I guess an even better question for you Scrap, is what do you think makes a good sports talk show? lol :hihi: My response is anything without Blake Andrews or Buddy Songy:hihi: :thumb: hahahaha...any other thoughts?:shock:
Well, Joe, umm no need to knock anyone on here personally. But, I appreciate your support of the show though. But, speaking of good announcers, we did have Bob Carpenter on today and he was def a quality interview. Good guy to talk to.
My biggest pet peeve is these dope announcers CONSTANTLY second guessing the decision making of the players during the game. Sure, there are mistakes made, but there are just as many things are decided on a given play (e.g. shoot or pass) that only the player can really judge. There's no way to be completely consistent, I know, but to hear them complaining about a guy shooting when he misses, but fawning over him when he makes it, just makes no sense. And yea, I'm thinking of the Louisville game.
I've been broadcasting sports now for 10+ years and I agree with many of the points you guys are making. One thing my parents, who are my harshest critics, are always reiterating to me is to give the score early and often. I subscribe to the Red Barber school of giving the score as frequently as possible. In football, giving down and distance as well as time on nearly every play is very important, then giving the school as often as possible follows closely behind. Baseball - you have to make a conscious effort to do it during the action and not just at the end of the half inning. Basketball - IMO is the easiest to give the score and should be done on almost every basket. Some of my favorite radio broadcasters are or were: Vin Scully (eventhough I'm a SF Giants fan, Vin is the quentessential professional), Jack Buck (baseball legend, but was also a great football announcer), Milo Hamilton (just a great delivery with a great voice), Jim Henderson (I think he does an outstanding job with Saints broadcasts and along with Hokie are just fun to listen to. Jim hasn't missed a beat despite transitions through so many color guys). Dave Nitz (LA Tech & Shreveport Sports play-by-play man. Very professional - clean, crisp, nearly flawless broadcasts) Now there is a big difference between radio broadcasting and television announcing. My favorite TV announcers are Bob Costas and Al Michaels. (Costas' intelligence and knowledge is just incredible and Michaels is a fabulous TV play-by-play announcer). Gary Thorne and Bill Clement are IMO the best duo in any sport. (You may not know much about hockey, but don't need to with these guys). John Miller (there's a reason he works for the Giants and ESPN. Miller and Joe Morgan are one of the best baseball tandems around). Joe Buck (he's becoming as good on TV as his dad was on radio). Dick Enberg (always gives you a good call and doesn't try to be bigger than the game no matter what the sport). I also try to listen to as many different broadcasts as possible to see what I can do better, and like I said before share many of thoughts you guys do. But remember that this subject is like talking about food, everybody has their favorites and they're all different.
The only problem I had with Billy Packer and Jim Nantz with the Spark's "was his foot on the line or not" three pointer was they failed to mention the camera angle. Specifically, the best footage of that shot came from a camera positioned at or near mid court, meaning we were seeing Spark's foot placement from an angle. I suspect if, by chance, CBS had a camera positioned in line with the top of the 3 point arch, Spark's foot would have appeared to be clearly behind the line. It's kind of like trying to determine if the plane of the goal line in football was crossed using only a camera positioned at the 15 yard line looking in at the end zone.
My biggest pet peeve is the way all announcers of college BBall this season that I have heard, with the exception of Jay Bilas, love the ACC - you would think they're on the payola for Duke and UNC - and I don't just mean Vitale (I live for PUKE). The other night during the UNC game I actually turned the sound down because Sean McDonough was starting to go gaga - which really surprised me. Also, the color commentator always seems to laud the higher seed team - are they actually told to do this? Go LSU Women - BEAT PUKE tonight!
Billy Packer and his man-love for all things Coach K and Duke. Dickie V and his over caffienated self.
