Broadcasters - Search/Destroy

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

Pete Rose is joining Fox Sports:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2435097-pete-rose-to-join-fox-sports-as-baseball-analyst?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial

I'm actually excited for this.

He'll probably not want to be seen making calls during the broadcast.

not really the right thread but w/e

the centerstage w/ chris russo is amazing, in response to why he got sent to boarding school -

"in 8th grade i got a 50 on a spanish final and my mother loved spanish and her beloved only child gets a 50 on the final she said thats it get him outta here"

That's it, huh?

well he also said that lebron is no michael jordan

this is a bad list

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2017/jul/11/best-mlb-broadcast-teams-baseball

Had no idea that Steve Berthiaume likes baseball so much.

That was the worst list

Keith Hernandez really needs an intervention where he is told that every truth he introduces with "When I was a kid" IS AN ILLUSION.

Keith: "You could count on the guys like Mays, McCovey, Jimmy Davenport every year"

Davenport (SFG 3b)'s WAR in his seasons as a regular, 1958-69:

1.3, 1.8. 1.1, 2.9, 4.8, 0.9, 1.2, -0.2, 1.2, 3.5, 0.1, -0.4

Decent career, and could charitably be called consistent for perhaps his first 5 seasons. (When Keith was a Bay Area rooter between ages 4 and 9, which is the relevant stat here.)

I guess I am going to have to fire up the archive of last night's Cards game; from FB:

Tim McCarver just went on an epic rant (even for him) against pitch counts, sabermetrics, and the world in general. Anyone have the ability to get video of the bottom of the 5th? It was unreal. I wasn't even mad, just laughing. Dan McLaughlin, the play by play guy, did an amazing job of egging him on and subtly mocking him.[

.@RealMichaelKay: An over-reliance on analytics likely cost the Yankees in the ALDS. pic.twitter.com/P4EiF004FR

— YES Network (@YESNetwork) October 10, 2018

such a massive idiot

The NYT Mag article on the Mets' booth a couple weeks ago was pretty good

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