Announcers Who Belong on National Television

I think Mike and (particularly) the Mad Dog already serve(d) that purpose.

 

Tom Hamilton with the Indians, also does Big Ten Network basketball. Very informed, polished, professional.

 

Done that before my man, providing analysis on both television and radio. Thank Tebow I was able to insist on no booth shots. bag:

I suck at it but it's a lot of fun. I've known all the PbP men I've worked with very well, and they made it quite easy for me to just ramble when called upon.

 

I had no allegiances to New York teams when I moved up this way, but Cohen/Darling/Hernandez turned me into a Mets fan. Kevin Burkhardt (sp?) has a really bright future too. The Mets 'sideline' reporter. This one doesn't really count since Darling does games on TBS. Outside of Vin Scully and Costas, these guys are the best in the biz when it comes to baseball.

 

I had a semi-regular colour gig for about a year now almost a decade ago calling junior hockey. Loved every minute of it, but I moved away to a job further up the food chain and haven't had much of an opportunity at it since. PbP is crazy though, don't think I could do it, too many concussions where rapidly matching names with numbers from memory on the fly like that with everything else mixed in I am sure would have me tripping up far too much.

It's a tough job to do well, even more difficult to have more than just your mom think you sounded great.

Not sure who I would add to the list.

Most of the radio or local cable guys are homers and many are tied to the team, some of them are great, but should never be near a national broadcast. My favourite growing up was the Edmonton Oilers PbP guy Rod Phillips, biggest homer there ever was -- called for an investigation into the referees every other game -- but never minced words when the Oilers were playing poorly, let them have it just as good. Still never did anything beyond Edmonton radio and never should have either. Others never advance beyond regional broadcasts for a very good reason, they just aren't that good. I'm sure there's a few out there that are being overlooked, but with the amount of money that is pumped into the major sports broadcasts, the vast majority of the quality established vets have been rooted out by the networks already. Those that have been overlooked, maybe they don't want the national spotlight, or maybe they pissed in someone's cornflakes, or maybe they're still legitimately waiting on the call.