Announcer Terry Kielty re-created live baseball from his desk in Ottawa

Broadcaster Terry Kielty, who died in Ottawa on May 5 at the age of 86, helped bring live broadcasts of big league baseball to Ottawa-area fans that were hungry for game-day action featuring such stars as Jackie Robinson, Al Kaline and Norm Cash. And what’s more, from the late 1950s to the mid-60s, he brought the play-by-play into local living rooms even when he couldn’t be at the games. On weekends, when his employer, CFRA radio in Ottawa, covered major league baseball’s Brooklyn Dodgers and Detroit Tigers, Kielty would travel to Tiger Stadium in Detroit or Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to handle the broadcasts. But when travel was too expensive, as when an away game was too distant, he’d do the game from the CFRA studio. He did it by “re-creating” the games from a tickertape service that updated each ball and strike but offered few other details. He and his engineer would add sound effects like the crack of the bat and crowd noise recorded at earlier games. He’d also invent colour, describing fans scurrying to pick up a foul ball he’d read about on the tape or describing how a home run sailed into the outfield seats.