Orioles Announcers, Where Would You Rank Them?

[birdman333]

Some might be too young to remember but for me the all time best Oriole's announcing team was the duo of Mel Proctor and John Lowenstein on the old HTS network. The perfect mix of knowledge, humor and rooting for the team without being obnoxious about it.

[The Wedge]

Some might be too young to remember but for me the all time best Oriole's announcing team was the duo of Mel Proctor and John Lowenstein on the old HTS network. The perfect mix of knowledge, humor and rooting for the team without being obnoxious about it.

I hope you mean TV teams. Because while I loved me some Proctor and Brother Lowe, they're pretty much a distant second to Chuck Thompson. And also, I believe the black hole of crap that followed them for awhile elevate Proctor and Lowenstein. Not saying they weren't good, just mean that some of the teams in between were that bad, plus the nostalgia filter.

[Palmoripken]

Some might be too young to remember but for me the all time best Oriole's announcing team was the duo of Mel Proctor and John Lowenstein on the old HTS network. The perfect mix of knowledge, humor and rooting for the team without being obnoxious about it.

I never saw too much of them since we didn't have HTS even after we got cable. Of course, in those days, you could actually listen to Orioles games here in Northern Virginia on the radio without any static so it wasn't a huge deal but everyone including you always raves about how good Proctor and Lowenstein were. Even if we had HTS though, I doubt I'd remember them that well though since I think their last year together was 1995 perhaps?

[Palmoripken]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Baltimore_Orioles_broadcasters

Here's a list. I had forgotten about Rick Cerrone. He was pretty non-memorable which goes without saying since it was only one year. I did not like Buck Martinez. I know it sounds mean but the guy's voice was almost like a nails on chalkboard thing for me and I am alwaysamazed that he gets national work and got a job managing the Blue Jays which I guess isn't too shocking since he caught in his playing career and catchers are good managing material. I swear I remember reading here on OH once that Larry King, yes that Larry King called games for us once in the mid 80's but I may be remembering wrong.

[Fuzzball22]

I love listening to baseball on the radio. I grew up with Chuck and Bill Odonnell. Of course we all know the great Chuck Thompson calls but Odonnell had a great call of a Pat Kelly homer against the Red Sox. It was a game winner and he used Kelly's full name Harold Patrick Kelly.

Miller and Angel were great on the radio. Very entertaining. Miller's impressions were always good for a laugh. Still like Angel but Manfra is pathetic.

[Dipper9]

Some might be too young to remember but for me the all time best Oriole's announcing team was the duo of Mel Proctor and John Lowenstein on the old HTS network. The perfect mix of knowledge, humor and rooting for the team without being obnoxious about it.

This is a given. They were great!

[Dipper9]

I forgot about that. You're right, I went and looked it up. Here's what I posted:

Manfra is horrendous at actually describing what's happening on the field. He tries to cram way too much information into every sentence, and as a result it takes him about 5 minutes to describe a 5-second play. He does this over and over again, and it's incredibly frustrating to a listener who's trying to figure out what's happening in the game.

The way an announcer should describe a play: "And here's the 3-2 pitch to Cano. Swing, and a grounder to short. Hardy fields and makes the throw to first for the final out." (crowd cheers)

How Manfra describes it: "And the 3-2 delivery upcoming from the tall right-hander from eastern Michigan, to the Yankees' left-handed swinging second baseman...and... (crowd cheers, because the play is already over) ...it's...a...ground ball to the shortstop J.J. Hardy, and...(pause)... on an easy hop, to his glove side left, J.J.... (pause)... makes the casual throw across the diamond."

You hear the crowd cheering a long time before Manfra finishes explaining what actually happened on the play. So you know that something has happened, but you have to wait for Manfra to finish his stream of consciousness ramblings before you can caught up.

I repped this post the first time he did it, buts it so spot on and hilarious that I had to rep it again.

Its funny cause its true!