I am biased towards the radio – mostly due to my XM subscription, but there are a lot of really good… and a lot of not so good… broadcast pairings.

My favorite? Probably has to be Tom Hamilton. That guy sounds like he is going to bust a vein on his forehead every time the Tribe hits a HR. Other great ones include Charlie Steiner, Jon Sterling (I like the “it is high, it is far, it is gone” tag line, but some of the Yankee nicknames are pretty dumb), Milo Hamilton, Harry Kalas, Dave Wills and Pat Hughes (even though I am not a Cubs fan, he is probably the best play by play guy in the business).

Least favorites? Suzy Waldman probably takes the cake. The Mets pair are pretty dull, as is that Marlins booth. Jerry Coleman is ok for about 5 minutes, but his “my Padres” line gets pretty annoying after a while. I am also not a fan of Jeff Brantley – he just really does not offer much in the booth. Ed Farmer also gets annoying – especially when he is talking over Stone.

I know he’s an easy pick, but there’s a reason for that. The man makes me embarassed to be a baseball fan. No one should ever have to feel that way.

Other terrible ones: Joe Morgan, Hawk Harrelson, Jeff Brantley.

On the positive side, as a Red Sox fan, I enjoy Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo, though I miss Sean McDonnough. Anyone know what happened to him? I’ve heard him every once and a while on national broadcasts. He does a fantastic job of not taking himself too seriously.

But the best has to be Vin Scully. The amazing thing about him, to me, is not just that he’s a great announcer, nor that he does the entire broadcast alone, but that the execs actually recognize how amazing he is on his own and just let him be. You’d think someone would be pushing hard to (wrongly) bell-and-whistle the whole thing up.

Also, great idea for a thread! I can’t wait to hear more.

I will preface this by saying that I am a Cubs fan. I agree with guru, Pat Hughes does an excellent job for the Cubs. I am also a Ron Santo fan (I know I will probably get killed for this but). I can totally see if you are not a Cubs fan how he could be annoying but as a fan of the team he displays all the emotions that you are feeling as a Cub fan.
Also on the radio and everywhere else he has ever been is Steve Stone. He is an excellent analyst.
I also like Brian Anderson and Bill Schroeder for the Brewers TV crew. They are knowledgable but they don’t throw it in your face like some guys that think they are the only ones that know anything about baseball. They aren’t the best tandem around but they just do a nice job.
I also have to vote for Hawk and DJ as the absolute worst crew around. Brantely also is pretty poor in my opinion.

Rangers fan stuck in Houston and get the additional nut kicking of having to listen to this guy fight off death every Astro home game. I do find it amusing when he is welcoming groups and everyone F’s with him by submitting names like ‘Lt. Mitch Buchanan and Cj Parker’, or ‘Michael Knight and Kit’. I swear everytime he starts talking about how many ptiches have been thrown in relation to his ‘15 per inning mantra’, I just want to shoot myself.

Cohen and Darling are fantastic, and Hernandez is okay. It’s an amazing turnaround from idiots like Seaver and Healy.

^^^^
Agreed. I’m a mets fan, and Cohen and Darling are wonderful.

As far as ESPN is concerned, can’t stand Joe Morgan aka Captain Obvious.

He goes for his signature “it is high, ir is far…” call even when it is a liner over the short porch in right, and even when it ends up caught. Completely full of himself and not descriptive, a homer and cliche-ridden. But Suzyn Waldman is worse.

I don’t want to get into an argument, I’m just trying to understand. This is the ESPN guy we’re talking about, right? The guy who ends every sentence on a rising note like a stereotypical schoolgirl? “That pitch is BALL TWO!” Every sentence, like everything he sees strikes him as the most surprising thing to have ever happened.

I guess I’d call him a good, solid announcer, and he gets points for putting up with Joe Morgan. But that rising voice thing bugs the heck out of me.

Just thought I’d vent.

How can Ernie Harwell not be mentioned?

Haven’t seen Dick Bremer and Bert Blyleven mentioned yet. They’re the Twins’ TV duo. They do okay at calling a game, but Bert falls back on cliches too much. His “circle me Bert” thing is getting really tiresome too.

My main complaint with them is they’re a mouthpiece for the Twins front office. They never criticize the Twins and just spit out whatever the company line is. I remember Bert defending Livan Hernandez because he had 10 wins. Bert’s failure to rack up 13 more wins is keeping him out of the Hall of Fame, yet he still doesn’t realize what an overrated stat it is.

As for the worst, I’m gonna go with the crowd here – Hawk, McCarver, and Morgan.

…are head and shoulders the worst broadcast partners in all of sports….Not just baseball…..

Hrabosky is an egotistical, ego-centric moron, and his lapdog partner is a ‘dust-licking pimp and slave of the scum,’ to quote Mark Twain

Text-messaging a player on another contending team in the middle of a baseball…..that takes the friggin’ cake.

Bob Uecker. He’s great. He calls a very good game, is good doing play by play and is hilarious. Even at his old age he is still as relevant and humorous as ever. Some of his made up stories are just Vin Scully is great too. For the All Star Game MLB should just pair Uecker and Scully and have them call the game.

Skip Caray/Pete van Weiren win hands down for me. Even with Skip gone, I still love listening to Pete.

I don’t really know who to say is worst…. Skip’s kid is pretty bad, though I expect it wouldn’t be tough to find people that are worse. I tend to listen to the radio for the most part….

I loved listening to Gordon and Carneal when they called the games together. Excellent combo, in my opinion.

Now, RIP Carneal and enter Gladden(yes I know he entered before Carneal left us). But, Gladden and Gordon are tough to listen too somtimes. When Gordon focuses on the game, he is decent. And, when Gladden focuses on being the color guy he is decent as well. However, all too often they get caught up in some story that does not relate to the game. you will hear this… "…..the throw to first and Kubel is out…..(Gordo and Gladden talk back and forth)…… and the 3-2 pitch is lifted in the air to right…. " no mention of who is batting or of the 5 pitches we missed…. pisses me off.

I enjoy listening to Santo’s fandom on XM. I especially like listening to him when the Cubs blow a lead, he takes it so personally its almost funny.

When they just started out, the Rockies had an incredible radio duo of Jeff Kingery and Wayne Hagan. I think Hagan left for St. Louis, but Kingery is still around. They were a really great duo to grow up to.

Idk how that White Sox guy announces game but it’s hilarious to hear his voice in the background of highlights.. YOU CAN PUT IT ON THE BOARD… YES!

And I hate Micheal Kay and the rest of the guys from Yes.. And yeah, I also hate Sterling. And the Phillies guy who sounds like he’s going to die.

AN A-Bomb From A-Rod.
The “melk man”
robbie cano whata know

a long drive to deep left.. THERE IT GOES.. SEE YA. A LONG homerun for Alex Rodriguez.

Of course, I have no actual basis for comparison, but it’s hard to imagine any better pair than Ned Martin and Jim Woods, who handled the Red Sox in the glorious years 1974-78,

Talk about comedowns — after Woods retired, Martin was moved to TV, where he was relatively ordinary, and was paired with Hawk Harrelson to boot.

And let me second the nomination of Don Orsillo as a great TV play-by-play man. He has a knack for spontaneously saying the perfect thing at dramatic moments, e.g., “How many times can you go to the well?” as yet another Papi walkoff (the one against Carmona in ‘06) heads for the seats, or last week’s “Are you kidding me?” after Youkilis’ 3-run homer put the Sox up 19-16.

Nothing homogenized about Shannon, and a classic example of someone who wouldn’t get a chance in the current state of affairs. However, you can hear his love of the game and some of his comments are instant classics, the least of which was his description of a fast baserunner “running like a cat in Chinatown.”

I know I’m in the minority on this one, but I don’t enjoy listening to Vin Scully. I don’t find much of the side information he throws out there to be very interesting, but that is just my opinion. Like “Matt Kemp’s father used to sell tires at Goodrich” or “Clayton raised goldfish as a boy”, I could care less, really.

I like Cohen, Darling, and Hernandez, he has an edge to him, Mark Grace and Josh Lewen (sorry for the spelling) on the Diamondbacks telecasts, and Jon Miller. Not sure which is the biggest homer between Hawk or Santo, but neither really bother me. Can’t say the same for DJ. Listening to him talk about himself you’d think he was a perrenial all-star. Also don’t care for Don Sutton. Last year listening to him, you’d think Ryan Church and Austin Kearns were Griffey and Edgar Martinez. Joe Morgan is annoying, in my opinion, but Tim McCarver is hands down the worst! Besides I think he’s a jerk. About 15 years ago at 10:30 AM before a 1:05 PM Cubs game I asked McCarver for an autograph and he said “I don’t have time kid.”

Nobody will ever touch Bob Murphy as far as any Met fan who ever heard him is concerned. I wish I had been around to hear the Lindsay Nelson-Murph-Kiner trio they had for the first 17 years of the franchise. Murph was as close to Vin Scully as you can get, and I was always amazed that he never really got national jobs, unless he turned them down…

Murph was also paired with Curt Gowdy in Boston for the first five or so years of his career. That must have been a joy to listen to as well…