Fred James Hoey (May 12, 1884 – November 17, 1949) was an American radio

sports announcer In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present tense. There are two main types of sports broadcast ...

who was the first full-time voice of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. Hoey called games for the

Boston Braves The Boston Braves were a Major League Baseball club that originated in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, and played from 1871 to 1952. Afterwards they moved to History of the Atlanta Braves#Milwaukee, Milwaukee (and became the Milwaukee Braves). ...

from 1925 to 1938 and the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

from 1927 to 1938.

Biography

Hoey was born in

and raised in Saxonville, Massachusetts. At the age of 12, Hoey saw his first baseball game during the 1897

Temple Cup The Temple Cup was a cup awarded to the winner of an annual best-of-seven postseason championship series for American professional baseball from 1894 to 1897. Competing teams were exclusively from the National League, which had been founded in ...

. Hoey would later play

semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a cons ...

baseball and work as an usher at the

Huntington Avenue Grounds Huntington Avenue American League Baseball Grounds is the full name of the baseball stadium that formerly stood in Boston, Massachusetts, and was the first home field for the Boston Red Sox, known informally as the "Boston Americans" before 190 ...

. In 1903, Hoey was hired as a sportswriter, writing about high school sports, baseball, and hockey. In 1924, he became the first publicity director of the

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The t ...

. Hoey began broadcasting

games in 1925 and

games in 1927, becoming the first full-time announcer for both teams. Such double duty would be impossible today. However, in those days, the Braves and Red Sox almost never played at home on the same day. Like most teams, the Braves and Red Sox "recreated" road games in the studio using telegraphed messages from the ballpark rather than have Hoey travel for road play-by-play. In 1933, Hoey was hired by CBS Radio to call Games 1 and 5 of the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

after commissioner

Kenesaw Mountain Landis Kenesaw Mountain Landis (; November 20, 1866 – November 25, 1944) was an American jurist who served as a United States federal judge from 1905 to 1922 and the first Commissioner of Baseball, commissioner of baseball from 1920 until his death. ...

declared that

Ted Husing Edward Britt Husing (November 27, 1901 – August 10, 1962) was an American sports commentator. He was among the first to lay the groundwork for the structure and pace of modern sports reporting on radio and television. Overview Early life an ...

and Graham McNamee could not call World Series games because they did not call any regular season games. Hoey was removed from the CBS broadcasting booth during the fourth inning of Game 1 after his voice went out. Although reported as a cold, Hoey's garbled and incoherent words led many to think that Hoey was drunk. After this incident, Hoey never went to the broadcast booth without a tin of

throat lozenge A throat lozenge (also known as a cough drop, sore throat sweet, troche, cachou, pastille or cough sweet) is a small, typically medicated tablet intended to be dissolved slowly in the mouth to temporarily stop coughs, lubricate, and soothe irri ...

s. His only other national assignment was calling the

1936 Major League Baseball All-Star Game The 1936 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the fourth playing of the mid-summer classic between the all-stars of the American League (AL) and National League (NL), the two leagues comprising Major League Baseball. The game was held on July ...

, played in Boston, for Mutual. After the 1936 season, Hoey was fired by the head of the

Yankee Network The Yankee Network was an American radio network, based in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, with affiliate radio stations throughout New England. At the height of its influence, the Yankee Network had as many as twenty-four affiliated radio stati ...

John Shepard III John Shepard III (March 19, 1886May 11, 1950) was an American radio executive and merchant. Among his many achievements, he was one of the original board members of the National Association of Broadcasters, having been elected the group's first ...

. Baseball fans, including

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

, rallied to his defense. After the 1938 season, Hoey demanded a raise, but the sponsors, despite public pressure, replaced Hoey with former player and manager

Frankie Frisch Frank Francis Frisch (September 9, 1897—March 12, 1973), nicknamed "the Fordham Flash" or "the Old Flash", was an American professional baseball second baseman and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Giants (1919� ...

. After leaving the booth, Hoey covered the Red Sox and Braves in Boston newspapers until 1946. Hoey died in his home in

Winthrop, Massachusetts Winthrop is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 19,316 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Winthrop is an ocean-side suburban town in Greater Boston situated at the ...

, of accidental gas

asphyxiation Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects all the tissues and organs, some more rapidly than others. There are ...

on November 17, 1949.

References

External links

1936 All Star Game Complete Radio Broadcast (Linus Travers and Fred Hoey)
via

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoey, Fred 1884 births 1949 deaths People from Boston People from Framingham, Massachusetts American sports announcers Baseball people from Massachusetts Boston Braves announcers Boston Red Sox announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters Accidental deaths in Massachusetts Deaths from asphyxiation

Biography

References

Further reading

External links