Remembering Lon Simmons Andy Dolich with Gil Gross

In memory of the passing of Lon Simmons, Andy Dolich was interviewed by producer Gil Gross of Talk 910 AM, iHeartMedia,

on April 6.

Gross: Speaking of baseball, Opening Day gets a sad moment. In fact, there will be a moment of silence at the Giants game, even though they are playing the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight, because Lon Simmons, longtime announcer of the A's, Giants and the 49ers has passed at the age of 91.

Andy Dolich, former A's executive, who I always think of as probably the main reason we still have the A's in the Bay Area because that was a hurting team until Andy came to it. Andy currently operates a sports consultancy, Dolich and Associates. Andy, good to talk to you. How are you?

Dolich: Good to talk to you, and just listening to all the incredible comments about the spectacular life of Lon Simmons -- knowing Lon, he probably would have said, "Who is this guy they are talking about on the air? I don't know that guy. That's not me."

I just came from a TV interview, and you know that there is no ego in the world of broadcast, right? But here was somebody I always viewed as sort of like Clarence in It's A Wonderful Life. He just had such a joy for the sport, whatever sport he was doing, and all of those people that were part of his family: the fans, the players, the managers, coaches, owners and the people in the front office. Nobody better than Lon.

Gross: You talk about that lack of ego. There was an interview he gave a couple of years ago with the Chronicle and he said people would come up to him and say, "Boy, I used to sneak up to my bedroom with my transistor and fall asleep listening to you," and he said, "Oh, don't worry about that. Everyone fell asleep listening to me." Of course, that was so NOT true!

Dolich: He's like the insider Yogi Berra or Rickey Henderson. There were 1,000 stories that were real about Lon and 2,000 that were made up, but one that I know for sure I haven't heard a lot: it was 1983, I was with the A's, and Roy Eisenhardt, Walter Haas' son-in-law, basically helped put together -- thank you for the kind words -- but Roy Eisenhardt put together the A's when the Haases bought them from Charlie Finley in late '80, and he decided that he was going to pair the "amphetamine" Bill King with the "librium" Lon Simmons.

Every body in the Bay Area said, "Roy, you're completely crazy," and he said, "We'll see," and that become one of the greatest dynamic duos in baseball broadcast history. So Bill gave Lon that wonderful ability to read the out-of-town scores, and you never knew what was going to come out of Lon's mouth. Lon said, "Well here's the score from St. Louis. The Cardinals, with John Stuper, that's John Stuper on the mound, are losing 6-0 to the Reds in the second inning and Stuper is still in one."

Well, I am not sure how many people actually got that, but that was Lon. He wouldn't have cared if three people got it or 300,000 got it. He just said, "John Stuper, he's in it," and today I just looked it up, John Stuper is the baseball coach at Yale University.

Lon worked with so many great people during his time with the Niners, the Giants, the A's, the Warriors, but I didn't know that in 1960, when the United States Olympic hockey team beat Russia in Lake Tahoe, who were the announcers? Lon Simmons and Gordy Soltau.

That totally blew me away because Lon was great friends with Al Michaels and helped bring him into the business and, of course, Al Michaels has one of the five greatest calls in the history of sports: "Do you believe in miracles?"

In 1980 the U.S. beat Russia, not to win the gold medal but for the right to play for it, and 20 years before, in 1960 -- you could look it up -- Lon Simmons and Gordy Soltau were the announcers when the U.S. beat Russia to go to the gold-medal game, which they won against Canada. So Lon also did ice hockey.

He just had this kind of impish way about him and it was never about him. The great broadcasters in sports make you feel as if you're sitting next to them, at your local watering hole, just having a discussion about the game.

Gross: There is almost nothing, especially with baseball, and maybe because it gives you some time, and I know some people complain that maybe the game is half drawn out and a bit too much, but it does give time to not only take perspective but for the broadcaster to be more than, you know, trying to describe more than where the puck is or the basketball, but to have that kind of humanity you either have that to share or you don't, and Lon had that to spare. It was exactly like that. It was like sitting with him and Russ during the Giants or him and Bill doing the A's games -- it was like sitting with your friends. You couldn't be there, but you could turn on this device in your car and be with your friends while you watched the game with them.

Dolich: That talent is so difficult in any kind of entertainment, where he was never the story. The game itself, whether it was Steve Young stumbling, whether it was "way back, way back, tell it goodbye," whether it was any other signature line, it was all about the game. He could bring you in. He could magnetize you to what was happening, and I would just always smile. Bill King waxing poetic about Dostoevsky and the Russian Revolution, and Lon talking about Fresno and what was happening to the prune crop.

You talk about dichotomy, those two guys had it; but what a level of mutual respect. And I don't know that we will ever truly understand how lucky we are to have had him doing 49ers football, A's baseball, Giants baseball, and I think he's the only broadcaster in Bay Area history in 1998 that broadcast two championships in the same season, the A's victory in the Earthquake World Series and the Niners in the Super Bowl.

To hear the complete interview of Andy Dolich with producer Gil Gross, visit iheart.com/show/The-Gil-Gross-Program/?episode_id=27203779.

Longtime sports executive Andy Dolich has more than three decades of experience in the professional sports industry, mostly spent in the San Francisco Bay Area. This includes stints in the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL. He operates his consulting business, Dolich & Associates, in Los Altos. 

A fond  farewell to Lon Simmons Dave Newhouse

The last time I saw Lon Simmons was in September, with the baseball season heading toward autumn and the pro football season beginning its long journey to February. Though 91 and in poor health, Simmons still was heavily into the two sports he had graced with his rich baritone voice.

Leaning back in his care facility bed in Pacifica, his body ravaged with cancer, he was watching the Giants on television. Only he wasn't just watching, but analytically dissecting different facets of the team, starting with manager Bruce Bochy. Simmons confidently predicted the Giants would show up in the postseason.

He was 91 at the time, but his mind still was razor sharp. And the points he made proved true in October as the Giants won their third World Series in five years. But he couldn't quite make it to the next baseball season. He died April 5, the day before the Giants and A's, two teams he was associated with during a Hall of Fame career, officially heard "Play ball."

I had gone to see Simmons to personally thank him for his involvement in a book I was writing, "Founding 49ers: The Dark Days Before the Dynasty," which is due out in late August. Simmons was just as talented an announcer in football as he was in baseball. Thus Bay Area sports teams were fortunate to hear his voice nearly year-round over the last half of the 20th century.

And what a voice! So deep and dramatic, merged with a sharp comedic wit that could surface at any time. Simmons was a combination of Luciano Pavarotti and Billy Crystal. I can't think of another sports announcer I can say that about.

One time in the 1960s, I was driving home from my job at the Oakland Tribune while listening to the Giants getting blown out, something like 18-4. I heard Simmons say, "The bases are loaded again, and I wish I were too."

Another time, longtime Giants announcer Russ Hodges related during a broadcast that he was asked during the opposition's pre-game show how long Willie Mays, then in his 30s, could keep playing. "It could be a long time," Hodges replied. "He has the body of a 25-year-old." A perfect opening for Simmons: "I had the body of a 25-year-old until my wife found out."

Simmons was a happily married man, although, sadly, both his wives passed away far too young. He had two daughters, to whom he was very close. His work became a form of therapy.

His quick sense of humor along with the Voice kept devoted fans of the Giants, A's and 49ers entertained during the peaks and valleys of their franchises' histories. Simmons made the losing somewhat more tolerable.

But it was his baritone delivery that was responsible for the dramatic flair that separated Simmons from other sports announcers. Listen to his calls of Steve Young's playoff touchdown run or Jim Marshall's wrong-way run, which he understood from the moment it began, and you get the idea.

Simmons was so good at his descriptions, he could make you shudder. That happened to me after Willie McCovey returned to the Giants in 1977 for a second run. In his first game back, he hit a ringing double off the wall. And Simmons said, "Welcome back, Stretch." Simple, yet perfect.

All of us who admired Simmons have our favorite memories. Besides his greatness in the booth, he was a kind and gracious man, almost egoless. Though elected to the broadcast wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame, he didn't feel he was Cooperstown-worthy, and he said so publicly. How could a man be so honest, and so wrong, which we told him, to no avail.

Such a good heart, too. If he could do something to help you out, you only had to ask. I was part of a group that put on a Celebration of Bay Area Baseball dinner in the 1980s. Joe DiMaggio came, and so did Lefty Gomez, Joe Morgan, Frank Robinson and Mark Koenig, the last of the 1927 New York Yankees. Simmons agreed to emcee the event, for free.

In my opinion, the best baseball broadcast team in Bay Area history was Simmons and Al Michaels, for two years with the Giants in the early 1970s. Simmons sounded like Pavarotti-Crystal and Michaels sounded like Vin Scully Jr. I remember a specific incident when Giants outfielders Gary Matthews and Garry Maddox got into a scuffle during batting practice. Michaels had both of them on his pre-game show the next day. My respect for Michaels hasn't ever been higher.

I feel the same way about Simmons, who never blew his own horn. When a historic moment was about to occur and it was Simmons' turn to call it, he'd often turn over the mike to a fellow announcer. And that's how Bill King described a Rickey Henderson record stolen base. Simmons was that unselfish and thoughtful.

Lying in his care facility bed, he detailed how the cancer had spread throughout his body in five places. Then he increased the volume on the remote control when Joe Panik came to bat. "I really like that kid Panik," he said. "They've got themselves a good second baseman." Cancer and Panik -- he described both with the same easy casualness.

Just before leaving him that day, I thanked Simmons again for helping me relive those 49er years when the franchise wasn't so great, yet he managed to keep his radio listeners involved regardless. My 49ers book wouldn't be the same without his vivid remembrances.

Goodbye, Lon. We'll all miss you.

Retired Oakland Tribune columnist Dave Newhouse will have two new books

published this year: Founding 49ers: The Dark Days Before the Dynasty, due out in late August, and an as yet untitled Hoosiers-like basketball book,

due out mid-fall.

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