By Saam

Saam was born in Fort Worth, Texas, where he attended high school with Ben Hogan.

He was the public address announcer at high school football games and began calling them on the radio even before he graduated.

Moving to WCAU in Philadelphia in 1937, he called Temple, University of Pennsylvania and Villanova football games.

In 1938, Saam became the first full-time voice of the Athletics; he added the Phillies the next year and continued this double duty for 12 seasons.

As luck would have it, the 1950 Phillies won their first National League pennant in 35 years, while the A's finished with the worst record in baseball.

Saam and partner Claude Haring did Athletics games until the team left for Kansas City after the 1954 season.

For this reason, Kalas and Ashburn invited Saam into the booth for the division-clinching game and let him call the last half-inning.

In a book that he started but never finished before his death, he said that he "never felt it would serve any constructive purpose" to criticize umpires, even when it was obvious they'd missed a call.

Campbell recalled that Saam's philosophy in life was "rolling along"; his composure never changed during big wins or losing streaks that seemed to last forever.

Saam was also the first announcer of a nationally televised NFL game on Thanksgiving: he was at the microphone in Detroit on November 26, 1953, when the Lions beat the Green Bay Packers, 34–15.

"[3] (Jerry Coleman made a similar statement about Dave Winfield in a San Diego Padres broadcast.)