Maaarvelous

Bob Murphy broadcast New York Mets games from the team's inception in 1962 until his retirement at the end of last season.

I have been listening to this man's voice my entire life.

As a kid, I'd listen to Mets games in bed, with an earpiece plugged into my AM clock radio. The pitching staff was Seaver, Koosman and Matlack. The announcer was Bob Murphy.

I've lived in the Philadelphia area since college and I've never been able to tune in WFAN on an indoor radio down here. But I can usually get it in my car. Before I started working nights, that meant lots of summer evenings in a parked car with the windows down, listening to Murphy and the Mets — from the first pitch all the way to the (hopefully) "happy recap."

There was something reassuring about hearing Murphy recite even the ads during a Mets broadcast. Like Murphy himself, those ads hadn't change much over the decades either. "With the crack of the bat you're ahead of the crowd in your stylish Members Only jacket …" It was almost liturgical.

Bob Murphy died yesterday at 79. Here's the happy recap.