dead men tell no tales...

Holy Toledo. Rest in Peace, Bill.

Bill King [wikipedia] was the voice of the Oakland A's for 24 years, almost my entire life. His voice, his style, and most of all his attitude absolutely screamed "Oakland A's." There will never be an announcer as Green and Gold as Bill King has been for two and a half decades.

The sports world lost a great man today. I don't know about the rest of you... but I'm in mourning...

Blez at Athletics Nation got it right:

Somehow I imagine King would've been able to say something right now to make us laugh.

And all we can do is cry.

UPDATE 3:55pm - Others commenting:

• BayAreaRadio.org
• Late Night Blogger
• Athletic Supporters
• Moonlit Jazz
• Elephants in Oakland
• The Seventh Inning Stretch

UPDATE 10/19 2:56pm - Baseball Prospectus has a nice piece up about King. Snip:

Even more importantly, King was honest with us. Just this year, when Korach mentioned MLB's plan to switch the DH rule in interleague play, King called the idea "Selig logic," a phrase, he explained, that is an oxymoron. Even with the A's out of the race late in September, he went so far as to call a slow-responding umpire a "jackass" on air. Larry Krueger would have gotten himself fired for a remark like that, but King drew applause. He was notorious for his exasperated disdain for all umpires and he made no bones about it, pointedly criticizing every missed call to the delight of his listeners and colleagues.

It's a tribute to his appetite for self-education that his vocabulary was large enough to avoid the kind of hackneyed repetition all too common today. He had but one signature phrase--"Holy Toledo!"--that was divided between A's and opponents alike, a result of King's love of the game of baseball perfected.

posted by Steve  # 3:25 PM