Local Sports

‘It’s been a blessing’

Ames continues to bring knowledge and enthusiasm to his radio broadcasts

FALCONER -- As is his custom in all things, Tom Ames came prepared earlier this week.

While he cooked dinner -- rigatoni; marinara sauce and meatballs (made from scratch by a friend); and fresh broccoli -- in his Hickory Street home for him and a guest, he made sure he had room for a "cheat sheet" on the kitchen island.

It was not a recipe, mind you, but a figurative "road map" that listed the highlights of what has become a lifelong broadcasting hobby, one he first dreamed about when he was in grade school at nearby Northside Elementary, and where he became "fascinated" by a microphone that was positioned on the the auditorium stage.

"I always wished I could get a speaking part (during) those little Christmas concerts," he recalled, "(but) I was such a horribly behaved student that they would never let me do such a thing."

Upon reaching seventh grade at Falconer Central School, however, Ames found himself helping out in the press box during football games and, the next year, he took over as the public-address announcer, an avocation that continued until he graduated in 1979.

"For some reason," he said in between bites of pasta, "I liked the reproduction of sound in my own voice," he said.

Decades later, sports fans in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties continue to be the beneficiaries.

------

Tonight, Ames will be in the Strider Field press box where he'll provide the radio play-by-play for the Hutch Tech-Jamestown football game on WJTN (1240 AM). By his estimates, he has been on the radio call for more than 300 area high school football games since 2000. Toss in more than 350 high school basketball broadcasts, a brief stint calling games on local cable television, and describing the action for about a dozen St. Bonaventure University men's basketball games, and one can argue that there is not a more recognizable voice in local sports broadcasting than the 64-year-old owner of Ames Insurance in Falconer.

"Dan Fischer (the former general manager at WKSN 1340) was key," Ames said. "He would come to Strider Field when I first started doing it and he would stand behind me and listen. Every time there was a commercial break, he would tell me what I did right and what I did wrong, and he would always say, 'The radio is the theater of the mind. You have to continually paint the picture over and over again, make them see what you see with your words.'"

And, man, has Ames seen plenty.

"It's just dumb luck that I'm living in a community that has a radio station that cares so deeply about local stories and local sports," he said. "Then you get drawn in, especially when you do high school. You're drawn to the kids. ... They're (playing) for the love of the game. ... It's just a tremendous honor to call these games over all these years."

The memories, he maintains, will never fade.

"It's the trips," Ames said. "We've been to Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Glens Falls, Saratoga, Hudson Valley (Community College). ... Because you're so isolated, you're only thinking about broadcasting and, of course, eating at the finest restaurant that you can find."

That doesn't mean that all broadcasts have been without their challenges.

For example, there was the 2014 excursion that Ames and Hall-of-Fame coach Bill Race, his radio partner back then, made to Kenmore West High School for a Jamestown football game.

"There was no phone line available in that press box, which was built like a World War II bomb shelter," Ames said. "So, I got an idea before we left (for the game) and I ran it by Andrew Hill, (WJTN's) station manager. I said, 'There's a street and houses right behind the stadium and press box. I'm going to bring about 300 feet of telephone wire and I'm going to bribe one of these (residents) with $50 to let me use their phone.'"

Accompanied by Race, Ames went door to door. Everyone in the neighborhood declined to help, except one, who lived in the last house on the block.

"I knocked on the door and a woman answered it," Ames said. "I told her what I wanted to do and she said, 'Well, I'll have to check with my son.'"

The son gave the figurative greenlight, prompting Ames and Race to walk into the kitchen and remove the telephone from the wall, plug their telephone wire in, throw the wire out the window, run it down the women's driveway, toss it over a chain-link fence and, ultimately, into the press box.

"After I was done hooking it up, she asked if she could use her phone that afternoon," Ames recalled. "I said, 'No, ma'am, you cannot use your phone this afternoon. Use your cellphone.' Knowing that, it clued me in that she didn't really know what was going on, but her son said it was OK, so she took the $50."

Money well spent.

------

By his estimation, Ames has worked with 40 different people on game broadcasts through the years, most recently Jim Brown and Derek Abbey.

Noted Brown, who joined Ames and Race on broadcasts in the fall of 2014: "The word generous is what I think of with Tom. Between Tom and Coach, you can't buy a drink or food, and he's also just as generous on the radio. He leads the broadcast, but lets the color guy get involved. ... We are later-life friends, but I consider Tom one of my 'fox-hole' guys. He's a great broadcaster and friend."

Abbey joined the broadcast team when Race decided to step away about five years ago.

"Tom told me all he needed was a stats guy and that I didn't need to talk," Abbey said, "but he eventually talked me into it.

"He would 'feed' me. He knew right off the bat that I didn't want to talk, but he knew he was going to get me over the fear. ... It became like talking to a friend. After a while you just forget you're on the radio."

Gary Kindberg of Jamestown and Doug Berlin of Clymer have appreciated Ames' on-air talents for years.

"When you listen to Tom on the radio, he comes right through the speaker," Kindberg said. "When you watch him broadcast, he's animated and exciting, as if he's on television. He's a foodie, he's educated, he's a lifelong sports fan and he's extremely generous."

Berlin, who was "raised on the radio" in the early 1960s, especially favored broadcasters Mel Allen for the New York Yankees; Pat Summerall and Al DeRogatis for the New York Giants; and Johnny Most for the Boston Celtics.

"These men did not merely provide play-by-play and statistics, they painted pictures for a young listener to actually 'see' the action,'" said Berlin, whose favorite broadcaster was Most, the "ultimate homer, and I say that with complete love and affection."

He added: "I would rather sit in my car at the top of the hill to get staticky reception of Most doing the Celtic games on WBZ Radio than watch it on TV. That is exactly the way I feel about a Tom Ames broadcast. Offer me free tickets to a Jamestown basketball or football game ... and I will politely decline so I can listen to Tom on the radio. He brings a knowledge and enthusiasm rarely heard on a sports broadcast and, even though Tom is an unashamed 'homer' -- again said with love and affection -- his knowledge of and credit given to the opposition is impressive."

------

Ames admits that he has to be "sort of an auctioneer" during a broadcast.

"You have to speak quickly and articulately, and sometimes that, for me, is the 'eighth wonder of the world,' but once in a while I pull it off."

Like the time he was doing play-by-play of a football game at his high school alma mater, and he offered a play selection on the air, specifically designed for running back Cody Spicer.

"They had a bunch of success running to the outside on these sweeps, and Falconer kind of got away from it at the time," Ames recalled. "I said, 'You know what they need right now? They need to run a sweep to that far side of the field.'

"The play came in, they ran a sweep to the far side of the field and, as Spicer was on his way to the end zone, I screamed, 'I'm a GENIUS.'"

On headsets with Ames that evening were his buddies, Cecil Miller and Bob Storms.

"As soon as I said that, they both instantly threw their headsets onto the counter and sprinted into the (other) room, because they couldn't stop laughing."

Ultimately, Ames has been the one to have the figurative last laugh as he's continued to enjoy his time talking into a microphone.

"The Lord works in mysterious, mysterious ways, and I've got a good hobby out of it," he said. "... It's been a blessing."

Ames has been a blessing to his listeners, too.

"As a sports fan," Berlin said, "I listen to many broadcasts of many different sports around the country and I will gladly put Mr. Ames up against any of them."