Ben Wagner (new radio guy)

[Frobby]

I was driving in my car this weekend and heard our new announcer Ben Wagner do a couple of innings of play-by-play, and also participate in an in-game interview of Mike Elias.  SSS, but he struck me as a solid pro.  You can kind of tell he’s new, as he sounded more like a guy doing a national broadcast than a guy doing a home team broadcast.  Which is fine.   

Anyone else have any initial impressions of Wagner?  He used to do Blue Jays games.
 

[interloper]

Yeah he's solid. Better than Garceau anyway. I heard him do a game with Melanie in ST and he seemed like he did his homework. Curious if he'll see any TV time this year once the B-squad starts mixing into games. 

There was some kind of controversy about how his time ended in Toronto I think, but I can't remember what. Nothing crazy I don't think. Anyway, he seems at least comparable to Geoff Arnold, probably a little better honestly, so it seems like a win to me.

Edited April 15 by interloper

[interloper]

Wikipedia:

Wagner was hired as the play-by-play radio announcer for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons.[4] He remained in that role with the Bisons until March 27, 2018, when it was announced that he would replace the retiring Jerry Howarth as the lead radio play-by-play announcer for the Bisons' parent club, the Toronto Blue Jays.[6][7] He was dismissed by Sportsnet on November 28, 2023 in a move that was unpopular with Blue Jays fans.[8] He never got to work with a color commentator who was a former player during his six years, half of which he was never allowed to travel with the ballclub for away games. Critical of Sportsnet's decision, Howarth said, "That was embarrassing for me to see that happen to Ben and the audience across Canada."[9]

[cravens86]

I heard some of his work this weekend too. I really enjoyed his radio voice and thought he was solid. 

[Frobby]

I will say, I don’t really understand why we have so many announcers.  Arnold, Garceau, Hollander, Newman and Wagner all doing radio games, as well as TV when Brown isn’t on, not to mention Palmer, McDonald and various ex-player guest color commentators.  

[interloper]

5 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I will say, I don’t really understand why we have so many announcers.  Arnold, Garceau, Hollander, Newman and Wagner all doing radio games, as well as TV when Brown isn’t on, not to mention Palmer, McDonald and various ex-player guest color commentators.  

It's a bit much, right? Surely we can just have Hollander take all of Garceau's spots at this point. 

While we're at it, why is Rob Long doing anything on TV? His sports radio show is fine, but I have never seen more awkward moments and trouble spitting out sentences on live TV than Rob Long doing these mid-game interviews and post-games wrap-ups. Why do we need Melanie AND Rob on the same broadcast? Melanie is great at that stuff and can handle of all it IMO. Just seems unnecessary. 

Edited April 15 by interloper

[survivedc]

25 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I was driving in my car this weekend and heard our new announcer Ben Wagner do a couple of innings of play-by-play, and also participate in an in-game interview of Mike Elias.  SSS, but he struck me as a solid pro.  You can kind of tell he’s new, as he sounded more like a guy doing a national broadcast than a guy doing a home team broadcast.  Which is fine.   

Anyone else have any initial impressions of Wagner?  He used to do Blue Jays games.
 

I thought the same about the national broadcast bit. Hopefully that grows over time.

I like the radio guys to have an interesting voice or delivery, something both Hollander and Arnold have. Wagner is a bit of a straight man, though he seems good at his job.

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, interloper said:

It's a bit much, right? Surely we can just have Hollander take all of Garceau's spots at this point. 

While we're at it, why is Rob Long doing anything on TV? His sports radio show is fine, but I have never seen more awkward moments and trouble spitting out sentences on live TV than Rob Long doing these mid-game interviews and post-games wrap-ups. Why do we need Melanie AND Rob on the same broadcast? Melanie is great at that stuff and can handle of all it IMO. Just seems unnecessary. 

Part of the reason is that the O’s don’t want to consign Melanie solely to sideline reporter and pre/post game duties.   So, they need someone when Melanie is elsewhere.  But I don’t want to turn this into a Melanie thread.  I hope Wagner proves to be a good announcer.

[Fiver6565]

I heard Ben this weekend, both Friday and Sunday games.  Friday I believe they said was his first regular season game for the Os, not sure why it took 10 ish games to get him on.  I thought he was quite good.  I turned it on expecting to hear Melanie and turn it right back off, but wound up listening to several innings (not all Ben, rest were Geoff Arnold).   I thought he described the action well, seemed to know the team and the opponent.  A pretty matter of fact style and he had a couple of turns of phrase that might be staples for him, as I have not heard them before (for the life of me can't recollect an example right now though).  Most importantly, it was very easy to picture exactly what was going on from his play by play - whether action in the field, or even pitch by pitch.  Which is kind of the main point of PBP on the radio, and has always been my criticism of Melanie, who couldn't possibly be worse at the one thing she is there to do.

[interloper]

Yeah my first blush about him was he's like Geoff Arnold with a more "pro"-sounding voice. Closer to a Kevin Brown broadcast voice. And not that Geoff has a bad voice or anything, but yeah. 

[SteveA]

I listened to some as well driving around this weekend as well.   Thought he was solid.   Maybe overuses a few slang terms a bit too much (like "bump" instead of "mound", I think I heard that at least 3 times).    But good radio play by play, I had no problem knowing what was going on.

[yark14]

18 minutes ago, interloper said:

Yeah my first blush about him was he's like Geoff Arnold with a more "pro"-sounding voice. Closer to a Kevin Brown broadcast voice. And not that Geoff has a bad voice or anything, but yeah. 

Probably just me, but Geoff's voice is annoying.  I'm sure he's a good guy.

Listened to part of Ben Wagner's PBP on Friday.  Really like him.  He's very good at giving detailed descriptions efficiently.

[Tony-OH]

28 minutes ago, SteveA said:

I listened to some as well driving around this weekend as well.   Thought he was solid.   Maybe overuses a few slang terms a bit too much (like "bump" instead of "mound", I think I heard that at least 3 times).    But good radio play by play, I had no problem knowing what was going on.

This is my most important aspect of a radio announcer. 

[rm5678]

57 minutes ago, survivedc said:

I thought the same about the national broadcast bit. Hopefully that grows over time.

 

I also agree about the national broadcast comment. When I listened to Wagner in ST, I remember him referring to the team multiple times as "Baltimore" instead of "the Orioles." 

[Billy F-Face3]

As long as I never have to listen to Dave Martinez and Melanie Newman together in another broadcast, I'll be content. One of them is bad enough.