Well, we had our picks for worst sports broadcasters ever. (I’d post a link if I could find the thread…)
What about the best ones? We know Chick Hearn is going to be in everybody’s list.
But any others?
WARNING: HUGE CUBS FAN BIAS
Jack Brickhouse and Harry Caray
This is a hard one primarily because most sports broadcasters are known only within their own country.
There are some exceptions of course.
As an Aussie, I always used to love the U.S. ABC Network’s Jim Mackay. He was a real gentleman with a beautiful nature and a rich knowledge of many different sports.
Murray Walker the famous Formula One caller for the BBC was pretty special.
Honourable mention must go Howard Cosell. I loved that guy.
Overall, at the moment… I’d rate Phil Liggot the cycling commentator as the most 'informative and exciting" commentator on the worlds stage.
However, down here in Australia we have a guy who is just extraordinary. This guy can tell you who ran what time in a 200m heat at the 1984 Olympics at the drop of a hat. He can tell you who came 3rd in the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix. Who won the 1997 Super Middleweight title fight. Who won the 1991 Belmont Stakes.
And he calls all sorts of sports - from football to the Olympics to tennis to golf - you name it. Just an incredibly talented, modest, charming man. He’s often referred to down here as “The World’s best Sportscaster”. His name? Bruce McAvaney and he’s still only early 40’s and runs regular marathons and stuff. A real special guy.
Just to endorse Boo Boo Foo’s commentary on Bruce McAvaney. His skills are probably best shown at athletics, but as an all-rounder, he’d be close to peerless. I’d back Bruce to be able to give a professional call in any world sport.
I’m going to go with Keith Jackson. He has a great sense of humor and can even make a 40-10 blow out sound exciting.
For pure partisan play-by-play, Johnny Most tops the list.
Jim McKay, everybody else is fighting for second place.
asahiJpx, forgive me, but you’re being terribly provincial. Chick Hearn was strictly a local LA broadcaster. Chick wouldn’t make my list. Whatever Hearn’s merits were, and I’ll take your word and other knowledgable people’s word for it that Chick was a great announcer, he wouldn’t make a non-LA person’s list of great sports announcers. You ever hear of Joe Tait? Tait has broadcast Cleveland Cavalier games since the beginning of time (well, since the franchise was founded in the early 1970s), and used to do Indians’ games until the Cavs signed him to an exclusive contract. I’d wager that Tait is every bit Hearn’s equal. Tait is smart, funny, eloquent, and gives the impression of being a great guy. But I’ve never heard Chick Hearn call a game, and you’ve never heard of, let alone heard, Joe Tait.
Having said that, my favorite sports announcers are:
Joe Tait
Bob Costas
Ray Scott - long retired CBS/Green Bay announcer
Ernie Harwell
Bob Uecker
Charlie Steiner
Jon Miller
Skip Carey
Keith Jackson
Jack Buck
Herb Score - local Cleveland Indians announcer
For good measuer, my least favorite announcers are:
Tim McCarver
Tim McCarver
Tim McCarver
Tim McCarver
Tim McCarver
(did I say “Tim McCarver”?)
Jim Donovan (local Cleveland Browns announcer)
Howard Cosell
Dick Vitale
Chris Berman
For football play-by-play? Wayne Larivee. Hands down. I still love him even though he jumped ship to the hated Packers.
Depends on what you want. I’m going to limit this to radio, because announcing a game that you’re watching on TV is a far different proposition.
Do you want to feel like you’re actually at the game, and the announcer is the guy sitting in the next seat, or do you want to spend an enjoyable 2-3 hours listening to the radio?
If you want to actually feel like you’re at the game, I guess I’d have to go with Harry Caray in his prime. I’ve never heard anyone get more excited at a great play, or more disgusted by a bad one. Dan Kelly, who did St. Louis Blues hockey for more than 20 years, was very vivid, concise and quick in his calling of what was happening on the ice.
If you’re looking for an enjoyable several hours listening to the radio, then you’re looking at someone like Red Barber or Jack Buck, who filled the dead spots in the action with comments, stories, anecdotes, references to the world outside of sports, etc. Bob Costas is probably the best of the current generation in that regard.
In my strictly provincial opinion, Harry Caray and Jack Buck in the 1960s when both were at or near their peaks, may have been the best baseball team ever.
Jim McKay is in a class by himself. I can’t think of any other sportscaster, and damn few newscasters, who could have covered the 1972 Olympics with as much dignity, intelligence and professional competence.
From the announcers that I hear on the college basketball circuit, my favorite would have be Len Elmore. Very intelligent, very humble. And when I say humble I mean I have very rarely heard him harp on his accomplishments, and have even heard him change the subject when someone else brings his career up. Most importantly, however, he’s * actually watching * the game. Unlike some (read Dick Vitale) announcers, he’s not constantly babbling about how he had dinner with Coach K, how much he loves Duke, how much he loves Jason Williams, and to borrow a line “how many babies he wants to have with Wojo.”
And a special mention goes to Billy Packard for being the the devil’s human incarnation.
Al Michaels deserves a nod, if only because of his calm under pressure while announcing what started out as a Major League World Series game between the Oakland A’s and the San Francisco Giants, and turned into the Northridge Earthquake.
My faves:
Johnny Most
Hank Greenwald
Ernie Harwell
Ned Martin
Jon Miller
Cawood Ledford
Like General John Pershing of the United States in the European Campaign in World War I, Howard Cosell storms through and obliterates any competition in this category. Not even the von Schlieffen plan could stop this broadcasting juggernaut.
Tim McCarver
Joe Morgan
I know, I know. These guys are both despised by a large percentage of sports fans. But as a fan of the game of baseball, these 2 are the most knowledgeable. I’ll agree that Joe morgan sometimes goes overboard when trying to make a point (even to the extent that he ends up being wrong), but he truly understands the game. McCarver is like God with a microphone. Sure, his prideful personality sometimes shows through, but to me there’s no one better. McCarver and Morgan have their flaws and aren’t the most entertaining, but they’re still the best. I’ll take them over Vitale and Madden (or any other entertainers) any day of the week.
Baseball:
Vin Scully
Red Barber
Mel Allen
Football:
Al DeRogatis
Beginning of list:
Vin Scully
End of list:
Vin Scully
Harry Kalas. “It’s outta here…!”
It’s a Philadelphia thing.
<annoying nitpick from the San Franciscan>
That was the Loma Prieta Earthquake, Oct. 17, 1989. Northridge is in Southern California and that earthquake was in 1994.
</I’m also a follower of earthquakes>
As for announcers, I’m partial to Jon Miller, who is genuinely funny and knowledgable, as are his local partners, Kruk and Kuip (Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper). All SF radio/TV broadcasters, and always a pleasure to listen to. Krukow is regularly hilarious.