Thompson, Hall of Fame Announcer, Losing Sight

At a time when baseball was rarely televised, Chuck Thompson’s rumbling radio voice described every stolen base, double play and home run for Baltimore Orioles fans.

That voice is as rich and distinctive now as it was the day he called his first game in April 1955. His enthusiasm for the Orioles has not waned.

Given a choice, the Hall of Fame announcer would never leave the WBAL broadcast booth. Now 79, Thompson continues to do commentary, but he had to stop play-by-play announcing because he can’t read a scorecard or clearly view the action on the field.

He’s an artist who cannot see the canvas.

Thompson is being treated for macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness among the elderly.

“To do play-by-play, you have to have the nerves and the eyes working sharply together because you only have, bang, that quick to see the ball,” Thompson said. “It’s impossible now for me to do that.”

Thompson’s voice and his signature line “Ain’t the beer cold!”-- whenever the Orioles homered or the old Colts football team scored a touchdown--are part of the fabric of Baltimore.

Cal Ripken grew up listening to Thompson’s play-by-play.

“When the Orioles were doing some great things on the field, the excitement and familiarity of his voice just made it that much better,” the Orioles third baseman says. “When I hear his voice now, I’m flooded with memories. He’ll forever be associated in my mind with what was right with the Orioles.”

Fred Manfra, who works with Thompson on WBAL broadcasts, remembers playing with his baseball cards in his bedroom while listening to Thompson on the radio.

“Chuck Thompson was sports in Baltimore as I was growing up,” Manfra says. “I think it’s cruel that the man who was my eyes, whether it be in football or baseball, now is having problems with his own.”

Thompson’s ophthalmologist, Dr. Neil Bressler of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, says the treatment Thompson is receiving might keep the condition from worsening, although there is little hope of reversing it.

Macular degeneration occurs when the center of the retina fills with blood.

Although Thompson can’t describe to listeners exactly how far the shortstop went in the hole to grab a grounder, he still contributes to the WBAL broadcast. Prompted by Manfra or play-by-play announcer Jim Hunter, Thompson might offer an anecdote or an insight that comes from his years in the booth.

‘If something happens that may remind me of something, or a certain pattern becomes obvious to me, we might talk about that,” Thompson said. “I’m just kind of sitting in, I guess, to have the voice heard again on WBAL.”

Hunter, who has known Thompson more than 20 years, finds it easy to bring his part-time partner into the mix.

“It’s enjoyable because the guy still has that great mind and still has the brilliant voice,” Hunter says. “This is a job, but I’m a baseball fan as well. I like to hear those stories.”

But Hunter knows Thompson misses being in the middle of the action.

“His enthusiasm is still there, his love of the game is still there and his love of being at the ballpark is still there,” Hunter says. “But I’ve noticed the frustration. This guy is one of the greats, one of the best ever.

Thompson, was 71 when he received the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting. Since then he has worked up to 25 Orioles games a season.

All he really wants now is to enjoy just one more stint as the No. 1 man in the broadcast booth.

“If my eyes were ever recovered enough to read, you can bet your boots I’d come out to the booth to see if I could do it,” he says. “‘I would do one inning and just the book and go away and forget about it.”