2016 Broadcaster Rankings (TV): Intro and #31-32
Roughly four years ago now, the present author facilitated a crowdsourcing project designed to place a “grade” on each of the league’s television and radio broadcast teams. The results weren’t intended to represent the objective quality or skill of the relevant announcers, but rather to provide a clue as to which broadcast teams are likely to appeal most (or least) to the readers of this site. Consider: the average telecast of a major-league game offers four distinct audio feeds — which is to say, the radio and television commentary both for the home and road clubs. The idea of these broadcast rankings was to give readers an opportunity to make an informed decision about how they consume a telecast.
The results of that original exercise have been useful as a complement to the dumb NERD scores published by the author in these pages. Four years later, however, they’ve become much less useful. In the meantime, a number of the broadcast teams cited in that original effort have changed personnel. It’s possible that the tastes of this site’s readers have changed, also.
About a month ago, the present author began the process of reproducing that original crowdsourcing effort, facilitating a ballots for this site’s readers. This post represents the first installment of the corresponding results.
Before examining the rankings in earnest, three observations of varying merit:
Broadcasting Is Difficult
Assuming a roughly average time of game (about three hours each) and full major-league season (162 games), it’s probably not incorrect to say that a club typically plays about 500 hours of baseball each year. Broadcasters are tasked with providing some manner of spoken content for the duration of those 500 hours. Radio announcers are compelled to relay the sport’s sometimes complex machinations in real time — while also supplementing their narratives with analysis. Television commentary might actually pose a greater challenge. As the well-respected radio voice of the Rangers, Eric Nadel, suggested on this site’s podcast, the relative freedom provided by video — which renders much descriptive activity moot — conspires only to facilitate more opportunities for a broadcaster to embarrass himself. For the endurance required of the job alone, broadcasting is difficult.
These Rankings Aren’t Absolute
The rankings one finds here are specific to readers of this site. By definition, they’re the product of respondents who are aware — even if only vaguely — that FanGraphs exists. This is, in other words, a very particular subset of baseball fans. The television and radio networks responsible for broadcasting the pastime likely have particular ideas about the criteria which constitute a successful broadcast. Those criteria are very possibly not the ones most relevant to a FanGraphs reader’s experience of the game.
A Broadacast Is More and/or Less Than the Sum of Its Parts
As noted above, each respondent was asked to provide a grade between 1 and 5 regarding a broadcast’s charisma, analysis, and overall appeal. One ought to note that the overall grades here aren’t mere averages of the first two. One finds below, for example, that the Blue Jays’ television team receives grades of 2.9, 2.6, and 2.2 for charisma, analysis, and overall appeal, respectively. That latter, all-encompassing score is actually over 0.5 points less than the average of the two grades which precedes it. Why, precisely, is beyond the scope of this introduction. That it’s true, however, is self-evident.
All the most obvious caveats having been made, what follows are the 31st- and 32nd-ranked television broadcast teams according to FanGraphs readers. (Note: there are 32 different television teams because both the Dodgers and White Sox feature distinct home and away personnel.)
32. Chicago White Sox (Away)
Main Broadcasters: Hawk Harrelson and Steve Stone
Ratings (Charisma/Analysis/Overall): 2.3, 1.7, 1.9
Three Reader Comments
• “Hawk’s general interest in baseball waxes and wanes significantly at the game-to-game level, and whatever folksy charms he had have long since ossified into pull-string cliche.”
• “Hawk Harrelson, you are a misunderstood legend. Much like Henry Darger, you will not receive the recognition you deserve until you’re gone.”
• “[Hawk] has tons of charisma, but the wrong kind.”
Notes
There are a number of reader comments which roughly approximate the three published above, but which lack the requisite civility to be reproduced here. Generally speaking, there are few who possess a neutral opinion regarding Hawk Harrelson, now relegated (almost?) exclusively to away games. Only slightly more possess an unambiguously positive opinion.
31. Toronto Blue Jays
Main Broadcasters: Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler
Ratings (Charisma/Analysis/Overall): 2.9, 2.6, 2.2
Three Reader Comments
• “The addition of Dan Shulman to some of the broadcasts has helped improve the broadcast, but he’s only calling 30 games so it’s limited. Buck and Pat mean well enough but if Shulman is not on, there is potential for me to tune into opponent feed instead.”
• “Shulman is so good and I love him and want to kiss him and marry him.”
• “How does one translate these scores into Celsius?”
Notes
The prevailing notion among readers seems to be that, rather than lacking any merits whatsoever, that the current Toronto broadcast team is actually just miscast, essentially featuring two color analysts. Dan Shulman receives considerable praise for the part-time role he plays.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
We need Casey Kasem to roll these out. Or at least Ryan Seacrest.
I’ve listened to so much Casey, I can just hear him.
(“Number 32!”)
“Here’s the baseball color man born and raised in Woodruff, South Carolina whose motto must be ‘keepin’ it basic’. Falling this week to number 32, here’s Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, with, “White Sox at the Mariners.”
“You can put it on the board! Yes! Yes!”
“Sit back. Relax and strap it down”
“The good guys”
“He gone!”
“Stay fair!”
“That’s a hang with-em.”
“Hell yes!”
“Mercy!”
“Big hack, no contact.”
The Big Hurt. El Caballo. Black Jack. One Dog. Little Hurt. etc….
It’s good to know that i’m not alone in not enjoying the away white sox broadcast. The feeling that the Fangraphs crowd is an intelligent one only increases from seeing this ranking. (Using the standard thinking that people who agree with you must be smart as you see yourself as smart.)
Not surprised that this website’s groupthinktariat has united around Hawk-hating. The man has, easily, the best HR, K, and baserunning calls in the game. He’s a passionate supporter of his club, how is that a bad thing? We’re talking about gamecalling not live sabermetric breakdown, which you can get plenty of on great blogs like Fangraphs, THT, etc. The aesthetic of calling a game shouldn’t incorporate too much intrusion of sabermetrics for the sake of dry analysis, although I like what certain teams like AZ and TB are doing in mentioning wOBA, FIP in a nuanced way. But gamecalling is supposed to be exciting, keep you interested, make the game more interesting. So I’m not surprised the analysis score is low, but I’d give Hawk much more charisma and overall, and if I’m watching a game the Sox are playing in (not a fan), then I switch to their TV feed because I know it’ll be some entertaining calls.
His “charisma” makes my ears bleed. His “passionate support” is a bad thing because even hometown fans don’t want a blatantly subjective broadcast. The dislike of hawk extends far beyond just the analytics.
Yeah all announcers should be totally neutral and unemotional. Faaaaaart.
His calls sound totally canned, and all too often, instead of enjoying a game, I am wondering what idiot is yelling “put it on the boooooard” at me from the TV. Great announcing augments what is happening in the game, it does not itself pull attention from the action.
That home run call, the “Yankeeeeeess wiiiiin” call, and Berman’s “back back back back” are probably the three most irritating ‘signature’ calls in the game.
Not to mention that Hawk demonstrably knows very little about actual baseball, and is way too inclined to indulge in homerism.
Yes, these are opinions, but when a majority of people share the same opinion, perhaps you should consider that there may be something there, instead of just dismissing it as ‘groupthink’
I’m assuming you’re a division rival, in which case of course it’s more irritating. I don’t have a dog in the AL Central fight, so I just enjoy it for what it is, an old-school announcer with an old-school style. If more announcers were like him maybe he wouldn’t be so special.
I get and understand why a large group of commenters here disagree with my opinion on Hawk, but I’m certainly not alone in cherishing him as an interesting anomaly in the span of baseball commentators. And I think my opinion is valid and worth voicing, so we can have exactly the dialog we’re having now.
Yes, I had a strong dislike for “Hawk” going back probably at least a decade before Fangraphs even existed.
Since many of the old Sox games were carried on WGN, and lots of people around the country got that station (long before MLB baseball packages were available), it just gave more opportunity for more fans to dislike him. Probably a higher % of listeners to his broadcast were fans of other teams ( I would daresay more than the Cubs broadcasts), and even though I am sure WGN was aware of this, they made no attempt to make the telecast very watchable for those fans.
Listening to Hawk tell the “put it on the board” origin story is a lesson in abject assholism.
Without a whiff of self-awareness, he recounts how he barked “you can put it on the board” to an old scorekeeper who was slow to add a birdie to his score and thought to himself “hey what I just said to that old guy was pretty cool.”
Fuck Hawk and everything he stands for.
“groupthinktariat?” How long did it take to come up with that one?
Believe it or not, it came pretty easily when trying to describe the monolithic sentiment of most commenters on this site!
Downvotes for voicing a counter opinion just reinforces my point. What is the purpose of a downvote? I’m representing an alternative view point, I’m not being disrespectful or bashing anyone. A downvote is a cowardly way to shout down opinions you don’t agree with instead of engaging in discourse. Pretty sad.
I think you would’ve been in good shape with the rest of your post if you hadn’t prefaced it by dismissing people’s votes against Hawk as merely ‘groupthinktariat’.
I’m not trying to offend anyone, but this is (and frankly has always been) a problem with fangraphs, that people tend to fall in with the interpretation of statistics given by the authors of the site. I think the comments are an important place for discussion of alternate takes, but oftentimes anyone who says something counter to the narrative presented is downvoted and it’s like a scarlet letter on your post.
pudieron89: Your downvotes are not for expressing an unpopular opinion, but for your insulting manner. (If you don’t get the insulting nature of the term “groupthink,” use smaller words.)
That’s the thing. Dissenting opinions can and often are welcomed and encouraged around here. But if they’re presented in a “here’s why I’m right and here’s why the sheeple are wrong!” manner, well, it becomes difficult to separate the content (whether good, bad, or indifferent) from the author’s dickish tone.
(Not directed at anyone here, but you often see that a lot with people who say things like “I just tell it like it is!” No, you just tell yourself that so you can act like an entitled ass.)
Agree 100%. Hawk brings passion, hilarity, and entertainment value to the table. And I’m not even a White Sox fan. There are plenty of boring tandems out there that deserve to be ranked lower (A’s, Astros, Pirates, Indians, just to name a few). I don’t think there are any “terrible” announcing teams out there (other than Sunday Night Baseball, which has been a non-stop failure since Miller & Morgan left), but there’s only a handful that are truly great/unique.
It speaks to the wimpy sensitivity of people nowadays. Folks get butthurt so easily that they actively prefer boredom over a bit of spice in their lives. Keep doing your thing, Hawk!
This is pretty much how I feel. And ESPN Sunday Night Baseball is demonstrably the worst, though it got a little better now that the hack Schilling is gone.
How can you like Hawk but not the ESPN broadcast? It’s basically the same thing, except Hawk is so blatantly biased towards the White Sox.
Given i commented first i just thought i should come back, i’m obviously isolated from the baseball community as a whole and just liked that people agreed with me. I’m not a fan of the home run call and the strike out call but that’s a personal subjective thing for the most part. If you like him i’m all for it. Much like there’s no one good kind of music or any other art form there’s no one kind of good broadcaster. Each to their own i say!
Hawk is a fan of the White Sox and he’s his own man; ESPN are corporate shills who don’t describe the game well.
“Hawk brings passion, hilarity”
Hilarity? Huh. I probably would have used a different term for his act. Diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks, I reckon!
The “he gone” stuff got old a long, long time ago.
Signed,
Incorrect opinion haver
“I think the comments are an important place for discussion of alternate takes”
Clearly. And becoming a troll is a way to exemplify that?
Just wait till they release the rankings for the Red Sox broadcast teams. Pudieron will have an issue no matter where they’re ranked.
I guess if you have a shtick, you gotta stay with it till the very end right?
If I voice my opinion counter to the common narrative, I’m a troll. If posters are short with me in response, they’re correct. If I likewise give a quick response, I’m a troll again.
Consider how hypocritical you are. The tendency to dismiss comments you disagree with as trolling is really unproductive. If I was trolling I’d be here for a reaction, but I’ve been posting on Fangraphs for years, I’m a fan of baseball, and I happen to feel differently about it than you. Grow up!
“If I voice my opinion counter to the common narrative, I’m a troll.”
After you call someone an “incorrect opinion haver”? So you provoke and then try to wave your hands and say “Gee, I can’t imagine why they called me a troll!”
It’s so glaringly easy to see through, and I think you can too; I mean, you’re not a stupid person, you just like to play the victim.
No, I just like to have a conversation without I don’t resort to petty anonymous tactics like downvoting a comment I disagree with.
If it’s so “petty” why does it bother you so? And it’s pretty clear it does bother you, considerably. Otherwise why bring it up?
I’m a White Sox fan and can UNDERSTAND how a select few defend Hawk, but honestly his throwback/rube routine is only amusing when enjoyed on rare occasions, not unlike eating five corn dogs on a stick, or listening to Mike & Mike. Anything more than twice a year makes me feel nauseous, regretful, and/or unintelligent.
Is it too late to chip in comments/opinions?) (for as yet unpublished clubs)
Is it too late to chip in comments/opinions? (for as yet unpublished clubs)
It wasn’t the first time you posted, but by the time of this second posting the deadline had passed.
Hawk Harrelson at the bottom reinforces my faith in humanity.
I hope we don’t have to wait too long to see Steve Lyons (even if he is only a fill-in).
Steve Lyons is awful. Feel like 5 times a game I’m saying “what the hell is this guy talking about??”
Hard to believe we got rid of the Don + Jerry combo for this debacle
Speaking of, is Jerry not doing road games the rest of the year? I don’t think I remember him doing a road broadcast since the openers in Cleveland and Toronto.
If he’s not, at least just give us Dave and Eck. Steve Lyons is hot garbage.
If Steve Lyons becomes the Jerry replacement instead of Eck, for whatever reason, I will be listening to many visitng teams’ broadcasters or using MLBTV’s radio sync feature much more often.
Yeah I use the radio sync on games if I know Jerry or Eck won’t be in the booth beforehand. There’s something pretty special about listening to Joe Castiglione call a game. For whatever reason, I always remember classic calls in his voice, not the tv voice, even if I was watching the play on the tv broadcast.
“Swing and a groundball stabbed by Foulke, he has it. He underhands to first, and the Boston Red Sox are the World Champions. For the first time in 86 years, the Red Sox have won baseball’s World championship. Can you believe it?”
That call sends chills down my spine every time I hear it.
Eck has flat out recused himself from being a full time game announcer.
If Rex Huddler isnt close behind then all is lost.
The first time I heard Rex Hudler as an announcer (here in Angels’ land), I couldn’t help but think of Conan O’Brien’s “Coked-up Werewolf” sketch.
Rex Hudler makes Hawk downright likable
I had the poor judgment to tune into the CWS broadcast of one of their games the other day, and I got to listen to Hawk ruminate about how “The Cubs are only just a little bit better than the White Sox”.
He is single-handedly the most irritating and least informed announcer I am aware of.
This is within the realm of broadcaster truth.
Oh, come now, Carson, your NERD Scores aren’t “dumb”. I’d suggest that “inane” is a much more apt descriptor. In a good way.
DOOD YOU FORGOT THE “S” IN INSANE.
Warmest regards,
Internet dummy/tough guy
I’m one of the Jays fans that doesn’t have access to the opposing teams broadcasts to get relief from Buck and (especially) Pat. The reason they rank so low here is they have all sorts of annoying mannerisms that they ALWAYS do, many times each game. Including but not limited to:
– Strange pronunciation of players names. You’d think that someone with an audience in the hundreds of thousands might learn how to say the names of the players on your team…
– Really awkward mishaps – Buckisms. Saying the wrong thing. This really adds up to the impression that they’re not paying attention to the game.
– Truly horrible jokes, after which they make this wheezing sound that might approximate laughter if it were coming from an ancient Egyptian mummy.
– Thank God that Derek Jeter retired. They could never shut up about him and even now, the ghost of Jeter appears sometimes. They just worshiped him, leading to…
– The constant and endless slobbering of opposing players, especially certain players. They fall in love with them and never, ever stop talking about them as if they’re gods. Currently, they have a huge crush on Salvador Perez, Christian Vasquez, David Ortiz, etc.
They don’t actually speak this way about the Jays much, sometimes, but if it’s a series against the Royals, it might as well be a series about Salvador Perez.
– Calling players “baseball players” or “professional hitters”. If you were to play a drinking game with this one, you’d be as drunk as they sound in no time.
– They repeatedly agree with each other, back and forth, and wheeze about it.
In fairness, Buck isn’t bad when he’s with someone other than Pat. Pat has no redeeming qualities as a broadcaster, and he destroys Buck. Together they’re just an awful team.
They’re also signed for 4 more seasons after this one. Yikes.
It is shocking how much the broadcast improves with Shulman in the booth. The echo-chamber effect of agreement and affirmation when it’s Martinez and Tabby in the booth ignoring the game so they can praise whatever opposition player they’re currently infatuated with is mind-numbing and soul-cruahing.
Am I the only one who finds Buck’s voice borderline intolerable?
No. I don’t really like it, but I certainly know that other people despise it.
It’s less annoying when he shuts up for a while, but he and Pat just have to talk non-stop for some stupid reason.
This stuff about overpraising opposing players is just pure bs. I’ve listened to Buck and Pat for several years and it is sickening how they exaggerate every Blue Jays players accomplishments, make every routine play a highlight reel, and make excuses for every error the Jays make.
Of course, they recognize how good some of the opposing players are, but never to the extent they fawn over everything the Blue Jays do. They sound like super slick salesman rather than sports announcers. Pat in particular is pompous, self-important and overbearing. Their “ogling” of other players is just an urban myth that is repeated so often, people confuse it with the truth.
I too have listened for years, and one time in 2015, Buck & Pat gave 18 compliments to Derek Jeter in a 6 minute span. Relentless slobber. I just had to rewind and go count.
That is a bit much, but Jeter is one of the great players so I’m sure at least some of those comments were earned. On the other hand, Buck and Pat have a positive spin on everything the Blue Jays do whether its good, bad, or terrible. The Blue Jays can do no wrong.
It just gets sickening after a while to hear them keep it up over and over again. They are simply mouthpieces of management. That’s where the real criticism should lie.
I’m glad this point was made. I do agree with most of StroShow’s criticism, but Buck and Pat do seem to parrot the Rogers’ marketing line: Jays players are superheroes who can do no wrong, and you’re not Canadian if you don’t support the National team. As a Canadian, I’d like to root for them, but hate having the team shoved down my throat.
Yeah, I dont agree with that comment either. I watch alot of Jays games even though I dont cheer for them (a side effect of being a baseball fan in Canada) and I have to say that Buck and Pat spend ALOT more time slobbering over/exaggerating the Jays players than the opposition. Most games they hardly even acknowledge the Jays are playing another team lol.
Its always funny when a guy gets traded from the Jays and you never hear about him ever again because he really isnt that good. Even though Buck and Pat made him sound like an all star when he was there.
Hawk and Stoney last?? Guess I don’t need to pay attention to any more of these rankings. #TimeSaved
I can only assume that was because you just wanted to check to make sure they were last, and once you saw they were, felt no need to see the rest as everything was right in the world. #Efficient
Go away, Hawk’s large adult son.
As a White Sox fan I have been watching games on mute for years because of this Boob Harrelson spewing Yaz stories and talking about total nonsense. He thinks he is part of the team and is horrible at the job at hand, which is calling the game.
Home games have been fantastic since he isn’t around, and eventually when he’s gone for good we can start to reprogram the fan base since Harrelson has made a generation of Sox fans into whiners that think umpires conspire against the team.
The sooner he is entirely gone for good, the absolute better.
He’s been doing that act for so long, I think he’s programmed TWO entire generation of fans that way.
Hawk Harrelson is terrible. I actually think in general announcers should have a bit of homerism, but he’s way, way over the top. It’s like you pulled someone from the stands to do play-by-play.
I don’t listen to many White Sox games, because of Hawk, but Steve Stone used to be very good. I’d think he’d pull the over crew out of last place. Is Stone not that good any more, or is Hawk just that bad?
Steve Stone is to Hawk Harrelson as the Lakers’ youth movement was to Kobe Bryant. His talents and efforts are seriously curtailed by having to defer to someone whose self-esteem is now inversely proportional to his ability.
It’s mostly that Hawk is just that bad. Although I personally don’t really enjoy Stone either most people I talk to disagree with me there.
Stone and Hawk just don’t seem to get along that well and their styles don’t mesh, and I think both have pretty substantial egos and that likely causes some of the issues as well. Stone on the home broadcasts with Benetti is Stone as you remember him. The two of them have complementary personalities and senses of humor, and Benetti sets Stone up for analysis well (while Hawk has his own strong opinions about things and will ignore what Stone says). It’s pretty obvious Stone is enjoying himself a lot more on those home broadcasts.
Also, Hawk was significantly more listenable this weekend when Dan Plesac filled in for Stone. Those two seemed to get along very well. Why? I have no idea.
Did anybody catch last week when Hawk left the booth to check on an injured Todd Frazier? That was hilarious!
I think hawk showing homerism to the point that he ignores all logic is actually way more fun than a lot of the monotone stuff out there. I think Steve stone is actually worse than hawk because he is wrong just as much but doesn’t have blatant homerism as an excuse. They just had dan plesak on for the calls in New York and he was terrible. Repeated the same thing about betances like 10 times, talked non stop. Hawks not the best call to listen to but he is the most polarizing and a better listen than most.
Nah, Buck and Pat’s awfulness isn’t strictly confined to them being two natural color guys. That part does lead them to babble on incessantly about nonsense, however.
Never thought I’d feel this way, but when Buck & Pat were replaced by MLB Network for the playoffs I really missed them. Maybe it was just the familiarity they had with the team—and/or the awfulness of the MLB broadcasters—but I really think that they, or at least Buck, offer some great insight into the game and the players on the Jays. Whenever Shulman or Siddall fills in for Pat they really compliment Buck and hit their stride.
Somewhat reasonable that Buck and Pat have higher “component” ratings than overall. As a Jays fan, you get used to them and miss them a bit when they’re gone, but when you listen to some other teams’ broadcasts, I see what we’re missing.
They’re also very “old-school”, which is really annoying sometimes. But I guess that’s to be expected when your 2 announcers combined for less than 10 WAR in over 2200 combined career games.
But they were ball players, you know. Professional hitters. And Buck was a catcher, he could really catch the ball.
Tabler has a complete inability to offer helpful analysis. StroShow nailed it with his comment above. Everything boils down to a player having “confidence” or “seeing the ball well” or being a “professional hitter”. Why not offer some actual analysis instead of shallow observations? I can get the same thing from my buddy at the bar who’s already 9 beers deep.
Is Scully the last solo announcer? Greatness can only be developed in isolation. The duo schtick is a the safest choice for mediocrities. Even some of these men could develop into something great if they didn’t have the constant chirping in the booth from jocks.
I don’t know why Carson didn’t print my comment. I said I’d rather eat my own spleeen than have to listen to the Hawk.
That seems fairly civil to me. After all, I didn’t say that I would eat Hawk Harrelson’s spleen.
Pat Tabler was hired via affirmative action program for retarded people.
Buck Martinez’s hair is actually an alien headcrab sucking his brain goo and preventing him from speaking words properly.
Dan Shulman proves that every MLB broadcast can be enhanced 10,000% by one big, swinging Jew dick.
Not that anyone will read yesterdays news, but I forgot to mention something about the Blue Jays broadcast team. You see, a big part of the problem it’s not limited to just two idiots in Buck and Pat. The station seems to insist on surrounding them with several more additional idiots who all contribute their own particular brand of awfulness.
The idiots:
Gregg Zaun – He’s basically Don Cherry, but 40 years younger, more angry and somehow possibly less progressive when it comes to things like rookies and stats. He calls himself “The Manalyst”, if that’s not indication enough.
Kevin Barker – He’s a random guy who has nothing to do with anything, except he’s married to Hazel Mae so he gets to be on TV. Whenever he starts talking about anything, you know that marriage is the only reason.
Barry Davis – If all the broadcasters in MLB were like a classroom, Barry would be the nerd that got wedgies all the time. But not one of the smart nerds, just a regular nerd. In fairness, he’s not a bad guy, but his interviews have at times been EXTREMELY awkward.
The non-idiots:
Hazel Mae – The aforementioned, she’s a short Asian girl who is actually reasonable in front of a camera. No real beef with her.
Steven Brunt – Radio personality, so opinionated by nature. He’s neither here nor there.
Jonah Keri – Yep, the very same. He’s new to the team this year and gives brief reports on advanced stats, possibly to try and cancel out the damage that Zaun does.
Jamie Campbell – Close to being on the idiot side of things, he contributes basically nothing except to give Zaun opening lines to play off of.
Ivanka Ozmack – Sorry boys, she’s married. The enthusiastic good looking woman of the team, she’s not a disadvantage at all, really. Pretty good at talking the talk.
————
I know I’m missing more, but ALL of these people end up getting some airtime pretty much every broadcast. Zaun is by far the biggest offender, he’s a giant tool who gets a lot of focus.
Anyway, all of these people contribute to the overall “run by idiots” sort of feel you get from a Jays broadcast. It’s not a very good and sometimes very unprofessional overall feel.
Jonah Keri’s book about the Expos was awesome. He’ll be great.
Sportsnets baseball coverage in general is pretty much a joke. They went from being an actual sports network to just a propaganda arm for the Jays. Go on their website on any given day and you are lucky to find 1 or 2 non-jays baseball stories wedged in between 18 Jays stories like what Marcus Stroman had for breakfast and why every umpire has it in for the Jays.
Most of the people who watch MLB broadcasts are hometown fans, I think that will remain true despite the growth of MLB.TV. Having watched Jack Brickhouse who had Homerism that dwarf’s Hawk’s and contrasted that with Chgo’s first incarnation of Harry Caray at Comiskey and his cynicism before he became the Harry everyone eventually loved, I find it odd that anyone can criticize a home announcer for homerism. They all have it today. It is time for aged announcers like Hawk and Vin to move on, but 32? Give me a break. I have no use for this list.