In the mid-50s, living in an American League city, my fellow pre-teen 'hood buddies and I were starved to see NLers like Mays, Musial, Spahn, etc. NLers just seemed more colorful and cool, notwithstanding the Yanks and Ted Williams. The Game of the Week wasn't piped in, so the only time we got to see the NL was the WS and the All-Star game.
Anyway, a guy named Nat Allbright broadcast Dodger games on AM radio. We were all ears when he came on, thrilling to the sound of the crack of the bat, ball hitting the catcher's mitt, and all the described action. But it turned out that Allbright was just a more polished version of Ronald Reagan who did the same thing with Cubs' games two decades earlier. Allbright merely re-created telegraph reports. And he was good, I mean it seemed like he was actually at the park, with the sound effects and all. Recall one incident in which the Cincinnati mgr. came out to change pitchers, looked toward the bullpen, and threw a bodybuilder's double bicep shot to signify that he wanted the pitcher who was apparently very muscular.
Talk about creativeness; talk about imagination. He apparently even did the beer and cigarette commercials pretending to be someone else.
Before each game, per FCC rules, it had to be stated that it was a re-creation but I don't recall this disclaimer and probably wouldn't have understood its meaning if I had heard it.
But the real clincher to this fakery is that I didn't learn about it until going online ... 40+ years later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Al...ame_recreation
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