Fly, Fly Away

In my years spent away from home, the fear of being thousands of miles away and losing a family member is terribly unsettling.  Last night this haunting thought turned to reality.  We lost a man who would join my family for nearly every Easter, 4^th of July and Labor Day celebration and would often visit us on a lazy summer evening on the back porch. 

He was usually in the corner of the room and was always heard but never seen.  He was not just a part of my family, but a grandfather figure to an entire region.  And yesterday, after over 30 years of serving as the play-by-play announcer of the Seattle Mariners, Dave Neihaus was found dead after suffering a heart attack

Neihaus in the press box of the Kingdome

The news spread like a wild fire.  First by a text, then facebook status updates and only a few minutes later the unthinkable was confirmed by Komo 4 news.   The convoy of texts and phone calls that followed the news would have made Tiger Woods’ phone jealous.  It was as if every friend, family member and acquaintance from the Northwest that had ever heard of baseball felt the need to share their grieving in the wake of Neihaus’s sudden death.

And why wouldn’t they? 

He was the man who announced the Mariner’s first game in 1977 and spent the last 34 years doing the same.  

He was a man who had a way of making a game in mid September between two last place teams feel like Game 7 of the World Series - and in five decades of covering the Mariners there were all too many games featuring last place teams. 

He was the man who replaced bedtime stories on so many summer nights as he spoke right to me through my old Sony bedside radio. 

And he was the man who saved baseball in the Northwest as he magically articulated the 1995 miracle run in a way that captured the hearts of baseball fanatics and turned non-baseball fans into diehards.

In an era when loyalty and commitment have become the laughing stalk of professional sports, Neihaus stayed tucked away in his quiet corner of the country and embodied these forgotten ideals doing what he loved.  And “my oh my” how we loved him.  Fly, fly away to a better place Dave Neihaus... you are Seattle Mariners baseball... a legend... an icon... and will always be a part of the family!