He probably has the best piece of trivia.
He is the only broadcaster to be traded for a player (Cliff Dapper)
Actually, he’s still active as an announcer for the Brewers, and celebrated his 50th anniversary of announcing for the team earlier this year.
I’ve always been a fan of Uecker’s, but as a Brewer fan, I recognize some home-town bias. That said, I concur that Vin Scully is one of the modern-day gold standards.
Here’s my old thread about Howard Cosell
I’ll throw out Gordon Solie as the best sports announcer if you consider pro wrestling a sport. He was a legend and handled both Georgia Championship Wrestling and Championship Wrestling from Florida.
I like it spicy. Pepper Brooks.
And Bill Carr:
“The fans are standing up to them! The security guards are standing up to them! The peanut vendors are standing up to them! And by golly, if I could get down there, I’d be standing up to them!”
Or of course Jim Robson.
I think Sean McDonough is pretty good. He started out as a local boy here in Boston, and now can pretty much call anything. He’s not flashy, but he doesn’t make mistakes.
For football, Kevin Harlan is a fantastic play-by-play announcer, maybe the best.
For baseball, it will be very hard to ever beat Vin.
Vin Scully. Period.
How far ahead of the times was that movie:
A reminder, all players must be vaccinated for cholera.
My vote - Tony Romo, but I wish his voice were less high-pitched.
2nd, Al Michaels.
Worst: Joe Buck. As someone once put it, if Buck were a reporter on 9/11, he would say, “Airplane…airplane…airplane…building!”
Mauro Ranallo has called boxing, wrestling, MMA, and even the occasional hockey game, and excels at all of them. He does his homework on the athletes he’s covering and could probably call any sport with ease if he had time to prepare.
For colour, no one beats the already immortal Ray Hudson. Nobody.
A nod to sometimes odd Brad Gilbert, in tennis, for having by far the keenest and most insightful takes.
Remember Brian Doyle Murray? Yup, the same, who cut his teeth as a young gymnastics announcer, here. (With, of course, the great Alice Van Deesen):
Max McGee. He used to do radio commentary for the Packers.
I don’t mind how Buck calls the actual play. What I find annoying is that he picks a narrative about the game beforehand and then sticks to it no matter how the actual game goes. If he says in the pregame that the key to the game is Altuve hitting home runs he will still be saying that in the 9th when he’s 0-5. It doesn’t matter what he says the key is, the defense of one team, the pitching of the other, the hot dog prices… no matter what he starts talking about pregame he will not abandon it even if the key to the game becomes obviously something else. It becomes more obvious when you are a fan of one of the teams. I’m not saying he consciously likes a team over another but he makes his mind up as to who should win before it starts and comments in those terms.
Ernie also played the voice of God in Christmas pageants at Farmington First UMC where he and his wife were members.
I didn’t want to get into that but yes. I was going to say that even though I’m not sure who I’d call the best, I can easily call him the worst. Especially since he’s all over the TV for some reason.
Troy Aikman seems to have some obvious biases and when he’s teamed up with Buck on NFL broadcasts it’s like some awful feedback loop.
Already cast my vote for Vin, but to really date myself and a shout-out to all the Dopers in SoCal of an age: Chick Hearn.
He was a hall of fame head coach before he was a broadcaster, so he prepared for games just like a coach would.
He also brought the telestrater to announcing so he could draw on the instant replays. Madden was truly iconic - there’s going to be a documentary on him on Xmas day (on Fox, I believe).
I like most of the current announcers who do NFL games - Phil Simms always annoyed me, so I’m glad he’s gone.
Growing up, I enjoyed the dulcet voice of Dick Enberg doing play by play. He deserves a mention.
Today, one of my favorite color men is Chris Collinsworth.
Jerry Remy And Don Orsillo were great.
Kevin Harlan is very underrated. He’s a guy that if I see he’s announcing, I’ll make a point to watch or listen. I don’t know how often he announces NBA anymore, but he was my favorite for that, too.
Here comes the pizza!
RIP Jerry.