Review Fix Remembers Warner Fusselle

With the passing of legendary baseball announcer Warner Fusselle yesterday, Review Fix Editor-In-Chief Patrick Hickey Jr. digs into his archives for a 2006 piece he wrote about Fusselle while he was covering the Brooklyn Cyclones.

One of the greatest play-by-play announcers in Baseball history, America’s pastime, radio and television are without an icon with his passing.

This piece was a softer one, which chronicles Fusselle’s love of music, as well as providing a background on how music and baseball were so closely connected to him.

Anyone that knows anything about the Brooklyn Cyclones or baseball history knows that Warner Fusselle is the former voice of “This Week in Baseball” and the only play-by-play announcer the Mets-Single-A Affiliate has ever known.

But many haven’t the slightest idea that one of the biggest passions of the Louisville, Kentucky-native’s life is music.

“I’ve always been interested in music and I have all of the records I ever got since I was a little baby child,” said Fusselle. “I think I have the best music record collection that I have ever seen. I mean some people have more records than I do; some disc jockeys have more, but I have about 15,000 albums and records. I’ve got sports and rock mostly, but I have a little bit of every type of music and because of that I was contacted by a record company and I put out a couple of records, ‘Baseball’s Greatest Hits’ and ‘Baseballs Greatest Hits: Lets Play Two’ and then a video and a book came out of that.”

As a youngster, Fusselle spent much of his adolescent days listening to Harry Caray and Jack Buck calling St. Louis Cardinal games on KMOX radio in the 60’s, but also developed a love for rock n roll and the blues. However, despite his love for music, Fusselle unfortunately could never master an instrument and recollected how painful his childhood experiences were with the piano.

“I couldn’t do that [play any instruments],” said Fusselle. “I took piano for a few years, I tried to play piano, but I didn’t like it. I probably shouldn’t say this, but one of the ten happiest days of my life was when my piano teacher recommended I quit playing.”

Spending a majority of the Cyclones season on the road, Fusselle sometimes has the time to kick back and enjoy some music and loves every second of it.

“It’s funny, I don’t like to put the headphones on when I’m on the bus” said Fusselle. “I carry around all my CDs with me and it seems every year I would have all of these CDs, but every time I pull out Pink Floyd and I listen to it over and over and never get tired of it. On the bus late at night, I get tired and put some Pink Floyd on and get comfortably numb.”

Fusselle is even playing to go to a Pink Floyd concert later this month, but that’s only if the Cyclones season is over. If not, he’ll be right back up in the cat bird seat calling all of the action for everyone to enjoy.

“I want to go,” said Fusselle. “But see, it’s either that or if the Cyclones are in the playoffs, there could be a championship game and certainly I would pick that. That’s just a back up for September 13. It’s Roger Waters, who was in Pink Floyd and he’s going to do his concert and the second act he’s going to perform the entire album, ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon,’ which is one of the greatest albums ever and sounds like something I’ve got to see.”

With the Cyclones currently in the playoffs, Fusselle may not be able to see Waters perform, but he will be able to grace thousands more with a play-by-play performance that can’t be heard anywhere else.