Play by Play Announcers

[SteveA]

I had not been too heavy into bashing the announcers.  Wanted to give them a chance.

But after last night, I'm jumping on the bandwagon.

There isn't a more exciting way for a baseball game to end than with the tie run being thrown out at the plate for the last out.   

And Scott Garceau's bland, low key description last night was so weak.   Imagine how much more exiting it would have been with Joe Angel, Gary Thorne, or Jon Miller calling it.   Or Chuck Thompson or Bill O'Donnell. Even some announcers we have had who weren't the most technically competent in the world, like Fred Manfra or Tom Marr, would have made it far more exciting.   I almost felt I got cheated out of getting full enjoyment out of the moment because Garceau was so blase.   I thought it was as bad as it could get.

But I was wrong.  Very wrong.   This morning while driving into work, 105.7 replayed the radio call of the final play by Melanie Newman.   It was every bit as bland and it was hard to follow what happened too.   It was absolutely terrible, completely unexciting and didn't convey a good mental image of what was happening.   I was surprised that 105.7 wasn't too embarrassed to run that replay at all.   If we pull a 1989 and have a season good enough to make a highlight video of, they will have to figure out a way to dub an actual announcer over either Garceau or Newman to include the finish to this game.   Or use the Yankee broadcast.    I'm no fan of John Sterling but I'm sure he did a good job conveying what happened on the play and the excitement of the moment.

 

[turtlebowl]

13 minutes ago, SteveA said:

I had not been too heavy into bashing the announcers.  Wanted to give them a chance.

But after last night, I'm jumping on the bandwagon.

There isn't a more exciting way for a baseball game to end than with the tie run being thrown out at the plate for the last out.   

And Scott Garceau's bland, low key description last night was so weak.   Imagine how much more exiting it would have been with Joe Angel, Gary Thorne, or Jon Miller calling it.   Or Chuck Thompson or Bill O'Donnell. Even some announcers we have had who weren't the most technically competent in the world, like Fred Manfra or Tom Marr, would have made it far more exciting.   I almost felt I got cheated out of getting full enjoyment out of the moment because Garceau was so blase.   I thought it was as bad as it could get.

But I was wrong.  Very wrong.   This morning while driving into work, 105.7 replayed the radio call of the final play by Melanie Newman.   It was every bit as bland and it was hard to follow what happened too.   It was absolutely terrible, completely unexciting and didn't convey a good mental image of what was happening.   I was surprised that 105.7 wasn't too embarrassed to run that replay at all.   If we pull a 1989 and have a season good enough to make a highlight video of, they will have to figure out a way to dub an actual announcer over either Garceau or Newman to include the finish to this game.   Or use the Yankee broadcast.    I'm no fan of John Sterling but I'm sure he did a good job conveying what happened on the play and the excitement of the moment.

 

I was going to write something about this also.  Scott's call was really dull.  But like you I heard Melanie's on the radio today and I don't think it is possible to do worse than that on an exciting play like that to end a game.  I hope this isn't the long term answer for O's broadcasting.  

[Aristotelian]

FWIW Michael Kay also confused Sisco with Urias and also corrected himself in the middle of Santander's first throw. Rough night for the announcers as well as the defense. Late at night and early in the season, everybody still getting their sea legs. 

[scOtt]

I don't mind Garceau. Didn't hear last night's. Watching the replay right now on MASN.

 

Melanie... She's competent enough, knows her stuff. But she's beyond low key. You can't even hardly hear her. It's like she's whispering under her breath.

[Legend_Of_Joey]

I’ve heard better calls from YouTubers during MLB The Show gameplay. 
 

I really wish Adam Pohl would get a shot. He is really good at conveying emotion and what is happening during Baysox games, including adding emotion during the big plays.

[fansince1988]

2 minutes ago, Legend_Of_Joey said:

I’ve heard better calls from YouTubers during MLB The Show gameplay. 
 

I really wish Adam Pohl would get a shot. He is really good at conveying emotion and what is happening during Baysox games, including adding emotion during the big plays.

I second that. 

[glenn__davis]

I'm not trying to pile on Melanie, but I have been very unimpressed with her on the radio.  The voice is good, but I feel like she's way behind in calling the action and doesn't let you know enough detail about what is going on.

[Frobby]

I was thinking of starting a thread like this.   Would have loved to hear the call from Thorne, Angel and even Jim Hunter on a play like that.   (Actually, that’s the one thing Hunter was good at.).  Garceau was completely blasé, as I wrote in the game thread.  

Newman does a decent job on the postgame show, and does pretty good interviews.    But she’s very stiff when doing PBP, and almost disappears when doing color.   I was listening to a game last weekend where Kevin Brown was doing the PBP and you wouldn’t even have known she was in the booth.   

Brown has improved with experience and is pretty solid IMO.   I really like Geoff Arnold.    I’m willing to give Newman a bit more time to settle in.   But Garceau is at the point in his career where he isn’t likely to improve.   He’s OK as a backup option but I wouldn’t want to listen to him 100 times a year.   
 

 

[Hank Scorpio]

11 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I was thinking of starting a thread like this.   Would have loved to hear the call from Thorne, Angel and even Jim Hunter on a play like that.   (Actually, that’s the one thing Hunter was good at.).  Garceau was completely blasé, as I wrote in the game thread.  

Newman does a decent job on the postgame show, and does pretty good interviews.    But she’s very stiff when doing PBP, and almost disappears when doing color.   I was listening to a game last weekend where Kevin Brown was doing the PBP and you wouldn’t even have known she was in the booth.   

Brown has improved with experience and is pretty solid IMO.   I really like Geoff Arnold.    I’m willing to give Newman a bit more time to settle in.   But Garceau is at the point in his career where he isn’t likely to improve.   He’s OK as a backup option but I wouldn’t want to listen to him 100 times a year.   
 

 

Precisely my thoughts on every single one of these people.

[SilverRocket]

 

[Hank Scorpio]

1 minute ago, SilverRocket said:

 

They must have Dish Network...

[Yossarian]

Having lived in Northern California for the last 15 years (and not had an mlb.com subscription to watch Orioles games) I have watched a lot of S.F. Giants games.  I really like the TV crew they have (Mike Krukow and Duane Kiper).  They are not overly excitable but do a great job at calling a game and bringing a lot of insight (similar to Palmer) into what is going on as well as past experiences and baseball history into a broadcast.  They both have dry senses of humor, which I can appreciate, and often make comments on people people in the stands or their plays on foul balls, etc.  Sometimes it becomes a theme that lasts for innings.  They really work so well together and talk baseball like two guys sitting in your living room.  They bring a little excitement/emotion on plays like Santander's throw last night, but it doesn't have to be over-the-top to know that it was a great play.  

[Moose Milligan]

Garceau is ok.  

You guys want to hear bland?  Listen to the Nats team.  

[Ripken]

Garceau is horrid.

[Beef Supreme]

No fan of Garceau. I do like Kevin Brown and Geoff Arnold.

But it would have taken ten minutes to find out what happened at the end of the game if Manfra had been yammering and stammering, failing miserably to untie his tongue. Whenever something exciting happened, he either gurgled nonsense or there was dead air.