Lon Simmons, Bay Area sportscaster, dead at 91

Legendary broadcaster Lon Simmons, who introduced generations of Californians to major-league baseball and broadcast the 1989 earthquake-interrupted World Series and the 49ers’ road to Super Bowl XXIII, died at his Daly City home Sunday. He was 91.

Mr. Simmons, who was honored by baseball’s Hall of Fame as the 2004 Ford C. Frick Award winner, had credited the success of Bay Area sports teams with helping him cope with his three-year battle with cancer, especially the Giants’ championship teams and more recently the Warriors.

Featuring a baritone voice and a witty, casual approach, Mr. Simmons was the liaison between the Giants and the fans who listened in their living rooms, backyards or work locales, usually on a transistor radio, to the exploits of players from Willie Mays to Barry Bonds.

SNIP

Known for his self-deprecation and classic “you can tell it goodbye” home run call, Mr. Simmons teamed with Russ Hodges on Giants broadcasts when the team moved to San Francisco in 1958 and worked through 1973, then returned to the booth in 1976 for three more years and again from 1996 to 2002.

http://www.sfgate.com/sports/shea/article/Lon-Simmons-Bay-Area-broadcasting-legend-dead-6180395.php

Lon was awesome ... very much a part of my early years in San Francisco. Bill King too.