Al Helfer

Who was Al Helfer?

George Alvin Helfer was an American radio sportscaster.

Nicknamed "Mr. Radio Baseball", Helfer worked six World Series, ten All-Star Games, and regular season broadcasts for several teams and the Mutual network. He also did the broadcast of the Army–Navy Game during the 1940s and 1950s, and several Rose Bowl games.

Helfer was born in Elrama, Pennsylvania. He played football and basketball at Washington & Jefferson College, and took his first job as a sports reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after graduation, also working the football games of the Pittsburgh Panthers team for radio station WWSW. He started working on broadcasting recreations of baseball games in 1933 for Pittsburgh Pirates games.

He joined Red Barber as the regular broadcast team of the Cincinnati Reds in 1935. He left Cincinnati to join CBS in 1937, working a few baseball games and a lot of football games. Helfer was reunited with Barber on the Brooklyn Dodgers broadcasts in 1939. They worked together until 1941, when Helfer joined the Navy during World War II.