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Hear the Voice of Walter Johnson, The Greatest Pitcher of All Time

Thanks to the magic of the Internet Archive, we were able to uncover an audio recording of Walter Johnson, the greatest pitcher of all time. Hear his voice from 1939 and learn about the game's box score from The Washington Post.
Washington, D.C., 1923. "City houses." One in a series of Harris & Ewing plates documenting the national capital's poorer quarters.
August 28, 1922. A horse at the Animal Rescue League in Washington, D.C. 5x7 glass negative, National Photo Company Collection.
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It’s been extremely difficult for me to track down any audio recording of the greatest pitcher of all time, Walter Johnson. We have written so much about him, and yet, we have no idea what is voice sounded like … that is, until now.

Thanks to the magic of the Internet Archive — one of the greatest resources known to man — we were able to surface this audio recording from 1939.

Walter Johnson in 1939
Walter Johnson in 1939

On Thursday, September 21st, 1939, the D.C. radio station WJSV recorded the full broadcast for the day. Between 4pm and 5:17 pm, they broadcast the Washington Senators home game against the Cleveland Indians.

To give you some context, that month was the beginning of World War II, with Germany invading Poland on the 1st.

The game picks up in the middle of the fourth inning with the Senators coming up to bat. Johnson’s voice can be heard starting around 1:36, and I can say, it’s not what I expected it to be.

Here is the game’s box score from the paper.

9/2/1939 box score
9/2/1939 box score
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