July 28, 2005

Voices of the game: USA Today celebrates the timeless magic that is baseball on radio. With Fox and ESPN dragging the sport's network TV coverage to unprecedented depths of suckitude, such an appreciation has never been more timely.

posted by Motown Mike to baseball at 02:51 PM - 12 comments

I'm getting a page not found for salon, which sucks because I really wanted to read it. I love baseball on the radio (including my mlb radio subscription).

posted by justgary at 06:38 PM on July 28, 2005

I think this should be the link. It's about the horrible coverage of the All-Star game by Fox and how they so abused Ernie Harwell. The column about the Home Run Derby is also good. And just because here is the link to the free preview of Baseball Prospectus King Kaufman mentions in that last column.

posted by ?! at 09:45 PM on July 28, 2005

fox has consistently put together the worst baseball coverage ever, i want to blow my brains out every time i hear jon miller talk...

posted by gregy606 at 01:11 AM on July 29, 2005

Thanks so much ?!.

posted by justgary at 01:13 AM on July 29, 2005

I was in Pittsburgh when Mazeroski hit the home run to win the series against the Yankees and I don't remember listening to Chuck Thompson. There used to be an anouncer named Rosie Rosewell who broadcast the Pirates games locally. He was famous for his unique sayings like "it's the old dipsy doodle, he swings and misses for strike three". And, "open the windows aunt Minnie, here she comes, it's a home run" when a Pirate would hit a long one. Or, "its' FOB folks" for full of bucks when they had the bases loaded. That was a long time ago. Thanks for the post and link to the article which I missed. It brought back some great sports memories.

posted by tommysands at 01:59 AM on July 29, 2005

Hands down, the finest voice ever to announce baseball on the radio has got to be Vin Scully of the LA Dodgers. He is even recognized as such by other legendary announcers. He talks at the tempo the game is played. He paints a landscape of the field and the players on it. He tells you every move the pitcher or batter is making without being simplistic or repetitive. Much like his late counterpart, Chick Hearn of the LA Lakers, Vin is an artist who paints the game into your mind almost as if you were there in person. I am glad that over the past 15 years I have lived in SoCal, that I have gotten to listen to Vin(and Chick before his untimely death in 2003), and know a bad annoucer when I hear one(which is just about all of them)! Charlie Steiner of the Dodgers actually has a decent announcers voice but not the imagination of a Vin Scully.

posted by bluekarma at 02:18 AM on July 29, 2005

Gregy, I've got this CD I'd like to send you...

posted by billsaysthis at 03:29 PM on July 29, 2005

gregy606: fox has consistently put together the worst baseball coverage ever, i want to blow my brains out every time i hear jon miller talk... Jon Miller is an ESPN announcer, it's Joe Buck who's the main Fox guy.

posted by Motown Mike at 10:43 PM on July 29, 2005

tommysands: I was in Pittsburgh when Mazeroski hit the home run to win the series against the Yankees and I don't remember listening to Chuck Thompson. Thompson did indeed call that game for NBC Radio, along with Jack Quinlan who was the Cubs' radio guy at the time. Bob Prince and Mel Allen, respectively the voices of the Pirates and Yankees then, did the NBC TV broadcast. Of course, it's possible that the Pirates also did their own radio broadcast of the Series, so maybe you heard whoever was doing that call.

posted by Motown Mike at 10:52 PM on July 29, 2005

Mo, thanks for the info. I'm sure you're right. And you brought back another name from the past, Bob Prince who, I think, was Rosie Roswell's protoge and if memory serves me, was booted out of Pittsburgh for some kind of errant behavior.

posted by tommysands at 07:08 AM on July 30, 2005

Tim McCarver is by far the worse announcer ive ever heard , i cant stand to listen to the audio for fox games . so i sit there with the sound off just watching the game , not exactly what tv execs have in mind for viewers to do.

posted by evil empire at 10:26 AM on July 30, 2005

"Evil", why not watch on TV and listen on radio? I do that sometimes when the announcers are not even an issue.

posted by tommysands at 05:47 PM on July 30, 2005

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