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Well, perhaps "First" isn't 100% correct, but it's close.
On April 19, 1927, Ty Tyson, announcer for WWJ Radio, sat behind a microphone and broadcast a game between the Tigers and Indians. (The Tigers won, 8-5.) More than five years earlier, Harold Arlin of Pittsburgh broadcast a Pirates game on an experimental basis, but Tyson, who would be the Tigers' radio voice for 17 years, was the first to air a full season of baseball.
The broadcasts had some restrictions. Only home games were aired from 1927-1943. Sunday games were not broadcast from 1930 to '32, and neither Saturday nor Sunday games were broadcast in 1933.
The oldest known game on tape can be bought at www.dugout-memories.com/barber.html
In this game on Sept. 20, 1934 Ty Tyson broadcasts a Tiger loss at the hands of the Yankees. (I don't get a cut of this, just happened to find it while searching.)
On June 3, 1947 WWJ-TV broadcast its first Tigers game. Tyson handled the play-by-play for this game vs. the Yankees.
Incidentally, the first Midwestern play-by-play broadcast from the scene was done at a Michigan-Wisconsin football game from the sold-out stands of Ferry Field. Ty Tyson did this one with the help of Doc Holland, and Michigan won 21-0. (One game had been broadcast in the East two years earlier.)
Here is a place where you can learn more about him.
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