Marty Brennaman

His bloward son makes me nauseous, but I will say this: I'm not sure any play-by-play guy in major-league baseball today is as candid and honest about his own team as Marty is about the Reds.

Their starting pitcher is getting rocked tonight, and Marty just said he "stunk out the joint." Imagine a Cubs announcer saying something similar? They wouldn't be employed much longer (Steve Stone, anyone?).

This hardly isn't the first time Brennaman has ripped his own team a new one, when warranted. Maybe you can get away with this if you've been doing games for 32 years and are an icon in your community, but I don't hear too many other guys doing anything simiilar on the MLB airwaves.

 

Jack Buck could be critical of the Cardinals (he could kiss major ass, too). Harry Caray could be critical in his semicoherent way. Skip Caray is more snarky than critical.

 

All true, but is Joe Buck as critical of the Redbirds as his father could be? I'm not sure any of the newer breed is. That might be because they don't feel comfortable or secure enough in their jobs to do so, but you would think Buck wouldn't have to worry about that.

 

Joe Buck has his status as the voice of Fox Sports to worry about. And he just seems to prefer delivery over substance. Not that a smooth delivery isn't comforting or consistent, but it is a tradeoff.

 

Buck still does a fair amount of Cardinals games. Don't know how many, but more than just a few.

Shannon is barely able to string together two sentences that make sense, let alone be critical when necessary.

 

Mike Shannon is woodwork. But he has improved a helluva lot since he started in 1972. He was the worst announcer ever back then.

 

Marty puts the fans ahead of the team, period. Catch him during a rain delay when he's interviewing the general manager. He's not afraid to ask the tough questions. I give him a lot of credit.

 

He didn't have too many complimentary things to say about Jim Bowden the other night, speaking of GMs.

 

Speaking of Shannon-isms, enjoy this:

http://www.joesportsfan.com/Shannon.html

I will give him this, though: He runs a hell of a restaurant.

 

On the radio, Gary Cohen, when warranted, was always critical of the Mets. Being out of the area, I haven't heard him on SNY, but the reports I've gotten are that he's been declawed there. It's interesting, but it seems to me that Howie Rose isn't as critical working with McCarthy than he was with Gary (it could just be that the Mets are a better team this year, on both Cohen and Rose).

 

Funny this thread came up today. I was listening to the Braves radio broadcast and Joe Simpson came pretty close to lighting up Horacio Ramirez. Because of the sentiments already expressed here, I couldn't believe what I'd heard. But it was refreshing. Not as blunt as Brennaman Sr., but you just don't hear much of that sort of thing.

add -- The tidbit was that Ramirez had admitted to being hyped up for his start against the Mets over the weekend, during which he was abused for seven runs or something. Simpson said, "You know, a guy with his experience level, you don't get to have that excuse. " Be interesting to see if Simpson hears anything from above.

And while I'm on the subject of the Braves, Skip Caray is pretty bad, but I purely cannot stand Chip.

 

Brennaman had the great light-up of Griffey a few years ago:

"I was here before you arrived, and I'll be here after you're gone" Perhaps I'm paraphrasing.....