An Asheville, North Carolina native, Messer was a member of the Marines during World War II in the South Pacific.

[2] He got his major-league break when he joined the Baltimore Orioles and worked alongside their noted longtime voice, Chuck Thompson.

The Yankees' longtime public-relations director Bob Fishel had urged team management to approve a traditional play-by-play sportscaster, which the Yanks had not had since the firing of Red Barber after the 1966 season.

The Yankee broadcast crew gained its best known incarnation in 1971, when Messer and Rizzuto were joined by former St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Bill White,[9] a replacement for Bob Gamere[10] (who'd been brought in when Coleman moved to the West Coast after the 1969 season).

While Messer was relegated to radio for his final year, the trio still provided the third-longest three-man combination in New York sports history, (behind the original New York Mets crew of Lindsey Nelson, Ralph Kiner and Bob Murphy, and their current crew of Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez).

Messer was acclaimed by critics and fans both for his straight-shooting play calling on radio and TV, and by the club for his effectiveness promoting team events.

One of Messer's signature phrases at the end of his last inning before switching booths from radio to TV (or vice versa) was "(Announcer) will carry you along the rest of the way.

While White did the whole game bouncing between WABC and SportsChannel, Messer and Rizzuto rotated between TV, radio and the Fan Appreciation Day giveaways on the field between innings.

After Brett rounded the bases, Yankees manager Billy Martin (at the suggestion of his protégé, third baseman Graig Nettles) came out of the dugout and urged home-plate umpire Tim McClelland to measure the amount of pine tar on Brett's bat, citing an obscure rule that stated the pine tar on a bat could extend no further than 18 inches.

Messer's final Yankee broadcast was the last game of the 1985 regular season when he called the play-by-play of Phil Niekro's 300th win.

Even after John Sterling and Michael Kay took over the introduction of players in the late 1990s, Messer was still the event "host" through 2000, greeting the Stadium fans before turning over the rest of the show to his successors.

[16] Messer died at his Deerfield Beach, Florida home on November 13, 2001, aged 76, from complications of heart problems and lupus.