OT: Best former-pro tv analyst/play by play (any sport)

[HCCForever]

I very rarely watch football but last year I turned on a game and had to turn it off after 10 minutes because of one of the announcers doing nothing but screaming during and after each play. Turns out it was Tony Romo. He was the absolute worst announcer I have ever heard and sounded like an idiot.

Romo has certainly regressed over the years. I don't like his voice either so I turn off the sound a lot when he is on the game.

 

[Husky25]

Don’t think there are too many former players on your list

Yeah, that's not how I read the thread title and must have skipped a over the "former player" part of the OP.

 

[storrsroars]

I'd put Ron Darling up against anyone, including Smoltz. Same insight, almost professorial like you're watching him teach a class at some points. And he never overshoots his mark or drones on and on.

While I changed allegiances from Mets to Pirates a few years after moving to Pgh, gotta admit, when I'm back in NY/CT, I'll listen to Mets games just for Darling & Hernandez. With Cohen, it's the best booth in MLB, imho.

 

[M.S.G.]

View attachment 87477

I actually did a re-watch of Prime Time Wrestling, started in '88 and watched up until it ended... That show ruled.

 

[cullaville]

While I changed allegiances from Mets to Pirates a few years after moving to Pgh, gotta admit, when I'm back in NY/CT, I'll listen to Mets games just for Darling & Hernandez. With Cohen, it's the best booth in MLB, imho.

Listen to this trio all the time, enjoy the broadcasts but Gary Cohen has to realize that he doesn't get paid for each word he speaks and that he doesn't need to read a stat just because it is put in front of him.

 

[rip81]

Hockey: Gary Thorne

Baseball: Sean McDonough/Eck/ David Cone. Add the Mets team and we are blessed with great announcers in the northeast.

College BBall: Kevin Harlan/ Gus Johnson

Pro football: Madden/Summeral/Al Michaels

College football: Keith Jackson

I don’t watch much tennis, but McEnroe is excellent.

 

[itsasport]

Howard Cosell, who has been named as the best (not the most likeable) sports announcer of all-time.

His play-by-play of boxing on radio was amazingly exciting and disruptive. You could visualize the fight as if you were watching it.

One funny story- Cosell had been in a fraternity in college (Pi Lambda Phi), which was also my fraternity, (different chapter) After graduating, one of my frat brothers got a job at ABC in New York,

One day at ABC headquarters, he got on to an elevator and found himself alone with Cosell.

My brother got up the courage to say, "Mr. Cosell, you and I are fraternity brothers."

Howard, who was a tall guy, looked down at my brother and said, "Big ."

Immediately after that, the door opened and Cosell got off.

 

[Spaceman213J]

Paul McGrire was pretty good for NBC's NFL games.
I thought Joe Morgan was pretty good with Jon Miller for ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball.
Not to be a homer, but Rebecca Lobo is good courtside as well as in the studio. She knows her stuff and some good Geno stories.

 

[seeya27]

Always enjoyed the guys with a unique style or big personality like Raft, Clyde Frazier, John Sterling, and Bill Walton.

He doesn't fit into the category above but Kenny Singleton was great on YES for years. Look out!

Kenny Singleton, now retired, was great. Better than great, actually. Super classy as well.

 

[NEforceUConn]

In baseball good old Joe Morgan surprised me because he was enjoyable.

ARod doesn’t impress me.

 

[storrsroars]

In baseball good old Joe Morgan surprised me because he was enjoyable.

I don't have specific memories of Joe Morgan in the booth, but I definitely recall memes, mostly noting he was Captain Obvious.

 

[willie99]

Al Michaels

Smart, informed, straight shooter and not a blowhard

 

[navery12]

I don't have specific memories of Joe Morgan in the booth, but I definitely recall memes, mostly noting he was Captain Obvious.

This is all I remember about Joe Morgan

FIRE JOE MORGAN

www.firejoemorgan.com

 

[WhereistheDove?]

This is all I remember about Joe Morgan

FIRE JOE MORGAN

www.firejoemorgan.com

I loved Fire Joe Morgan. What a blast from the past to see that. And a CT connection with Michael Schur. I think Alan Yang, who he go-created Parks and Rec with, was one of the other writers if I’m remembering correctly.

 

[my2cents]

Walt "Clyde" Frazier, because he is so unique. Who doesn't want to see "Dishin' and Swishin'"?

 

[coachcap]

Throwing out some names from my youth (eons ago):
-Our own George Erlich
-Mel Allen describing a "Ballantine Blast"
-Charlie Jones & Al Derogatis doing west coast games in the early days of the AFL
-caught former Brooklyn Dodgers voice Red Barber as he was winding down his career from the "catbird seat" at Yankee Stadium
-Curt Gowdy & Tony Kubek on the NBC Saturday game of the week
-Paul Christman as Gowdy's sidekick on AFL Brpadcasts
-Chris Schenkel as the early '60s CBS tv Voice of the New York Giants (in the early 60's CBS assigned a broadcast crew to each NFL team home and away & Jack Whitaker was the play by play caller for the Eagles)
-Lindsay Nelson describing ANY sport (Notre Dame football, football bowl games, & of course, the METS) Always wondered where he got those technicolor blazers
-Chuck Thompson describing Orioles games in WBAL
-Jim Palmer was decent as an baseball analyst after his HOF career as ace of the Oriole
-Bob Wilson as the longtime radio voice of the Boston Bruins
-Who could ever forget the raspy voice of avowed homer radio broadcaster Johnny Most describing a Celtics game?

 

[navery12]

I loved Fire Joe Morgan. What a blast from the past to see that. And a CT connection with Michael Schur. I think Alan Yang, who he go-created Parks and Rec with, was one of the other writers if I’m remembering correctly.

Yeah Schur and Yang from Parks and Rec, and the 3rd guy Dave King was a writer on that show and also Workaholics

 

[QDOG5]

Ralph Kiner. Kiner's Korner was the funniest show I have ever watched.

 

[ucp990411]

Throwing out some names from my youth (eons ago):
-Our own George Erlich
-Mel Allen describing a "Ballantine Blast"
-Charlie Jones & Al Derogatis doing west coast games in the early days of the AFL
-caught former Brooklyn Dodgers voice Red Barber as he was winding down his career from the "catbird seat" at Yankee Stadium
-Curt Gowdy & Tony Kubek on the NBC Saturday game of the week
-Paul Christman as Gowdy's sidekick on AFL Brpadcasts
-Chris Schenkel as the early '60s CBS tv Voice of the New York Giants (in the early 60's CBS assigned a broadcast crew to each NFL team home and away & Jack Whitaker was the play by play caller for the Eagles)
-Lindsay Nelson describing ANY sport (Notre Dame football, football bowl games, & of course, the METS) Always wondered where he got those technicolor blazers
-Chuck Thompson describing Orioles games in WBAL
-Jim Palmer was decent as an baseball analyst after his HOF career as ace of the Oriole
-Bob Wilson as the longtime radio voice of the Boston Bruins
-Who could ever forget the raspy voice of avowed homer radio broadcaster Johnny Most describing a Celtics game?

Chuck Thompson was terrific

 

[McLovin]

Our own Dan Orlovsky deserves a mention, he is excellent, a true rising star in the profession.

Walt Clyde Frazier has always been a favorite of mine. Keith Hernandez and Tim Mccarver are my Mets favorites, Ron Darling is also terrific.

If John Madden didn't have a career ending injury in Eagles training camp he would be the winner.

Yeah, until he farted on air during his first NFL call…

 

[Jaydumo20]

Ralph Kiner. Kiner's Korner was the funniest show I have ever watched.

Towards the end there he was just calling the players whatever name popped in his head. The best

 

[Hey Adrien!]

They're a bit too venerated, but for those non-NYC area people, the Mets TV crew is pretty amazing (I'm a Yankees fan).

 

[Husky25]

I don't have specific memories of Joe Morgan in the booth, but I definitely recall memes, mostly noting he was Captain Obvious.

The awfulness of Joe Morgan in his later years spawned a website (firejoemorgan.com) by a prominent tv sitcom writer/show runner that was basically the precursor to Awful Announcing. While they did not necessarily aim to get Joe Morgan fired, they would humorously deconstruct comments by sports announcers and writers and was a great read among the monotony of debits, credit, and internal control narratives.

Morgan was great when he and Jon Miller first started out on Sunday Night Baseball, but he absolutely morphed completely into Captain Obvious by the mid-aughts. His more aggravating characteristic was his complete lack of understanding of sabermetrics and total rejection of analytics as a whole. He even rejected Moneyball, which he thought was written by Billy Beane, without reading a word of it. The irony being that the SABR, at one point, put Joe Morgan at the top of the list of greatest second basemen of all time.

Then he would host Q&As on ESPN dot com (back when it was worth reading) and get salty with the question submitters.

Lack of introspection is not a positive trait and as someone who thinks he knows a fair amount about history of the game and baseball strategy, Joe Morgan and Tim McCarver were among my least favorite announcers.

 

[Jaydumo20]

The awfulness of Joe Morgan in his later years spawned a website (firejoemorgan.com) by a prominent tv sitcom writer/show runner that was basically the precursor to Awful Announcing. While they did not necessarily aim to get Joe Morgan fired, they would humorously deconstruct comments by sports announcers and writers and was a great read among the monotony of debits, credit, and internal control narratives.

Morgan was great when he and Jon Miller first started out on Sunday Night Baseball, but he absolutely morphed completely into Captain Obvious by the mid-aughts. His more aggravating characteristic was his complete lack of understanding of sabermetrics and total rejection of analytics as a whole. He even rejected Moneyball, which he thought was written by Billy Beane, without reading a word of it. The irony being that the SABR, at one point, put Joe Morgan at the top of the list of greatest second basemen of all time.

Then he would host Q&As on ESPN dot com (back when it was worth reading) and get salty with the question submitters.

Lack of introspection is not a positive trait and as someone who thinks he knows a fair amount about history of the game and baseball strategy, Joe Morgan and Tim McCarver were among my least favorite announcers.

It's a different feel when announcers were mediocre ex ball players, not HOF'ers: you get way more honesty. I'm a huge Rays fan and Brian Anderson's insight as an ex-journeyman pitcher has more integrity than some of the star power TV guys

 

[Rocktheworld]

Mark Schlereth and Greg Olsen have been doing great

Tony Romo predicted a couple plays and was rocketed to overrated status