RIP Jim Price

[Liut]

R.I.P. Mr. Price

But I am curious about something. Most of the MLB radio broadcasts I have listened to (not many recently) have had two professional announcers. They swap off innings but rarely speak when their partner is working. The announcer not calling play-by-play will say about a sentence a half inning. Why is only one announcer allowed to talk? Is it the egos involved of the announcers. Tradition from the days when the number one announcer on an MLB broadcast was considered a god-like figure?

Generally when an ex-athlete is involved it becomes more conversational and more interesting as long as the ex-jock does not try play-by-play for a couple of innings, which can be painful.

What made Buck and Shannon in St. Louis so awesome back in the day was the by-play between them. Rain delay? No problem. Shannon would grab an ex-player, fellow broadcaster, a scout and they'd shoot the ship. It was terrific radio.
That tradition carries on with Rooney and Horton, but I'm not listening to that horse-ship team's games.

 

[MTM]

R.I.P. Mr. Price

But I am curious about something. Most of the MLB radio broadcasts I have listened to (not many recently) have had two professional announcers. They swap off innings but rarely speak when their partner is working. The announcer not calling play-by-play will say about a sentence a half inning. Why is only one announcer allowed to talk? Is it the egos involved of the announcers. Tradition from the days when the number one announcer on an MLB broadcast was considered a god-like figure?

Generally when an ex-athlete is involved it becomes more conversational and more interesting as long as the ex-jock does not try play-by-play for a couple of innings, which can be painful.

Both LA teams have a play-by-play guy do all nine innings on radio with a former player as commentator and a lot of back and forth. Rick Monday, the Dodgers commentator with either Charley Steiner or Tim Neverett, is actually pretty good at play by play, as he did a lot in the past. Steiner isn't great at calling games, but he's a fun listen with Monday.
The Angels Terry Smith and Mark Langston call all games, home and road, from Anaheim.
I grew up with the Dodgers having two announcers per game who only worked solo. This season on TV, there have been three PBP guys and five commentators, working in every possible combination.

 

[micropolitan guy]

The pitch clock has made it much harder for the analyst to get in his/her 2 cents worth, but it's greatly reduced the annoying banter about where they went out to eat last night, etc.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Hopefully when they found him he wasn't just lying there like the house by the side of the road.

Too early?

 

[Starman]

I think that was Ernie's line.

 

[MTM]

Joe Davis uses that line on Dodgers games and I wondered where it came from. He grew up in Michigan, so now it makes sense.

 

[maumann]

My favorite Ernie-ism was "and a fan from Novi/Inkster/Mount Clemens/Livonia just caught that foul ball" like he knew where every single person in the stands lived. For an aspiring play by play guy, I couldn't fathom keeping up with the scorebook AND who was leaving to get a hot dog or use the restroom.

 

[dixiehack]

My favorite Ernie-ism was "and a fan from Novi/Inkster/Mount Clemens/Livonia just caught that foul ball" like he knew where every single person in the stands lived. For an aspiring play by play guy, I couldn't fathom keeping up with the scorebook AND who was leaving to get a hot dog or use the restroom.

Skip Caray did the same bit on Braves games.

 

[micropolitan guy]

I think that was Ernie's line.

Yes it was.