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Kinda branching this off of the Musberger, Johson, Nessler talk from the college football thread.

 

Who are you favorite or least favorite play-by-play guys in sports? Or who do you think are the best/worst?

 

Some of my favorites: Gus Johnson, Brent Musberger, Bob Costas, Pat Foley, Doc Emrick, Jon Miller, Vin Scully.

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Gus Johnson has become so over talked about that he has become overrated. Love Jon miller, scully, lundquist, used to love kallas. Billy packer was terrific despite being a huge douche, also love raftery. Can't stand jaworski or gruden though I like Tirico. Hate Joe buck, Len kasper and pretty much any female announcer. NBA wise JVG is great and so is hubie brown

 

I guess some of those are color guys but oh well

Edited by daa84
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QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 11, 2011 -> 01:11 AM)
Yeah im not going to do strictly play by play, but I think Spielman is one of the better announcers, also like Troy Aikman. I hate Joe Buck.

 

 

 

I'm a big fan of Spielman. I also like it when Tony Siragusa chimes in from the sideline during NFL games. I like seeing more coaches and defensive players in the booth. Tired of only hearing ex-QBs doing the color.

Edited by zenryan
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QUOTE (zenryan @ Jan 11, 2011 -> 12:05 AM)
I like Gus Johnson for the NCAA tournament but not for anything else.

 

I like Nessler.

 

 

I cant stand the CBS college football crew of Verne and Gary Danielson.

Ohhhh myyyyyy Goooooooddneesssssss why?

 

On another note, I actually like McCarver, but we've gone over this before. I guess I am the only one :)

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QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 11, 2011 -> 09:01 AM)
The NBA has some really, really good pairings, the Van Gundy/Jackson/Breen trio really does a good job with games.

I don't like the way Jackson and Van Gundy disagree intentionally....I guess I don't really care for Jackson at all...seems like he is all about style than substance now, saying something catchy as they go to a commercial break...

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As a general rule, the best announcers and particularly the best PBP guys, are on the radio and not TV. I remember listening to the Bears radio team growing up, I love me some Hub. Hard to find good PBP guys on TV.

 

Also, this coming from a total amatuer and someone who knows very little about hockey... I was impressed by the PBP guy on TV for the recent B-Hawks Stanley Cup championship. Seems to me that PBP in Hockey would be especially hard to do.

 

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QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 11, 2011 -> 09:34 AM)
As a general rule, the best announcers and particularly the best PBP guys, are on the radio and not TV. I remember listening to the Bears radio team growing up, I love me some Hub. Hard to find good PBP guys on TV.

 

Also, this coming from a total amatuer and someone who knows very little about hockey... I was impressed by the PBP guy on TV for the recent B-Hawks Stanley Cup championship. Seems to me that PBP in Hockey would be especially hard to do.

Yeah, they can barely even breathe, and the action can go for minutes on end without a stoppage...it's pretty impressive.

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QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 11, 2011 -> 08:01 AM)
The NBA has some really, really good pairings, the Van Gundy/Jackson/Breen trio really does a good job with games.

IMO, JVG is the best color commentator in sports right now. No one brings so much much to the table. Experience. Goofiness. Honestly. Wacky ideas. Everything, he is by far my favorite.

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QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 11, 2011 -> 09:34 AM)
As a general rule, the best announcers and particularly the best PBP guys, are on the radio and not TV. I remember listening to the Bears radio team growing up, I love me some Hub. Hard to find good PBP guys on TV.

 

Also, this coming from a total amatuer and someone who knows very little about hockey... I was impressed by the PBP guy on TV for the recent B-Hawks Stanley Cup championship. Seems to me that PBP in Hockey would be especially hard to do.

I agree that the best announcers are on the radio, but I disagree that it's hard to find good PBP on TV. It's just an entirely different kind of PBP. The advantage that the viewer has of seeing the action is a HUGE disadvantage to the PBP guy. On the other hand, with radio, they must describe EVERYTHING that is happening, and do so clearly and eloquently.

 

And I believe the hockey guy you are referring to is Mike "Doc" Emrick. He's a legend and one of my favorites. There's a lot of things he does poorly (super repetitive for one) but he's a huge idol to me.

 

I've done hockey play by play on the radio for 15 months now and I'm absolutely in love with it. SUPER challenging at first, but once you get comfortable with it, it's so much fun.

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QUOTE (The Critic @ Jan 11, 2011 -> 02:56 AM)
John Weideman is probably my favorite right now. I like John Rooney, but I never get to hear him anymore. Not a lot of national guys stand out in a positive way.

He's really good, but no one talks about him. With all games on TV, and almost everyone having DVR, I don't think many people listen to Hawks games on the radio anymore. Years ago, it was the only way. It's a shame, because he's really good at it. Troy is pretty good with color, too.

 

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 11, 2011 -> 09:36 AM)
I love the Pat Foley and Eddie O combo. I don't think there is any better right now.

Pat used to be really, really good. Now he's just OK - makes a lot more mistakes, he's on the downside. Him and "Edzo" also joke way too much (especially Ed) and use stupid voices. I wish they would get back to focusing on the game more, because they could be better.

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Play by play: Doc Emrick, Pat Foley (although he's a little past his prime), John Wiedeman, Sean McDonough, Mark Jones, Wayne Larrivee, John Rooney, Al Michaels and Brad Nessler (same as Foley), Terry Gannon (although few know who he is)

 

Color: Jay Bilas, Gary Danielson, Todd Blackledge, Bill Raftery, Steve Stone (but see Michaels and Foley), Ed Olczyk, Cris Collinsworth

 

I'm sure I'm forgetting some too. I also left Musberger off the list because he's too far past his prime, it's very noticeable. Despite that relatively long list, I must say that I generally dislike more announcers than I like.

Edited by whitesoxfan101
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I don't get the Collinsworth love by so many people. The dude is a simpleton who said Charlie Whitehurst was "brilliant" against the Rams 2 weeks ago.

 

I mainly started this thread to see what kind of broadcasting styles people like, and to then research the consensus favorites in order to better myself. As I mentioned, I've done hockey, baseball and basketball in the last 15 months, and will be doing lacrosse in the spring.

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Since this branched off into color guys several posts ago, I can't believe no one brought up Dick Vitale. I used to be indifferent to him, but somehow I just realized that basically every game he does is exactly the same. Blow Coach K and several other coaches (usually Boeheim, Izzo, Roy and/or Gary Williams), hype a few good teams that aren't playing, talk up the top couple of freshmen, go on a rant about the top couple of recruits/recruiting classes for next year, comment about how the road to conference championship X goes through team Y, throw in a couple of his catch phrases and call it a game. Commenting on the game that's actually going on now and then would be nice.

 

As for other guys, I can't think of a whole lot of guys that I like, it's mostly indifferent or hate. I guess some of the ones guys have mentioned like Gus Johnson, Pat Foley, John Rooney, Wayne Larrivee (though I'm not even sure what he does anymore). I liked the main guys that did the World Cup (Ian Dark and another guy who's name escapes me). Neil Funk is solid. I used to like Marv Albert for basketball. For color, I actually kind of like Jay Bilas.

 

I absolutely hated the Miller/Morgan combo (the former was okay, latter brutal), McCarver like several others. Buck does nothing for me. Bill Raftery annoys the hell out of me. Can't stand either Cubs' crew, though radio might improve without Santo. I know it'll sound sexist, but I really don't like Doris Burke or the other woman that does college football (after looking it up, it's apparently Beth Mowins. What's worse is whenever Northwestern is on ESPN, we usually get one of the two). The NBA crew with Van Gundy/Jackson bothers me as well.

Edited by ZoomSlowik
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QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jan 11, 2011 -> 01:08 PM)
I don't get the Collinsworth love by so many people. The dude is a simpleton who said Charlie Whitehurst was "brilliant" against the Rams 2 weeks ago.

 

He's definitely simple, but the vast majority of color guys are. For the most part, they aren't trying to appeal to the higher intellect fans like us, they're trying to make the game easier to understand for more casual fans. Guys like Collinsworth get credit from me because at least they're honest and don't sugarcoat like a lot of color guys do.

Edited by whitesoxfan101
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QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Jan 11, 2011 -> 02:09 PM)
Since this branched off into color guys several posts ago, I can't believe no one brought up Dick Vitale. I used to be indifferent to him, but somehow I just realized that basically every game he does is exactly the same. Blow Coach K and several other coaches (usually Boeheim, Izzo, Roy and/or Gary Williams), talk up the top couple of freshmen, go on a rant about the top couple of recruits/recruiting classes for next year, comment about how the road to conference championship X goes through team Y, throw in a couple of his catch phrases and call it a game. Commenting on the game that's actually going on now and then would be nice.

 

As for other guys, I can't think of a whole lot of guys that I like, it's mostly indifferent or hate. I guess some of the ones guys have mentioned like Gus Johnson, Pat Foley, John Rooney, Wayne Larrivve (though I'm not even sure what he does anymore. I liked the main guys were that did the World Cup (Ian Dark and another guy who's name escapes me). Neil Funk is solid. I used to like Marv Albert for basketball. For color, I actually kind of like Jay Bilas.

 

I absolutely hated the Miller/Morgan combo (the former was okay, latter brutal), McCarver like several others. Buck does nothing for me. Bill Raftery annoys the hell out of me. Can't stand either Cubs' crew, though radio might improve without Santo. I know it'll sound sexist, but I really don't like Doris Burke or the other woman that does college football (after looking it up, it's apparently Beth Mowins. What's worse is whenever Northwestern is on ESPN, we usually get one of the two). The NBA crew with Van Gundy/Jackson bothers me as well.

Wayne Larrivee is now the radio PBP guy for the Packers.

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