Lindsey Nelson

From SoSH

Lindsey Nelson (May 25, 1919 - June 10, 1995) was a baseball broadcaster for the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants across 20 seasons.

Broadcasting Biography

Nelson was born in Tennessee and began his broadcasting career in 1948 with the University of Tennessee Volunteers. He did play-by-play for the Cotton Bowl for 25 years, Notre Dame football for 13 years, and Monday night football games on Mutual Broadcasting System radio from 1974 to 1977, as well as regular NFL games on CBS.

Nelson was hired by the Mets in 1962, where he worked for seventeen seasons with Ralph Kiner and Bob Murphy. His association with the franchise lasted longer than his actual broadcasting tenure; when Tom Seaver, then with the Chicago White Sox, was vying for his 300th victory against the New York Yankees, WPIX had Nelson call the final half-inning of the game. He spent three seasons with the San Francisco Giants, as well as radio broadcasts of baseball games on CBS and football on CBS, including the first game in which instant replay was used.

Nelson moved back to Tennessee after retirement and penned his memoirs. He died at the age of 76 in Atlanta, Georgia.

In 1988, Nelson was awarded the Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in 1984. Among his other awards were a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1991 and the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990.

Trivia

• Nelson once broadcast a game from a gondola suspended from the roof of the Astrodome in 1965.
• Nelson was well-known for wearing loud, multicolored sports jackets that clashed with his surroundings and caused the televised image to distort whenever he was shown on the screen. MBS president C. Edward Little complained that Nelson never sent any of his jackets to the cleaners and that they smelled horrible.

Further Reading

• Lindsey Nelson's biography at the Baseball Hall of Fame website
• Lindsey Nelson - Courtesy of Wikipedia