your contribution to the medium.

Vin Scully, Babe Ruth and Baseball History

There will be many people who will say many more things about Vin Scully as he enters his last week as the Dodgers broadcaster, and most will say it all much more eloquently than I ever will. I wanted to relay one story while it was fresh on my mind, and while I cannot stop thinking about it.

I watched Vin's last broadcast from Dodger Stadium today. Vin was in fine form, telling some amazing stories. This man is a monument to the game of baseball. Sure, the game will outlive him, as it will outlive all of us, but one story really made me think about Vin Scully's long reach into baseball history.

Vin was telling a story about being at the Polo Grounds as a kid. I don't recall if he mentioned a year, but since he was born in 1927, it's safe to say he was a "kid" in the 1930s. He said that during the game, all of a sudden there was a ruckus out in the upper right field stands. So, being a kid, like all kids, he ran to the scene to check it out. There, was Babe Ruth. Retired from baseball, just there at the game. The Babe wasn't signing autographs that day. Instead, he was handing out business cards that contained his signature. Vin did not mention whether the card had anything else on it, or if it was just a white business card with a signature.

Vin finished the story by saying that he got one of the cards that day at the Polo Grounds.

What happened to the card? Vin said he has no idea, that he lost it somewhere along the way. Here is a man, retiring from the Dodgers broadcast booth after 67 years, and this man met Babe Ruth in the 1930s at the Polo Grounds. It's mind-boggling to think about, even as I write these words.

Baseball cannot escape itself.

It is fun to think back on the great Dodgers (Brooklyn) and Yankees rivalry and think about all the great teams and the great games that Vin saw and got to broadcast. But I am still struck by the fact that as a little red-headed boy back in New York in the 1930s, Babe Ruth had a card with his signature on it, and he handed it to that little boy, who close to 80 years later would be telling that story during a Major League Baseball game.