Passing: Herb Carneal, Hall of Fame Broadcaster & Longtime "Voice of the Twins"

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MINNEAPOLIS, April 1 (AP) — Herb Carneal, a member of the broadcasters’ wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame who broadcast Minnesota Twins games for the past 45 seasons, died Sunday in Minnetonka, Minn. He was 83.

The cause was congestive heart failure, the Twins said.

Carneal was part of the Twins’ radio play-by-play team for all but the first year of the team’s existence in Minnesota. He called Athletics and Phillies games in Philadelphia and Orioles games in Baltimore before coming to Minnesota in 1962, a year after the Washington Senators became the Twins.

Carneal received the Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award for major contributions to baseball broadcasting in 1996.

With his understated style and Southern drawl, he became synonymous with broadcasts on WCCO-AM and affiliates on the team’s radio network throughout the Upper Midwest.

Garrison Keillor once wrote a tune for one of his “Prairie Home Companion” shows titled “Porch Song.” In that tribute to summer’s simple pleasures, Keillor included this stanza:

Just give me two pillows and a bottle of beer
And the Twins game on radio next to my ear.
Some hark to the sound of the loon or the teal
But I love the voice of Herb Carneal.

Carneal is survived by his daughter, Terri, and a grandson. His wife, Kathy, died in 2000.