With all the attention sportscasters get, I realize that very rarely does the announcer affect whether or not I watch or listen to a game. The two exceptions I can think of are Harry Carey and Kevin Calabaro (Supersonics play-by-play). I used to watch Cubs games on WGN all the time around 1990. When I run across a Cubs game these days, I quickly turn the channel because the announcers seem so boring. As far as Calabaro, the NBA is well behind baseball and football in my interest. However, Calabaro has an ingraciating style that’s uptempo without trying to belabor a Vitale-esque shtick. What announcers will get you to watch a game you normally wouldn’t?
I love all the local Philadelphia announcers: Harry Kalas for the Phillies, Merril Reese (on the radio) for the Eagles, and Tom McGinnis (also radio) for the 76ers. I’d watch those games anyway, though. (I don’t watch hockey, but it has nothing to do with how good the commentators are or aren’t.)
I’m a major Joe Buck fan when it comes to baseball, and I love to plop down on Saturday afternoons and watch Fox’s game of the week if I can. I’d probably watch those games anyway, but Joe really makes those games (as well as the post-season, which I’d also watch anyway) better.
Buck for football is a different story: he’s decent, but I think his counterpart, Troy Aikman, does a terrific job on color. I also like Moose on color with the other guy (Dick Stockton, I think). It’s ironic because of how much I hate, hate, hate the Cowboys. Phil Simms is also good. None of these guys, however, will have an impact on whether or not I choose to listen to them if they’re covering an Eagles game; in that case, the radio comes on to coincide with the television action. Also, I won’t sit through a bad game or a game in which I have absolutely no interest just to listen to them call the game.
That’s the bottom line, I guess, really: if the game is something that interests me, I’ll watch it regardless of who’s calling it. If the game sucks, I won’t watch.
ETA: The Carey who’s the current Braves announcer (I’m not sure if it’s Chip or Skip–it’s the young one) won me over last season, after a lifetime of hating the Braves and their (horribly biased for national television) commentators. He was also good for the post-season.
If I want to watch a game, I’ll watch no matter who the announcers are.
However if Dan Dierdorf or Randy Cross are announcing (Both NFL announcers) I’ll still watch the game, but turn the sound down and listen to music or something.
Kenny Albert – Marv Albert’s son – took over for Stockton.
Kenny, Moose & Goose are far and away my favorite NFL tv guys. This is fortunate for me, since they did a ton of Giants games this past season. They always do the #2 game, which often involved the G-Men. Buck & Aikman get the #1 game. I friggin’ hate them, and sadly they had more than a couple Giants games.
I find the OP odd in that I’d never watch a sporting event I wasn’t otherwise interested in because I liked the announcers; the very idea is foreign to me. From my perspective the announcers are merely a backdrop, like the stadium. Unless there’s a novelty going on like playing in London, I’d never watch a game just for the stadium. Same goes for the announcers.
I’ve really lost a lot of my patience for the CBS guys. After watching so many smooth-as-butter performances by Kenny & Moose and Joe & Troy, I find all the CBS guys and even Al & John awkward and uncomfortable. (Note that I hate the content from Joe & Troy, not the production.)
The less said about the horrific ESPN MNF crew the better.
Skip Caray (note the spelling) is Harry’s son. Chip is Skip’s son.
Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo make Red Sox games a lot of fun to watch. Remy is terrific at pointing stuff out that an average fan wouldn’t notice. In contrast, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver make even the best game unwatchable, I think.
We are very lucky in SF with our baseball crew, and I wouldn’t normally bother with meaningless spring training games, hearing those voices after a long winter make me very happy. Same thing at the end if the year, I like to make time for the whole game and postgame show on the final game of the season. (Or when we’re mathematically eliminated, which brings us such quips as Mike Krukow declaring the player of the game to be Jack Daniels.)
Is Jon Miller a full-time Giants commentator?
And you’re right about Spring Training, too–it certainly is nice to hear your hometown play-by-play man after a long winter.
ETA: That’s interesting that Krukow has a sense of humor. I know him only from the MVP Baseball games on the Playstation (as well as one Saturday afternoon game, Giants/Phils last spring), and he always seemed “blah.”
I moved to the Bay Area from the Midwest (grew up a Cubs fan) and became a Giants fan because of Miller, Krukow, and Kuiper. Awesome team, always entertaining without detracting from the game.
Speaking of the Cubs, Steve Stone’s presence will get me to sit down and listen to a ball game, unfortunately he only pops up irregularly on ESPN.
I live in Astros territory now, and their featured announcer is Milo Hamilton, who I vaguely remember listening to when he called Cubs games. He’s got some character, but is still fairly generic (ala Skip Caray) while the rest of the Astro broadcasters are absolutely forgettable. I do not forsee becoming an Astro fan.
I started watching cross-country skiing and biathlon because of NRK Sport’s duo of Kjell Kristian Rike and Jon Herwig Carlsen. I now understand enough of the sports to appreciate them on their own merits, but dang, it’s going to be a sad day when those two decide to retire. They’re funnnnny 
It’s dark days for sports fans in Chicago right down. The only group that’s worth your time is Johnny “Red” Kerr and Tom Dore. They are outstanding and make Bulls games tolerable, but as someone who was used to the every day intensity of the Jordan era they are better when thing are heated, something we haven’t enjoyed in a long time.
Harry Caray and Steve Stone were the best. I could have listened to them call a T-ball game and been engrossed. I still wish Stoney would come back and save us from the suck we deal with these days.
What you said.
Despite living and growing up in Flushing, I am a Mets fan largely because I cannot stand the Yankees radio crew, particularly John Sterling.
I got into following MLB during the '96 post-season, with my best friend being a lifelong, passionate Yankees fan. I got swept up a bit and rediscovered a love for baseball (I used to play it a lot as a kid, but oddly enough never watched or followed any games).
Listening to Sterling go on and on was like fingernails on the chalkboard of my soul. Then I heard Bob Murphy calling a Mets game, and the difference was night and day to me.
I grew up outside of Boston, in the mid 80s.
As such, it was more exciting to listen to the Celtics games than to watch them, just because Johnny Most was such a superlative announcer. (The fact that this was something of a golden age for the Celtics has nothing to do with it, of course.) I’d hear the excitement in his voice, the images he used to describe the action, and feel more involved and more invested in the game, than if I were there watching in person, let alone on the boob tube.
Ugh, coincidentally, news just broke that Steve Stone will be joining the White Sox…the fucking shit eating White Sox…to call games this season. God that hurts. The Tribune Company just never stops killing Cubs fans. WGN and the Cubs really weren’t willing to patch things up with the guy and bring him back to the TV booth? White Sox radio was a better gig for him? This season is already looking bleak.
I will watch any baseball game no matter who is doing the announcing. My wife pretty much abhors watching baseball on television and will normally leave the room or have me change the channel. Unless, that is, Vin Scully is calling the game. In which case she may harumph a bit, but she’ll curl up with me and listen. She finds Vinny’s voice soothing. 
I realize now that I no longer watch basketball because of the absence of Chick Hearn. I didn’t understand that he was so much of what made the sport interesting to me. Now, I just don’t care.
Oh, yeah the Giants’ guys are great. and yes, Miller came to SF full-time after leaving Baltimore.
I have to say, if I were an announcer, I wouldn’t want to call a video game. Everyone sounds stupid on those.
But yeah, our guys manage to be entertaining as hell when they need to be (blowouts and such) and call the games wonderfully.