The greatness of Jon Miller more than made up for the babbling of Joe Morgan back when they were the Sunday Night Baseball team. I do enjoy Shulman and Mendoza though, with Boone being strongly in the “take him or leave him” category.
WGN still carries sports. It’s just that, outside of Chicago, cable companies carry WGN America, which is a separate network which eliminates all the local Chicago content.
I haven’t heard enough of McCarver lately (read: the last twenty years) to know what the issues are. But I will say that he seemed pretty good back when he did color on the Mets broadcasts. Yeah, he talked more than perhaps he needed to, but a lot of them do. And his knowledge base was strong.
I clearly recall a game back in the eighties, Mets vs. Padres, Keith Hernandez facing Tim Lollar I think, when McCarver said suddenly, “Keith is going to drive this pitch over the fence,” and whaddaya know he did–and of course Hernandez was not a homer hitter especially. Something in Lollar’s delivery, or perhaps in the signs between Lollar and the Padre catcher, tipped McCarver off that a particular pitch was coming, and McCarver knew that Hernandez knew, and the rest was history. It was impressive. (Of course, he told us so in great detail…)
Or maybe it’s just that Rizzuto was the color guy for the Yanks at the same time, and next to the Scooter ANYBODY would’ve looked articulate, knowledgeable, and sane.
My favorite Tim McCarver moment was during the 2005 WS. Joe Buck asked him something about Brad Lidge still having the taste in his mouth of Albert Pujols’ moonshot off him earlier in the series, and Timmy confidently exclaimed, “I DON’T THINK THAT TASTE IS THERE” literally a half second before Lidge threw the worst pitch I’ve ever seen to Scott Podsednik (0 homers that season), who duly launched it into the seats.
Scooter was great back in his day but by the 90s he had slipped into being a colorful little Uncle that was just there for continuity to the greats of the past and to tell stories about them. But you listen to the TV & Radio broadcasts by him in the 70s and he was excellent.
A few years ago, waves of illiterate people loved to hate on sportscaster Gerry Sandusky, not noting the spelling difference. His is the Twitter feed I’ve read the most of just because for awhile I had a perverse fascination with seeing how many people had recently defaced it with angry comments, which he responded to with extremely even temperament and even humor considering how vituperative and moronic they were.
I like Bob Costas, especially at the Olympics. I believe I heard he’s not doing the next Olympics. Really too bad.
Tim McCarver pops up occasionally as the color guy on Cardinals broadcasts and I think he’s a breath of fresh air. His insight is 100x better than the regular color guys, but that may say more about them than Tim.
I think Bob Costas is the best baseball announcer who doesn’t call the game full time. I really enjoy the games he does on MLB Network.
Many people throw the “You’re only here because you’re Jack Buck’s kid” thing at Joe, and Joe admits that it’s true. But Jack passed away 15 years ago and if Joe wasn’t good Fox would have canned him years ago.
With Joe Buck, though, I’ve noticed that he tends to, if he’s calling a St Louis Cardinal game, be a homer to the point of never actually saying anything positive about the opponent, except for grudging. Then again, I’m a Cub fan, so maybe I’m overly sensitive to it. I’ve noticed Thom Brenneman acting the same way, and Steve Stone. Since Stone left the Cubs, he seems very bitter towards them.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
Well, if you say so. (I’m talking mainly about the eighties btw.)
But a guy who at that time routinely left the games early to beat traffic, regularly wrote WW on his scorecard (for Wasn’t Watching), got himself completely tangled up in what should have been simple declarative sentences, and once looked up into the sky and said “hey look, White, there’s the moon; look, you can see Texas!” – a guy like that, it’s tough for me to see that he was ever able to add anything to a broadcast.
If you haven’t already I highly suggest reading his book Lucky Bastard. He talks about his perception inside and outside of St. Louis and how that has affected his calls in games in the past. If anything he tends to hold back when it comes to the Cardinals, even saying that his final out call in the 2006 World Series was unfair to them due to his fear of being called a homer. Even his call in game 6 of the 2011 World Series was somewhat subdued considering how that game went.
It’s a constant battle that broadcasters like Buck face every game they call. In last year’s World Series Cleveland fans thought he was biased towards the Cubs while Cubs fans thought he was biased towards the Indians. No matter how hard they try announcers are always going to be seen as biased by someone.
And yes, as a Cubs fan you are being overly sensitive 
.
I heard him touch on this on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. He basically said that the hate happens to the national guys because people are used to their local broadcaster broadcasting their games singing the praise of just their team. Then they listen to a national guy who isn’t there to do that and needs to be more balanced and impartial and they think he dislikes their team. True or not I can’t say but it makes sense to me.
There is at least some truth to it. I’d rather hear Gene Deckerhoff call a Buccaneer game and IMH( but highly biased )O one of the best there is. Now, I don’t hate on the national guys but if possible I’ll watch the national feed video and listen to Gene call the plays on the radio. It’s like watching the game with an old friend.
Amen.
Thoughts on Buck Martinez as broadcaster? I can’t stand his voice, so I have no idea about his ability.
The Joe Buck hate I think can be summed up by the man’s own Twitter profile: "I love all teams EXCEPT yours.
I’m familiar with him mostly from his postseason MLB work on FOX, and I must say he’s gotten much better over the years. Possibly the best work of his that I recall was in Game 5 of the 2014 NLCS: Michael Morse’s game-tying home run in the 8th inning, and Travis Ishikawa’s pennant-winner in the 9th. Note that after he calls the play, he is silent for a full 52 seconds in the first clip, and 44 seconds in the second, letting the crowd reaction tell the story for him. That was definitely the ‘correct’ call, because there is nothing he could have said that would have added to either moment…but I don’t think there are a lot of broadcasters today who would be able to refrain from speaking that long.
I like Buck just fine.
We have a play-by-play hockey announcer in Canada named Bob Cole. He has been the voice of “Hockey Night in Canada” for decades: as long as I can remember. Well, he’s in his 80s now and winding down, and he still gets the occasional game, but he’s always been the voice of hockey for me.
I have heard criticism of him over the last 15 years, or so, stating that he sometimes gets a player’s name wrong, etc. but to be honest I’ve never noticed it.
Until very recently he has been the broadcast voice of every important hockey game I can remember, from Olympics, to World Cups, to Stanley Cups, to probably every Saturday night Leafs game.
I’ll defend Bob Cole to the end of his career. I think he’s been fabulous for the game.
OHHHH BABY!!!
Joe Buck is the biggest knob polisher in sports, especially for Jeter.
That’s why I can’t give an opinion about Erin Andrews. That grating, nasal voice makes me tune out anything she actually says.
Buck was fine when he was an analyst at ESPN, but I haven’t seen many local Blue Jays broadcasts. I can see how his voice is irritating to some, so he’s probably better suited as an analyst than play by play. (Doesn’t he mostly do play by play for Toronto?)
I never noticed but you’re right. Her voice is annoying.
Thanks for ruining that for me. Before now I had no opinion on her either way. :smack: