www.upn31.com

Voice of the Giants, Lon Simmons, to retire

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) The man with the deep bass voice who has called baseball games in the San Francisco Bay area for the past four decades is telling the game goodbye.

Lon Simmons, 79, known for his signature ``Tell it goodbye'' home run call, said on Monday he will retire at the end of the San Francisco Giants' season.

``Doing the games hasn't had the same attraction for me for the past couple of years,'' Simmons said. ``I've found I prefer going to the ballpark and, say, sitting with (Willie) McCovey than being on the air. And that's fine.''

Simmons started with the Giants in 1958 after they moved to San Francisco from New York. He spent 19 seasons there, 13 in a partnership with Russ Hodges, before moving across the bay to the Oakland Athletics in 1981. He left the A's in 1995 and returned to the Giants in 1996.

Simmons plans to move to Hawaii for the offseason and said he might be back to call a few games for the Giants next season.

(