Posted on 01/13/2009 2:37:50 PM PST by EveningStar
The following is the ASA's [American Sportscasters Association] Top 50 Sportscasters of All-Time as chosen by our members and a special committee. These are our choices. What are yours? We welcome your comments.
(Excerpt) Read more at americansportscastersonline.com ...
In 5th grade, Mr. Ellis let us watch the Dodgers/Braves playoff game in 1959. When we had to go home, I rode my bike home and got there just in time to see and hear this, something which is as clear in my mind as it was 50 years ago:
There’s a bouncer over the mound, over second base, Mantilla has it....throws low and wild and Hodges scores, WE GO TO CHICAGO!!!
I vote for Chris also!
I also throw in Ernie Johnson, Skip Carry, Pete Van Wieren and even Don Sutton. The best Baseball Broadcasting team EVER.
(Being a Braves fan, I am slightly biased.)
I grew up listening to Vin Scully! I remember as a small child, my folks would put me to bed at night and turn off the lights. I’d then insert my earphone and listen to Vinny broadcast Dodgers’ games on my little transister radio.... Vinny is the greatest as was Chick Hearn.
Al Michaels- “do you believe in miracles.... YES!!!!” I remember that to this day.
Vin Scully and Chick Hearn are still the greatest. Michaels should be right there near the top, as should Rick Monday.
“Jack Buck should be no. 1.”
####
Indeed.
But he is being penalized for making his career a long distance from salt water.
47. Dick Vitale
He’s a jerk.
Vin Scully was all right. I grew up listening to his Dodger broadcasts when there was no Giant game on, and until he abandoned Brooklyn. He was okay, but he wasn't particularly special to me. And while I think the single greatest sportcall of all time comes from baseball, baseball just isn't the place to go looking for a great sportscaster. The action is just too repetitive. In fact the best baseball broadcasters were really the one who shined during rain delays. For me, those were Mel Allen and Phil Rizzuto even though I really didn't like the Yankees. Once the Giants (and Dodgers) moved away I was sometimes forced to listen to a lot of out of town guys to listen to the Giants. By far the best was Pittsburgh's Bob Prince.
But for real broadcasting skill one has to go to football, basketball, and hockey. (Maybe soccer too - I haven't listened to enough. But the GOOOOOOOOAL guy was obviously pretty good because I would listen to him and I don't understand Spanish!) And things are very different now from the the way they used to be, especially on television with producers scripting everything.
Marty Glickman was not one of those scripted announcers. He is on the list and he was quite good.
There are two guys who are not on the list who should be. One is Les Keiter. After the Giants moved to San Francisco he did "recreations" of the Giant games for the New York radio audience. They were a work of art, because he had to make up nearly everything. (Sometimes I would listen to the opponent's broadcaster and Keiter at the same time so I know.) Keiter's call of the first Patterson-Johansson fight was also classic. The other wasn't a broadcaster per se, but he was a sports announcer and that is Fred Capossela who is certainly the greatest race caller I ever listened to. Again there was no invented phoniness as for example Dave Johnson's "And DOWN the stretch they come"
For my money though the has never been anyone to compare to Marv Albert. Now everyone tries to come up with some signature BS like, "The Yankees win! The Yankees win!" and I just find it so phony, but there was nothing phony about Albert's, "Yes!" or "Yes, and it counts!" (Or if there was he really fooled me.) The game I will always remember most that he did was an obscure Ranger game against the Maple Leafs. I was living in Hartford at the time, and visiting my parents in NYC with my wife to be. We were watching the game (on cable! at my parents - Cable was relatively rare then.) and I decided to start heading back to Hartford after the second period. I think the Rangers had a one goal lead. We got to my MG and I turned on the radio right away to the game. My non-sportsfan-girlfriend-wife to be had to put up with it. What I remember is the last eight minutes. Toronto must have had 15 shots including several in the last minute when they pulled their goalie. "Shot! Save!" or "Shot! And A SPECTACULAR save!" kept issuing from the radio. (Ed Giacomin was in goal for the Rangers.) Finally the buzzer sounded and my wife to be, who had been silent throughout, exhaled. THAT was sports broadcasting!
ML/NJ
When the film "Miracle" was made, Michaels reprised his role as the announcer. But despite multiple takes, the filmmakers couldn't get what they wanted for the final seconds of the USSR / USA game... so they faded Michaels' voice into his brilliant original call at the end.
Michaels also deserves kudos for seamlessly transitioning from a sport reporter into a superb news reporter when that earthquake hit SF a few years back at the start of the World Series broadcast.
I love Ernie Harwell ping
While I would agree that Cosell wasn't a great "sportscaster" (He rarely, if ever called games. He commented. And my favorite Cosell moment was really something Don Merideth said to Cosell. "That's tellin' 'em what they said in the truck Howard!)) I think saying that he knew next to nothing about sports is absurd. I was lucky enough to listen to a couple of seasons of his "Clubhouse Journal" pre and post game radio shows that he did with Big Ralph (Number 13) Branca for the Mets. Those guys were just great.
ML/NJ
I forgot all about Dizzy and Pee Wee. They were not even on the list, at least I didn’t see them. Dizzy may well have been the best ever. I loved his mangling of the language, but you always knew what he meant.
That was a very special moment for America- “Do you believe in miracles- Yes!!”
My favorite football announcer was a guy in the 60s and 70s. Bald heavy set. Few words>
Starr to Taylor, first down. That was it. No color commentary just a few words. We watched the game and didn't have every play replayed for us.
Now, we have three announcers and every play is replayed twice. I often turn the sound off.
I never cared for Gowdy when I was a dumb kid growing up in the mid-to-late 1970s. Then, a few years ago I started catching his football and baseball calls from my childhood era on the ESPN Classic Games network and then I realized he was an absolute gem.
Ray Scott
I was at the Angels/Redsox playoff in Anaheim in 86...never got to see the replay until last year on MLB.com. One of the greatest games ever....even Michaels thought so “for those that are just joining us....too bad”...a classic line in a classic game.
I would make the most overrated Red Barber, BTW. He was just terrible. I remember Phil Rizzuto rescuing him when Maris hit his 60th. Back then one guy would do TV, one would do radio, and the other guy got to rest. Rizzuto was resting and Barber had the radio mike when Maris hit his 60th. Barber's call went something like this: "The 2-2 pitch" (pause) "It's in there" (lots of crowd noise) Then after ten or so seconds Rizutto grabbed a microphone. "Holy cow, Red. Holy cow!" and then I think Barber spoke again, but it was Rizutto who projected the excitement of the moment.
ML/NJ
Ah, man , met Ray Scott when he was announcing for the Bucs in their first season or two.
Keiter's call of the first Patterson-Johansson fight was also classic.
I think it was their second fight - in 1960 - when Patterson became the first fighter to regain the heavyweight crown. I heard it. It was great. Of course I was rooting for Floyd too. ;)
Said hello to Hearn at LAX. Shook my hand and asked me if I was a fan and what I thought would happen the rest of the season. Enthusiastic guy.
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