The other night I was listening, briefly, to a hockey game while in my car. The announcers mentioned that the Lightning, in black, were going from left to right. I’ve also heard this in reference to football all the time. So, assuming that the same announcers are not announcing for television, why on earth would this matter to me? I’ve never heard any future reference during the course of the game where this information could be useful.
Any ideas on who started this ridiculous practice and why?
It certainly doesn’t help radio listeners to know that the Lightning are wearing black, either, does it? If the announcers are making a point to include that much information that does no good to people who can’t see the game, I would imagine that they are also broadcasting for television.
The idea is to create a “theater of the mind”. By mentioning which direction a certain team is playing the announcer is trying to help you “see” what he sees. Same thing with uniform colors.
Chick Hearn might have started it- he was at least pretty well-known for having done it. It was at least a little bit of a joke- “Jerry West, moving left to right on your radio dial, crosses halfcourt” etc. etc. Really, though, I don’t see how telling the listeners the direction of play is any different from describing any other part of the action. Since you can’t see it, if it doesn’t affect the score a great move or a big check doesn’t really need to be described as such. But you want to know what’s going on, and it’s the announcers’ job to bring you in on the action. Jersey colors, directions, what the coach is doing, and a whole bunch of other things are just ways for the announcer to do that.
This reminds me of a funny story from a long time ago, when I was younger. I was listening to a basketball game on sports radio, and the announcer used the direction description as has been mentioned.
I immediately thought, “but what if I’m listening from the other side of the stadium?”
One thing I’ve noticed is that most television broadcasts of sports that go up and down a field (i.e. not baseball) have almost all of the cameras on one side of the field. For the duration of a period, your view of the broadcast will be one team advancing toward the left side of your screen and the other toward the right (reversing only when the teams switch sides at a period break). This avoids confusion in viewing so that when the director switches between cameras, the plays will flow in the same direction. There may be a few cameras on the other side of the field , but these are only used on replays and their shots are prominently labeled “reverse angle.”
Radio broacasters at a stadium will be in the press box or broadcast box on one side of the field. In the same way that a television viewer will see an offensive play going from left to right (or vice versa) , a radio broadcaster can verbally describe the same thing from his or her place in the broadcast box. Unless you’re actually in the stadium listening to the game from the opposite side from the broadcaster, it isn’t too confusing.
The hockey announcers in Buffalo NY used to say the following whenever a puck would go into the stands:
"And there’s a souvenir to a young man from [random Buffalo suburb], NY.
It had me exasperated until I was about 20 years old - HOW DID THEY KNOW WHO CAUGHT THE PUCK IN THE STANDS? It was all for fun, as is the radio dial thing.
The part about mentioning a fan as being from some suburb was started by Ernie Harwell I believe.
When he was working for the Tigers, he would look up the names of suburbs of other cities and try to work those in to his broadcasts as well.