Talking Heads

[Manny A]

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

It is the ESPN philosophy that if someone played the game, that makes them knowledgeable and a candidate to put on the air as an "expert" in the game which is not only a load, but bogus reasoning.

ESPN doesn't monopolize that philosophy. Why the heck TBS/TNT actually believes that Shaq and Barkley are the right folks to do NBA pre- and post-game analyses is beyond me.

Practically every MLB team has a former player in the booth. So we get dipwads like Rob Dibble in Washington (who never played for the Nats, so I never could understand the rationale behind that).

NBC always uses former Gold Medal champions to cover the Olympics. Very few are really worth hearing.

And on and on...

[ASA/NYSSOBLUE]

Originally Posted by Manny A

ESPN doesn't monopolize that philosophy. Why the heck TBS/TNT actually believes that Shaq and Barkley are the right folks to do NBA pre- and post-game analyses is beyond me.

Practically every MLB team has a former player in the booth. So we get dipwads like Rob Dibble in Washington (who never played for the Nats, so I never could understand the rationale behind that).

NBC always uses former Gold Medal champions to cover the Olympics. Very few are really worth hearing.

And on and on...

Luckily, I guess, most of the Yankee and Met ex-jock announcers, have been pretty good:

Rizzuto at his peak was a FINE announcer - despite the caricature. If you ever can see the 78 Sox/Yankee playoff game, you will see. No birthday announcements, no cannoli...just a good straight PBP. Its only when he started getting older, and the Yankees got real terrible in the late 80s, the jumping on the GWB....got a box of cannoli schtick started. Bill White was also excellent, intelligent, but not afraid to have a little fun with the Scooter. Fran Healy was also good, and when Seaver was there he was OK also.

Kiner was good, and when McCarver was with the Mets, he was OK. In fact, due to our early cable setup, we got the Phillie games when Timmy Mc was brand new in the booth there. And he was fine with Andy Musser and Ashburn - another fairly decent jock on the air. Hernandez is quite good these days for the Mets, as is Ronnie Darling.

The current Yankee situation is bizarre - almost a rotation of about five or six people - with Michael Kay the only 'Pro' Otherwise its Ken Singleton, David Cone, John Flaherty, Paul O'Neill sometimes, and they even tried Lou Piniella last year! Kay only works home games, plus the short trips to Baltimore and Boston. Usually on the road its Singleton, who is a bit dry but good, and either Flaherty or Coney - usually Flaherty, who needs to rest his mouth once in a while, as he expounds WAY too much on things. Cone, who was an intelligent pitcher, is good, and when him and O'Neill get together it CAN be interesting.

One thing nice about both the Met and Yankee announcers is that there is no Hawk Harrelson screaming over umpires and calls. Both teams seem to have a 'treat the umps fairly' policy. Everything is done in a calm and sane manner. So to hear Harrelson and other yahoos scream over close calls is pretty amazing sometimes. I have the MLB.tv package and find myself tuning out the sound mostly - except for Scully of course! Ill listen to him in bed at night very relaxing!

[Chess Ref]

I have always been a radio guy.

Currently have the MLB radio app on my phone.

I started back in the day with Kiner's Korner.

Moved to Arizona and also fell asleep listening to Vince in Phoenix.

Currently, I get Jon Miller and Dave Fleming...they work well together for the Giants. At times they are hilarious.

The tv guys for the Giants are Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper. Krukow, ex pitcher, starts in on the umpires by the second pitch, and is relentless.

Ray Fosse on the other side of the bay just downright annoys me to no end.

I enjoy Jerry Coleman and Ted Leitner, Padre radio guys. They are pretty funny and never pass up a shot at Barry Bonds.

[SWFLguy]

I've always felt bad for the young kids spending time and money to go to college to learn sportscasting/journalism and then struggling to find a job.

[BretMan]

@ASA/NYSSOBLUE

I didn't know that Paul O'Neill was doing broadcast work. O'Neill lived about a mile from me when we were growing up in Columbus and went to my high school. He came in the year after I graduated. When I was there, his older brother was the star athlete and quarterback of our football team.

I wonder who the first former athlete broadcaster really was. Last weekend I was watching "The Pride of St. Louis", the old biographical film about Dizzy Dean. Dean was broadcasting games back in the 1940's. He had to be one of the earliest former players in the booth. Radio wasn't around much too long before that!

[Gulf Coast Blue]

Did Dizzy's brother Daffy ever work with him in the booth?

[ASA/NYSSOBLUE]

Originally Posted by BretMan

@ASA/NYSSOBLUE

I didn't know that Paul O'Neill was doing broadcast work. O'Neill lived about a mile from me when we were growing up in Columbus and went to my high school. He came in the year after I graduated. When I was there, his older brother was the star athlete and quarterback of our football team.

I wonder who the first former athlete broadcaster really was. Last weekend I was watching "The Pride of St. Louis", the old biographical film about Dizzy Dean. Dean was broadcasting games back in the 1940's. He had to be one of the earliest former players in the booth. Radio wasn't around much too long before that!

O'Neill is very irregular in his YES appearences, so he alomst does not count. And I forgot about Tony Kubek, who was excellent when he was a Yankee announcer - but he was almost tooo good, and got in trouble with Steinbrenner.

One would also be remiss in not mentioning Uecker. Once you get past the Lite Beer/Major League/Mr Belvedere stereotype, you realize that he is one fine announcer - who does his portions of the game SOLO.

There have been only two umpires that I know of who ever did any announcing - Luciano, of course, and.... Brent Musburger, who graduated from the old Al Somers school, and worked minor league ball briefly

[Gulf Coast Blue]

Gene Elston was always my favorite for the Astros. I liked it best when he was paired with Milo Hamilton (who later replaced him).....

Milo was the announcer for the Braves flagship station when Hank Aaron hit his 715th homerun.

I, like Chess Ref.....have always been a radio guy. I loved it when the Walkman came out and I could do outdoor stuff and listen to ballgames.

Ron Franklin and Ron Stone were the best ever tandem in Football for the Oilers back in the 70's and 80's. When I was in college and watching Oiler games on TV, we would turn off the sound and listen to them on the radio.

Good times.

[Jake26]

Beth Mowins usually does a fine job for the WCWS, but this year ...

In Game 1, we had twelve consecutive outs by Ellen Renfro when it was actually thirteen, the last out of the previous inning being the thirteenth. Then last night, we had three consecutive outs from a previous inning (not a three-up, three-down inning) omitted from a consecutive-out count. These could be someone whispering the wrong number in her earpiece.

But calling Ellen's older sister Ivory instead of Ivy is all on her.

Michelle Smith and Jessica Mendoza were their normal selves - decent, but dangerous when they wandered too far off the reservation.


And I grew up on Gene Elston, too, and loved listening to him.

[Manny A]

My dad first got stationed in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri when I was five years old and just got started to be interested in baseball. His favorite player was Roberto Clemente, so we would often go to the old Busch Memorial Stadium when the Cardinals hosted the Pirates.

I soon took a liking to the Cards, so I listened to them on a transistor AM radio with the single earbud. Those were the days when Jack Buck and Harry Caray were doing their games on KMOX radio. I was much too young to appreciate them together; I can only imagine having two legends in the box together made for some memorable moments.