Herb Score: The voice of Cleveland baseball

And that's the obit line on the wire services - Herb Score, pitcher derailed by line drive, dies at 75. But Score had a second career that was even more meaningful to Cleveland baseball fans, as the voice of the Indians on the radio from 1964-97. He was a prevalent voice in my childhood. We didn't know he lacked the polish of contemporaries such as Vin Scully or Ernie Harwell, but he was revered nonetheless in much the same way Harry Caray was in Chicago, but without the bluster and boosterism.

"For so long, until we got good in 1994, Herb was the best thing the Indians had going," said current Indians broadcaster Tom Hamilton, who worked with Score from 1990-97, to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "He was the one constant. Owners, general managers and players all came and went. Herbie never left. He was a star here, and he stayed here. That's why he was such an icon, but he never sought that out."

(Check out some of the priceless recollections of longtime Cleveland sports writers - by Jim Ingraham, Sheldon Ocker, Bill Livingston and Bud Shaw.)

The always understated Score called games on some pitiful Indians teams in the 1970s and 1980s, but the last game he called was Game 7 of the World Series in 1997.

As Shaw wrote Tuesday in the Plain Dealer:

In 1995, when the Indians were clearly ending decades of ineptitude with a truly special season, legendary Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell said, "Herb deserves this."

"I don't deserve it," Score said when told of Harwell's words. "The city deserves it."

It was a small quibble. Cleveland baseball. Herb Score. Same thing.