Beloved Hall of Fame Broadcaster for SF Giants, 49ers and Oakland A's Dies at 91

By Bay City News Service:

The baseball broadcaster who called the 600th homerun of Willie Mays died Sunday at 91.

Lon Simmons started as a Giants’ broadcaster in 1958 when the team moved to San Francisco. He retired temporarily in 1973 and returned for three years in 1976.

From 1981 to 1995 he called Oakland A’s games and then returned to the Giants in 1996 until he retired in 2002. Fans may remember Simmons for his trademark “tell it goodbye” saying when a player hit a home run.

“Hearing his broadcasts ignited my and thousands of others’ passion for Giants’ baseball,” Giants president and CEO Larry Baer said in a statement. “He will be deeply missed by all of us.”

Simmons also broadcast San Francisco 49ers games. For more than 20 years Simmons treated fans to his talents, integrity and humility.

“Whether it was a game-winning touchdown pass from Joe Montana to John Taylor or the miraculous scramble by Steve Young against the Vikings, he brought some of our greatest moments to the world,” San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York said in a statement.

A’s officials said Simmons’s humility and humor made him a beloved person in Oakland As history.

Simmons called the final three outs of the A’s 1989 World Series championship. Simmons’s personality and wit made him one of baseball’s all-time greats, A’s officials said.

In 2004, the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, inducted Simmons into the hall as the Ford C. Frick award winner.

Photo of Lon Simmons courtesy: Oakland Athletics

Video of Lon Simmons throwing out the first pitch in 2013 courtesy: YouTube