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Who do you love? - Broadcast edition

During the course of Sunday's game thread, there was some talk of various broadcasters and opinions were expressed about their merits and liabilities (namely, the usual Joe Morgan hatred).  So, my question - who do you enjoy listening to and why?  I'll go first.  One of the game's greats is Vin Scully (no-brainer there).  Why?  For me, he fits the bill in four categories -
1.)  Easy on the ears - Vin has a great and distinctive voice.
2.)  Calls the game as it is happening - This is the department where many guys lose points in my book.  When I am listening to the radio, the announcer is my eyes (duh).  But many talk about topics other than the game to the point where the listener doesn't know who is at the plate, what the count is or even how many outs there are in the inning.  This is usually at its worst during the visitors' half of the inning.  Obviously, this isn't as important with TV because I can see for myself and read the game info running at the top of the screen.  But many guys don't seem to know (or care) that their audience has expanded because of XM and MLB.TV and that some listeners / viewers might want to know what is happening when the opponent is at bat.  This leads directly to my next catagory.  
3.)  Good information / color - Vin has great little tidbits about players, both the Dodgers and the rivals.  He can weave it into the broadcast while still keeping the up with what is happening on the field.  And it is fresh.  For instance, how many times have you heard that Yadier is the youngest of "the three catching Molina brothers"?  Really?  I did not know that, even though you mentioned it the last time he was at bat (and during last night's game and the night before that).  
4.)  Respects the opponent - Vin can call a game and make it exciting without excessive "homerism" for the Dodgers or snarkiness for the adversary.
I like several others, some individuals, some teams, but few bring all four qualities to the table quite like Vin Scully.  For me anyway.  

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I'll agree.
I've only been able to listen to scully about a dozen times, but he is clearly in a different league. That guy is an absolute artist. He is my favorite by far. Nobody else is close.

Next in line would be Bob Costas. I'd love to see him do the playoffs.

by ortic jones on Jul 16, 2007 12:37 PM EDT   0 recs

Well,
Harry Kalas in the booth last night was fantastic. His voice is made of silk.

I like John Rooney a lot, and I still believe Mike Shannon is the coolest man in town, so I listen to more games on the radio then most. Danny Mac is decent enough, but I can't stand Hrabosky on the TV.

I don't like Joe Buck when he's doing national games -- he comes off kinda smug (although the person he's paired up with doesn't help anything) -- but when he's on FSN or KTRS (he did a few games with Shannon last summer that were dynamite) I think he's great.

And as long as Vin Scully is breathing, he should be allowed (nay, forced) to call every World Series.

Boooo-urns.

by Alxfritz on Jul 16, 2007 12:47 PM EDT   0 recs

I like Harry Kalas pretty well too,
but who I really miss is Bob Carpenter.
Stop the Bleeding!

by kyle man on Jul 16, 2007 1:29 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Agreeance
I'll flip over to the Dodgers now and then on MLB.tv if I can hear Scully. (And usually the Cards are down by 7 or 8 by that point)

by paCardsFan on Jul 16, 2007 12:51 PM EDT   0 recs

Jon Miller, of ESPN
no one better, in my opinion.  Anyone that can put up with Joe Morgan for as long as he has, well...

Miller paints a picture, is witty and doesn't take Morgan's putdowns of his "lack" of baseball knowledge personal.

I would have punched Joe right smack in the face while on air had he said to me some of the usual guff he gives to Miller.

Scully, though, is amazing.  What is he, 140 by now?  His voice still sounds the same as it did 20 years ago.  If I remember correctly, he used to be the #1 play-by-play man for NBC in the late '80s, before CBS grabbed the MLB contract.

by philbobilbo on Jul 16, 2007 1:39 PM EDT   0 recs

Please don't remind me of the days
where Scully, Costsas and Uecker called national games.  They make Valatan sad about the current days of McCarverisms

by Valatan on Jul 16, 2007 1:42 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Mylanta,
they were an incredible crew. Why couldn't they get back together? Who would oppose this?
Boooo-urns.

by Alxfritz on Jul 16, 2007 1:57 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

FOX
Rupert Murdoch wants everyone to forget that baseball is not football.

by Valatan on Jul 16, 2007 2:20 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

In San Francisco last summer
And was surprised to learn that Miller's the regular play-by-play man for the Giants Fox Sports channel. He's so much better on those broadcasts without Joe Morgan. He has a lot of fun calling games and is real good at doing it.

by liam on Jul 16, 2007 2:27 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

correct
scully did the nbc broadcasts, with, i believe joe garagiola, and they were a good team, carried of course by scully

scully is the best right now, i also really like kalas, skip carey, shannon, jay randolph, joe buck at times, john miller, i also enjoy gary thorne

my all time would be jack buck, scully, costas, and ernie harwell

Pujols is the greatest Cardinal in my lifetime.

by bigcardsfan5 on Jul 16, 2007 4:25 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

garagiola was pretty good
but he had moments that rivaled McCarver.  His saving grace was his ability to get a joke or dish back out a joke with whoever he was working with.  McCarver has them fly right over his head.

...so does Morgan.

Interested in pre-1990 Cardinals games on tape

by Hardcore Legend on Jul 16, 2007 5:08 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

OMG
you like Jon Miller???????????????? hes horrible!!! cant stand to listen to him or Morgan for 5 minutes I remember a Cardinal game in 05 on sunday night baseball about halfway through the game their mikes went out and I got to listen to the Deportes anouncers and they were AWESOME saved the game from those horrendous sunday night baseball anouncers

by Calhoun on Jul 16, 2007 6:13 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

mine is dan
the dan mclaughlin on fsn...dont know if i spelt his name right.

he has a sarcastic way about it and is not afraid to bash the cardinals terrible play when he needs to..that is my kind of announcer

by homerfatman on Jul 16, 2007 3:54 PM EDT   0 recs

Dan lets a lot of stuff go
that he shouldn't.  I know he is the hometeam broadcaster and that the team, I believe, owns part of FSN Midwest.  However, he was WAAAY too positive on Friday night with Wells.  I understand I was probably too frustrated at that point for my own good, but every second he didn't rail against Kippers bugged me to no end.
Interested in pre-1990 Cardinals games on tape

by Hardcore Legend on Jul 16, 2007 5:09 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

I like when Juan drops balls in the outfield
"He missed it, he just flat out missed it!"
Stop the Bleeding!

by kyle man on Jul 16, 2007 5:18 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

I agree
Dan and Al are the best in my opinion I love em their the best cant stand to listen to a game without them unless its Mike Shannon I like it when Mike pops open a beer on the air and you can hear it lol its so funny

by Calhoun on Jul 16, 2007 6:17 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Put me in the Miller and Scully camp
I live in the Bay Area, so I have the pleasure of Miller calling games 5 days a week, sometimes 6.  

The announcing team a few years ago with Miller and Ted Robinson was spectacular.  Robinson is a really good play by play man.

I will make it a point to tune into Dodger home games, especially on Fridays to hear Scully call the game.  He is absolutely the best.

2006 World Champs! Inconceivable! You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

by BozCardsFanSF on Jul 16, 2007 5:48 PM EDT   0 recs

Uecker
in the movie Major League.

No, seriously, I grew up in MKE - Uke's the man.

I also liked Steve Stone when he was with Harry Caray.  

Good pitching will beat good hitting any time, and vice versa. ~Bob Veale, 1966

by bukowski on Jul 16, 2007 5:54 PM EDT   0 recs

I prefered his sidekick
whose name I'm too lazy to look up on IMDb.

"Fly ball...  caught."

.500 here we come...

by effin fisk on Jul 16, 2007 6:04 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Monty
as in, "Dynomite drop-in..."
Interested in pre-1990 Cardinals games on tape

by Hardcore Legend on Jul 16, 2007 6:11 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Those into literature,
baseball, and this topic of the broadcaster would enjoy the prologue to Don DeLillo's novel Underworld.  Lots of good bits of internal monologue by Russ Hodges as he calls the 1951 Giants/Dodgers playoff (the Thomsen home run game).  I particularly like his memories of being an up-and-coming broadcaster 'calling' games in a shed in the middle of nowhere, using the play-by-play as it came across on the telegraph wire.

Amazing that they used to do that.  I think our ex-pres Ronald Reagan got his start doing that sort of broadcasting too -- but I'm not sure about that.  Anyway: read Underworld.

by jfs on Jul 16, 2007 10:31 PM EDT   0 recs

Great intro
I loved the prologue, some of the best "you are there" baseball writing I've ever read. Never made it through even a quarter of the rest of the book, though. What's it about?

by taiko on Jul 17, 2007 12:47 AM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Basically,
waste, and efforts to recycle or get rid of waste as a metaphor for atoning for American sins of the Cold War era (read: the power of the bomb).  If that's not too kookily literary for you.  The Thomson ball turns up again and again in collectors' hands.  But the real strength of the book is set-pieces on life in the 50s and 60s -- my favorites being monologues by Lenny Bruce (as in the Prologue, lots of historical personages show up) about the Cuban Missile Crisis that DeLillo invents.  Great writing.

by jfs on Jul 17, 2007 9:36 AM EDT to parent up   0 recs

I was going to pass DeLillo's latest book because
he requires me to think too much; it is summer after all!  See you later, I'm going to the library....

by jillsinmo on Jul 17, 2007 9:42 AM EDT to parent up   0 recs

i like shannon
because he's such a nut. jerry coleman for the padres is kinda weird at times, but he's also a riot. he has some pretty funny stories. but my favorite is hawk harrelson...just kidding. Uecker is up there on my list, and as a kid from michigan i grew up hearing a lot of ernie harwell, that guy is the greatest.

by erik on Jul 17, 2007 9:43 AM EDT   0 recs

Shannon
is by far the best. What beats drunken quotes like, "He was trying to hit a three run homer with the bases empty. To my knowledge, no one in the history of the game has ever done that. But it could happen someday. You never know in this world of baseball."-Mike Shannon. That quote actually makes sense compared to some of the stuff he says. He sounds alot like my own grandpa.

by Romo9 on Jul 17, 2007 12:27 PM EDT   0 recs

I saw in the paper that he's not going on the
roadtrips, and is only working the home games when he can, due to family illness.  His wife is very ill, say a little prayer for him.....

by jillsinmo on Jul 17, 2007 1:55 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

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