Two Announcers Did the Unthinkable

For seven years, a familiar voice has resonated across a baseball diamond in Madison, South Dakota. It is a voice that has found inspiration in so many places….a voice that was fifty years in the making. It belongs to Keith Bundy, a minister, husband and father of three from a small town near St. Louis. Keith grew up listening to baseball and a highlight of his youth was the opportunity to meet Hall of Fame Cubs broadcaster Harry Carey when he was eleven years old. He met his wife, Peggy, at the University of Evansville and they settled in Madison and raised their three sons.

The entire family found a common bond through baseball. Keith’s oldest son actually volunteered him for his first announcing gig during an American Legion game that he was umpiring in 2001. When the umpire asked the young man if his dad would be interested in calling the game that night, he replied, “sure he would, but you better watch out, you'll create a monster.” Bundy jumped at the chance and he has been the public address announcer ever since, calling everything from Little League to college games. His wife even joins him in the booth from time to time.

Bundy said one of his most memorable moments as an announcer took place when his son hit a grand-slam, allowing him to bellow his signature ambulance siren call. The familiar sound lets the fans know that the home team has just left the yard. “I don't know anyone else who can do the siren and it sure gets people’s attention.”
Fifteen hundred miles away lives another man who grew up on baseball. Don Wardlow came from humble beginnings, listening to Mets and Yankees broadcasts on his transistor radio. He met his buddy, Jim Lucas, in college and the pair traveled the country looking for a professional broadcasting job. For seven years, they sent letters, posted ads and performed mock broadcasts. For seven years they talked into a tape recorder. For seven years their phone didn’t ring.

That was the case until they finally got a call in 1990 from the Class A club from Pompano Beach. Originally an on-air bust, the team management liked the duo’s mettle and decided to stick with them. They went on to work for several Minor League organizations, including Wardlow’s final club, the Charleston RiverDogs. Like Keith and Peggy Bundy, Don and Melanie Wardlow make quite a husband-wife team. Melanie sold programs at the RiverDogs’ home games. She, too, loves the game of baseball. They worked together for three years until Melanie was diagnosed with a severe brain condition. Don realized that the game he had loved so much no longer mattered. He retired after three seasons in Charleston and took a desk job close to their home so he could take care of his wife.

Two men, living fifteen hundred miles apart, shared a common bond….and it wasn’t baseball. It was the way they saw the game. Unthinkably, these two men are totally blind. Through the help of activity spotters and statistics etched in Braille, these masters of their trade have been able to bring the game to us from their perspective--a world of shadows, voices, smell, touch and sound.

While Don Wardlow has all but walked away from the game, Bundy plans to continue announcing local games on the public address system and is also interested in a color broadcasting career. Recently, Bundy stepped down from his church to pursue work as a motivational speaker and the coordinator for students with disabilities at Dakota State University. “I've been able to do something that I never dreamed would be possible.”