On Thursday the Cubs released their 2008 tv broadcast schedule. Not owning a high-definition set, I wasn't much impressed by the announcement that all 162 Cubs games this season will be available in hi-def to Chicago-area viewers.

What did stick with me was the note that WGN-TV has now been broadcasting Cubs games for 60 years. That led me to dig up a Chicago Tribune story written on March 8, 1948 by Larry Wolters, from whom Cub fans first learned that their favorite team's games were about to be piped directly into their living rooms.

“The first move by WGN-TV to provide full coverage of major sports to Chicago area tele-viewers was made yesterday with the announcement that W-G-N’s new television station will carry all home games of the Chicago Cubs this season…

"The first Cub game to be played before WGN-TV cameras will be the home opener against St. Louis in Wrigley Field on Friday, April 23."

Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley was clearly proud to be at the forefront of a major development in American sports and American culture. For Wrigley and the Cubs, it wasn't the first time.

"'The Cubs are gratified that the televising of baseball games, which we inaugurated from Wrigley Field, is not meeting with the resistance that greeted the pioneer efforts in radio broadcasting we inaugurated in 1925.

"'For many years there was a suspicion among baseball people that broadcasting would hurt attendance at ball games. Now, of course, everyone recognizes that radio broadcasting has been a potent factor in stimulating baseball attendance.'"

Wrigley had no doubt about the potential impact of television on baseball.

"'We are confident that television, handled with imagination and understanding, will bring baseball closer to vast numbers of Americans, and will result eventually in bringing many more persons to ball parks, to get a closeup, personal view of the dramatic scenes and colorful characters they become acquainted with on the television screens.'"

Wolters' story closed with a last bit of news; one that would positively affect Cub fans for generations.

"Jack Brickhouse will give the commentary. Brickhouse was recently appointed sports service manager for W-G-N, WGN-TV, and WGNB."

Nothing much happening with the Cubs today, but in Cincinnati, Reds fans are mourning the passing of Joe Nuxhall, who became the youngest player in Major League history when he stepped on the mound for the Reds in 1944 at the age of 15.

Nuxhall would go on to win 135 games over 16 seasons--15 in a Reds uniform--before retiring just ahead of Opening Day, 1967, so there would be room on the Cincinnati roster for rookie pitcher Gary Nolan. Nuxhall started working as a Reds broadcaster, and in 1974, he was joined in the booth by Marty Brennaman, with whom Nuxhall would form a broadcasting team for 28 seasons.

Most Major League teams, it seems, have that old standby broadcaster who becomes even more intimately connected to the franchise than its logo, its ballpark, its team colors, and these days, its star players. The Dodgers have Scully, the Phillies have Kalas, the Tigers had Harwell. In Brennaman and Nuxhall, the Reds were lucky enough to have two beloved stalwarts.

In my mind, the Cubs had the greatest broadcaster of them all, Jack Brickhouse, and when he died, years after he had stopped broadcasting and many years after he was at the top of his game, I felt as though a great source of my affection for the Cubs had been lost to me forever.

I imagine there are many Reds fans feeling the same way tonight.