Jim Woods

James McCarthy Woods (October 22, 1916 – February 20, 1988) was an American sportscaster, best known for his play-by-play work on Major League Baseball broadcasts.

Biography

Early life Woods was born in Kansas City, Missouri. When only four years old, he became the mascot for the Triple-A baseball Kansas City Blues; and when only eight, the team's batboy and reader of scores on local radio. He attended the University of Missouri for a year before taking a job at KGLO in Mason City, Iowa. In 1939, he replaced Ronald Reagan as the Iowa Hawkeyes football announcer.

Woods joined the U.S. Navy in 1942, where he spent four years as a Chief Petty Officer on the Navy War Bond circuit, working with stars such as Farley Granger, Dennis Day and Victor Mature. After the war he joined WTAD radio in Quincy, Illinois, where he spent two years before moving to Atlanta as an announcer for the Triple-A Atlanta Crackers, replacing Ernie Harwell.

Broadcasting career

New York Yankees, New York Giants and NBC In 1953, Woods was hired to call New York Yankees games alongside Mel Allen and Joe E. Brown. He was fired after the 1956 season when sponsor Ballantine Beer wanted to make room for former Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto. Yankee general manager George Weiss was opposed to this, and told Woods apologetically it was the only time he had to fire someone for no reason at all.

In 1957, Woods called both New York Giants games with Russ Hodges and the NBC Game of the Week with Lindsey Nelson and Leo Durocher. The Giants moved to San Francisco after the season, without Woods; Giants owner Horace Stoneham wanted someone who knew the Bay Area to work alongside Hodges. This marked the second time within a period of two years in which Woods was dismissed by a club for different reasons that had nothing to do with any fault of his own.