Thom Brennaman, welcome to the unemployment line

One of the teams I follow has (had?) both in one package. Easily national caliber. And the owner is being a fool.

 

When I was a kid, we had one the big satellite dish antennas where you could pick up straight feeds. I remember having the best time watching NASCAR and hearing Chris Economaki, Ken Squier, etc. during what was breaks for station but live on the dish. They'd be cussing, calling for drinks, talking about people, the whole nine yards. Me being 9 or 10, that was awesome.

 

"We go to Chris Economaki in the pits" is one of the iconic phrases of sports broadcasting.

 

And Chris' was: "Mario, what put you out of this year's 500?"

 

Well, presumably LA was, and is, the top of the mountain for broadcasting talent-- if anybody's going to "fall upward," they'll end up there.
Scully and Hearn, of course, were legacy guys from the embryo days of the Dodgers and Lakers.

 

The Big 10 Network used to run their half-hour football highlight films that I'm sure were the main attractions of many a Rotary Club and alumni luncheon from Youngstown to Cedar Rapids back in the day. The really earliest ones from the early 50s are narrated by a disturbingly young looking Chic Hearn, still in Minneapolis.

 

Just imagine, Scully was the fourth-best baseball announcer in New York, behind Red Barber, Mel Allen and Russ Hodges.

 

In fairness, he was like 23 at the time.

 

Both those guys, I think because of their location in the media capital of the nation, pretty much defined what modern PBP guys should sound like.

Before their era -- back in the 40s/50s -- I think many broadcasts were one-man shows, with one guy describing the PBP and dropping in whatever side tidbits or pithy thoughts he could think of.

I believe in the 50s /60s more crews evolved more toward the breakdown of PBP/commentary we're more used to today.

 

When I was a little kid in Philly in the late '50s, both radio and TV broadcasts had already gone to PBP and color two man crews, even such relatively minor efforts like Big Five basketball.