Alone in a recording studio, with only pieces of telegraphic ticker tape in his hand, nobody could re-create the feel of a baseball game like Jack Graney.

Graney, the radio and later television broadcaster for the Cleveland Indians from 1932-53, worked much of his airtime in an era when mikemen did not accompany teams on their road trips. But as the first professional ballplayer turned broadcaster, Graney could often evoke his photographic memories of American League ballparks to paint tangible scenes for his listeners.

“When he talked you could smell the resin in the dugouts, feel the clean smack of the ball against bat and see the hawkers in the stands,” wrote Bob Dolgan of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “He made baseball sound like a sport.”

A native of St. Thomas, Ont., Graney was an outfielder and career .250 hitter over 14 seasons with the Indians. He experienced a number of firsts in the game, including being the first batter to face Babe Ruth as a pitcher in 1914, and the first to appear in a regular season game with a uniform number two years later. In 1920, Graney would help Cleveland capture its first World Series championship.

After retiring from the playing field in 1922, Graney briefly managed a Western League team in Des Moines, Iowa, and then opened a Ford dealership in Cleveland. When the Great Depression struck, Graney was nearly broke and in need of additional work to support his family. He joined radio station WHK in 1932, taking the bold step as the first former ballplayer to step into the broadcast booth and blazing a path for many greats like future Frick Award winners Jerry Coleman, Joe Garagiola and Bob Uecker.