Call 999-1313 now for scores!

February 25, 2015 11:02 AM

The rise and fall of Sports Phone, the place to get live sports scores before the internet.
posted by Chrysostom (14 comments total)

Oh, man, this reminds me of the Payphone Stadium Project post from a few years back too.
posted by cortex at 11:31 AM on February 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

My goodness, I totally remember Sports Phone growing up. In the early 80s, if I missed the Mets game that afternoon, how else was I going to find out what happened? Wait for Warner Wolf to tell me?

Back then, there was a whole slew of 976- numbers, each catering to different needs. You don't even want to know what the extra "e" is for...
posted by Toubab at 11:35 AM on February 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Some of these (like the stories of early NASA when they used telexes and human assistants to deliver messages between the different satellite stations on earth and the space capsules) cause me physical pain, I'm not sure why. Good post.
posted by Melismata at 11:38 AM on February 25, 2015

I remember dialing this or a similar service when I was a kid to get the score of the day's A's game one time, after my parents had gone to bed, the radio post-game show long over. I had to dial so many numbers and listen to so many menu options to get to the right sport and game. I wasn't supposed to be awake and I certainly wasn't supposed to be using the phone, so I was nervous as hell. I rooted through the recycling because I remembered seeing this toll-free number where I could call and get the scores of the day.

The A's lost. I was an emotional wreck from being so nervous. I never did it again.
posted by ORthey at 11:38 AM on February 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Never called Sports Phone, but I begged and pleaded to call the Sierra On-Line hint service.
posted by Brocktoon at 11:45 AM on February 25, 2015 [4 favorites]

I had forgotten all about something until reading this. I was living in Houston in 1991, and I remember killing time calling in to phone trivia games. There was a music one I used to play a lot. You would hear a snippet of a song and then guess who the singer was, pressing 1, 2, 3, or 4 to enter your multiple-choice answer. I think that one made money from advertising revenue. I know I didn't pay anything for it. As I recall, there was a whole list of different free phone services in the newspaper, or maybe in the phone book. So, yeah, kids, you could play games on your phone in 1991, but it wasn't exactly Clash of Clans or Angry Birds.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:47 AM on February 25, 2015

As I recall, there was a whole list of different free phone services in the newspaper, or maybe in the phone book. So, yeah, kids, you could play games on your phone in 1991, but it wasn't exactly Clash of Clans or Angry Birds.

Oh man, I think it was my local paper, that had this phone game you could play where you hunted ghosts. It was great! I loved it. I wish I could listen to it again.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:55 AM on February 25, 2015

I wish I could listen to it again.

I know it's just a tiny, niche portion of media history, but it would be nice to have an archive of those phone games somewhere. I bet most of the recordings are gone forever, though.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 12:24 PM on February 25, 2015 [4 favorites]

In the UK we would get our sports scores from Ceefax. Was there never a teletext service in the US?
posted by IanMorr at 2:32 PM on February 25, 2015

I wish I could listen to it again.

I know it's just a tiny, niche portion of media history, but it would be nice to have an archive of those phone games somewhere. I bet most of the recordings are gone forever, though.

Like the article says it probably in someones mom's garage
posted by kanemano at 2:35 PM on February 25, 2015

Ways we used to get sports scores before smartphones, religious edition: In 1985, my Catholic priest was as into the Bears as the rest of Chicago, and if you went to the midday Mass because you slept late (midday Mass was the worst, especially if your parents made you observe the fasting rules), you would behold the Deacon kneeling down to pray after communion, and putting a transistor radio earpiece in one ear. He would whisper to Father when they prepared for the recessional, and when Father dismissed Mass, Father would say, "The Mass is ended. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord -- Bears 14, Packers 7, 2 minutes left in the first quarter. Go Bears! Amen." And then everyone would rush to their cars without singing the final hymn to get home before missing any more of the game.

It was a weird year.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 2:38 PM on February 25, 2015 [10 favorites]

I remember 1980, much of the winter Olympic Games were tape delayed (at least in Minnesota). The rest of my family couldn't take the tension and dialed Sports Phone to hear the result - I held out for the final thrill ... "DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?!?!"

P.s. May have been a cheap local knock-off of the actual sports phone
posted by TheShadowKnows at 4:59 PM on February 25, 2015

I grew up on Long Island and my friends and I would call this multiple times a day. We could all do semi terrible impressions of the announcers. We were all big hockey fans and getting the scores from the west coast were near impossible without sports phone. Waiting until the news at 11:00 for Warner Wolf to go nuts with his scores was just not going to cut it. At 10 cents a call, I would still call it rather than going to some website and searching for the score.

It needed to turn into push notifications. They call you with the scores you wanted to hear. I am surprised it lasted until 2000. I made my final call sometime in 1985. While in college, I would call it long distance and have to adjust my budget for food accordingly.

Great post. I miss you Jared Max. Making calls was what a phone was really all about. These so called smart phones just dumb you down. Grrr get off my lawn.
posted by 724A at 8:57 PM on February 25, 2015

It needed to turn into push notifications. They call you with the scores you wanted to hear. I am surprised it lasted until 2000. I made my final call sometime in 1985. While in college, I would call it long distance and have to adjust my budget for food accordingly.

The problem with most companies that get sent to history's dustbin by technology is thinking they are in the "PHONE sport's score business" rather than just the sports news delivery business At their height they should have known better than anyone that their market could support a 24 hr sports radio station. Would have been interesting if the author got some interviews with the guys who started WFAN to see if they had worked at sports phone or how they were inspired to make the medium jump through its success. When WFAN first appeared on the scene in'87 it was quite controversial and almost all were predicting their quick demise. I bet LaGreca wasn't.
posted by any major dude at 5:13 AM on February 26, 2015