For those of us in the Pacific Northwest – even those who weren’t baseball fans – Dave Niehaus was the soundtrack to our summers, the beloved voice of the Seattle Mariners since their inaugural season in 1977 when the great Danny Kaye, owner of the Ms at the time, stole Dave from the California Angels to come ply his trade in the Kingdome.

It took 15 long years before the Ms had a winning season – in fact at times, they were awful. And yet, the franchise consistently ranked among the league leaders in radio and TV audience. In 1995, they shocked the world by beating the New York Yankees on an Edgar Martinez double remembered to this day as much for the call as the hit – “Here is Junior to third base, they’re going to wave him! The throw to the plate will be late! The Mariners are going to play for the American League Championship! I don’t believe it!”

Dave would call a total of 5,284 games for the Ms, contributing such singular catchphrases as “My oh my!,” “Swung on and belted!,” “Fly fly away!” and, of course, perhaps the most creative call in Major League history, “Get out the rye bread and mustard, Grandma, it is grand salami time!”

But Dave gave us so much more than catchphrases. He was one of us, an unabashed and irrepressible fan, a lover of the game, a student of its history, a consummate professional and simply one of the best sportscasters baseball has ever known.

And in 2008, Dave made it to Cooperstown. The National Baseball Hall of Fame awarded Dave the Ford C. Frick Award, the industry’s highest honor.

The Northwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences gives David Arnold Niehaus our highest honor, the Governors’ Award. If our Chapter had a street to name after him, we would do that. And if we could build him a statue, we’d probably do that too. But this evening, the Emmy statue will do just fine.