By Request: Top 5 and Bottom 5 Radio MLB Radio Broadcasters
 

I've had XM for 2 months and have been listening to quite a bit of MLB.

Never before had I paid this close of attention to radio crews. I'd say that in no particular order you need the following things in order to be a good radio guy:

1) A Good Voice: Not neecssarily a great voice but that would help too. So instantly we know that the Red Sox goon is out. And Vin Scully is in the discussion of best.

2) DESCRIPTION, DEPSCRIPTION, DESCRIPTION: This is radio for fuck sake. The problem with a legend like Milo Hamilton is he gets so caught up in his stories, his own popularity and the in-booth guests, he misses plays and even those that he does call lack key details.

3) Good Storytelling: This would be incorporating current and past trivia that relates to the game and weaving shit that doesn't relate to the game. This is where Milo Hamilton is good, but give me Vin Scully any day cuz he also calls a good game.

4) Teamwork/Chemistry with Color Analyst: Aside from Scully and Bob Uecker, I think every other team employs a two-man crew. An example of a so-so Play-by-Play guy with a great Broadcast Team is Herb Carneal and John Gordon of the Twins. I know it's almost sacrelig as a Twins fan to call Carneal so-so, but I'm sorry he's just okay on almost every level. But Gordon is great and as a duo they just work well together. Two counterexamples are the A's (Ken Korach and Ray Fosse --- Fosse is a fucking mute; he's the anti-Santo) and Yankees (Sterling is not as bad as everyone thinks but his chemistry with Suzyn Waldman).

TOP 5

1. The Blue Jays guys
2. Vin Scully (Dodgers)
3. Bob Uecker (Brewers)
4. Lanny Frattere, Steve Blass and Some Other Goon (Pirates)
5. Marty Brennaman (Reds)

BOTTOM 5

1. The Orioles guys
2. The Red Sox guys
3. Milo Hamilton and Co. (Astros)
4. Mike Shannon (Cardinals)
5. Pat Hughes/Ron Santo (Cubs)

Rick Sutcliffe is the worst, by far.

The reason I like Santo is that he puts voice to the frustration that Cubs fans feel when they are watching the game also.

FYI - Harry Kalas is currently on the TV side of things

well Philly is employing a Kallas sound a like on radio

But don't you have to retain some sort of objectivity. Like with that 11-run inning by the Mets, apparently Santo actually got up and walked away for a couple innings.

with his two stumps?

I thought he had prosthetic legs?

yeah, but I like to imagine him with two stumps. Santo feels the game on a very deep level. Sometimes, a bit too much, but still, he loves the Cubs and gets frustrated when they do poorly and gets exuberant when they do well.

I guess since I grew up with average but professional broadcasters in Herb Carneal and John Gordon, the Santo/Hawk types really beat me down.

Santo is just unbearable as a radio guy. At least Chip Carey and Steve Stone called a decent game. The fact that they got fire for not being Ron Santo and refusing to smile through the bullshit flames my Santo hatred.

yeah they had that happen here on a smaller scale.

Vince Cotroneo who is now with the A's was fired from Texas for not supporting moves like paying Chan Ho Park and Todd Van Poppel a combined 110 million dollars.

Funny thing is they replaced him with Cookie Rojas' sun Victor who had been a company man in Arizona. Victor did the homer thing for one year, a sort of homer thing in year 2, but now that he has some good fan support in Year 3 he is even more critical than Cotroneo was.

All us baseball fags should go to a game one day. To a neutral site. Maybe a marlins vs Nationals game.

Once the Marlins move to Nevada of course.

I can't really comment I guess because all I hear is the Red Sox guys, but everything I've heard is that Vin Scully is an old bat nowadays that has no idea what's going on.

the red sox guys talk over each other too much

jerry trupiano has GOT to stop this "WAY BACK, WAY BACK, WAAAAAAY BACK.......and caught at the track". I know they're all guilty of it to some degree but he's the absolute worst.

BIg surprise you only listen to the Red Sox guys - no wonder you lack any objective perspectives.

Scully is great. He's the only guy who doesn't need a partner in the booth.

Jerry Coleman is pretty great btw.

uh huh, and you're just a flowing fountain of objectivity.

Who the fuck else is going to broadcast on the radio in Maine?