Thom Brennaman, welcome to the unemployment line

The Angels have a radio pbp man, Terry Smith, who has already been there 19 years.
Dry as a bone, and has never said the least interesting thing in 19 seasons.

I often wonder why these positions aren't put up to job scrutiny like other jobs.

 

We've gotten to the point where Ken Harrelson has won a Frick.

A boob's boob.

But then I always loved Ralph Kiner, who has accidentally said some of the dumbest things ever uttered on television.

 

I suspect it's because the fans go absolutely insane if you replace a longtime announcer.

Bill Schonely was the play by play guy for the Trailblazers for 28 years. I was living in Portland when the Blazers replaced him. People were incensed. They loved him. He was absolutely the worst announcer I have heard in any sport.

Fans don't want "good." They want the same voice they grew up with.

 

I grew up on Dave Van Horne as my Expos radio voice. I have no clue if he was objectively good, but he and Duke Snider taught me a ton about baseball and it’s history. I’m still grateful for the education.

 

Wordsmiths Above Replacement.

 

Also, the team pays the announcers, not the stations. They select the announcers for whatever reason (or value) they think they get, and sometimes because the guy brings a big money sponsorship deal. That's why Van Patrick was replaced by Ernie Harwell in 1960, because the Tigers changed the beer sponsorship of the broadcast and Patrick was affiliated with the old company.

The jobs at the top don't turn over because the teams are perfectly happy with either the guy's ability to avoid controversy (and tick off the sponsors), his salary demands or his status as a former player in the organization. It took Rod Allen fighting Mario Impemba over a chair to dump them off Tigers TV. Jim Price has been banal for decades but at least Dan Dickerson is adequate.

 

At least Brennaman didn't go (nearly) fully Monty like Harry ...


Timothy J Jenkins‎The Baseball Reliquary
15 mins ·
It might be, it could be, it is....Harry! Holy Cow!

 

As a kid growing up in the Toronto area I was a huge Expos fan before the Jays were born and Dave Van Horne and Duke Snider were the baseball voices of my early fandom.

 

I grew up listening to Vin Scully with the Dodgers, Chick Hearn with the Lakers and Bob Miller with the Kings.

I had no idea how lucky I was until I went away to college and learned what other local announcers were like.

The fucking Blazers broadcasts, man. "Mercy mercy! Jerome to Uncle Cliffy who bisects the cyclops and bingo bango bongo!!"

 

And Dick Enberg was with UCLA, the Rams and the Angels. Truly a Who's Who of Legends during that stretch.

 

ATTENTION: Tom Dundon, who is about to make another massive mistake ...

 

It is the paradox of broadcasting and fans. Fans almost always love their local announcers, no matter how good or bad they are. Fans always loathe national announcers regardless of their abilities. I'm no exception. I called Curt Gowdy ever dirty name in the book in the '60s and '70s. Listen to him now, it's like I was dissing Edward R. Murrow.