R.I.P.: Bay Area Sports Broadcaster Lon Simmons

Lon Simmons

Legendary broadcaster Lon Simmons, who introduced generations of Californians to major-league baseball and broadcast the 1989 earthquake-interrupted World Series and the 49ers’ road to Super Bowl XXIII, died at his Daly City home Sunday.

He was 91, according to sfgate.com.

Simmons, who was honored by baseball’s Hall of Fame as the 2004 Ford C. Frick Award winner, had credited the success of Bay Area sports teams with helping him cope with his three-year battle with cancer, especially the Giants’ championship teams and more recently the Warriors.

Featuring a baritone voice and a witty, casual approach, Mr. Simmons was the liaison between the Giants and the fans who listened in their living rooms, backyards or work locales, usually on a transistor radio, to the exploits of players from Willie Mays to Barry Bonds.

Former Giants marketing executive Pat Gallagher, who worked for the team from 1976 until 2009, said Mr. Simmons was as important in Northern California as Vin Scully has been in Southern California.

“He was as important as Mays, McCovey, (Juan) Marichal and (Orlando) Cepeda in developing the relationship fans had with the Giants during the formative years,” Gallagher said. “This was the first time many of those people had experienced major-league baseball. It’s not like they grew up with it. The guy they grew up with and who brought it to them was Lon Simmons.”

Gallagher said Simmons’ departure from Giants broadcasts in 1979 led to a major shift. Before that, radio stations employed the broadcasters. Simmons left after a tiff with the KNBR station manager and joined the A’s. After that, the Giants insisted on hiring and employing the broadcasters so something like that wouldn’t recur.

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