June 16: How about That?

Mel Allen (Melvin Allen Israel), the “Voice of the Yankees” for more than three decades, died on this date in 1996. Allen was raised in a religious Jewish household in Birmingham, Alabama. He did the play-by-play in his mellifluous Southern drawl for 22 World Series on radio and television, including 18 in a row from 1946 to 1963 — but he lost his voice in that last year, when the Dodgers swept the Yankees in four games, two of them won by Sandy Koufax. Allen was also selected to call 24 All-Star games during his career. He was the broadcaster during Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak (1941) and Roger Maris’ 61-home-runs year (1961), and he introduced Lou Gehrig prior to his “Today, I am the luckiest man in the world” farewell speech. Allen assigned the nicknames “Joltin’ Joe” to Dimaggio and “Scooter” to Phil Rizutto. Rumors that he was gay (he never married and lived with his parents or his sister for most of his life) peaked when the Yankees fired him in 1964, but sportswriter Maury Allen insists that Mel Allen was asexual, “a neuter,” interested only in talking about baseball and broadcasting. He was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame in 1972 and into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1988.

“Mel, I never got a chance to listen to your games before, because I was playing every day. But I want you to know they’re the only thing that keeps me going.” —Lou Gehrig

Listen to Mel Allen and Red Barber discuss the epic fourth game of the 1947 World Series between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees: