RIP Jim Price

[UPChip]

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/...-announcer-jim-price-dies-age-81/70552984007/

This one might just be for me and @maumann but Price, who was the backup catcher on the 1968 Tigers, was the radio color analyst in Detroit since the mid-1990s. Folksy without being dumb (every location in Michigan was declared a "Nice area!" on the air) and occasionally bad at names (He never got Nick Castellanos' name right ever), a beloved part of Tigers broadcasts for decades. I'm guessing that Dan Dickerson will pay a fitting tribute during tonight's game.

 

[Starman]

Yep. He's been an easy voice on the broadcasts for some years ago. Had a bit of old fuddy-duddy about him, but not too bad. He tried to keep up with some of the new metrics stuff. Of course he talked a lot about the '68 team -- why wouldn't he?
I think Lolich, McLain and Willie Horton are the last ones left from '68, and Lolich and Horton are pretty mobility limited. McLain doesn't go out in public much for very good reasons. John Hiller I think is also still around.
Time waits for no one.

 

[jr/shotglass]

The pride of Hershey (after chocolate, of course).

RIP.

 

[WolvEagle]

I was never a big fan of Price as a color guy - a little too folksy for me. But, he was a great ambassador for the Tigers - he loved the organization and he will be missed.

Another '68 Tiger gone. Mickey Stanley, Don Wert and **** Tracewski also are still around. I saw Mickey Lolich at a book signing not long before COVID - he was walking with a cane and lost a lot of weight.

I was too young to remember the '68 Tigers, but I remember when the core of that team won the AL East in '72 before losing to Oakland in the playoffs (and that was a wild series). It was really the last gasp for that group, which was broken up over the next few seasons.

As a kid, I was in a checkout line at a hardware store and asked my parents why guys like Mickey Lolich, Willie Horton and Bill Freehan didn't have batteries named after them when Al Kaline did.

 

[Ookpik]

RIP.

 

[UPChip]

Yep. He's been an easy voice on the broadcasts for some years ago. Had a bit of old fuddy-duddy about him, but not too bad. He tried to keep up with some of the new metrics stuff. Of course he talked a lot about the '68 team -- why wouldn't he?
I think Lolich, McLain and Willie Horton are the last ones left from '68, and Lolich and Horton are pretty mobility limited. McLain doesn't go out in public much for very good reasons. John Hiller I think is also still around.
Time waits for no one.

I believe Hiller still lives out in the boonies in the western U.P. After he had a bad heart attack in the winter of 1971, he worked his way back to fitness at my local YMCA.

 

[maumann]

Hope he got a buggywhip when he reached heaven, or at least found late movement in his arsenal, which of course included a yellowhammer.

Being Bill Freehan's backup certainly paid off handsomely as Price was way more well-known for his radio career than his on-field performance. He went 0-for-2 in two pinch-hit appearances against the Cardinals in the 1968 Series. His odd little sayings did get grating as the years passed, especially when he seemed to fall in love with saying them instead of providing actual analysis and commentary, but he was a loyal employee and loved his job.

I will say listening to Andy Dirks, Cameron Maybin or Bobby Scales this season has been way more enlightening. But Jimmy was an institution.

RIP, Mr. Price. Hope heaven is a nice area.

 

[maumann]

I believe Hiller still lives out in the boonies in the western U.P. After he had a bad heart attack in the winter of 1971, he worked his way back to fitness at my local YMCA.

World Series shortstop Mickey Stanley is also alive.

McLain was signing autographs for some book during the Opening Day weekend at Tropicana Field. He looked like death warmed over.

 

[LanceyHoward]

R.I.P. Mr. Price

But I am curious about something. Most of the MLB radio broadcasts I have listened to (not many recently) have had two professional announcers. They swap off innings but rarely speak when their partner is working. The announcer not calling play-by-play will say about a sentence a half inning. Why is only one announcer allowed to talk? Is it the egos involved of the announcers. Tradition from the days when the number one announcer on an MLB broadcast was considered a god-like figure?

Generally when an ex-athlete is involved it becomes more conversational and more interesting as long as the ex-jock does not try play-by-play for a couple of innings, which can be painful.

 

[LanceyHoward]

Yep. He's been an easy voice on the broadcasts for some years ago. Had a bit of old fuddy-duddy about him, but not too bad. He tried to keep up with some of the new metrics stuff. Of course he talked a lot about the '68 team -- why wouldn't he?
I think Lolich, McLain and Willie Horton are the last ones left from '68, and Lolich and Horton are pretty mobility limited. McLain doesn't go out in public much for very good reasons. John Hiller I think is also still around.
Time waits for no one.

I find it interesting that the three guys on that team that were considered tubby are still around. Maybe there is hope for me.

 

[WolvEagle]

I find it interesting that the three guys on that team that were considered tubby are still around. Maybe there is hope for me.

Watch Denny McLain, a horse's ass if there ever was one, be the last surviving '68 Tiger ...

 

[LanceyHoward]

Watch Denny McLain, a horse's ass if there ever was one, be the last surviving '68 Tiger ...

Applying the term horse's ass to McLain is too kind. McLain should always be described with a profanity.

 

[Liut]

R.I.P. Mr. Price

But I am curious about something. Most of the MLB radio broadcasts I have listened to (not many recently) have had two professional announcers. They swap off innings but rarely speak when their partner is working. The announcer not calling play-by-play will say about a sentence a half inning. Why is only one announcer allowed to talk? Is it the egos involved of the announcers. Tradition from the days when the number one announcer on an MLB broadcast was considered a god-like figure?

Generally when an ex-athlete is involved it becomes more conversational and more interesting as long as the ex-jock does not try play-by-play for a couple of innings, which can be painful.

What made Buck and Shannon in St. Louis so awesome back in the day was the by-play between them. Rain delay? No problem. Shannon would grab an ex-player, fellow broadcaster, a scout and they'd shoot the ****. It was terrific radio.
That tradition carries on with Rooney and Horton, but I'm not listening to that horse-**** team's games.

 

[MTM]

R.I.P. Mr. Price

But I am curious about something. Most of the MLB radio broadcasts I have listened to (not many recently) have had two professional announcers. They swap off innings but rarely speak when their partner is working. The announcer not calling play-by-play will say about a sentence a half inning. Why is only one announcer allowed to talk? Is it the egos involved of the announcers. Tradition from the days when the number one announcer on an MLB broadcast was considered a god-like figure?

Generally when an ex-athlete is involved it becomes more conversational and more interesting as long as the ex-jock does not try play-by-play for a couple of innings, which can be painful.

Both LA teams have a play-by-play guy do all nine innings on radio with a former player as commentator and a lot of back and forth. Rick Monday, the Dodgers commentator with either Charley Steiner or Tim Neverett, is actually pretty good at play by play, as he did a lot in the past. Steiner isn't great at calling games, but he's a fun listen with Monday.
The Angels Terry Smith and Mark Langston call all games, home and road, from Anaheim.
I grew up with the Dodgers having two announcers per game who only worked solo. This season on TV, there have been three PBP guys and five commentators, working in every possible combination.

 

[micropolitan guy]

The pitch clock has made it much harder for the analyst to get in his/her 2 cents worth, but it's greatly reduced the annoying banter about where they went out to eat last night, etc.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Hopefully when they found him he wasn't just lying there like the house by the side of the road.

Too early?

 

[Starman]

I think that was Ernie's line.

 

[MTM]

Joe Davis uses that line on Dodgers games and I wondered where it came from. He grew up in Michigan, so now it makes sense.

 

[maumann]

My favorite Ernie-ism was "and a fan from Novi/Inkster/Mount Clemens/Livonia just caught that foul ball" like he knew where every single person in the stands lived. For an aspiring play by play guy, I couldn't fathom keeping up with the scorebook AND who was leaving to get a hot dog or use the restroom.

 

[dixiehack]

My favorite Ernie-ism was "and a fan from Novi/Inkster/Mount Clemens/Livonia just caught that foul ball" like he knew where every single person in the stands lived. For an aspiring play by play guy, I couldn't fathom keeping up with the scorebook AND who was leaving to get a hot dog or use the restroom.

Skip Caray did the same bit on Braves games.