Legendary Baseball Broadcaster Lon Simmons Dies At Age 91

Baseball has lost legendary Hall of Fame broadcaster Lon Simmons, who died at age 91 Sunday.

Simmons called San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics and San Francisco 49ers games in a career spanning five decades.

On April 14, 1962, Simmons called a Giants game at Candlestick Park against the Cincinnati Reds: 

"One down, bases empty. Four-four ball game, bottom of the third. Next pitch to Cepeda. There's one, you can tell that goodbye. That's way out of here. Way back into the seats in left field as Cepeda gets his second home run."

The Giants went on to win the National League penant that year, but lost the World Series to the New York Yankees in seven games.

Simmons was part of the Giants' original broadcast team for the 1958 season when they relocated from New York to San Francisco.

He retired from sports broadcasting in 2002 and was honored at the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2004.

Before his big league broadcasting career, Simmons served in the US Coast Guard and pitched a single game for the Philadelphia Phillies minor league team. Simmons also worked as a disc jockey in Marysville and Yuba City, where he also volunteered as a play-by-play announcer for high school sports teams.

-Capital Public Radio Staff