Announcers Who Belong on National Television

My nomination.

Mike Gorman of the Celtics. He should be on national NBA broadcasts. He interjects a knowledge of the game into his play by play that few others can match.

 

It should be noted Gorman was NBC's announcer for team handball in London. Did his usual excellent job. You'd have thought he'd been calling the sport for more than a decade. So he's at least on network radar.

 

I've always thought the Braves' Don Sutton could have/should have had a national platform. He gets hung up on small-ball cliches sometimes when talking about hitting, but he's as insightful about the art of pitching as anyone I've ever listened to.

 

Gorman is quite enjoyable, and he earns extra points for having to deal with his broadcast partner every game.

 

john sterling/suzyn waldman.

n.y. should share 'em. let the entire television audience see and hear what it's been missing. imagine the plethora of new home run calls johhny could create? ???

 

Certainly not me after getting a call from the 'pen 90 minutes before game time Sunday to sub for the colour guy on the local community cable station's broadcast of the local junior team's game.

Luckily I didn't have enough time to get too rattled and since I worked for the team on the hockey ops side for so many years I was familiar with all the players on both sides and the teams' long rivalry. The crew were all volunteers but they were all pros and the PBP guy - a veteran of local sports telecasts - made me look a whole lot better than I really was. Never thought a gig like that was easy but it gave me a whole new appreciation for how hard it is and how easy the best ones make it look.

 

XM subscribers already suffer with that malady.

 

I've always enjoyed Greg Papa, great basketball announcer can and has done it all - Kevin Calabro out of Seattle is exceptional as well.
I've always figured it was a lifestyle choice - there are very few "national" announcers that don't have a local gig as well.

 

Gorman did some work for ESPN in the early '90s on Big Monday.

For years he only did the Celtics home games, until the cable outlet picked up the road games. His wife was involved with the Big East's TV operations ... I'm thinking it was more of a lifestyle thing than anything else.

 

I love Mark Boyle, radio guy for the Pacers, but I imagine the networks wouldn't like his sarcastic edge as much as I do.

 

Don Sutton used to do some NBC when he was playing. As for John Sterling, no way and no how. That guy did the Hawks and Braves in the 80s and he was a goofball. Don't punish the rest of the country as he does to the Yankee fans.

 

John Sterling serves one valuable purpose. Any time someone from New York starts talking about how sports fans there are more sophisticated than the rest of us I point out Sterling has been employed in NYC for more than 20 years.