OT - Broadcast legends return to baseball booth

[JonInMiddleGA]

Very cool thing begins tonight on ESPN, as the network begins its "Living Legends" series of guest announcers with Curt Gowdy. The 83 year old Gowdy will join Chris Berman & Joe Morgan (blech) in the booth for tonight's Red Sox-Yankees game.

In the coming weeks, legendary announcers Harry Kalas (Philly), Marty Brenneman (Cincy), Ernie Harwell (Detroit) and Keith Jackson (fum-bullll)
are slated to appear, with other additions possible.

Off-hand, I'd say Milo Hamilton should be invited at some point and there's probably quite a few others, including Joe Garagiola,Tony Kubek, and Bob Uecker who really belong there as well.

Just thought this was too good not to at least mention.

[Cards4ever]

Don't you like Joe Morgan? I think he's one of the best in the business right now. Jim Kaat is also excellent, YES network people benefit from having him. Keith Hernandez on the Mets network is going to be good too, he states his mind in the few games I've caught. The Cincinnati guy that does the HOF MC'ing is good. I always enjoy Al Hrbosky on the Cardinal games. That's about all I can think of right now that are good off the top of my head.

[WSUCougar]

Cards4ever, what do you think of the new Cardinals broadcaster (his name escapes me at the moment) they've paired with Mike Shannon on KMOX?

He doesn't do it for me. He sounds too canned, likes he's doing an imitation of a baseball broadcaster and trying to say the right things rather than saying his own thing.

I do like The Mad Hungarian. And I think Joe Morgan is good as well.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'd rather hear broken glass penetrate my eardrums than endure Joe f'n Morgan.

[JonInMiddleGA]

BTW, the newcomer on Cardinal baseball is Wayne Hagin, ex-Rockies p-b-p guy. He's also been with the A's, Giants & White Sox over the years & done some ESPN work.

And yeah, he's not exactly what I'd call the top of the line for announcers.

[Cards4ever]

WSU-I haven't been able to catch a game on the radio yet this year, so, I can't tell you. Didn't they have Joel Meyers doing games last year?

Jon-Well, we all have our likes and dislikes, maybe part of the reason I enjoy him is that he was part of the Big Red Machine that I enjoyed as a kid.

I really liked the Garagiola and Kubek team as a kid too, I'm able to catch Joe on some Diamondback broadcasts, he hasn't changed a bit!

[Cards4ever]

Just as long as he doesn't interfere with Mike having a frosty cold Budweiser, that would be the final straw! Damn, I need to get to STL this summer! You have access to good tickets WSU?

[TroyF]

Add me to the list of people who can't stand Morgan. I liked the Reds dynasty of the 70's and he drives me up the wall. Maybe it's because Joe feels the need to remind me every other foul ball that he was on that team.

TroyF

[oykib]

So you guys think that Chris Berman belongs in a baseball booth, but you hate Joe Morgan?

[ISiddiqui]

Chris Berman belongs EVERYWHERE .

Oh, and I like Joe Morgan too.

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by JonInMiddleGA
I'd rather hear broken glass penetrate my eardrums than endure Joe f'n Morgan.

Ditto. Along with Tim McCarver.

I'm so jealous that you Card fans have the Mad Hungarian. He used to live locally and my mom had ran into quite a few times.

[heybrad]

No Vin Scully?

[korme]

It's gonna be... GONE!

And this one belongs to the Reds!

MARTY!!!!

[Fonzie]

Vin Scully is one of the best and deserves to be in the booth with Chris and Joe. That said, I wish neither Chris nor Joe had access to a booth. Chris doesn't focus on the games enough to do decent p-b-p, rather it seems he's focused on hearing himself blather about something unrelated to baseball. Joe isn't very engaging, and I find myself disagreeing with him fairly frequently.

Bring back the NBC Game of the Week team of Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola!

[mrskippy]

Originally posted by Fonzie

Bring back the NBC Game of the Week team of Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola!

Amen!!!

[Schmidty]

I can't wait to listen to good old Ernie again. He was one of the reasons I tuned into so many Tiger radio broadcasts, even though they struggled so much.

[grdawg]

I have the MLB Package this year and its great watching the Dodger games just for Vin Scully. It's not like he needs anyone else, but I'm curious as to why he doesn't have anyone else in the booth with him? Are the dodgers just cheap?

As for Morgan, not a big fan of his either and I cannot stand Keith Hernandez in the booth, he has that same feel as Bill Walton.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I should be shot for not mentioning that Scully should be included in the list of guests.

As for why he works alone, I found an 1999 article that might provide some insight. The full piece is quite good & a fun read but I'll quote the pertinent part here (the whole thing is at
http://www.salon.com/people/bc/1999/10/12/scully/print.html

For one thing, he works alone, something the Dodgers continue to allow him to do long after it's become fashionable, even required, to have a former player serve as a "color" commentator. On network TV or radio, he always has a partner. For years on NBC's "Game of the Week," his partner was Joe Garagiola, and Scully's instructions to Garagiola when they first teamed up, for an All-Star Game in the mid-'60s, are enlightening: "I said to him, 'Joe, you played a long time, but I've broadcast as many games as you've played, and then some. So if you're gonna talk "inside baseball," you tell the fans the "inside baseball." But don't tell me.'"

Good advice, but impossible. The fact is, when two people are in the booth, they talk to each other. When it's just Vin, he talks to you and me. It's intimate. We're in on it. And Scully's vast knowledge of the game, his incredible store of anecdote both old and new, the fruits of his almost obsessive preparation, need not play second fiddle to some former backstop with strong opinions about when to employ the hit-and-run.

[WussGawd]

Originally posted by JonInMiddleGA
Very cool thing begins tonight on ESPN, as the network begins its "Living Legends" series of guest announcers with Curt Gowdy. The 83 year old Gowdy will join Chris Berman & Joe Morgan (blech) in the booth for tonight's Red Sox-Yankees game.

In the coming weeks, legendary announcers Harry Kalas (Philly), Marty Brenneman (Cincy), Ernie Harwell (Detroit) and Keith Jackson (fum-bullll)
are slated to appear, with other additions possible.

Off-hand, I'd say Milo Hamilton should be invited at some point and there's probably quite a few others, including Joe Garagiola,Tony Kubek, and Bob Uecker who really belong there as well.

Just thought this was too good not to at least mention.

Neat. Joe Garagiola Sr. (whose son is the GM) does color commentary sometimes on a fill in basis for Diamondbacks broadcasts (he's been a Valley resident for 30+ years). Frankly, he's still better than about 60% of the color guys out there, IMHO.

It really brings me back to listen to him and remember all those teams of the 70's when he used to do the NBC Game of the Week.

[Cards4ever]

Originally posted by GrantDawg
Ditto. Along with Tim McCarver.

I like McCarver, does this have anything to do with that Deion thing in the early 90's?

[grdawg]

Jon -

thanks for the link, great article. It really is amazing listening to him broadcast games, how he seemlessly goes from play by play to color, its art at its finest.

[Cards4ever]

Wonder what he does when he has to take a gigantic crap, do they bring in a bucket or do the Dodgers just stall for him?!

[tucker342]

The announcers that ESPN uses in almost all of their sports are all damn good. I can't stand their Basketball announcers though. Bill Walton sucks at announcing!

[SackAttack]

Vin is, IMO, in the top three for sports broadcasters in general. I'd rank him #1, but as a Dodger fan, I'm biased. Yeah, with Red Barber, Ernie Harwell, Chick Hearn, Harry Caray, and a few others, there's some competition, but Vin is easily among the class of that crowd.

Television's biggest sin will forever be the fact that radio listeners are only graced with the golden tones of Vin for something like two innings a game now. Rick Monday and Ross Porter trade off the final seven innings, and Vin does the solo broadcast for all the TV games, but he hardly ever does a full broadcast on the radio anymore, and that's a shame.

[McSweeny]

any red sox fans out there? jerry remy is the best. he's fucking hilarious. plus he really knows his stuff. he was going on about the lunar eclipse the other night. great stuff

[Airhog]

I totally despise those espn announces in basketball.

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by tucker342
The announcers that ESPN uses in almost all of their sports are all damn good. I can't stand their Basketball announcers though. Bill Walton sucks at announcing!

He's hooooorrrible!

(actually, I can tolerate him more than I used to....)

My reaction to the game last night though.....too much Berman. I guess he was trying to carry things while Gowdy got into the swing of things, but it was much better later in the game when Curt was doing pbp and Joe was doing color (and Berman was keeping quiet), it got pretty good.

I hope they can tone down Berman's role in some of the future games....especially any where they are dealing with announcers who are still actively calling games (Harry Kalas). I like Berman (more on football, really), but he takes too much of the focus.

[Cards4ever]

Ack, too much Scully worshipping going on here. I can tolerate him, but, he's way too much into himself for me. IMHO, Jack Buck blows Vin away as far as all time greats.

[Tekneek]

Curt Gowdy was senile 15 years ago. I am sure time has not helped him regain any of that either.