nytimes.com – Mike Emrick’s connection to hockey is so strong — and his play-by-play so vivid — that it may be surprising that he has such a strong love for baseball.

But Emrick, 69, grew up listening to the Pittsburgh Pirates on KDKA Radio, with Bob Prince on the microphone; played baseball in tiny, rural La Fontaine, Ind., where 200 or 300 people would turn out for Little League games; and looked up to baseball coaches as his heroes. And on Aug. 9, 1959, he, his parents, his older brother Dan, and another family drove four hours in a station wagon to Forbes Field and saw the Pirates play the Chicago Cubs. It was the first major league game that Emrick attended, in general-admission seats behind home plate.