When the Giants Come to Town It's Bye Bye Baby
Watching Aubrey Huff's clutch 9th inning home run on Television set to tie the Padres in San Diego Thursday nighttime I enjoyed Duane Kuiper'south dramatic call, "It's outta here!" And when the Giants finished batting in the ninth inning the station replayed Huff's Hr before going to commercial with the familiar chords of "Good day bye baby!"
All long-time Giants fans know "Bye farewell babe" as the Giants battle hymn going dorsum to the '60s. It was based on Giants' announcer Russ Hodges signature home run call. Just what you may not know is Russ use to say, "Good day goodbye babe" when the other team also hit a home run. It was actually overwhelming feedback from Giants fans who fabricated "Bye cheerio baby" the signature call for Giants' HRs. Here'due south the story behind "Goodbye bye infant" as told by Russ Hodges(*) himself:
"Everybody in my business organization has a favorite expression, and sometimes it catches on beyond his wildest dreams. That's what happened to Mel Allen'south "How about that?" which has become part of the American language. Whenever somebody on the Giants hits a abode run, I say, "Bye bye baby," and our fans have picked it up and fabricated information technology their ain. Information technology's a battle cry, which whatever western follower of the Giants instantly recognizes, and nosotros now even have a song based on information technology.
This tune, which was conceived i day in 1962 by Aaron Edwards, a popular KSFO announcer, is hardly a classic in the mold of "On Wisconsin" or "The Washington Post March," but it doesn't sound bad when it's played loudly plenty and it's easy to sing. People at Candlestick Park become plenty of chances to sing it because whenever something adept happens to the guild, Lloyd Pull a fast one on belts it out on the organ weekdays while Del Courtney and his band play it on Sundays.
I'd been using the term "Bye good day baby" for habitation runs since 1954, but New Yorkers never adopted it. To them it was just another pet expression by a sports' journalist, such as many of us have. Mel Allen calls a home run by saying "Information technology'southward going-going-gone." Harry Caray in St. Louis says, "It might exist-it could be- it is a home run." Curt Gowdy in Boston says, "Run into ya after," and Vince Scully in Los Angeles starts describing the length of the bulldoze, then says, "Forget it, it'due south gone."
So it wasn't I who made "Cheerio adieu infant" famous on the West Coast, but the fans of San Francisco. I had always chosen every home run that way, whether hit by one of the Giants or somebody on the other team. When I came to San Francisco, I assumed I'd simply go on right on doing it.
The first habitation run on opening mean solar day in 1958 was hit past Daryl Spencer in the fourth inning. As the ball went into the stands, I said, "Adieu bye infant," just as I always had in New York. Orlando Cepeda hit 1 in the fifth, and I said it again. I didn't think much about it either time.
The side by side solar day, Knuckles Snider of the Dodgers came upward in the third inning and belted a tremendous shot over the right field fence, which veteran observers said was the longest dwelling run ever hit at Seals Stadium. The minute it left the bat we all knew it was gone, and I yelled, "Bye bye baby." A little afterward Dick Gray striking 1 for the Dodgers, so I said information technology again.
Before the game was over, we began getting phone calls from fans objecting to my using "Bye bye babe" in describing Dodgers' homers. When I stopped in at the studio later, I found out that people had been calling up all afternoon about it, and the next day nosotros had an accented overflowing of letters.
"If yous're going to say 'Goodbye adieu babe' at all," a woman wrote from Marin County, "utilize it merely for our side. We don't want to hear it when somebody else hits 1."
Her letter of the alphabet was typical of the hundreds that came in. And so when I went to the ballpark that day, I saw my duty and I did it. Gino Cimoli of the Dodgers hit one out of the park in the second inning and I simply called it a home run. But when Bob Schmidt of the Giants banged one in the quaternary, I gleefully howled, "Farewell cheerio baby." I guess everybody was happy, considering the mail was predominantly favorable."
And that's how "Bye bye baby" was officially born every bit the sectional home run call of the San Francisco Giants on Th, April 17 during the tertiary game of the 1958 flavor. And the Giants beat the Dodgers vii-4.
(*) Russ Hodges and Al Hirschberg,
My Giants
(Doubleday, Garden Metropolis, NY: 1963) pp. 168-169.
Source: https://punkyg.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/its-outta-here-and-the-birth-of-bye-bye-baby/
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