Best and worst baseball TV announcers

[oddball]

Vinny is rated so high, because people don't want to admit he has flaws. I'm sure if it's like the love for an old quarterback that can't really play the position as well as he did before, but the team knows that it'd be a public nightmare to let him go and that really even at 75% of what he use to be, he's still 10 times better than most of the others out there and 100 times better than what they have.

[CS85]

Joe Buck, end thread.

Hawk Harrelson is the worst in radio easily.

[The_Admiral]

Hawk's on television. Ed Farmer is on radio for the Sox, and is also bad.

[Sodboy13]

I haven't heard Harrelson in a couple of years, but had the unmuted experience last night. I see he's added a new one to his arsenal: snidely ejaculating "Where was that pitch?!?" whenever he feels the Sox have been wronged on a ball/strike call. Hawk, if I wanted to hear that kind of petulant, childish crap in a ballgame, I'd start lobbying for the players to be miked.

[MadmanLA]

I haven't heard Harrelson in a couple of years, but had the unmuted experience last night. I see he's added a new one to his arsenal: snidely ejaculating "Where was that pitch?!?" whenever he feels the Sox have been wronged on a ball/strike call. Hawk, if I wanted to hear that kind of petulant, childish crap in a ballgame, I'd start lobbying for the players to be miked.

It's one thing to be a homer, but it's another when you're over-the-top and blatant. If you're a home team announcer, and want to support your team, fine...but be professional and don't insult your fans' intelligence by telling them something that is, when it isn't. That means you, Hawk Harrelson and John Sterling.

[pcgd]

I'll join the Ron Santo haters. Although when the cubs are losing he is quite humorous to listen to. Pat Hughes (Ron's counterpart) however is really good.

I might be alone as a Cardinals fan and I'll probably have to give up my STL hat, but I don't like Mike Shannon. Maybe its cause I grew up with one of the best in Jack Buck but he's Ron Santo light to me. And for TV Al Hrabosky is pretty god awful too. I know Joe Buck is pretty bad Nationally but I used to really like him when he did local games for the Cardinals. Once he started doing NFL he half-assed the local games and they weren't nearly as good, but when he was coming up he was great on TV.

On the Harry Caray thing, I too thought he wasn't that great. He was a charactature of himself. Similar to Ron Santo though, he was entertaining. I never heard this but I've heard stories about it:

Harry: "HOT SHOT TO THIRD, AR-IS-MUS SNAGS IT!"

Steve Stone: "Harry that was a strike out, they are throwing the ball around..."

Harry: "Oh..."

However, one of the greatest things I heard was a replay of the 1966 All Star game which was the first game in Busch Stadium II. It was announced by a young Harry Caray and Jack Buck. It was pretty damn good.

[maz]

Much like the team, the Pirates' announcers suck. The new guy Tim Neverett is okay, but I find Greg Brown annoying at times. His win phrase "Raise the jolly roger" is so corny. Not that it's said all that often. Lanny Frattare was much better. "There was noooooooo doubt about it" was pretty good. Even then he wasn't amazing.

[ESTONES6]

I'm not even going to comment on other teams'... but the Indians' Rick Manning is F------ terrible. He adds NOTHING to a broadcast, has no interesting facts, says some of the dumbest I've ever heard, and actually makes WRONG calls.

I am being 100% honest when I say this: I would rather listen to donkey's humping than Rick Manning. When I hear his voice, I pine to see livestock go at it.

[infrared41]

I'm not even going to comment on other teams'... but the Indians' Rick Manning is F------ terrible. He adds NOTHING to a broadcast, has no interesting facts, says some of the dumbest I've ever heard, and actually makes WRONG calls.

I am being 100% honest when I say this: I would rather listen to donkey's humping than Rick Manning. When I hear his voice, I pine to see livestock go at it.

Not to mention the fact that the guy sure seems to know an awful lot about hitting for someone who had a career average of .257. Manning acts like he hit .380 for his career and he comes across like a know-it-all prick.

[CS85]

Santo's commentary is glib and kind of pointless, he's just a beloved figure, despite his lack of usable insight into a game. Pat Hughes is great.

[NJTank]

The Top Five I have heard that are active

1. Vin Scully-Gold Standard

2. Bob Costas

3. Gary Cohen

4. Keith Hernandez

5. Ken Singleton

Bottom Five

1. Kevin Millar The Worst Ever

2. Tim McCarver

3. Joe Buck

4. Chip Caray

5. Jon Miller

[ESTONES6]

I'm not even going to comment on other teams'... but the Indians' Rick Manning is F------ terrible. He adds NOTHING to a broadcast, has no interesting facts, says some of the dumbest I've ever heard, and actually makes WRONG calls.

I am being 100% honest when I say this: I would rather listen to donkey's humping than Rick Manning. When I hear his voice, I pine to see livestock go at it.

Not to mention the fact that the guy sure seems to know an awful lot about hitting for someone who had a career average of .257. Manning acts like he hit .380 for his career and he comes across like a know-it-all prick.

I have to listen to the games on mute. When I actually have the sound on, I tend to stutter and cuss out loud. He is almost as bad as listening to Chuck Galetti.

[infrared41]

I'm not even going to comment on other teams'... but the Indians' Rick Manning is F------ terrible. He adds NOTHING to a broadcast, has no interesting facts, says some of the dumbest I've ever heard, and actually makes WRONG calls.

I am being 100% honest when I say this: I would rather listen to donkey's humping than Rick Manning. When I hear his voice, I pine to see livestock go at it.

Not to mention the fact that the guy sure seems to know an awful lot about hitting for someone who had a career average of .257. Manning acts like he hit .380 for his career and he comes across like a know-it-all prick.

I have to listen to the games on mute. When I actually have the sound on, I tend to stutter and cuss out loud. He is almost as bad as listening to Chuck Galetti.

Which is almost as bad as the torture that is Bruce Drennan on "All Bets Are Off." People think we get the short end of the stick with our teams? The teams don't even compare to the misery of listening to our local sports "personalities." Don't even get me started on Kenny Roda.

[ESTONES6]

I'm not even going to comment on other teams'... but the Indians' Rick Manning is F------ terrible. He adds NOTHING to a broadcast, has no interesting facts, says some of the dumbest I've ever heard, and actually makes WRONG calls.

I am being 100% honest when I say this: I would rather listen to donkey's humping than Rick Manning. When I hear his voice, I pine to see livestock go at it.

Not to mention the fact that the guy sure seems to know an awful lot about hitting for someone who had a career average of .257. Manning acts like he hit .380 for his career and he comes across like a know-it-all prick.

I have to listen to the games on mute. When I actually have the sound on, I tend to stutter and cuss out loud. He is almost as bad as listening to Chuck Galetti.

Which is almost as bad as the torture that is Bruce Drennan on "All Bets Are Off." People think we get the short end of the stick with our teams? The teams don't even compare to the misery of listening to our local sports "personalities." Don't even get me started on Kenny Roda.

I called into Drennan's show... Told the screener I wanted to talk about the Line Up for next year. Ended up saying, "I can't believe you got busted... there is no way you can be as bad of a bookie as your are TV host." Got the hook right as i got to TV.

The ony thing that makes Drennan tolerable is how animated he is. Galetti doesn't know anything. He tries to be funny, but he just looks like a jackass. Somehow, Drennan's and his shows are top on FSN.

[infrared41]

I'm not even going to comment on other teams'... but the Indians' Rick Manning is F------ terrible. He adds NOTHING to a broadcast, has no interesting facts, says some of the dumbest I've ever heard, and actually makes WRONG calls.

I am being 100% honest when I say this: I would rather listen to donkey's humping than Rick Manning. When I hear his voice, I pine to see livestock go at it.

Not to mention the fact that the guy sure seems to know an awful lot about hitting for someone who had a career average of .257. Manning acts like he hit .380 for his career and he comes across like a know-it-all prick.

I have to listen to the games on mute. When I actually have the sound on, I tend to stutter and cuss out loud. He is almost as bad as listening to Chuck Galetti.

Which is almost as bad as the torture that is Bruce Drennan on "All Bets Are Off." People think we get the short end of the stick with our teams? The teams don't even compare to the misery of listening to our local sports "personalities." Don't even get me started on Kenny Roda.

I called into Drennan's show... Told the screener I wanted to talk about the Line Up for next year. Ended up saying, "I can't believe you got busted... there is no way you can be as bad of a bookie as your are TV host." Got the hook right as i got to TV.

The ony thing that makes Drennan tolerable is how animated he is. Galetti doesn't know anything. He tries to be funny, but he just looks like a jackass. Somehow, Drennan's and his shows are top on FSN.

That's the thing about Drennan, I think he really does a good job. He annoys the hell out of me, especially how animated he is, but his show is easily the most informative and interesting of all our local sports programs. I suffer through him because his show really does the best job with Cleveland sports. Last night he had on Bill Livingston from the PD and it was excellent. Annoying as all get out but a really good show.

[dfwabel]

Vinny is rated so high, because people don't want to admit he has flaws. I'm sure if it's like the love for an old quarterback that can't really play the position as well as he did before, but the team knows that it'd be a public nightmare to let him go and that really even at 75% of what he use to be, he's still 10 times better than most of the others out there and 100 times better than what they have.

+1.

Mr. Scully is not the the same guy from 2000, less 1985, but no man can still describe a game for radio better than Mr. Scully. The Dodgers also have another issue in that their Spanish announcer, Jaime Jarrín, has been there just as long as Vin. Jarrín as been with the Dodgers for for 51 years to Vin's 60. How ironic that L.A. is mocked as a poor "sportstown", but in the last 50 years, they have had Wooden, Chick Hearn and Scully.

Watching Harry Caray leave the press box in 1994 was one of the saddest things I have ever witnessed in terns of sport.

Since I have DirecTV, I can usually hear whomever I want. The GQ list left out 66% of the TV crews, so the writer must have thought that the others were irrelevant.

I accepted Hawk since from the beginning, I knew he was homer. Somehow, I like, "You can put it on the board...YES!"

I like Thom Brennaman and was happy when he got picked up by FOX for the NFL.

I like Bob Carpenter. I heard him since STL radio and road Cards games and think he is not bad.

Josh Levin is slightly underrated, but he does too many "inside jokes" for people listening in either DFW or San Diego. He also has a band.

[Sport]

I'm not even going to comment on other teams'... but the Indians' Rick Manning is F------ terrible. He adds NOTHING to a broadcast, has no interesting facts, says some of the dumbest I've ever heard, and actually makes WRONG calls.

I am being 100% honest when I say this: I would rather listen to donkey's humping than Rick Manning. When I hear his voice, I pine to see livestock go at it.

Not to mention the fact that the guy sure seems to know an awful lot about hitting for someone who had a career average of .257. Manning acts like he hit .380 for his career and he comes across like a know-it-all prick.

I have to listen to the games on mute. When I actually have the sound on, I tend to stutter and cuss out loud. He is almost as bad as listening to Chuck Galetti.

Which is almost as bad as the torture that is Bruce Drennan on "All Bets Are Off." People think we get the short end of the stick with our teams? The teams don't even compare to the misery of listening to our local sports "personalities." Don't even get me started on Kenny Roda.

I called into Drennan's show... Told the screener I wanted to talk about the Line Up for next year. Ended up saying, "I can't believe you got busted... there is no way you can be as bad of a bookie as your are TV host." Got the hook right as i got to TV.

The ony thing that makes Drennan tolerable is how animated he is. Galetti doesn't know anything. He tries to be funny, but he just looks like a jackass. Somehow, Drennan's and his shows are top on FSN.

That's the thing about Drennan, I think he really does a good job. He annoys the hell out of me, especially how animated he is, but his show is easily the most informative and interesting of all our local sports programs. I suffer through him because his show really does the best job with Cleveland sports. Last night he had on Bill Livingston from the PD and it was excellent. Annoying as all get out but a really good show.

I've expressed my opinions on his show on this site before, but I'll say it again. I give him about twenty minutes a week. He's very animated and I think he actually has some good opinions, though I did hear him say once *in high gravely cleveland accent* "If Cliff Lee gets hot, he could win 30, 34 games." Anything more than twenty minutes and I become too irritated to continue. If people call in then I'm done and I have to change the channel, but that's not unique to his show. I can't stand call-in shows on anything.

[See Red]

The announcers I hear most are the Colorado Rockies announcers, Drew Goodman with either George Frazier or Jeff Huson. They're pretty good... certainly not bad, but they're not great. They're pretty knowledgeable and really don't seem too biased, but 'not being bad' is really their best quality, as they don't get annoying. They're not going to make a great game unwatchable, but they're not going to make a crappy game watchable.

[sacker12]

I've always liked Chip Caray from his days at Fox. Dick Stockton and Gary Thorne are also good. I actually liked Boog Schambi when he was with Joe Simpson on the Braves telecasts. However, I can't say the same for Ernie Johnson.

However, I can't stand Kenny Albert. It always irks me when he's on a Game of the Week. I always hope that it is a game that Stockton or Buck are calling. Also, I don't like Millar as a color guy. Eric Karros is the only color guy that I like on Fox.

[ElwoodCuse]

Much like the team, the Pirates' announcers suck. The new guy Tim Neverett is okay, but I find Greg Brown annoying at times. His win phrase "Raise the jolly roger" is so corny. Not that it's said all that often. Lanny Frattare was much better. "There was noooooooo doubt about it" was pretty good. Even then he wasn't amazing.

Steve Blass is awesome because he's easily distracted and him telling stories or making goofy observations is better than 99% of Pirates "baseball".

Didn't Lanny retire in part because he was getting clinical depression from the Pirates awfulness?