by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–Lon Simmons passed this past April 5th, here in the Bay Area on MLB Opening Night and Easter Day. Lon was 91 years old. One of the truly great broadcasters of the time when there was no Internet, when people listen to each baseball game on the radio, no distractions, no e-mails, Instagram,Twitters, text messages. Lon Simmons broadcasted for the San Francisco Giants, the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Athletics, on a long and very distinguished Hall of Fame career of over 50 years on the radio.

In either 1997 or 1998, while traveling with the San Francisco Giants, while we were at Montreal Olympic Stadium, Montreal Canada. Lon (who always had a great sense of humor) told me prior to the game; “do you want me to read your disclaimer for you broadcast in French?” Our booth was next to that of the Expos French radio broadcaster Jaques Doucet. Lon was a storyteller, not only on the radio during the games, but also if you sat with him he always had a story. My favorite all-time singer was Frank Sinatra and I remember once telling Lon about that, he told he met Sinatra in the 1960’s during some-kind of sporting event with athletes from different sports, as well as personalities, including then golfer great Ken Venturi, who by the way was born in San Francisco.

During the last few years when he lived in Maui, Hawaii, and during Christmas I would sent him a Christmas card. He will always call a few days before Christmas to thank me, and right away he told me almost like in apologetic way, that he didn’t write anymore. My wife has a baseball signed by many Major League broadcasters, and Lon was one of the first ones to sign it, she always tells me with a smile.

Today, in a culture, where everybody wants to be famous, just for the sake of being famous, a world of reality television shows, and where you see people sitting next to each other, not talking, but texting and doing everything except communicating verbally, Lon Simmons was a treasure, a real broadcaster who could communicate and could establish a special relationship with the audience. When you broadcast baseball, a sport with so many games, a sense of humor is very important. But a genuine and spontaneous sense of humor is even more precious, and Lon Simmons had that. A baseball broadcast should me more than statistics, it should be fun and entertaining. There is no school for that.

Rest in Peace Lon.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez will be paying tributes to Lon Simmons this week, Amaury is the Spanish TV voice for the Angels and the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and does News and Commentary on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

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