Whoooaa Nellie!!
Ain’t no fumble like a Keith Jackson “Fumble!”
McCarver and Morgan are the usual suspects for baseball color analysts. And for good reason. They do suck. McCarver is probably my least favorite.
Musberger and Tirico suck as play by play guys. Musberger was in top form last night, too. Tom Hammond of NBC is also horrible. I get the feeling he doesn’t even like football, he just likes talking.
Chris Berman, at least, doesn’t do live games, so it’s not like we’re “forced” to listen to him.
Joe Buck is banal and uninteresting, and he knows almost nothing about football. He’s OK for baseball, but that’s only because baseball is pretty boring already.
Troy Aikman is often paired with Buck, so it becomes a battle of who’s worse. Aikman watches only two players during games, the QB (which he obviously wishes was himself).
Dick Button has intelligent things to say, but crap does he have horrible timing. And I don’t need to know what the jump is going to be ahead of time, thank you.
John Forslund irritates me with his limited list of highly-repeated expressions. At least he knows hockey.
Just being a West Coast guy, I notice a very large number of announcers across all sports are heavily biased toward the East. It’s not even that they think little of that vast, empty land across the Mississippi*, it’s that they don;t think of it at all. It’s like they’re surprised the sun is out, since it’s 8:00pm in New York. Brent Musburger is among the worst.
I’ll say it’s dreadful the one or two times a year when ESPN sticks Berman in the booth for baseball. It’s rare enough that I can’t think of any examples, but he continues to be himself, which is all that really needs to be said.
Seriously, have NONE of you people heard John Sterling? I think he spends most of the game trying to think up more stupid nicknames and catch phrases for Yankees players.
I still remember, almost 20 years later, one miserable idiotic call that signifies everything wrong with his style. His “signature” home run call is “It is high, it is far, it is… GONE”. I’m driving home from college, he’s calling the game, bottom of the ninth, Matt Nokes at the plate…
CRACK
“It’s a drive deeeeep to right field”
“It is high… It is far… It is… IN the Left Field Foul Seats.”
Really? You can’t say it’s down the line? You can’t say Foul Ball? You have to tease me with 95% of a game winning home run call, only to snatch it away at the very end? I hate you, and will always hate you.
Cheesesteak, oh yeah, I forgot about him. “Mmmmngit is high, Mnngit is far! Mnngit is gone! An A-bomb! From A-Rod!”
Plus he’s paired with mush-mouth Susan Waldmyn.
Only 30? I thought this guy had long ago lapped the field.
His first name is actually Brent, but under any name his “body of work” gives him a solid claim to unmatched suckitude. His motto seems to be “Nothing that actually happens on the field should take precedence over the preconceived “narrative” I brought with me.”
Dick Stockton
Brent Mussberger
Tim McCarver
Joe Morgan
Add Phil Simms after this week. Neither him nor Nance know the rules, but Simms is the color guy and his commentary on things matters. What a dope. If you can’t master your art, and your art is preparing all week for a football game, please STFU!
Anything they ‘noticed’ was 90 seconds after it happened as they were awkwardly notified by someone in the ear piece. No clue as to rules, the review process, what happens to a play/call when the whistle blows… who missed a coverage, why there was a whistle/penalty.
Seriously? All the things you noticed were by other people barking in your ear pieces?
I was thinking about giving a second nod to Mike Milbury, but as a Sens fan I hate Bob Cole more. Asides from the fact that his voice is physically revolting, he’s an unabashed Leafs fan and sounds like he’s tittering like a schoolboy in love every time Sidney Crosby touches the puck.
Musberger has reached the special circle of hell where it doesn’t matter what he says; he annoys just by opening his mouth. He could come on the air and read farm prices and be annoying.
Joe Morgan came to me instantly also.
Are there good NFL announcers? I don’t even follow the NFL at all, but when I do see a game on, I find that they contribute almost nothing. Their insights are obvious. If they just replayed the plays in slow motion with no talking, we could figure it out ourselves.
I’ve given this lecture before, but will beat that dead horse again.
There are LOADS of sportscasters and commentators who are amiable wastes of space, but there have only been two who were SO bad that I sometimes turned off the TV, changed the channel, or turned off the sound and listened to the radio crew.
Howard Cosell and Dennis Miller are the ONLY sportscasters who’ve ever been bad enough to ruin my enjoyment of a game.
After that, well, I can think of dozens of mediocre play-by-play men and hundreds of pleasant but utterly uninformative color men, but nobody else I’ve ever “detested.”
I think so. I for one really enjoy the Al Michaels/Cris Collinsworth team. I think they are the best in the business now. Of course, I really loved the John Madden/Pat Summerall duo as well, so maybe that says something about me…and my love of turduckeons being consumed on large tour buses.
Following the Braves closely in the 1980’s I got a full dose of Sterling. I called him John Pewter.
I will also echo Musberger.
Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. It’s not close.
I actually have no problem with most of those mentioned. The one guy I have a problem with is Joe Buck. I didn’t see anything wrong until I noticed one thing and now that’s all I can hear. He loves to have a theme. Sometimes he harps on it in the pregame. Sometimes it’s something in the first couple of innings. But once he gets his theme for that game he keeps going back to it at ever chance. Regardless of what is actually going on in the game.
Stirling I don’t mind. As a Yankee fan I have listened to him a lot. He is a good announcer. One of those that does play b play on radio for every pitch of the season. Not an easy job. Bound to have some mistakes. I think the problem with him was pairing him up with an empty chair named Susan Waldman. He was great when he was paired up with Michael Kaye and they alternated innings. Now he is THE VOICE OF THE YANKEES. His excesses have become worse.
Blasphemy! I like him as an announcer. I especially like his call on the Wilson run during the Miami-WVU game a few years back.
Anyway, the obvious answer to this question is (was) Craig James.
You’re right, it’s not close. Dick Vitale has those Diaper Dandies faded by a mile, baby! hands waving
Seriously, Dickie V is horrific. It’s bad enough when all you can do is hear him, but when the camera’s on him it’s a sports announcer nightmare that comes in 1-minute increments.