Not gonna lie I struggled picking a topic for this week. Coming off the work of the last 3 weeks I couldn't figure out something light and easy that didn't take multiple days to write. I even had something written on Monday night and scrapped it. Anyway this week let's talk about everyone's favorite thing to complain about, sports announcers. I'm not going to bash anyone, even though I would love to write about how much John Smoltz sucks, no I'm going to focus on the good announcers. People who you make the game enjoyable. Let's get into it.
My favorite baseball duo is extremely biased, Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper television announcers for the San Francisco Giants. Kruk and Kuip are legends, they have amazing chemistry and are best friends. They've been together for 25 years calling Giants games, with Duane as the play by play guy and Mike with the color commentary. One of the coolest parts of this team is the fact they both played, you're hard pressed to find a former player that can do play by play as good as Kuip. They bring an angle to the game that not many broadcast partners bring, with Kuip being able to talk about hitting and defense, while Kruk can talk about pitching and getting hitters out. It's fantastic, and they have fun, which is also great. Mike has had health problems in recent years and doesn't travel as much, but they make any Giants game a delight. One last point, the guys were used the best MLB video game of my younger days, being the voices on MVP Baseball 2003, 2004, and 2005.
One of my favorite newer voices is Jason Benetti, who works for the White Sox television broadcast and ESPN college football and college basketball. Benetti is so good in the booth, he brings a different voice to games. He's very refreshing and I enjoy him very much. He has cerebal palsy which makes his story even better. Whenever Benetti does and Iowa game I get pretty excited, he isn't some dumb ass in the booth who caters to the color guy, no he asks questions and makes the game better for the viewers.
The torch of best college football color analyst has been passed to Kirk Herbstreit. Herby is outstanding at the desk and in the booth. His chops in the booth are rivaled by nobody, he has the uncanny ability to talk about the moment, but not dwell on it. He does a great job of being excited for whatever team just made a play. That could be taken as homerism, but he isn't a homer, he just talks about the latest big play and what that means for the team that made that play. His work at the desk with Lee Corso is unbelievable, I don't watch Gameday as much anymore but he keeps Corso engaged and energetic during the long broadcast. I enjoy the hell out Herby and hope he keeps this train rolling for many more years, not often the color analyst is the voice you remember from a game, but he stands out.
I don't watch the NFL anymore, but Tony Romo has definitely taken the top spot as the best color analyst in the NFL. When Tony does a huge game he really shines, he takes advantage of the moment and lets his knowledge shine. I'm not sure how many hours Tony puts in during the week but it must be a ton, he sees adjustments and calls audibles that the team is going to make. This may sound dumb but he might be the perfect defensive coordinator for someone, seems like he knows every play the offense is going to run before they do. He can see a formation and know exactly where the ball is going, just amazing stuff.
When it comes to football play by play I find there is nobody better than Mike Tirico. When Mike was at ESPN and did MNF with Gruden it was the best broadcast of every NFL week. They were perfect together, Tirico isn't afraid to call out mistakes and he played well with Gruden's crazy. Kind of sucks he's stuck on Notre Dame games now but I hope there is still time for him to grab the Sunday Night Football booth and be great in the NFL game again.
Lastly I have to talk about the best radio guy for baseball and it's obvious that Bob Eucker is the king. In the last couple years I started listening to baseball game on my phone, and Euck is the best guy to listen too, his stories are THE BEST. He is a homer, but all radio guys are homers, and he'll give credit when it's due. Did I mention the stories? He tells the best damn stories, last year I was listening to a game and Euck talked about one time a pitcher asked him how his stuff looked and Euck responded, "I don't know I haven't caught one yet." That story had me rolling. Eucker will always hold a special spot in guys hearts for his Harry Doyle "character" which wasn't really a character, just Eucker having fun.
Well that's all for this week, like I said something nice and light. Easy to digest. These are just a few announcers I enjoy, there are plenty more, including Kevin Harlan, Jon Miller, Dave Fleming, Adam Amin, Beth Mowins, Robert Ford, Gary Dolphin, Matt Lepay, Kenny Albert, and of course Joe Buck. Who do you enjoy listening to? Follow me on twitter @derekbredeson.
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