One Of The Great Voices Of Baseball Broadcasting: Jon Miller

One of the best known and most recognizable voices in Major League Baseball broadcasting belongs to Jon Miller. he’s been calling games since the 1970s.

In this 1998 interview Jon Miller talks about his book Confessions Of A Baseball Purist.
Get your copy of Confessions of a Baseball Purist by Jon MillerAs an Amazon Associate, Now I've Heard Everything earns from qualifying purchases.

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#baseball #MLB #sportscasters #Harry Caray

I mean, I've got the greatest job anybody could ever possibly
have. I go to I go to baseball games,
which I love and they pay me forit.
Hall of Fame sportscaster John Miller today and now I've heard
everything. I'm Bill Thompson.

(00:25):
You know you've heard the saying, find a job that you love
and you'll never work a day in your life.
Well, if that's true, then John Miller has never worked a day in
his life. Of course, he's one of the
hardest working broadcasters in all of sports, but for over 50
years he's been doing what he loves and had loved since he was

(00:46):
a child. Picture this, the young John
Miller little boy at CandlestickPark in San Francisco, watching
the Giants play, sitting in the sand watching the game, but also
glancing up from time to time atthe press box, watching the
broadcasters do their thing and being inspired.
John Miller then went home. He's a little boy, went home and

(01:06):
recreated baseball games, The play by play, the color
commentary, the audience noise, even commercials and tape
recorded everything. Fast forward a few years, he
breaks into actual broadcasting in the early 1970s, and for over
50 years now he's been doing what he loves.
Now, in 1998, John Miller wrote a book called Confessions of a

(01:29):
Baseball Purist. Now his publishers sent him on a
book tour just as spring training was getting underway.
So it was before his really busytime, and he carved out a few
minutes for me. Now this is a fascinating
snapshot of where baseball was 27 years ago.
Many of these names that we're going to be talking about will
sound very familiar. Some of the concepts may now

(01:50):
seem a little quaint. And also keep in mind this was
pre Barry Bonds. So in just a moment, our
conversation. This is one of the more than
10,000 interviews that noted radio personality Bill Thompson
did over a 30 year span. Sit back and relax.
Unless you're driving, in which case keep your eyes on the road.

(02:15):
I'm here now from 1998. John Miller.
It, it, it is reading the book, it's a wonder you have much time
to, to eat or sleep, it sounds like.
It sounds like all you're doing is is.
I mean, it sounds like a whole lot of fun.
Let me tell you. There's millions of guys in this
country and quite a few women who would love to do what you
do. It doesn't sound like you have a

(02:36):
whole lot of time to yourself. Well, I mean, I mean, it's not
real good for, you know, family life.
And, you know, if you were to ask my my wife or my kids how
much they enjoy my career, that would sort of be, you know, the
rest of the story. That would be sort of a whole
different book all by itself. But in terms of the actual work,

(02:56):
I mean, we all have to have a job, make a living and then send
our kids to college and all of this kind of thing.
I mean, I'm the luckiest guy in America.
I mean, I've got the greatest job anybody could ever possibly
have. I go to, I go to baseball games,
which I love and they pay me forit.
And then when the games are not being played, I get to stay, you
know, well, that's unfortunatelyI don't often get to stay home.

(03:16):
I get to stay in my hotel or whatever.
But you know, everything has a price.
But the great thing is, I mean, it's, it's the great game, a
wonderful game and a game for which I have great affection and
great passion and and there are a lot of things I have very
strong opinions about in, in regards to the game.
I'm a I'm a real strong advocatefor the game.

(03:38):
I think that this is a great erafor baseball, a golden age of
the of the game. And there have been other golden
ages, but but right now there isan incredible talent doing
incredible things. You know, Ken Griffey junior,
who who may this year at long last to be the guy who overtakes
Ruth and Maris. I mean, you know, Maris's record

(04:00):
61 homers has actually stood up.Now this will be the 37th year
it has stood up longer than Ruth's record.
His sixty home run record stood for 34 years until Maris hit 61.
So it's it really it's about time that somebody broke that
record. But we know we have candidates
because Griffey hit 56 last year, McGuire hit 58.

(04:21):
And you know, maybe Frank Thomas, who's a great and he
looks like he should hit sixty home runs.
Big hulking guy, but a great hitter along the lines of a Ted
Williams. I mean, not since Ted Williams
have we had somebody who could do all of the things that Frank
Thomas does hit for average. He won a batting title last year
and yet a discerning eye gets A130140 walks every year and he

(04:44):
hits home run over 40 home runs.I mean, literally this whole
combination of things, driving in runs, hitting home runs,
hitting for average and creatingruns and RB is for the guys
hitting behind him because he's on base all the time, even when
he's not driving in runs. And and that's the greatest hit
in the game in many people's minds.

(05:06):
Ted Williams that we're comparing him to, and Griffey
and and McGuire, we're talking about those guys and the Babe,
you know, So, you know, Tony Gwynn hitting 372 last year.
It's an era. If you can't hit 37380, you
can't win a batting title. And that takes his way back into
some some of the great icons of the game.

(05:26):
And this is happening now. So this is a golden age and it
doesn't get set enough. I think, you know, baseball's
the only sport where the, the good old days were always way
back when. And so I dispute that I did some
research to back up my contention and, and I and I, and
I think I, I feel I did a good job.
I make a compelling argument. Marvelous job.

(05:47):
I mean, where along the way did the word purist get such a bad
reputation? Well, you know, I that, that's
funny because I never called myself a purist, never thought
of myself in that, in that regard.
I, I felt I was a progressive, you know, But if you, you know,
some guys did call him, I'm a baseball purist.

(06:07):
I like the game on the grass. And it was sort of a, you know,
sort of like patting yourself onthe back.
You know, it was, it was sort ofa position of honor to be a
purist. And then I realized that the
connotation of the word had changed. 1993 we had Bud Selig,
the acting commissioner for Lifeof Baseball on Sunday Night

(06:29):
Baseball, and they were talking about the concept of interleague
play and maybe trying to implement that.
So we asked him about the statusof that.
Where where's the discussion today, Mr. Selig?
And he said, well, John, I know you're a purist.
And then he went on and and I thought, wow, a purist.

(06:49):
And you know, I was alternately honored thinking, yeah, purist
damn right to sort of mystified like me a purist.
I like the DH ones we're talkingabout to finally having a little
perspective later to look back in the whole thing and realize
that he didn't mean it as a compliment.
And you know, he was using purist in the in the as a label

(07:12):
to say this person still wishes it was 1929 and that the game's
never been the same since the babe.
Thus, we can deem anything that he says or thinks as irrelevant
and not paying any attention to him whatsoever.
You know, I'm sure that the number of owners, when they'll
see the purest in the title, purest into the garbage.

(07:35):
You know? And it's unfortunate because the
title really is sort of a wry comment on what we talked about
in the very first chapter. You know, they use the word
purest the way, say, Rush Limbaugh would use the word
liberal. You know, liberal is like, yeah,
obviously responsible for everything evil in the world
today, You know, and and and that's where they use Pierce.

(07:57):
And it's, it's really a label tolimit discussion.
And that's the whole point of ofwhat I'm writing about.
I suspect the label was first attached to those who didn't
want to see lights at Wrigley. Yeah, Yeah.
Well. Purist.
A guy played baseball in the daytime on real grass.
Yeah, real grass doesn't like the DH.
You know, if if God intended forthere to be a designated header,

(08:20):
he wouldn't have made the game for 9 players, you know, so on
and so forth. And there's a good point there.
I mean, there's some people are firmly rooted in the past.
But what I'm saying basically inthe book is I'm not really a
purist in that sense, but I was labeled one because Bud Selig
perceived that I would be against this concept of inter
league play. And I wasn't against it at all.

(08:40):
What I was against was the lack of discussion.
George Wills OFT stated law of unintended consequences.
You do something major like thatfor the best of reasons that
could be unintended consequencesthat might end up being bad for
the game of baseball. And in fact we have that law

(09:01):
realized the the 15 games that are played in interleague play
came off the existing schedule. You know, you either had to play
177 game season to fit them in or you had to remove some of the
games from the existing schedule.
Thus, the Yankees and Orioles play each other less, the Giants
and Dodgers play each other lessso they can fit in these

(09:22):
interleague games. That's a that's a real downside
to this whole thing. The schedule is is really messed
up. The first year of interleague
play, the Giants had to play 26 two game series.
Even this year, teams like the Orioles in the American League
will still play about 17 or 18 two game series, very bad.

(09:45):
And that's as a result of the interleague play.
So there are some unintended consequences.
There are also some matchups that nobody, you know, people
could live without, like, you know, Cincinnati and Minnesota.
Yeah, nobody showed. So what?
You mean there's no natural RedsTwins rivalry?
I'm I'm sure there is, but maybethey just forgot, you know, to
show up. All all those, those hordes of

(10:05):
people moving between the Twin Cities and Cincinnati.
I mean, there must be this, you know?
But I have to confess, as a Cubsfan, I haven't been able to see
a Cubs game in years. I would love to see the Cubs
play the Orioles just once or twice.
Well, and this is what happened when they were theoretically
studying, you know, supposedly studying the concept of
interleague play. They said that they conducted

(10:28):
polls of fans to find out if they were for it or not, and the
fans were for it. Well, of course they were for
it. I mean, if they'd asked you
coming out of Camden Yards, Bill, would you be for
interleague play if you were to say, yeah, interleague play, I
mean, you mean the Cubs could come to Camden Yards and I could
see the Cubs play the Orioles. Damn right.
I'm for it. The problem was that was the

(10:50):
question they asked. That's the response they got.
But that is not what they meant by interleague play.
Cubs aren't coming to Camden Yards.
The Phillies, you know, the Expos, they're coming.
If they told you that, if they'dsaid the question was would you
be for interleague play if it meant that the Orioles would
play some teams like the Expos and the Phillies, but they would

(11:12):
play the Yankees and the Red Soxless often as a result of it,
what would you have answered? What would your answer have been
then? Wouldn't.
Go for that, yeah. And and so that that's really
what I was talking about the whole time.
And yet, Bud Seeley sort of eliminated that discussion by
saying, John, I know you're a purist, and of course, making

(11:32):
everything else that I said irrelevant to the discussion.
After this short break, John Miller pays tribute to one of
the great baseball broadcasters of our time.
You know, AI is not just for 22 year old coders.
A lot of us older adults are drawing on our life experience
to find unique and creative waysto use AI at home.

(11:55):
Or at work. Got an AI success story you'd
like to share? Tap the link below to visit our
YouTube channel, AI After 40 andLet's keep learning together.
Now back to my 1998 conversationwith John Miller.
Let me ask you for something else.

(12:15):
I I consider myself a purist in one narrow definition.
That is the fact I can remember when a team won a World Series,
you could pretty much expect to see most of the players on that
team back for that team the following year.
Now we're going to look and see.We see the Florida Marlins.
Let's see now who is on on the team that was there last year.
Let's say I'm checking my scorecard.
There aren't too many names. Yeah, well, and I, I think and

(12:37):
I, I take Wayne Huizeng at the task in the book.
I mean, he was one of the singleworst things ever to happen to
Major League Baseball. And I think unwittingly, and it
wasn't as if he intended to damage that franchise and damage
the sport, but he certainly did.And and this was just the the
latest example. In a way, it it it was, it was

(12:57):
good that it happened in that. There can be no doubt now as to
what he was doing to this sport and to that franchise.
The best thing is he's trying tosell the ball club good.
You know, the sooner he's out, the better.
And, and, and it's not just whathe did to the Marlins after they
won the Series. It's, it's a long string of
things that he's done ever sincehe bought that franchise.

(13:18):
And he couldn't have hurt the franchise anymore if he had
intended to sabotage the franchise.
And I, and I, I, I point all of that out.
I, I, I tell the whole story. And, and, and, and that was what
was wrong with Wayne Huizenga's ownership of that ball club
alone. That's not what was wrong with
the game itself. The game itself has never been

(13:39):
healthier from this standpoint. Record attendance on an average
per team basis last year was thesecond or third highest average
attendance per team in the history of Major League
Baseball. Somebody's buying a lot of
tickets out there. Somebody's enjoying what they're
seeing out there. The income generated in the

(14:00):
sport in the last 20 years has increased tenfold.
How many businesses can make that claim tenfold?
Baseball has never in its history generated the kind of
income that it's generating right now.
But, but again, let me let me jump in there again.
Back before the Earth's crust cooled.
I remember when you could go to a Cubs game and sit in an

(14:21):
unreserved grandstand seat for 2bucks and it wasn't.
I'm not that old that it was, you know, like way back in
Ruth's time. I think you're not going to find
a $2.00 seat, a $5 seat. You're going to be hard pressed
to find a $10 seat in baseball these days, aren't you?
Well, actually in San Francisco for instance, this year, one of
the Giants season ticket pushes is a what they call a partial

(14:41):
plan, a 17 game plan that startsas low as 85 dollars, $5 per
ticket. That's a great bargain.
They have a six game plan with athat starts for the least $25
and actually only charging you for five of the games.
The the 6th game, which the the way they like to advertise this

(15:01):
in the sixth game with the Dodgers is free.
But thank you, Benny. But you know, baseball is still
among of all the sports the verybest bargain.
So, you know, what you're sayingis true.
And also what's very true is in at that time, if the Cubs had a

(15:22):
1:00 game and at noon, you said,you know, why don't we go over
and see the Cubs game? Well, you could just go over and
buy those tickets because there were always plenty of tickets
available. The the the sell out crowd was
always a rarity, limited maybe to a a a Sunday double header or
a a huge late season game in a penny race.
Used to say 20,000 unreserved grandstand seats go on sale the

(15:43):
day of the. Game, hey, hey.
But now you have this phenomenonthat has never occurred in the
history of the sport where ballparks are sold out every day
and you can't get a ticket in Cleveland, you can't get a
ticket within two months of opening day.
They're they've all been sold out.
And this is not the first year that that's happened.
It's the second or third year ina row that that's happened.

(16:05):
So the game has never been as flush with success by all these
definitions of being able to generate income.
It's an incredible success story, not just for sports but
for any industry. The problem that they have in
baseball is the owners trying tofigure out how to equitably
distribute these riches amongst themselves and those owners and

(16:29):
the players trying to come up with a workable system where
everybody makes out. Well, that is the problem.
And too often that gets confusedwith the game itself, which as I
say, is being played at a real high level.
The people are are enjoying it, they're loving it.
And yet the people in the sport themselves, too often the
owners, but people taking a paycheck from this game are the

(16:52):
ones saying the game is all screwed up, you know, and
putting out that perception. And hey, we're baseball fans.
We don't care. We don't care, you know, how
much you're making or not making.
We care, you know, if Cal hit a home run tonight, we care if
this club has a chance to win a Pennant and so on and so forth.

(17:15):
The rest of it. That's your problem.
And, and why should fans care about the rest of it?
Oh yeah, one more question before I completely run out of
time. And that is, I just saw
yesterday that we had a story onthe wire that at Wrigley this
year, they're going to have guest conductors do the 7th
inning, Take Me Out to the ball game.
Just won't be the same without Harry.
No, I think, you know, part of the whole thing was that that
that Harry was not just a great baseball broadcaster, but, you

(17:40):
know, a larger than life figure and he was an icon in Chicago.
He he was, as you know, Bob Verdi, the great, great sports
columnist at the Tribune is often said he was in Chicago,
our movie star, our celebrity and, and, and much loved.
And so when it came time for the7th inning stretch, I mean,

(18:01):
everybody not just turned aroundto look at Harry, they all
started shouting his name Harry as if, you know, here I am, you
know, and then Harry sang and they all sang along with him.
And it was a part of a a great experience at the ballpark.
I remember on a Sunday night game, we were there and Harry
was not really even working thatnight because we were doing the
telecast. He had no telecast to do.

(18:22):
And he, you know, guested on their radio broadcast for an
inning and then he sang take down to the ball game, 7th
inning stretch. And then he went off to to Rush
Street, you know, with his wife and some friends.
Now the game went 14 innings. And in the middle of the 14th
inning, the fans spontaneously rose and started shouting for
Harry. They wanted to sing Take Me Out

(18:43):
to the ball game again. It was the 14th inning stretch,
You know, 7 things have gone by.Let's let's stretch.
And but Harry wasn't there. So finally they got the they got
the message, you know, Oh my God, Harry's not here.
And they just sang it. The organist didn't play.
The crowd just sang it. It was incredible.
But they sang it sort of in honor of Harry.

(19:06):
And, and I think, you know, anybody could just sing Take Me
Out to the Ball game. But I think that was it was
Harry actually, and his presencebecause he started it on the
other side of town at the White Sox ballpark when he did their
games, when he left. They have always continued to
sing Take Me Out to the ball game there.

(19:28):
But it it, you never hear about it or think about it because
it's not Harry. And that was, you know, Harry
made the whole thing a larger than life big experience.
And that was, you know, why Harry will be missed so much.
And who will say Cubs win, Cubs win?
He'll really be missed, that's for sure.

(19:48):
And because he loved the game and he had a passion for the
game and it wasn't Cubs win, Cubs win.
It wasn't holy cow. I mean, it wasn't all the
showmanship, you know, and certainly you think of that,
that was part of it. But the reason in my opinion
that he really endured was because he kept you centered on
the game and he he helped you appreciate the game.

(20:09):
He taught you the game and he made you feel the passion that
he felt. He made you feel the drama, the
excitement, because he had an enormous talent to do that.
And what he felt, he made you asthe fan feel.
And, and to me, that was truly. Why, he could endure for 53
seasons, and even at the very end, he's on television and you

(20:33):
could see it all for yourself. You didn't need him to say this.
When the pitch came in, no matter what else he was talking
about, the pitch was about to come in.
He'd say, here's the pitch, you know, 2 and 2, here it comes,
you know, And that was, in fact,sort of like attention.
Now listen up. He's about to throw a pitch.
Something big might be about to happen.

(20:55):
Always to the very end kept you centered on that pitcher versus
batter battle And and and that'swhy Harry was so good.
And that's what you hope that the next generation of
broadcasters will learn from Harry.
Not not Holy Cow or Cubs win or whatever.
John Miller turned 74 couple of weeks ago.

(21:15):
He lives near San Francisco thatyou can get your copy of
Confessions of a Baseball Puristby John Miller by tapping the
link in our show notes by clicking the link in the
description below. If you're watching this on
YouTube or by going to our website heardeverything.com, we
may earn an Amazon Commission ifyou make a purchase.
Heardeverything.com is where youcan also find my 1988

(21:36):
conversation with one of his occasional NBC Play by Play
broadcast mates, Joe Garagiola. I've been on ball clubs where we
didn't set any records, but I was on the Pittsburgh club.
We lost 112 games out of 154, soI kind of placed myself on an
expert on slumps. And my 1993 conversation with

(21:56):
the great Roy Firestone. And after while I forgot who I
was talking to, like the 35th president of the United States,
it felt like I was talking to mydad about bass.
You know, monkey. Wilson and Nykstra.
You can't. Platoon those two.
You got to have them take their swings.
And of course, we post new episodes of Now I've Heard
Everything every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and you
can find us everywhere you find podcasts.

(22:17):
Thank you so much for listening Next time on Now I've heard
everything. It's it's one thing to to gain
weight and start putting on a few pounds, but how would you
like to do that in front of a national TV audience in the
millions every week and then be ridiculed for it?
We'll revisit my 1998 conversation with actress Delta
Burke. They made me feel because I had

(22:39):
put on weight that I had, you know, murdered busloads of
children or something. And it's I've Simply put on
weight. Why?
Why were they carrying on so much about it?
That's next time on NOW. I've heard everything.
I'm Bill Thompson.