Marty Brennaman

The Angels would like to challenge you to a duel. Or maybe Hawk and his ATM sidekick.

Steve Physioc and Rex Hudler are, hands down, the worst team this side of Chicago (and the other side of Chicago, too, for that matter.) It's a running joke in our newsroom that if we're excited about something (or, ahem, "pumped up," as Rexy likes to say), someone invariably goes, "Calm the fuck down, Wonder Dog." (OK, I'm the only one that adds the "fuck." I'm a swearaholic. But we all know how "pumped up" Rexy likes to get.) ... And then there's Stevie Psychotic, who RAISES HIS VOICE if his "Halos" do well, even if the Angels just scored a go-ahead run in the fourth inning of a mid-June game against Tampa Bay.

It's such a fascinating contrast switching between Dodgers and Angels games out here. It's safe to conclude that Rexy and Steve never took any tips from the great, the legendary, the immaculate Vincent Scully. Now THERE's a broadcaster you could listen to, no matter how bad the team was ...

 

Sometimes, I think Marques Johnson wants to hang himself anytime Physioc goes ape on the Pac-10 hoop telecasts. No wonder why the Wonder Dog got caught with the hippie lettuce a while back. HE needed to calm the fuck down!

No one, no one is as bad as Hawk and Lazy Eye Jackson. My god, as much as I want to see Ozzie's antics and the White Sox play, I can't watch it with those two "wonders of witticism." Ed Farmer and Chris Singleton isn't too bad, though Ed's delivery does irk me several times during the game.

BTW, Brennaman can whip Junior, Ozzie, and Loopy's ass three times without breaking a sweat. Brennaman would kill Mariotti with two fingers. I wish. :

 

How were Hammy's calls of the two walkoff losses for the Tribe?
Castiglione and Trupiano are brutal, Red Sox are winning they sound like they are about to win the pennant. Sox are losing, they sound like someone just kicked their puppy. Trup has a bad habit of dropping his "Way Back" home run call a little too early and have it die on the warning track - we call that getting Trooped.

Sterling and Waldman suck. They clear can't stand the sound of the other's voice. YES, the Post writer that calls it Al-Yankeezira sums it up nicely. Kim Jones just flat out sucks.

 

Did he also say he looked like a girl? Cause he does.

I heard a Twins broadcast for the first time today. This is not at all intended in poor taste, but did their PBP guy have a stroke? He was unlistenable.

One very underrated team is the DRays. Very relaxed and easy to listen to.

The Tigers' "analyst" (Hockey Goon told me his name) makes me want to slice my ears off. He's awful. The worst homer in the biz. Says "we" every other second.

Rangers guys are pretty good. The call of Gary Matthews Jr's brilliant catch was great.

I could listen to the Orioles guy 24/7. Great, great voice.

 

Ed Farmer and John Rooney were terrific, and while it's chic to not like Hawk around here, he is not above tempering his homerism with legitimate criticism. Can't say the same for Santo, who sounds like any whiny 6-year-old whenever things don't go the Cubs' way.

 

Hawk Harrelson makes my ears bleed. Cannot fucking stand that pompous blowhard piece of shit.

Santo's pretty brutal though. There are even a lot of Cub fans who don't care for him believe it or not. I always thought Harry and Steve Stone were a great team. They always seemed to play off of each other pretty well.

 

marty's the fuckin' best

thing is, a couple of years ago when ken griffey jr. had 499 home runs, he said he wanted marty to call every one of his at-bats so that marty would call his 500th. i always thought that was pretty cool.

and bubbler, i had a similar experience when i did a column on ernie harwell. i was at the braves game and the tigers were in town and there was no other real reason to be there, so i ask ernie harwell if he had a couple of minutes. talked to him for a good 20 minutes, where he treated me like i was doing him a favor by talking to him. i write a column and that day get an email from harwell telling me how great the column was and that he was humbled and i shouldn't have said so many nice things.

it was unreal.

 

I just got back from 10 days in southern California and watched plenty of Dodger games. Scully was awesome, no matter how shitty the Dodgers were. When the games were a write off he'd tell little stories or anecdotes like how the players kept cool during sweltering day games in the old days that were nice, compact and to the point. He didn't beat it to death or bring it up again three innings later. The BBC broadcasts of the World Cup that we got up here were a reminder that you can do sports with one one person in the booth and Scully continues to be brilliant on his own. I'd listen to Scully read the phone book.

You won't here too much criticism of the Blue Jays from their radio or TV crews. (Mind you, it might be tough to be too harsh when Ted Rogers owns not only the team, but their flagship radio station, the FAN, and the station that shows the overwhelming majority of their games up here, Rogers Sportsnet.)

On radio, Jerry Howarth has always been that folksy, great guy next door and his colour guy Warren Sawkiw (way over his head here I think) rarely has a salient point one way or the other. On TV, Jamie Campbell is just OK but he's big on puns and lame jokes. Rance Mulliniks is by far the best of their trio of rotating colour guys. Somebody needs to put a fucking muzzle on Rod Black on TSN.

 

Eighth inning last night, you can hear Marty chiding Stewart on air.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I just had another appointment ... you want me to do the trivia answer now?"

"Well, if it's a convienent time for you ..."

He also brought up the Nats fleecing trade, noting that the Reds' scoring average has dipped from 5.1 runs a game to 4.3 runs in the games since the deal.

 

That was probably Herb Carneal, who has broadcasted the Twins since they moved to Minnesota. He's approximately 9,000 years old, at least if the carbon dating is accurate.

I think he only does Twins home games, and as gravely and difficult to hear as he is sometimes, he's a lot better than regulars John Gordon and Dan Gladden. Gordon sounds like a third-string weatherman from Rochester or something. Freaking bad.

 

For a guy who for years had of the games he called beamed to every cable TV in the galaxy, I feel Stone has been tremendously underrated. If I'm running a network sports division, he's my first choice as No. 1 baseball analyst. Good for ESPN to have him.

There are really only two baseball commentators that I can say I've learned things from while wathcing a game: Tony Kubek (the best ever, in my opinion) and Stone.

And because I know the guy and like him, I'll stick up for Marty's kid. I know a few people who feel that Thom Brennaman, not Joe Buck, should be Fox's top baseball guy. And he has shown a predilection for criticizing the home team (especially for a lack of patience at the plate), and the other night in Wrigley, he did so with the general manager sitting next to him.

 

Herb in his prime was very good. He's got to be well on the north side of 80 by now. Gordon just has to learn to modulate his voice.