I love baseball,but if I listen to the national TV broadcasts I am constantly having to listen to the two title guys. They are horrible. I can’t think of anyone as bad in football or basketball announcing. In contrast, on ESPN I was treated to Buck Showalter recently and I thought that was what a baseball analyst should sound like.
When I lived in Baltimore long ago, I had the pleasure of listening to Jon Miller and Joe Angel. They made me an Oriole fan. I just loved listening to them on the radio.
Tim McCarver is horrid, so I feel your pain. I don’t mind Joe Morgan as much as you but I think the reason I don’t like him is the sound of his voice, not what he’s saying so I can get through a broadcast.
It’s amazing how an announcer can make me tune in to a game, especially on the radio. When I was a kid living in Pittsburgh, I would listen to Pirate games on the radio with Bob Prince. Loved that guy’s voice.
Right now, Vin Scully is the best.
McCarver is awful. He’s had an amazing career. He was Steve Carlton’s personal catcher, so he stayed in the majors years longer than his talent… then he goes into the booth and becomes a national color man. He never shuts up, and he never says anything that I need to hear.
I put McCarver on the same level as John Madden and Dan Dierdorf. I’d rather drink a gallon of barrium than listen to their babble. :smack:
Glad you appreciate Jon Miller. I don’t notice much difference between him on Giants radio and ESPN games, but people do seem to dislike him. He can be cheesy but I think it’s mostly that Joe Morgan sucks everyone down with him.
Not an announcer but a commentator - there’s one guy that my husband listens to on the radio that I can’t stand. I think his name is Petros somethinggreek? I call him “Shouty Guy” and he seems to be on one particular station 24/7. Plus he does a lot of the commercials.
I loathe him. When my husband turns on The Shouty Guy Show, I have to put on my iPod so I don’t hear his voice.
McCarver is horrible b/c he won’t shut up and his voice is so annoying. Morgan is horrible b/c for a hall-of-fame player he sure is dumb when it comes to baseball rules and strategy. So many times he’ll be talking about some play and the rules that govern it and he’s just plain wrong. Did he ever manage? I can’t imagine he would last half a season, given his boneheaded strategy ideas.
I loathe Joe Morgan. He’s a bane on sports broadcasting, and makes everyone dumber for having listened to him. With that said, Bill Walton appears to be no more intelligent than the shoes on his feet.
Yup. And it’s so painfully obvious that whenever he mentions a team or player that isn’t the Yankees, Red Sox or the Dodgers, he has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about. He’s usually good (?) about couching it in terms so vague they’d be technically correct even if he were talking about a teeball team - but then you’re left with meaningless blather.
I miss Ken Tremendous. It’s just not fun to hate Joe Morgan without him.
The OP has managed to name my two least favorite commentators, by a large margin. I support this thread. (I also love Jon Miller; I wish he would get a different partner).
Home-wrecker.
Yeah, Joe Morgan is a tough partner for Jon Miller. Plus, Miller’s move to ESPN (which is the only place I hear him now) really changed his style. When he was in Baltimore, Miller and Angel were not only excellent announcers, they were funny and made me laugh out loud more than once. For a baseball announcer, that’s saying something.
Gah! Bill Walton!
Hard to listen to, hard to look at. He’s brutal. As far as basketball goes, Walton and Dickie V would be my announcers in hell.
Luckily for me, I’m an Oakland A’s fan and by official decree, the A’s are banned from all national telecasts. So I only ever have to listen to Fosse and Kuiper - who I think are great. Fosse played catcher for the A’s on a couple of the World Series teams (and had his career finished when Pete Rose ran him over in the All-Star game) so he’s a bit of a homer, but he definitely calls it like he sees it. Plus, he loves the catchers and is always pointing out quality catcher play.
I miss Harry Kalas. It was a year ago Tuesday.
I will also say that I think I would actually rather listen to Joe Morgan than those yahoo White Sox announcers. Ever heard these guys before? Everything they say seems so…forced. Contrived. Rehearsed? I dunno - maybe all of those. It’s like those two guys in high school (or a bad politician) that think it’s imperative that they come up with a catch-phrase and get people to start using it. “Put it on the boooooooooard! Yes!” Terrible.
That’s Ken “Hawk” Harrelson. Although I suspect he hasn’t actually shown up to a game in years; some producer simply pushes a button to play one of a dozen or so of his pre-recorded catch-phrases: “He gone!” “Can of Corn” and the aforementioned “You can put it on the boooooooooard! Yes!” Hawk’s analysis rarely gets more thoughtful than that. Only when he’s bitching about the umpires can you tell he’s really there in the booth.
On the other side of town, Len Kaspar and Bob Brenly have a nice rapport, know the game, and seem to genuinely like each other and enjoy their jobs. On the Cubs radio side, Pat Hughes and Ron Santo are a treat to listen to. Hughes is velvet-voiced, very knowledgeable and has a great sense of humor, while Santo’s amateurish enthusiasm and blatant love for his team actually provide a nice complement. They work well together.
Petros Papadakis? He does color commentary for Pac-10 football games on Fox Sports. Yeah, he’s got one volume. LOUD.
There was a brief period (one year, I think) where Jon Miller and Tim McCarver did Giants games together. Really felt bad for Jon having to spend time with both Joe Morgan and McCarver that year.
One of the greatest players ever, but has no idea why he was great. Completely clueless.
Yes.
Oh! He’s HORR-i-ble!
However, you now have to reread this in Bill Walton’s voice.
As a Red Sox fan I am ever grateful for Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo. Don is a nice flat play by play guy and Jerry is goofy at all the right moments. I grew up with Angel and Miller listening to the Orioles and they will always be the gold standard. I also hate McCarver and Morgan and I usually turn down the volume and use the radio broadcast, even if it isn’t in sync with the action.
The Blue Jays haven’t had real good announcing on the TV side since Dan Shulman left TSN after the 2001 season. Buck Martinez handles most of the play by play now, but it’s weird hearing him doing play by play after he was the color guy for so long.
Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler are going to drive me up the wall they way they both pronounce Frasor as if it was Frazier. Other than that I like Buck, but there was nothing wrong with Jamie Campbell the last few years, and I hope we don’t get Tabler for every broadcast. Last year they used Darrin Fletcher and Rance Mulliniks quite a bit, and both of them are about ten times better than Tabler.
McCarver and Morgan are the worst by far, though. Morgan still hasn’t learned what an error is, and appears to think that the batter is allowed to appeal to another umpire on a strike call.