In 1935, while playing first base for Washington & Jefferson University, Helfer was
offered a contract by
Connie Mack, but he was set on a career in radio. During his
career, he traveled five million miles and broadcast more Rose Bowl and WS games
than anyone before or since. He worked on local broadcast teams in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati,
Brooklyn, New York, and Oakland, and in 1950 began calling the Mutual Network's Game
of the Day. He was also a television announcer on non-sports shows. "
Red Barber and
I were the first play-by-play team," he once claimed. "Before that, one man would
do the first half of the game and then disappear. We interacted during the entire
game."
(NLM)
Al Helfer
teams