Joe Morgan

[thetallguy747]

I go hot and cold on Morgan. I like to hear his stories and other comments that draw upon his tremendous experience as a player. As an analyst, I think he misses as often as he hits the mark. I never took his manner of speaking as arrogance like alot of people do. He's certainly not humble but the absence of humility is not arrogance. He has certainty in alot of his opinions and that's what analysts are paid to have.

I do think there are better analysts and I'll name one. Orel Hershieser. Yes, he's dorky and funny only in a quirky sort of way. But instead of relying on a few hobby horse opinions to beat all the time, he has the ability to take a situation on the field and provide insight in ways that often seem unique, fresh, and spontaneous. As a point of comparison to another retired pitcher, Sutcliffe brings nothing new or particularly insightful from the point of view of a pitcher, whereas Hersheiser does. You learn more about the game listening to Hersheiser, whereas with Sutcliffe, all you learn is what a baseball announcer sounds like after eight beers.

Kevin A

[LMBombers]

I agree about Hershiser too. He does a great job.

[scorehouse]

ditto. sutton was great when tbs did the braves with carey.

[thetallguy747]

After I posted the above, I got to thinking about analysts who REALLY annoy me and I thought of Steve Stone, now retired, for many years Cubs analyst on WGN. I lived in the Chicago area for several years when Stoney was doing his thing. His manner of presentation drove me up the wall. Very wooded, very stuffy, and worse, used a predictable, repetitive sing-songy pattern of inflection and cadence that never ever varied. I couldn't stand him. But over time I came to realize that he was a superb analyst -- if you could get past the way he presented himself. He was the best evaluator of talent I've ever heard in the baseball booth. He could look at a rookie, break down his swing, his tendencies, the way he fielded his position and unfailingly predict what kind of a big leaguer he was going to be (and for how long). With young pitchers, he would break down their repetoire and especially their delivery and predict what kind of success, if any, they would have. He was especially uncanny at predicting injuries to pitchers just based on the way they threw the ball. I don't remember him ever being wrong. He'd say things like this guy will last a season or two but there's too much strain on the elbow, he'll have a short career. And sure enough within a year or so here came the elbow injuries and the pitcher would be history.

Stoney was good, really good, despite a) the fact that he was announcing for the CUBS! and b) he had all the personality of a dried up turd.

Kevin A

[thetallguy747]

Yes, to me Sutton was like Steve Stone. Sutton came across to me as a prima donna and mygod, to this day he still has that stupid '70's Tommy Herr whiteboy afro! But after you get past those personality things about Sutton, he was a good analyst, insightful and a straight shooter, who clearly knew the game and loved the game.

Kevin A

[petedal]

petedal said:Quote:
The best Morganism. "When I played we used to call the basket in the Wrigley outfield Bank's Basket because he hit so many homers into it."

Ernie Banks hit one basket shot in his entire carear.



If he said what you say he said, the way he said it(and I am not totally convinced that he did, or that you heard it right) then he exaggerated or made a mistake. That is something humans are known to do, even if they are very knowledgeable people and Hall of Fame players. I am quite sure if we had thousands of hours of you talking baseball during thousands of games you might make a mistake or two, or even exaggerate a point once in awhile. Or maybe not....

That is not an error that is just spewing BS...obviously it was not known as "Banks' Basket" the point is the whole premise of the story was false. (And I would also bet it was his egotistical way of putting down Banks in a way i.e. Implying "His homers were cheap") Never said I could do better than Joe, but I am not getting paid to do so.

As for color guys I prefer over him, both Steve Phillips and Rick Sutcliffe are guys I find both inciteful and non-arrogant in their styles. I also like Harold Reynolds although his game calling is not as exstensive as the others.

[keyzick]

[quote:0549b5c4fa="rmilter"]But some of these people who really do not like Joe Morgan will not name an announcer they do like, as I asked them to. I guess they think they would be better analysts than Joe Morgan. And if they really believe that he is awful, and they could do better, they probably also believe that they could have been better players than Joe Morgan.

So I will ask you one more time; for the people who do not like Joe (for whatever reason, be it perceived arrogance, lack of knowledge, no sense of humor, or skin color, is he too uppity for you???) whom do you like??
[/quote:0549b5c4fa]


I didn't hear anyone say they themselves should be an analyst, just that Joe Morgan sucks (in their, and my, opinion). I also didn't hear anyone come close to implying they could have been better players than Joe Morgan. Seriously, stop making it personal (unless you're Joe Morgan).

As far as who I like better:

Orel Hershiser (as mentioned)
Jim Palmer
Dennis Eckersley
Paul O'Neil
David Cone
Jerry Remy
Dave Roberts


As someone wrote earlier, there aren't many National telecast teams to judge. Being from the East Coast (and a Red Sox fan), I've heard all the above excessively, and am always entertained and impressed.

[askaufman]

As someone whose only "local" team is Joe Magrane and Dwayne Stats of the Devil Rays, Joe Morgan sounds like a genius. Seriously I think listening to the same person game after game you get tired of them and start nitpicking their performance. It seems to me it is extremely difficult to sound interesting 162 games over what can be the most boring sport in the universe at times. The National guys have it much harder than the team guys because the team guys just have to be homers and suck up to the players. I can say honestly I can listen to Vin Scully and never get tired of him. Guys like Harry Carey (thank God for Steve Stone or Cubs games would have been intolerable) would just irritate me. Chip Carey and Tim McCarver just grate on my nerves. I did like Sutton and Carey as a team with the Braves. I do like Orel and I think he can become great. I like Sutcliffe too. Jon Miller by far is the best at keeping you entertained the whole game. In my opinion the worst is Chris Berman. I used to love Chris at first but he has gotten so bad as a broadcaster over the years. Maybe to many "back-back-backs" for me or Bert "be home" Blylevens. If I see he is on the announce team for a game I immediately change the channel :roll:

[LMBombers]

[quote:34fae5509d="askaufman"]As someone whose only "local" team is Joe Magrane and Dwayne Stats of the Devil Rays[/quote:34fae5509d]

Magrane got the boot. It is now Kevin Kennedy and Staats for the Rays. I have liked Staats since his WGN days but I am not a Rays fan. Kennedy is not that great.

[askaufman]

That shows you I haven't listened to a Rays game in a while. :D