Jim Woods
James McCarthy Woods (October 22, 1916 – February 20, 1988)
Biography
Early life
Woods was born in Kansas City, Missouri. When only four years old, he became the mascot for the Triple-A baseball Kansas City Blues; and when only eight, the team's batboy and reader of scores on local radio.[2] He attended the University of Missouri for a year before taking a job at KGLO in Mason City, Iowa. In 1939, he replaced Ronald Reagan as the Iowa Hawkeyes football announcer.
Woods joined the
Broadcasting career
New York Yankees, New York Giants and NBC
In
In 1957, Woods called both
Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals
In 1958, Woods moved to Pittsburgh as Bob Prince's sidekick on Pirates games, where he achieved his greatest fame.[2]
Woods picked up his nickname of "Possum" while with the Yankees. He had a slight overbite and close-cropped gray hair. When he walked into the clubhouse fresh from a haircut, Enos Slaughter sized him up and said, "I've seen better heads on a possum." Woods did not mind the name, and Prince would frequently refer to him as "Possum" or "Poss" on the air.
Woods loved his time in Pittsburgh, and especially liked working with Prince; but rightsholder KDKA was notorious for low pay and unwilling to give him a raise, and he eventually accepted a better offer in St. Louis, where Harry Caray had been abruptly fired after the 1969 season. Jack Buck moved into Caray's No. 1 slot, and Woods took over Buck's spot as No. 2 announcer. He always preferred the subsidiary role because he did not like to do the public relations work that came with being the primary announcer.
However, Woods and Buck did not get along, and Woods left the Cardinals after the 1971 season.
Later career
Woods moved on to the Oakland Athletics, where he called games for the eventual world champions in 1972 and 1973. However, A's owner Charlie Finley wanted his broadcasters to be unabashed "homers." Finley didn't think Woods rooted hard enough for the A's from the broadcast booth, and fired him after only two years. A few months later, he was hired by the Boston Red Sox as Ned Martin's assistant. On the same day Woods signed his contract with the Red Sox, Finley had second thoughts and asked him to come back to Oakland, but Woods turned him down.
Woods and Martin worked together from
Death
Woods died of cancer at the age of 71 in Seminole, Florida. He was interred in Arlington National Cemetery.[4]
References
- ^ STLtoday - St. Louis Post-Dispatch Archives
- ^ ISBN 9781582614984.
- ^ ISBN 0-7867-1446-8.
- ^ "Woods, James M". ANC Explorer. Retrieved 25 January 2022.