MLB TV Broadcasters

by benzalman on May 25, 2008 4:15 PM EDT Comment 17 comments

I'm sitting at home and watching the Mets/Rockies game and getting the Colorado feed of the game. I believe it's actually their main radio guy doing the play by play today with Jeff Huson doing the color. Huson keeps talking about John Maine's sinker (which I don't really think he has one, does he?). On a whim, I checked out his G/F ratio which is about .9 for his career pretty steadily. I always had an idea that John Maine is more of a Fly Ball pitcher anyway. Where do they get this stuff??

Now, with that said there has been a lot of talk lately about the absolutely idiotic things that some of the announcers say. Joe Morgan gets a lot of this heat. Did anyone hear his comment on the Mets/Yankees game about the top half of his body leaving the bag early while tagging up. It was pretty funny. I get the general feeling that most avid baseball fans dislike the majority of broadcast teams. Then again, I don't think that these people are here to tell us what is happening. It's for the more casual fan.

I'm sure most fans would be thrilled to see the Buck/McCarver team removed from the World Series and certainly Joe Morgan from ESPN. There are plenty of others who can do a fine job. Agree? Disagree?

Not everyone is going to be Vin Scully or Ernie Harwell - but most teams should be able to do better.

That said, I've decided that I love The Hawk and John Sterling (radio), because its just plain funny.

Who do you think has the best and worst baseball broadcasts?

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Rays

Dewaynee Statts and Joe Magrane are awesome

Tools Whore

Sign Bonds!

by Tyler on May 25, 2008 4:27 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

MLB.TV

I watch a lot (too many) games on mlb.tv so I have heard a lot of broadcasting

I think the top three are:
the phillies, Harry Kallas has such a good baseball voice
the giants, Krukow and Kuiper, though I don’t always agree with their baseball thoughts they do have pretty good commentary and roll with what the camera picks up pretty well
the dodgers, Vin Scully just makes the games enjoyable to watch

the bottom three I think are Boston’s, the Padres’, and the diamondbacks’. I can’t bear watching games with their commentary. And of course Buck/McCarver… ughgh[shudder]

Go Jays

by providence bruins on May 25, 2008 4:30 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Padres

Down right horrible.

I’d be embarrassed to listen to that duo ever again. Both radio and TV.

Rowdy Hardy Fan Club member.

by doublestix on May 25, 2008 5:16 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

My favs

There are a lot of boradcast teams I cannot stand but I will try to stay positive here.

I love the D-backs crew. Mark Grace is my favorite color guy by far. Vin Scully is amazing and the last person who will ever even attempt a one man booth. I also enjoy the Twins broadcasts, huge fan of Blyleven.

I also like the A’s and Giants but as an A’s fan who lived in the Bay Area for a while I may be a little biased there.

by bl on May 25, 2008 4:43 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

disagree on Grace

really don’t like him. but agree with virtually all the other teams you mentioned, i.e., SF, Oakland, and l.a. (is Scully a team?).

really dislike Seattle’s team.

by scooter on May 25, 2008 5:02 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Grace

I don’t really like him at all. To be honest, I’m a mets fan living in Boston and actually think the Sox have a pretty good broadcast. Orsiillo does a good job and Remy if nothing else can be pretty funny.

A team that I happen to see on TV a lot is the Marlins and I really dislike their guys. They also insist on referring to Josh Willingham as “Hammer”. It rubs me the wrong way. I can not explain it.

by benzalman on May 25, 2008 5:05 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Extra Innings Package

I get to hear a lot of the broadcasters with the package as well. A lot of the best have been mentioned, but some of the more terrible broadcasters include the Pirates broadcast team, The Rockies color guy George Frasier and I can’t stand the White Sox crew. I have to be in the right mood for the D Backs crew. Grace can be funny or annoying.

I like the TB and the Florida crew, I am not really sure why, but they seem to do a good job every time I watch.

by MHD on May 25, 2008 6:12 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The Pirates play by play guys aren't bad,

but their color team of Bob Walk and Steve Blass(home)/John Wehner(away) rotate radio and tv, are absolutely unbearable.

How does a guy who won three games in a single world series know so feaking little about pitching?

by DITO on May 27, 2008 10:28 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

KRUK AND KUIP!!

when the A’s had Greg Papa he was unbearable to listen to he’s the worst by far he’d always find a way to talk about the raiders

by bartonboi on May 25, 2008 6:37 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Top 3 and Bottom 3...AL only

I mostly watch AL games, since I’m in an AL only roto league, hence the lack of NL play-by-play teams. That being said, Vin is still the best and will be until he retires. Based on voice and knowledge, the top 3:

1) Yankees
2) Red Sox
3) Mariners

Honorable Mention – Tigers, Twins, Rangers

Bottom 3:

1) Toronto
2) Angels
3) White Sox

by ProspectTube.com on May 25, 2008 7:31 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Where are the Cubs on here?

As good as Steve Stone was before he got canned, Chip Carray always annoyed the hell out of me. Now Len and Bob are one of the best broadcast teams in the game. Bob Brenly is one of the better former player/manager color guys out there, and usually is pretty insightful, and very rarely has the smack your head against the wall stupid moments that guys like mccarver, morgan, or hawk harrelson do. Len Kasper is one of the most intelligent play-by-play guys in the game, he frequently uses newer baseball stats that many broadcast men probably don’t even know about. I just about fell out of my chair the other day when he started talking about defensive efficiency ratio during a game. There may be other guys that can do that actual play-by-play or the calls better, but not many that can do it more intelligently.

On the other side of Chi-town are hands down the worst broadcast team not just in baseball, but perhaps all of sports. Gosh, I think I would be sick of these guys even if I was a die-hard sox fan. Not only are they horrible at calling games (tons of dead-air, totally off topic gibberish about, or shout-outs to, their friends or acquaintances), but they say tons of incredibly stupid things, and that’s even without the most ridiculous and biased homerism in all of sports. No other broadcaster I have ever seen, no matter how biased, has called his team the “good guys” and the other team the “bad guys,” referred to them as “our sox,” or bitched and whined like 5 year olds about plays that were stupidly obvious calls just because they happened to go against the sox (search hawk harrelson on youtube). Not to mention two of the worst distinctive calls in all of MLB: “he gone” and the home run call which is so stupid it won’t be repeated here. I would go so far as to say that Hawk and DJ are worse than all the other bad broadcast teams in the game put together.

by AucklandGM on May 25, 2008 9:10 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

+ 1 on Hawk and D.J.

Call me a bias Cub fan but Hawk and D.J. are the worst duo since, well, Hawk and Wimpy. It’s downright painful to listen to those two. There are always lengthy pauses during the game and when they do talk you wish there were more lengthy pauses. Hawk’s insight isn’t bad but it isn’t really that good either. When he basically said that if you haven’t played in the major leagues then you don’t know anything about baseball I gave up on him. He can’t leave the booth soon enough.

by bleacher bum on May 26, 2008 12:19 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

If I were a white sox fan, I’d be embarrassed. Since I’m not, I just think it’s funny. If you haven’t visit HeaveTheHawk.com. Very entertaining…

by benzalman on May 26, 2008 10:53 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hawk always cracks me up

He always gets so emotional about how the White Sox are playing, cheering them on when they do well, and sounding noticeably sad when they play poorly. Plus, he says some funny things, like “can-o-corn”, or “duck snort.” I’m a fan from the entertainment standpoint, but he seems like a pretty bad announcer.

http://mvn.com/milb-yankees/

by lemonjello on May 27, 2008 1:44 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Tigers

Rod Allen and Mario Impemba. They’re a lot of fun together and you can tell they really enjoy the game. I also thought the Twins have a pretty decent pair of announcers.

by demondeaconsbaseball on May 25, 2008 10:02 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I listen to the radio

Most of the time, I’d rather listen to Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren on MLB Audio than watch and have to hear the schmucks on ESPN or Fox when the Braves get nationally televised.

While Skip has been having health problems, he and Van Wieren are the best broadcasters I’ve ever heard, and it’s not even close. Part of it is Skip’s wise cracks (From last week’s Braves/Mets series: Caray: “McCann’s got a double, and I bet Willie Randolf wishes he had one, too”), but even with out the funny remarks, they just make the game more fun. If I had to point to a single difference between these guys and the modern Joe Buck personality, it’s that Skip & Pete realize that it’s the game that is supposed to entertain us, not them. When they talk about stuff, it’s funny and interesting (which itself is somewhat unique in this day and age), but it always takes a back seat to the game.

More succinctly, they’re humble, and you can tell they enjoy watching the game just as much as you do.