Broadcasters - Search/Destroy

search: jim palmer (if for nothing else, his arrogance is utterly charming)

Search John Rooney and Steve Stone
Blow to smithereens Chimp Caray and Ron "Ohnooooooooo" Santo

I am mostly indifferent to Darrin Jackson, and I like Hawk Harrelson most of the time, but his stories are getting really old. I wouldn't mind a new Sox TV team, that's for certain.

Plus Stone can actually pronounce the word "him" as it should be, rather than as "eem." (I call that particular affliction "Phil Simms Disease.")

Plus wouldn't you want to search anyone who makes fun of Chip Caray's freakishly large head?

Obviously search Scully, and the dear departed Ernie Harwell.

I like Steiner and Sterling, and I hate the Yankees! Sterling's "THUH pitch..." is great.

Steve Stone is great, he cracks me up. He's a real card. Funniest thing he said all year: after an early season game against Atlanta in which the Braves came back to win, Alfonseca was credited with the win. Stoney said "so Alfonseca comes back to bite the hand that once very amply fed him." I mean, you have to imagine it in that dry Stoney voice, but it was priceless.

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...'

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

Who was the guy on the left? He was right -- Sanchez and Stanton had a terrible approach against a pitcher who couldn't throw strikes.

2019 will be the final season for
steve blass (pirates)
marty brennaman (reds)

kirsten karbach, the minors' first female play-by-play broadcaster, has moved up to double-a reading. still a long way from MLB, but it's a big step up from the florida state league

wtf len kasper axed by the cubs and is now on white sox radio?

at least he can still say Chicogo in that weird way he does i guess, but that’s pretty fucked up

wow. honestly, i have better hopes for the 2020-25 chisox than the chisox (even with larussa), so maye it can make sense

'boog' sciambi is the cubs' new tv pbp guy

I still miss Boog from his one (?) season with the barves. But I haven't heard him in years, don't know if he's still good not bad.

i've liked him on espn. and he's kind of goofy in a way that should work well with deshaies

Somebody should take Eric Karros to the side and tell him he's starting to look like Dr. Steve Brule.

vasgersian out on espn sunday nights

absolutely love steve stone

The guy screaming "He has two strikes, Tony!" after Tony La Russa intentionally walked Trea Turner on a 1-2 count to pitch to Max Muncy who proceeded to hit a three-run homer is peak chef's kiss. (via @NBCSWhiteSox)pic.twitter.com/C9yaR0ZdBU

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 9, 2022

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'