Helfer was born in
Elrama, Pennsylvania. He played
football and
basketball at
Washington & Jefferson College, and took his first job as a sports reporter for the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after graduation, also calling the football games of the
Pittsburgh Pirates (as they were then called) and
Pittsburgh Panthers for radio station
WWSW. He started broadcasting recreations of
Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games in
1933. He joined
Red Barber as the regular broadcast team of the
Cincinnati Reds in
1935. He left Cincinnati to join
CBS in
1937, working a few baseball games and a lot of football games. Helfer was reunited with Barber (who often addressed him on-air as "Brother Al") on the
Brooklyn Dodgers broadcasts in
1939. They worked together until
1941, when Helfer joined the
U.S. Navy during World War II. When he returned the Dodgers job was no longer available, so Helfer started doing "Game of the Day" broadcasts for Mutual. He was paired with
Dizzy Dean on the network's broadcasts in the early 1950s, though the two men often argued and never got along. He did eventually rejoin the Dodgers for their last years in Brooklyn, calling their final home game and introducing the players to the crowd for the final time. In 1958 Helfer called
Philadelphia Phillies games which were broadcast to the New York market by
WOR-TV, helping to fill the void of National League baseball left in the city by the departure of the Dodgers and
Giants. He worked a number of teams after that, including the
Houston Colt .45s (1962),
Denver Broncos (1962–63), and
Oakland Athletics (1968–69). ==Awards and honors==