CLEVELAND — Tom Hamilton’s signature call typically begins, “Swing and a drive!” On Saturday night, the radio voice of the Guardians was focused solely on the swing.
As Cleveland’s José Ramírez and Chicago’s Tim Anderson engaged in a skirmish that resulted in cleared benches, six ejections and a haymaker that sent the White Sox shortstop to the dirt, Hamilton delivered a Hall of Fame-caliber play-by-play sequence.
The Guardians entered the sixth inning without a hit. Andrés Giménez singled, Ramírez doubled and then the Guardians’ third baseman supplied the one hit that has had everyone talking. Ramírez slid into second base on his chest, took exception to the tag, popped to his feet and pointed at Anderson, who proceeded to drop his glove and square up. Hamilton, meanwhile, morphed from baseball broadcaster to prize fight announcer, channeling his inner Howard Cosell.
Head-first slide. Safe! And in to score is Giménez. And another hustle double, right over the bag at first.
Now Josey and Anderson square off! They’re fighting! They’re swinging! Down goes Anderson! Down goes Anderson!
Ramírez went in with a head-first slide. Josey never gets upset about anything. They came up chewing. Anderson squared off. Josey decked him!
Hammy call of Jose’s knockout. 🤌. Perfection #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/e6WHYKkVWY
— Newsradio WTAM 1100 (@wtam1100) August 6, 2023
“It’s not funny,” said Guardians manager Terry Francona, “but when I came in (after being ejected), I’m listening to Hammy. It’s hard not to chuckle.”
Hamilton said he’s received a steady stream of calls and texts about his narration.
“I think I’m getting way too much recognition,” he told The Athletic on Sunday.
Hamilton, previously a finalist for the Hall of Fame’s Ford Frick Award, has worked on Cleveland’s radio broadcast team since 1990. He spent eight seasons teaming with Herb Score and later partnered with Mike Hegan and, for the past 16 years, Jim Rosenhaus.
When Hamilton arrived in Tucson, Ariz., for spring training his first year, he was wide-eyed and naively optimistic about a team that had finished no better than fifth place over the previous decade. He figured he was in line to relay the daily exploits of a team bound to win the American League pennant, not a team headed for its eighth losing season in nine years.
That’s when Score offered some advice that has stuck with Hamilton throughout his 34 seasons behind the mic.
“This is a bad team,” Score told him, “but that can’t have any impact on the broadcast. The record of the ball club can never impact how you prepare for a game or how you broadcast that game. There are too many people depending on you to hear that game and it might be the highlight of their day. You owe them your very best. It doesn’t matter what their record is.”
As he exited the ballpark on Saturday night, Hamilton thought about Score, who died in 2008, and the guidance the former pitcher provided him early in his career in the booth. Even with the teams bickering in earlier innings, no one foresaw what unfolded near second base. As Score would say, you never know what you might see at the ballpark on a given day, so a broadcaster can’t afford to mail it in.
“I can’t tell you how many times,” Hamilton said, choking up, “including (Saturday) night, I think of him and how fortunate I was to work with him, to get that advice. Unbelievable. Thirty-four years later, everything he told me has been dead on.”
José Ramírez and Tim Anderson were among six people ejected in the wake of Saturday’s brawl. (Ron Schwane / Getty Images)
Hamilton has described the action for three World Series, 101 playoff games and an endless supply of walk-off wins. He has also chronicled September slogs in losing seasons, hitters charging the mound — “the Cleveland Browns have not had a defensive back that could backpedal faster than Pedro Martinez did into the outfield,” Hamilton said — and even a squirrel running amok and causing a delay during a game in 2017.
“The most puzzling thing on that was, where the hell is somebody to get the damn squirrel off the field?” Hamilton said. “It seemed like we were approaching him like a mountain lion. He had complete control. But I also understand why somebody doesn’t want to get too close to a squirrel, having grown up on a dairy farm. A lot of squirrels are rabid. You don’t want to be the guy who goes, ‘Ah, he’s a cute, little, furry thing,’ and then you get bit. But, something like that, you’re just trying to have fun.”
On Saturday, Hamilton detailed perhaps the ultimate headline-grabbing heavyweight bout Progressive Field has ever hosted. At least one fan who attended Sunday’s game sported a shirt that read, “Down goes Anderson.” Given Cleveland’s eternally thriving T-shirt market, there figures to be more in the near future.
Don’t mess with Cleveland. pic.twitter.com/gpQTM6GLy0
— Tom Withers (@twithersAP) August 6, 2023
“We’re not doing anything that is going to change the world or save mankind or save a life,” Hamilton said. “You just try to have fun with it, realizing that this is the entertainment business, even though a lot of people question how entertaining we are.”
There’s long been tension between the Guardians and White Sox. Last season, Chicago infielder Elvis Andrus predicted Cleveland would “crumble” in the AL Central race, just before the Guardians cruised to a division title. When Noah Syndergaard joined the Guardians in Chicago last week, he said he immediately noticed some discord between the clubs. Anderson was jawing at Gabriel Arias throughout Saturday’s game. The Guardians, as Ramírez noted, resented the manner in which Anderson pushed rookie Brayan Rocchio’s hand off the bag when applying a tag on Friday night. A replay review concluded that Rocchio was out, which led to Francona being ejected and ripping umpire Malachi Moore after the game. Francona has been dismissed three times this season, all against the White Sox, all in the past week and a half.
“There is not a better teammate in all of sports than José, and now you know why he’s revered,” Hamilton said. “That was all about sticking up for his teammates.”
GO DEEPER
From the corner of Hamilton and Rosenhaus: An eventful day in the Indians’ radio booth
(Top photo: Ken Blaze / USA Today)