Joe Morgan

[pwootten]

I grew up listening to Chuck Thompson in Baltimore, a master of bringing the game to life. My college years were spent listening to Joe Nuxhall and Marty Brenneman call Reds games, not that great in my opinion. The last 25 years have been spent in Missouri, where I've never warmed up to Mike Shannon of the Cards (his "heh heh heh" is hard to take). I know they aren't well known, but the Royals' Denny Matthews (HOF) and Ryan Lefebvre (son of Jim to 70's guys) are as good as anyone I've heard. They don't talk too much, have a great rapport, and are smart. If you have satellite radio and can tune these guys in, you'll enjoy. Ryan could be the "next big thing" if he chooses to go national.

[thetallguy747]

Have any of you all heard Ron Darling do TV analysis this season? He did TV for the Nats a couple of years ago when I was living in the DC area and he was terrible. He had a fairly bad speech impediment that made him sound like he had wet mudballs in his mouth when he talked. I felt bad for him, but yikes, it gave you the yeeps just listening to him.

A few weeks ago I caught him on a Fox Sports regional broadcast of a Mets game that showed down here in New Zealand, where I'm now living. I could hardly believe it was Ron Darling. After being dumped by the Nats he obviously did some good hard work with a speech therapist and now he sounds just fine.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Kevin A

[JAMESZIMMER]

Hawk Harrelson for the White Sox. A serious homer but gives good info and insights.

[apolivka]

Darrin Sutton (Don's son) was actually a great announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers for a couple of years. Has since went on to greener pastures than Milwaukee, but I wish he was still here doing games. Previously we also had Matt Verscurgen (sp?) who I liked a lot as well.

Bob Uecker is still going strong, and is still, in my opinion, the best announcer in baseball. I've heard all his stories a zillion times, but he somehow manages to make up new ones every year. :) Makes every game fun to listen to.

On the national level, I like Orel. Says some really weird stuff sometimes, but overall, I like him. Palmer is really good. I like Jon Miller too. The networks really need to dump Morgan and McCarver though...

[LARRYLANG]

I have already said Joe was my favorite, and he is but this link got me to thinking of some other broadcast teams over the years...I am probably a little older than most of you guys, but anyone near my age will remember the duo of Curt Gowdy and Pee Wee Reese doing the Saturday game of the week in the 60's. Throw in Tony Kubek every now and then with em' and they were awesome.

How about radio play by play guys? Scully was mentioned above, and he is still great to listen to..But my all time favorite on the radio was the Tigers' Ernie Harwell...I can still hear his opening...."We're at the corner of Michigan and Trumbell................................... Oh those were the days.

[GREGGZILIANI]

Vin Scully poops on Joe Morgan. No contest. And Harry Kalas did too before he passed away this year.

[keyzick]

Tony Kubek and Joe Garagiola...now that was a good team!

[mfsleeze]

I never hated McCarver as much as most. Being a baseball geek, I don't want a guy who paints a pretty picture, I want a guy who tells me something I didn't already know. And at least back in the 80s and 90s I thought McCarver did that. Plus I believe (I remember it this way but it may not be true) that he predicted Bob Stanley's wild pitch in 86 and Jim Leyritz's home run in 96. (i.e. he said Stanley better not throw his split with a runner on 3rd in that situation and he said Wohlers better not throw Leyritz a slider because even though Leyritz was a dead fastball hitter Wohlers' slider was not a consistent pitch and with Leyritz speeding up his bat to gear up for the 99 MPH fastball, a hanging slider would be meat.

So I give him a pass on style because of my perception of his knowledge.

[markp65]

Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling are excellent analysts for the Mets, and I am the opposite of a Mets fan. They'll criticize players when warranted and give you some genuine field-level insight into the game, with humor, intelligence and something especially rare: originality.

Does anything lend itself to the propagation of cliches like baseball? I bought the MLB package to stream games online and I have to say that thus far, most of the Fox Sports regional guys could have been produced by the same factory farm. I'm a Cardinals fan and you can start with The Bland Hungarian, Al Hrabosky. Traded K's for Z's. Listening to Hrabosky and Mike Shannon I feel like I've had an easy-drinking Busch Light lobotomy.

Too many of these guys lack candor and intelligence, or they're just lazy. They need to get their behinds off the golf course and do some prep! Think about the amount of history, provocation and poetic whimsy Vin Scully packs into a broadcast. I know it's like comparing Jesus to a bunch of storefront preachers, but you'd think there'd be a few guys who at least actively aspire to be Scully-good.

Baseball is the perfect scaffold for thoughtful conversation. I wish the suits would pull from beyond the ex-jock pool and bring analysts into the booth who can sling it -- and are used to doing their homework: writers. Not the typical daily beat guys, but students of the game like Bill James, George Will, Buzz Bissinger, Michael Lewis... Otherwise, my all time favorites are Jim Kaat and Tony Kubek.