Best and worst baseball TV announcers

[mania]

Harrelson is easily the worst, now that Rex Hudler is no longer calling games. Also on my irritation list are Rod Allen of the Tigers, who's not overly obnoxious, but just incredibly ignorant of baseball teams that aren't in Detroit, and Dave Niehaus of the Mariners, who's tone and inflection just drives me up the wall. I absolutely hate to watch Mariners games, because of the broadcast team.

For the homerific, I think the Rangers duo is middle of the pack. Lewin's corny, he has a tendency to gush on some things, and the man loves his puns, but for a former player, Tom Grieve isn't bad at all, except for his aversion to sabr-stats.

[infrared41]

Since I started the thread I suppose I should toss in my 2 cents.

Top 5: First off, I think we can all agree that Vin Scully is the gold standard of baseball announcers. As an MLB Extra Innings subscriber I have watched all these guys do games and either GQ is seeing something I'm not or they just don't have a clue as to what's good and what isn't. The Mets team is just awful and so are the Red Sox guys. How Gary Thorne didn't make the top 5 list is beyond me.

The bottom 5: Ken Harreleson would ruin a game if VIn Scully was doing the play-by-play. That's how annoying he is. The Indians announcing team should be 1-A on the bottom 5. Rick Manning comes across like a miserable prick and he acts as if he was a career .350 hitter. The glaring omission I see on that list is Oakland's announcers. They aren't bad they're just incredibly boring.

[OnWis97]

I don't know most of 'em.

But since many base it on homerism...

Does Jim Kaat still do color for Yankee games? He was good as a Twins announcer before he went to the big market. I heard him do a couple Yankee/Twins games when I lived in CT a few years ago and appreciated how much effort he put toward teaching the Yankee fans about the Twins (the question is does he always do that or just vs. the Twins, who he knew so well). Either way, he was good.

I don't know the local guys. For national, they're all fairly the same to me. I am not nearly as hard on them as some people, because it's a hard job. I remember Bob Costas (when he was not quite a big) and Tony Kubek doing postseason in the 1980s. They were good.

[tp49]

The thing I really like about the Mets guys is that when things are going badly they are not afraid of being critical of the organization unlike their counterparts in the Bronx. I also agree that Gary Thorne is also very good and remember him from his days in the Mets radio booth.

I too subscribe to Extra Innings and have heard all of the television broadcast teams. I understand that the best and worst is obviously subjective. My bottom 5 would be in no particular order: Nationals, Indians, Padres (Dick Enberg is just out of place calling games locally for an MLB team), Diamondbacks, and the Marlins (the "His name is Dan Uggla" catchphrase when Uggla homers is cringe worthy.)

Then again this is coming from someone who as a child would try to pick up out of town games on AM radio to listen to the announcers for different teams.

[friarcanuck]

I just like how Buck Martinez pronounces "Sox" like "Sucks". It's always fitting.

[Camden Crazy]

I don't think Gary Thorne is that great...he completely botches nearly every single players name, can't recognize what pitch was just thrown (sorry Gary, nobody throws a 94 MPH curveball), and says the ridiculously annoying "_ RBI homer". Why the hell can't you just say "two run home run"?

[HedleyLamarr]

Why are a lot of you complaining that announcers are "homers/biased" when they're employed by these teams and are supposed to be homers/biased?

[mania]

Why are a lot of you complaining that announcers are "homers/biased" when they're employed by these teams and are supposed to be homers/biased?

There's a line though, between favoring your employer and being an obnoxious jackass... you don't want to listen to even your own team's announcers bray 3 hours a night, Glenn Beck style.

[oddball]

While I've believed that Vin Scully was the best of all time, if you're saying he's the best currently, you don't listen to enough Dodger games to hear that he's going down fast and botching simple things such as player names and proper teams. It's getting bad. All that coloring of his hair is slowly ruining a great mind. There are good ones and I do miss hearing Gary Thorne doing both baseball and hockey for ESPN. Orel Hershiser is good on the Sunday night broadcasts, and I do like Jim Kaat and I do like what I've heard out of John Smoltz on MLB Network. I like Bert Blyleven and Rick Sutcliff, and am fine with Victor Rojas. I will also say that I love Ken Harrleson. I love the "Put it on the board." It's fun, it's what baseball's about, fun, and it's Hawk. You know when you're watching a White Sox game and who the announcer is. Between him and Seattle's "FLY AWAY!!!" guy, they are probably the two best home run calls in baseball. Too bad the Dodgers couldn't hire Rick Monday to do TV, he is such a solid announcer on radio.

Two guys that ruin a broadcast who have the ESPN "It's all about me" mentality, are Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. Does Joe Morgan even know who's playing anymore or know what he's talking about, I just hear a talking head over there. Of course the worst broadcast hands down week in and week out goes to the Fox Baseball both in the studio, and on the field. Tim McCarver is another one who just talks to talk, and the fact that they employ Chris Rose shows that they have no clue on anything sports. I don't care for Mark Gubicza, and hated him paired with Rory Markas, it was just a bad pairing. I hate anything to do with Jose Mota who is completely clueless and annoying. Then again the Dodgers employing Steve Lyons on the road sucks, he's good at analysis, but color, is horrible. Rob Dibble is bad.

If you want to go in studio, and talk about that and former players, I think MLB Network has the best in Dan Plesac, Sean Casey, Al Leiter, Billy Ripken, Mitch Williams, Joe Magrane, and Barry Larkin they're funny and entertaining, yet bring the in depth knowledge that you look for in a commentator whether they are in studio or doing a game. Yet they have a couple bad ones in Dave Valle and Harrold Reynolds. I'm not sure about Kevin Millar, as I haven't heard enough of him.

[gingerbreadmann]

^I was just going to say that about Scully. This is more like a lifetime achievement award. If the Dodgers today hired Vin Scully for the first time no one would like him because he just isn't nearly as acute as he needs to be and that doesn't even matter because there is no way he would be hired by a major league team if he wasn't Vin Scully anyway. He's a legend, and he still has that great soothing, gravelly voice, but he can't carry a game by himself like he used to.

With this week's Extra Innings preview people (like me) should be able to hear more of these announcers. I have heard of fewer than half of these people and I'm surprised that some people are familiar with so many announcers outside of their home market, unless you all already have EI.

[Kevin W.]

You guys are just haters. Hawk FTW.

[epper]

Good

Scully (Dodgers)

Remy & Orsillo (BoSox)

Dan Shulman (Former Jays, now ESPN)

Josh Lewin & Tom Grieve (Rangers)

Bad

Hawk Harrelson. (Every time he says "he gone", it makes me want to punch things.)

Jamie Campbell (Former Jays announcer mercifully fired after '09. He was even worse during the snowboarding events at Vancouver 2010)

Miller & Morgan (Miller mispronounces a ton of names, Morgan fixates on one tiny detail and runs it into the ground over the course of an event ie. David Ortiz's shoes at the HRD last night)

Chip Caray ("BASE HIT! CAUGHT! DOUBLE PLAY!")

[DDR]

Hawk is the guy who does the "STRETCH, STRETCH! YOU CAN PUT IT ON THE BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARD... YES!" right? I kind of like that.

Seriously? That, along with "HEGONE!" have to be the worst regular catchphrases (or whatever you want to call it) in the history of baseball broadcasting. He's completely unprofessional, disgustingly biased, and those catchphrases are just..plain stupid.

Yeah, well, you know, that's just like your opinion, man.

[infrared41]

^I was just going to say that about Scully. This is more like a lifetime achievement award. If the Dodgers today hired Vin Scully for the first time no one would like him because he just isn't nearly as acute as he needs to be and that doesn't even matter because there is no way he would be hired by a major league team if he wasn't Vin Scully anyway. He's a legend, and he still has that great soothing, gravelly voice, but he can't carry a game by himself like he used to.

I hate to say anything negative about Vin Scully but I agree with Ginger and Oddball that he isn't what he used to be. Vin Scully is still Vin Scully but over the past two seasons I've noticed it's not as much fun to listen to him as it used to be. It's more about tradition these days than anything else. He's still good but his lead over everyone else isn't what it used to be.

[Sport]

Watching highlights of the Yankees success because of George Steinbrenner's death reminded me of a guy that I can't stand. The dude with the worst victory call in sports, "Yankees win! theuhuhuhuhuh yankees win!

Grating.

[infrared41]

Watching highlights of the Yankees success because of George Steinbrenner's death reminded me of a guy that I can't stand. The dude with the worst victory call in sports, "Yankees win! theuhuhuhuhuh yankees win!

Grating.

That would be John Sterling and he's as bad as it gets.

[Sodboy13]

You guys are just haters. Hawk FTW.

And that's about as analytical and well-spoken as Hawk Harrelson's supporters get.

(he did)

[tp49]

*deleted partial post* ugh bad typing skills.

[tp49]

Watching highlights of the Yankees success because of George Steinbrenner's death reminded me of a guy that I can't stand. The dude with the worst victory call in sports, "Yankees win! theuhuhuhuhuh yankees win!

Grating.

That would be John Sterling and he's as bad as it gets.

Agree wholeheartedly Sterling is horrid and it went from bad to worse with the analysts they paired with him from Michael Kay to Charlie Steiner to Suzyn Waldman. Yankee radio is so bad it's unlistenable.

"An A-Bomb from A-Rod..."

[Jigga]

You guys are just haters. Hawk FTW.

Yes, but you're just a homererotic fanboy. Hawk sucks massive balls.

However, Ron Santo is the absolute worse thing to ever happen to sports broadcasting.