Favorite announcers....

I tried to never miss Healy.

I went to college with the son of the guy who would fill in when Healy was off. His name was Dave McClelland, and he was a racing announcer.

Dave came to the college one day and his son introduced me as "the guy who turns off the radio when you come on for Healy."

 

I get giddy every time I see the Dodgers are the MLB.tv free game of the day, because I can listen to Vin Scully for a couple of hours. Even if he's lost a little bit of his fastball, he's still the best out there.

Radio-wise, the Cubs' Pat Hughes is incredibly good. Now that he's paired with a solid color guy in Keith Moreland (instead of having to carry Ron Santo), he's even better. Very professional, very excitable, definitely a big influence in my own announcing. He's the voice of summer vacation every year for me, and makes listening to an awful Cubs team bearable (and fun).

National TV: Mike Emrick is tremendous. I catch a lot of hockey radio broadcasts, and none really stand out, but I've enjoyed listening to Kenny Albert do the Rangers the last few weeks during the playoffs. I listen to him a lot, but the Bruins' Dave Goucher is very solid and very professional, and does a great job of using inflection to describe the play (which isn't easy).

 

Good call on both of those guys. Grew up listening to both.

Foley is my all-time favorite hockey announcer. I caught Kelly just a bit before he died, but loved his work.

I'll say I haven't been impressed by Bob Cole (compared to Emrick & NBC's Dave Strader, our two primary national guys in the U.S.). He seems to homerrific when it comes to the Leafs (or in last year's SCF, the Canucks), but maybe he's just lost a little bit from his prime. Heck, Cherry is a big-time Leafs/Bruins homer, too, but I watch him religiously.

 

Dan Kelly was a great on hockey, I can still hear his call of Lemieux's goal in the final game of the 1987 Canada Cup.

Always liked Hughson, going back to his days doing jays games with Buck Martinez. Jays fans were spoiled in those days: Hughson's replacement Dan Shulman. Martinez is as bad at PBP as he was at managing and while colour guy Pat Tabler is marginally better that ain't saying much. Jays' radio team of Jerry Howarth and Alan Ashby is outstanding.

Joe Bowen has been doing Leaf games on TV and radio for years and even though he is a huge homer I still love listening to him, he usually has some good stories - especially when he was working with Harry Neale, one of the very best colour guys in any sport - and calls a hockey fight better than any man alive.

 

Dan Shulman is really good. I was covering a nothing Villanova-Va. Tech hoops game a decade ago that he was working with Doris Burke. Saw the replay the next day and he put the same energy into it that he does now on big NBA or MLB games. And he just doesn't miss stuff.