It will be Hydro Sunday in the Tri-Cities, but July 27 will be Induction Day for Seattle Mariners broadcaster Dave Niehaus.
Make that, "Hall of Fame broadcaster Dave Niehaus."
One of the beautiful features of my portable XM Satellite Radio receiver, the Pioneer Inno, is that you are able to record broadcasts.
On Feb. 19 — the same day Niehaus celebrated his 73rd birthday in style after a call from Cooperstown, N.Y. -- XM's MLB Home Plate channel aired a 2007 interview with the voice of the Mariners.
A few days ago, I had a chance to sit down and listen to the interview with Niehaus that I recorded. Chuck Wilson, former ESPN Radio talent, conducted the interview.
The segment included a classic call, "My, oh my! What a catch by Ichiro!"
Wilson asked Niehaus how he came up that trademark call.
"Well, the 'My, oh my!' is something that just evolved," Niehaus said. "You have to remember that I worked with Dick Enberg, and his expression is 'Oh, My,' but it had nothing to do with my 'My, oh my!' because I had used my 'My, oh my! before Dick used, 'Oh, my.'
"But it's just something that I used when something happens and there's nothing else to say," he continued. "It's (a phrase) used in everyday vernacular, and I used it. But it seemed to be associated with me when I started using it."
Later, Wilson asked about Niehaus' other famed call.
"I always thought that an announcer is probably identified by his homerun call more than any call in baseball," Niehaus said. "One night, I was coming down to spring training about the second or third year of the Mariners, and I was listening to the radio.
"There was this refrain in this song, 'It will fly away. It will fly away.' I told guy that was with, Mike, 'That's exactly what a baseball does. I'm going to try that phrase.'"
A quick search of Google leads me to believe that the song that inspired Niehaus might be Fly Away by Bread, which was released in 1977. (I'm ready to bet my life that it was not Fly Away by Insane Clown Posse).
"The next day, we were playing the San Diego Padres and there were three or four home runs hit, and I used that phrase and it just took off wildfire," Niehaus said with a chuckle, "so it's been kind of my signature home run call all these years."
Niehaus grew up in Princeton, Ind., listening so the late Harry Caray, with the St. Louis Cardinals then, was a major influence.
He worked from 1969 to 1976 for the California Angels when the Mariners hired him in 1977, so it's no coincidence Niehaus cites Dodgers great Vin Scully as someone he learned from.
"He probably was a bigger influence on me than anyone else," Niehaus said.