Evaluating Top Announcers

[dogberry]

I'm not a big baseball fan, but I did like listening to Mark Holtz.

 

[Yeagermeister]

The only announcer I will turn off is Dick Vitale.

 

[Manster68]

The all-time greatest playcaller - whether it be football, baseball, olympics, or the American Sportsman, is Curt Gowdy!

Absolutely fabulous!

There really is not a good Football playcaller today (unless you want to pull Keith Jackson out of the old folks home).

Madden will go down as the greatest color analysts ever. However, I believe that Daryl Johnston is pretty darn good too.

A whole lot better than Aikman.

There have been many great baseball playcallers over the past century. Most teams have had a legendary playcaller in their history.

Yankees - Mel Allen and Phil Rizzuto
Red Sox - Ken Coleman
Tigers - (uh oh, brain lapse)
Mariners - Dave Neihaus

From ESPN - John Miller - as much as I despise ESPN, they do have the best of the National broadcasters.

Johnny Most and Chick Hearn dominated the NBA airways like none other have.

 

[J-DOG]

I watch almost all sports(soccer and neckcar excluded) and I have noticed that basketball-both college and pro, have the best announcers of any sport by far.
College basketball
Vitale
Rafferty
Bilas
Packer
One guy who I think is underrated is that big heavy-set coach(his name escapes me at the moment) who coached Utah for years. That guy really makes some good points during the games listening to him you can see why he was so successful as a basketball coach.
Pro basketball
Hubie Brown-somebody mentioned him earlier... he is in my mind the best color commentator on tv for any sport. He's enthusiastic, very knowledgable and he has a great sense of humor. I get fired up just listening to that guy talk about the game.
Bill Walton-reminds me of Vitale in that if you do not like him personally then will not like his broadcasts. Walton tends to exaggerrate at times but I like his sense of humor so I like his broadcasts.
Brent Musberger-he's good in either basketball or college football. Been around a longtime too.
NFL Football-
Aikman and Buck-these guys are the best in my opinion. Aikman has really improved since he first started and he very fair and suprisingly not biased towards the Cowboys..I know that ruffles the feathers of some Cowboy fans but I give the guy credit for that.
Simms and Nance-I like Simms a lot better than when he played. Makes great points and unlike Theesman you can't predict his every thought.
Mike Tirico-This guy is the only thing worth salvaging on that Monday night crew. Also a great basketball play by play announcer.
Best Football announcer ever though...The Cowboy Curt Gowdy. What a voice and for years listening to him announce AFC games made me tune in. None better in my opinion.

 

[big dog cowboy]

• Verne Lundquist

I could listen to him annouce some guy mowing his lawn.

 

[theebs]

well thought I would chime in here.

The announcers of today are very different from the past, and as other posters have said they are always on the attack for some reason.

Todays announcers I enjoy in all of sports are

Madden/Michaels==It just seems like football with both of their voices.
Dierdorf/gumbel==outstanding, smart, to the point and NO SIDELINE REPORTERS with them.

Simms/nantz. I just like the way simms calls games. Many dont I do.

I enjoy Dick enberg immensely. He is outstanding. He is part of that crew like madden and summerall who introduced me to football. Enberg/trumpy and actually I forgot the other guy...cant believe I forgot...anyway they were fantastic. I will never forget watching "The Drive" in 86. The announcers were as good as the football.

Since I just turned 30 those crews and then the mnf crew of michaels/deirdorf and gifford taught me the nfl and made me love it the way I do today. I absolutely loved monday night football. Some of the best stuff ever. The 90 superbowl was amazing and that crew helped make it great.

I enjoyed the now retired Jim Kaat. When he came along to MSG and started doing yankees game it was terrific. He really is the best baseball analyst I have ever heard.

Brad Sham is my favorite as many know here, I love the guy, I record all the cowboys game audio and listen to them when I am doing things around the house or my garage...etc.....I just love listening to brad sham. He makes me really love the game, much like the announcers I grew up listening to did.

which leads me to...

The best announcing team I have ever listened to were
Phill "Scooter" Rizzuto and Bill White. I can remember never missing a yankees game on wpix for about 10 years as a kid with these guys. There was something so special about yankees baseball on wpix 11 with rizzuto and bill white. Brad Sham makes me feel that way about the cowboys. I can remember exactly how i felt and what it sounds like in my head right now when Dan Pasqua would hit a big home run off the bon ton sign in right field, or mattingly would neatly start a double play on a hard hit ball to his right. Those guys just are my whole childhood. Scooter was so unique.

John madden and Pat summerall. These guys are like childhood friends along with scooter and white. I just cant imagine growing up without them calling every big game. It was perfect harmony listening to them call games. God I miss those days.

Vin Scully and Joe garagiola on the saturday game of the week on nbc. back when they would actually show the best game of the week and not your local team on a different station like now. Vin Scully is amazing.

Jack Buck and Hank Stram calling playoff and super bowl games on westwood one radio. I have the cowboys superbowls of 92 and 93 on 5 audio cassettes that I recorded the day of the game. I need to get them on my computer in mp3 soon so I can share some of the game with everyone. These two guys like madden and summerall were amazing. Simply amazing.

nowadays I enjoy Tom grieve on the rangers tv broadcast and Eric Nadel on the rangers radio network is outstanding. He is so good in fact there are many ranger games where I go outside to do stuff just so I force myself to listen to the game on the radio. He is a hidden jewel in mlb. He really is terrific, the rangers are lucky to have him. He knows his stuff.

anyway I enjoy aikman sometimes and moose all the time. I really liked matt millen in the booth too.

 

[Achozen]

In his prime, yes. He was the perfect foil for the goofy - but knowledgeable -- Madden. Their rapport will likely never be matched.

However, in Summerall's last 5 years or so he became increasingly difficult to understand and often seemed confused. I hate to say that because for me, he will always be the voice I associate with football. It was depressing to listen to him in those years.

I agree but, I still miss Pat doing the Cowboy games.