Bill Valentine

Bill Valentine, Arkansas Travelers

Someone said that I might have a story or two about my ole pal Jim Elder…….after I was fired for organizing the umpires in the American League in 1968 I did three innings of the Travs broadcast with Jim from 1969 thru 1975…we also did a morning and afternoon disc jockey show on KARK Radio…high school football and basketball games…..sports on KARKTV and anything else they need us for around KARK……..

But I will never forget some of the things that happen during the recreation of Trav broadcasts…..someone would call the press box when the Travs were on the road and get information of what each player would do…and Jim would recreate the game…..there were crowd noise tapes…etc…..a roar when a visiting player got a big hit……boos….etc……….we were broadcasting a game when the Travs were in Memphis and the crowd noise tape broke……Jim said that someone in the press box had closed all the windows…….a couple of innings later the tape was repaired…….in order to get the tape back on….Jim announced that we had taken a vote in the press box and agreed to open the windows….so he slowly brought up the sound on the tape and announced how nice it was to have the windows open again……

Anyone who knew Jim will remember that he was not a drinking man……when Jim drank a soft drink, etc…he would turn it up and drink at least half of it at one time……this day a doctor friend invited Jim over before the game to taste some home made wine…..Jim dropped by on the way to the station and tasted four or five wines the same way he would drink a coke……..as the game started the wine caught up with Jim and he started to slur his words…….if you knew Jim you know he would not leave the air…….so he announced that a bee had flown into the press box and bit him on his lip!

The game was in Shreveport…..it was a long, long game and the young man that was taken down the play-by-play over the telephone had to leave and go home since it was a school night…..so in the eighth inning I started calling the press box and getting the information from a reporter for the morning newspaper……Jim would keep the slips turned upside down and would only turn them over for each hitter so that he would not know the out come of the inning……we went into the bottom of the ninth inning with the Travelers leading……I came back with the slips and put them upside down on the desk………Jim had one out and he turned the slips over…..there were two hits….then another out….and that was all I had….I didn’t have the last out of the inning………..Jim wrote me a quick note and I went to the telephone and called the press box in Shreveport……the reporter had already left and gone back to the newspaper and no one was answering the telephone…so I called the newspaper and they said they would have him call me as soon as he arrived…..Jim now had two runners on base…two outs and no other action……so he had the hitter foul off pitch after pitch….he had the pitching coach go to the mound…..he had the third base coach come down to the plate and talk to the hitter…..still no call from the reporter……..so what did he do….he created a light failure!….and we waited for them to work on the lights…….finally the reporter called……Jim had the groundcrew doing a great job of getting the lights back on…..and was relieved to find that the hitter struck out and the Travs won the game.

He was the last announcer to recreate professional baseball games…..a shame he didn’t write a book…….Bill Valentine

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