Broadcasters - Search/Destroy

I think I prefer my announcers to be older guys with slightly southern accents and a folksy manner. The grain of the voice is really what counts, especially when you're going to be spending close to 3 hours with the guy. Give me a distinctive voice and I'm hooked, I could hardly care what they say. Growing up with Harwell probably instilled that in me. This is the big reason I've never warmed to the young bucks. Or the young lewins. They just haven't accumulated enough stories, they always seem to be trying too hard, they always OOZE "broadcasting school". Compare Jack to Joe, or Harry and Skip to Chip. The younger guys just sound so fundamentally uncool. Give me colorful oldsters that I'd enjoy sharing a cocktail with, not young dweeb careerists. and get Buck the hell off my NFL games while you're at it.

By algebra, you'd enjoy Our Pres. in the booth.

Steve Stone filled in for Santo in the playoffs last year, when Ronnie was in surgery in Arizona -- and I just couldn't deal with it. Hughes would make a generalization, and Stone would come in and be like, "Well, that's not actually true, Pat." I just wasn't used to someone correcting Hughes, who's a pretty smart broadcaster himself.

http://www.powermaxconsulting.com/a_caray1.jpg

Then a couple times an inning Hughes will lead him: "Clement's looking good today, Ronnie..." That extra "Ronnie" punctuating the sentence as if to say "wake up over there, little buddy!"

What did he say?

Haha, true!

fucking destroy the white sox on wgn (harrelson, yes?). jesus. i never had wgn until this year, and that's okay.

gotta say that i like the orioles' staff. the p-b-p guys are capable (it is odd that i know that fred manfra was qb at oj simpson's high school, though). jim palmer suffers occasionally from hall-of-famer syndrome, but honestly not too much, and often lightens it up with an anecdote about how earl weaver kicked his ass. buck martinez is also good, and neither of them are nightmarish homers.

nats are kind of weird. on the radio side they've got two old school guys who switch roles every few innings. it's fine apart from the incessant mentions of the "rhythmic applause". television color is ron darling, who is fine content-wise but has strange inflection--everything he says sounds vaguely like a question. (when i mentioned to a friend back in april that darling was doing color he asked "has he talked about the no-hitter he threw in college yet?" to which the answer was yes, but the p-b-p guy brought it up.)

i dislike gary thorne on principle, but i think he's a decent announcer. steve stone is kind of awesome. the tbs guys are all right--i appreciate they way skip says 'chipperjones...'

"Fans, after the Pirates game next Saturday, please stay for a concert by the All-American Rejects sponsored by KROQ.

[pause]

You know alternative groups these days have the strangest names...

The other day I heard of a group named "Three Doors Down"...

[pause]

Makes you wonder who these guys are... where they live... Three Doors Down.

And the first pitch: change-up, fouled away...

How about "Alice In Chains"?...

[voice trails off slightly]

"The Greatful Dead"....

a spreadsheet listing the first 10,000 or so national TV games, and the broadcasters who called them.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AuEh2Uie-nSmdG1Na1d0dHhwUnFMQlE3VjZ5REJTbnc&output=html

I don't remember Koufax doing color for NBC in '72.

Nor did I know that Jackie Robinson worked games for ABC in '65.

that was completely awesome, spent way too much time looking at it.

I do remember the guest "third man" in the booth NBC did in summer '73... ranging from actual ex-regulars like Red Barber, Dizzy Dean and Mel Allen to Danny Kaye, Glen Campbell and... George C. Scott!

No recollection of Lupica doing color (1990 only, apparently). Good lord.

Saturday, Jan. 1, lists four bars: the Back Room, still on Rush Street, plus three long-ago joints: 20 E. Delaware, Sully’s and Peppy’s, with expenses for each $10.30, $9.97, $10, and $8.95. This in a year when a six-pack of Old Style set you back $1.29.

You needed to cite who you entertained to get the write-off, so on New Year’s Day he lists Dave Condon, the Tribune sports columnist; Billy Sullivan, who owned Sully’s; and Joe Pepitone, the former Yankees first baseman who had been traded to the Cubs.

And so it begins. A chain of old-time Chicago bars — Riccardo’s, Boul Mich, Mr. Kelly’s. A posse of early 1970s sports figures — Wilt Chamberlain, Don Drysdale, Gale Sayers. Plus a few unexpected blasts from the past: boxer Jack Dempsey, comedian Jack Benny.

“These guys did nothing but go out and have a few cocktails,” said Jimmy Rittenberg, who owned Faces, which Caray visited 14 times in 1972. “I don’t know how they did it. They were 20, 30 years older than me and I couldn’t keep up with them.”

Jan. 16 something unusual happens. Caray is in Miami, yet there are no expenses, just one enigmatic word, “Super.”

After that break, if indeed it was, comes 288 consecutive days in bars, not only in Chicago, but New York City, and of course on the road with the Sox, beginning with spring training in Sarasota.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/27767026-419/harry-caray-diary-tracked-every-drink-every-bar-in-1972.html#.U5H44vldVyy

Free BP article on some staff faves; decent read including the comments, where the writers are taken to task for picking hometown guys, which the commenters then mostly do as well.

I didn't know Dewayne Staats likes to call balls "non-strikes."

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=24352

Are broadcasters employed by the network or the team? Mix of both? How much does it matter? In some cases, the network is owned or co-owned by the team, right? (eg YES)

it used to be a mix, but maybe team is increasingly the answer?

That's sort of my thinking too. I wish Cot's had a broadcasters section — I'd love to know who's cutting the checks to the mouths who jibjab on my teevee. In the case of the Braves I'd guess Fox for Chip and the team for Joe Simpson, but who the hell knows for sure?

i'd be pretty sure the guys sitting next to each other have the same boss.

hmm, not sure I could assume that.

search: jim deshaies

Posnanski was quite exasperated too:

https://joeposnanski.substack.com/p/la-russa-strange-days-indeed?s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Isn’t it amazing how the people who most mock advanced statistics are the ones who rely on ultra-specific stats that could not possibly be more manufactured or meaningless?

i just want to say, regarding this and TLR

YES!!!!!!!!!

and it also applies to so many foolish baseball announcers who STILL don't know what OPS (and mock it?) is, let alone a real advanced stat

my favorite is when the announcers talk about how a particular player has performed against another team, going back several years. Never mind that these teams were each made up of different sets of players, so the only thing you're really analyzing is how the player performs when he is around a different uniform (which also changes).

i think a minor contributing factor of many of these things are the kind of stats and "interesting information" that is provided to the broadcasters in the booth. Each team has a Media Guide which is actually really fun to flip through. they're thick and compact, and you can quickly find ...a bunch of stats about each player that are ancient, just an ancient way of analyzing baseball or even thinking about it. "So and so had 45 RBIs on the road last year!" --- as Chris Farley would say, "Well LA DE FRICKIN DAH!". since many announcers are the least informed people in the game (dan mclaughlin of the cardinals is like this), they're not going to find information about any of the players, other than this media guide, along with whatever they can pick up while standing on the field like a giant fucking doofus during batting practice before the game

"Pujols is batting .900 against the pirates in his career..., jimmy..."

THAT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT PUJOLS OF THE 2000s VS THE PIRATES OF THE 2000s, YOU FOOL!!!!

Each team has a Media Guide

Do they still put these out? I got swept up in a fever of completism a few years ago, and ended up spending ~$1,000 for just about every media guide for every team from the early '80s through to 2006. I assumed they stopped putting them out a few years ago because of Baseball Reference.

As of last year they did - I am retired/banned from the booth

I’ve noticed an annoying thing the newer announcers are doing lately (the ones doing YouTube and Apple broadcasts and the occasional team broadcaster) - is humble bragging about talking to the players.
I have not once in the last 4 or so years, since broadcasting opened up to social media/tech platforms, learned a single goddamn thing when Joe-talking-head decided to inform me he was talking to player such and such before the game. He tries to not swing at pitches out of the zone you say? Well by golly I can’t wait to read the book that revelation is going to inspire.
It’s like broadcasters are going in two directions simultaneously. They’re trying to hire “stat” people who’s job is to overly drill down on numbers that may or may not be relevant. And they’re also hiring name brand guys (ex players) that care incapable of describing what is happening on the field with any sort grace.

I’ve noticed an annoying thing the newer announcers are doing lately (the ones doing YouTube and Apple broadcasts and the occasional team broadcaster) - is humble bragging about talking to the players.

jim edmonds is notorious for this, already, after only a year or two (god let it end). his version is saying that he got a text from someone. And no, it's never, ever interesting or enlightening. it's always just like:

Dan Mclaughlin: and that's a slow roller to first base, taken care of by Goldschmidt. It turns out that...*sounds of flipping through media guide* he has hit...28 HRs against the Giants in his career.
Jim Edmonds: Hahaha, that's great, that's great.
Dan Mclaughlin: What's that, Jimmy ballgame?
Edmonds: I just got a text from Scott Rolen, ha! He said he saw Goldschmidt in the gym yesterday and he was putting in extra time there, in the gym. You know, I was telling the coach of my son's baseball team. You have to move the players around. You can't have my kid, I mean a kid, coming out of middle school and locked into a position. High School is the time to try out different positions, not the time to lock them into a position, is what I told the coach of my son's baseball team. He needs to listen to me more -- both the coach and my son.

🚨🚨🚨 TEXT ALERT 🚨🚨🚨

Jim: "My mom's texting me now, so I made her happy."@DannyMacTV : "You have a lot of people texting you, Jimmy."#STLCards                       #stlcardinals #JimEdmonds #JimEdmondsisms

— Jim-Edmondsisms (@jimedmondsisms) May 6, 2022

i used to think that edmonds had a decent case for the HoF, that if nothing else he deserved to be on the ballot for a year or two longer before dropping off. but holy shit jim edmonds, stfu

i don’t mind wacky stat anomalies as long as no one pretends that they’re predictive

i mean while prince albert has hit .373/.447/.717 with 32 homers in 97 games in pittsburgh, it’s different now that he’s 42

not wildly different, unfortunately

I'm sorry, Buck Martinez, but you sound like Meatwad.

HE’S SO HARD TO LISTEN TO.

This, however, was relatable.

and just all of a sudden
buck martinez couldn't
contain himself 😂👂 pic.twitter.com/r95EoFOC5J

— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) May 13, 2023

For sure, at the bar Friday night I had the game on the tv behind me and was like "look at that stache, look at those thighs, everyone please join me in crushing on this dude."

Spencer Thighder

Yankees fans 🤝 Red Sox fans

tweeting angrily at ESPN/Karl Ravelach for this:

"I know your mom passed away when you were young, what does Mother's Day mean to you and your brother?" - Karl Ravech question to Triston Casas while playing first base on Sunday Night Baseball. pic.twitter.com/5HEwa5dVhw

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 15, 2023

Tom Glavine makes the easiest money in the game -- 3rd man in the booth, doesn't travel, doesn't work all home games, barely opens his mouth, doesn't put much thought into what he does say. But he's a Hall of Famer!

I like the Australian guy I've heard on Braves broadcasts.

former Barves reliever Peter Moylan! He's been great and from the moments I've heard.

Yeah, Moylan is good. He usually does pregame/postgame but gets into the booth sometimes, I guess when Frenchy is doing national-network games.

Angels game rolled over into the postgame studio bit and Bobby Valentine looked terrifying, big 'the owner of a traveling circus who'd try to buy your soul' energy.

Boog Sciambi was great when he was just a bro who knew the game and could enunciate. Now the harder he performs the less good/interesting he is.

I haven't been keeping up with MLB streaming/broadcasting news over the offseason, so this was a bit surprising:

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/diamond-sports-deal-emerge-bankruptcy-signs-streaming-pact-with-amazon-2024-01-17/

Jan 17 (Reuters) - Regional sports programmer Diamond Sports Group, a unit of Sinclair Broadcast (SBGI.O), opens new tab, said on Wednesday it has signed an agreement with a group of creditors to emerge from bankruptcy and will get funding from Amazon.com (AMZN.O), opens new tab as part of a streaming deal.
Diamond, which operates regional sports channels under the Bally Sports brand, said it will receive $450 million in financing from the creditor group, $495 million from Sinclair and $115 million from Amazon. Diamond will use the funds to pay down older debts and continue operations. Amazon will take a minority equity stake in Diamond as part of the deal.

What the new Diamond-Amazon deal means for MLB, NBA, NHL:
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39333324/diamond-amazon-streaming-mlb-nba-nhl

So I may be able to watch Braves games on BezosPrime this season? Weird. Is there any updated news on this from the past 2 months? A quick search isn't turning anything up.

IT'S HERE
IT'S FOUND

21 yrs ago I was a NESN truck intern watching Jerry relentlessly roast Don over what a lunar eclipse is. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard to this day. Enjoy the best six min of your week. (Enormous h/t to @sidsethupathi)

--> https://t.co/OCzRzDL0ak

— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) April 9, 2024

so, i bit the bullet and decided to get directv streaming for the season so i can have access to masn, and i have to say, i REALLY like kevin brown and ben mcdonald as a pair. i get that for a lot of folks, jim palmer is sort of an acquired taste, but i also think brown and palmer work well together, too. brown is good on the aspects of the modern game/culture, has a good voice and puts a bit of his own spin on the call that doesn't really sound forced.

that orsillo-remy bit is fantastic, maybe even better than 'here comes the pizza'

I don't know how old Harry Caray was when he signed this. I'm not trying to be mean--as a semi-regular contributor to the VegemiteGrrl's Home for the Absent-Minded thread, believe me, I understand.

https://i.postimg.cc/QxcxXvyN/harry.jpg