Tautology. But said right, it sounds lovely.
I hate Ian Eagle. Mostly because he pronounces his first name like it rhymes with “Brian.”
Now, I’ve been watching sports on TV for 40+ years, and I could name lots of announcers who’ve said silly things…
But you know, in all the time I’ve watched sports, I’ve only encountered two announcers who were so bad that they actually ruined my enjoyment of an event they were covering. Only two who were so bad that I turned off the TV volume in order to listen to the radio announcers.
Only Howard Cosell and Dennis Miller really sucked that bad.
Otherwise? There have been hundreds of color men who added little or nothing to a game, hundreds of play by play men who were completely interchangeable, but NOBODY bad enough to make me turn off a game.
My guess is, most of you are in the same boat. And THAT’S why bad announcers keep jobs so long. Unless they’re so bad that significant numbers of viewers tune out (which almost never happens), why would they get fired?
Worst: McCarver, but because Morgan at least shuts up sometimes, doesn’t have such a grating voice, and indulges in worthless “back when I played” stories more often. The declining TV ratings of baseball, and the postseason in particular, can be directly attributed to Fox’s inane productions in general but to keeping him in particular. Isn’t it about time to go with guys current fans at least remember, and don’t have to shoe-polish their hair? That stuff looks as ridiculous on Timmeh as on anybody.
But usually I just do what I did on MNF in the Cosell era - mute the TV and turn on the radio. CBS Radio has Buck Martinez do color, and I learn something from everything he says.
I do feel sorry for Jon Miller having to put up with Morgan, but Buck isn’t enough better than McCarver to worry about.
HEY!! You spoiled my rant! Oh well, the weathervane rant still stands.
But is that what McCarver actually said? Percentage of multi-run innings is a completely different question from average runs per inning.
Oh I forgot Michael Kay on YES. I love the Yankees with an undying passion and he even gets on my nerves.
He usually has at least one ex-player in the booth with me and they’re usually varying levels of good. I enjoy hearing the perspective of Al Leiter, Tino Martinez, Paul O’Neill, and John Flaherty especially. Watching Paul O’Neill pig out on ballpark food is especially fun.
As much as I don’t like the Red Sox, the two guys who do the NESN broadcasts are pretty good and fair. Of course they root for their team, but they don’t shy away from throwing compliments at good plays by the other team.
That guy’s worse than Suzyn Waldman? Good grief.
Agree on Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy - they’re as good as it gets.
Hey ease off of Hawk people… Put on the boardddd Yess… Go get em good guys… i use to love it when he said “C’mon HURT!!” when Thomas was up in a crucial spot. One of the saddest times was when he had to read the news that his best friend Don Drysdale was found dead in his hotel room.
That guy who does Yankees win scooby doo or whatever… and Suzie whoever… OMY GOD ROGERS CLEMENS IS IN THE BOX!!! is much worse…
For football… i find Troy Aikman annoying. He really doesn’t add anything to the game and is wooden as hell. Moose Johnston is much better.
Oh, it’s definitely not what he said, and he’s a moron. And while I can understand working on the assumption that since he’s seen so many more multi-run innings after a walk he’d think that, it’s still idiotic to think that a guy on first is more rally-inducing than a run already scored.
They are very good, but are you too young to remember Martin and Woods?
So my Mets played a 20 inning game against the Cardinals tonight. The Mets aren’t particularly good, so *maybe *one game every two months will be televised nationally on Fox and the Mets’ standard broadcasting crew, whom I quite like, won’t be doing the game.
So, naturally, tonight’s game is the one that’s on Fox, and I’m stuck with Tim Goddamn McCarver for 7 hours. He clearly didn’t want to be there, too, which is understandable, but instead of being upfront and funny about it, he was just subtly passive-aggressive. But, you know, in a dumb way.
According to Joe Morgan, getting on base is worthless if you don’t have speed.
Not quite, I’m not.
If you’re going to say that, you need include the words “clogging the basepaths” for full effect.
I’d venture a guess that that alone would make him preferable to Tim McCarver by most of this thread’s participants.
Here’s what I’d like to see a network try out:
Take one of the few guys who everyone recognizes as being both interesting and knowledgeable about baseball. Like Peter Gammons, Buster Olney or Tim Kurkjian. Put them on as the color guy, and have him just talk about baseball the entire time. Doesn’t have to be specific to the game being played at all. If there’s an interesting development, let the announcer mention it, and then back to Peter/Buster/Timmy. I’m capable of watching the game and listening to something slightly unrelated at the same time. Instead of both watching another Red Sox/Yankees game and listening to Joe Morgan blather on about it and offering zero insight (with the occassional mention of the Big Red Machine, or how the shortstop on the field is no Tony Perez), let Gammons/Olney/Kurkjian talk about Zach Greinke, or Ubaldo Jimenez, or whatever else is going on that’s interesting across the league.
It’d be a departure, and it might not work. But it could be pretty cool.
Re: Joe Morgan.
I watched the Sunday Night Game on ESPN last night between the Mets and Cardinals, and I can’t believe how bad he is/has become. I will admit that I haven’t paid much attention to Morgan in the past few years, as I stopped watching as much ESPN as I used to and I stepped away from their sunday night broadcasts. But this thread made me sit down and watch/listen to the game.
I don’t know how Jon Miller doesn’t push an ice pick into his left ear and jam it in as hard as he can to end it all. That poor guy. Morgan voice (which has always annoyed me) is bad enough, but he can’t help that. But WHAT he says with that annoying voice is insulting to anyone over the age of three.
Does anyone know why Morgan is still employed by ESPN? They cannot be deaf, so I assume they think he is a revenue generator. This is the only reason I can figure McCarver has a job, too. But McCarver has caused me to turn the channel on a number of occasions, and if it’s a playoff game, I’ve turned the sound down.
Morgan was a one-game experience last night. I will not watch another Sunday night game unless it’s a can’t-miss game.
Great second baseman. Awful announcer. I think they should put McCarver and Morgan into the same booth and just let them bore each other to death.
Joe Morgan is not a great broadcaster by any means, but forums like this generally attract only a small group: specifically, stat geeks who hate Joe primarily because of his hostility to saabremetrics.
Now, I happen to AGREE that Joe’s ignorance of the new stats is appalling. But you know what? 90% of the audience doesn’t know or care what “WHIP” or “VORP” are. The great majority of baseball fans are perfectly content with a color man who speaks in cliches and a play-by-play man who tells them nothing that isn’t already obvious.
Forums like this are fine for people who just want to let off steam, but let’s be realistic: only a small percentage of the audience truly hates Joe Morgan or Tim McCarver. An equal or slightly higher percentage LOVES them. That leaves 90% who think they’re perfectly serviceable (or only SLIGHTLY annoying).
There aren’t any sportscasters who are so good that they can increase ratings significantly, and very, very few who are so bad that anybody is turning off the TV set. Joe Morgan and Tim McCarver will keep their jobs until the ratings prove that they’re a liability. Is that ever likely to happen? NO!
And admit it: if Joe Morgan were fired and replaced with Ken Tremendous, or Tim McCarver were replaced with Bill James, there’d be at LEAST as many people in OTHER forums griping about what a snotty sphincter Ken Tremendous is, or what a boring dweeb Bill James is. There’s absolutely NOBODY who’s going to please everybody.