OT local baseball TV

[Seton75]

During the last Subway series I turned on SNY and the game wasnt on, so figuring it was only on the NYY station, I watched about 6 innings of Michael Kay before I got smart enough to try Channel 11. Maybe cause I am used to them, maybe cause of my feelings for Gary C cause he is our guy, or maybe cause they are just far better, but I was shocked at how, for me at least, inferior the Kay broadcast was. Talking to an old friend the other day (I was absolutely sick as a dog the day of the IW BET finals heroics - this guy had bought me a ticket, and I said I was too sick to go, up there on my worst decisions...I was sick as hell, but I could stil walk...) he is a huge NYY fan, and agreed about Kay vs Cohen.

Do you Yankee guys agree?

Rooting for Aaron the break the record btw. And wondering what NL team breaks this Dodger's heart...my money is on Atlanta again though the Mets and St L scare me too. Even Phillie...

 

[radecicco]

The Yankee booth compared to Cohen & company is not only boring but lacking in baseball insight. Nobody tops Keith and Ron.

 

[The Crows Nest]

The Yankee booth compared to Cohen & company is not only boring but lacking in baseball insight. Nobody tops Keith and Ron.

Not sure I agree, as I think David Cone,, especially when Paul O'Neill is on the broadcast, may be the best of them all.

But...the Mets crew is certainly VERY good, led by our SHU man himself...

 

[dehere23]

Gary, Keith and Ron are the best. Like most all home team announcers GC has the homer-streak in him, but Keith more than balances that out.

I think Kay with the right combination is solid, especially if Cone is there. But prefer the Mets team for sure.

 

[hinson32]

During the last Subway series I turned on SNY and the game wasnt on, so figuring it was only on the NYY station, I watched about 6 innings of Michael Kay before I got smart enough to try Channel 11. Maybe cause I am used to them, maybe cause of my feelings for Gary C cause he is our guy, or maybe cause they are just far better, but I was shocked at how, for me at least, inferior the Kay broadcast was. Talking to an old friend the other day (I was absolutely sick as a dog the day of the IW BET finals heroics - this guy had bought me a ticket, and I said I was too sick to go, up there on my worst decisions...I was sick as hell, but I could stil walk...) he is a huge NYY fan, and agreed about Kay vs Cohen.

Do you Yankee guys agree?

Rooting for Aaron the break the record btw. And wondering what NL team breaks this Dodger's heart...my money is on Atlanta again though the Mets and St L scare me too. Even Phillie...

As a Reds fan, I am 100% neutral in this. The Mets announcers are WAY better than the Yankees. Not even close.

 

[HallGuy23]

I never really like Kay. Far too much schtick for me. And lately it’s been incredibly obvious he doesn’t care much for the job, he’s constantly on vacation or treating the game broadcast to bring up talking points that are more suited for his radio show. It’s clear he wants the Sunday night ESPN pbp job so he only has to work once a week and travel on weekends. He’s also older than you may think.

but to be fair, Kay has also gone from Bobby Murcer to Jim Kaat and Ken Singleton to Carlos Beltran and Cameron Maybin…..

 

[shu09]

Kay is a homer with an ego through the roof. Not a great broadcaster either, better suited for radio where he started. I like O'Neill and Cone though.

Mets broadcasts are far better and I don't even like the Mets. They obviously want the team to do well, but far less homerism than a Yankee broadcast. Great chemistry too.

 

[Seton75]

Not sure I agree, as I think David Cone,, especially when Paul O'Neill is on the broadcast, may be the best of them all.

But...the Mets crew is certainly VERY good, led by our SHU man himself...

Cone might give the smartest baseball explanations, but is kind of dull imo. But this is from a short sample. After how he used to behave in the Mets bullpen, expected him to be more of a loose cannon...lol.

I can stil remember listening to Mel Allen as a kid. How about that! And I think Red Barber joined him too for a while.

And was shocked that on the replay special of the 9/11 Mets/Piazza game they did on MLB last night, Bob Murphy was still on the air. I tend to remember Kiner being the last of the original guys. Didnt remember Murph still around that long.

So many tough listens around the country if you watch Quick Pitch. Yet I still say the PBP guy from the home team should join the network guys in the booth for the playoffs and WS ...it wasnt broke...

 

[TheHall87]

As a Met fan I admit I am biased but Gary, Ron & Keith are far superior IMO and for that matter on the radio side Howie Rose and Wayne Randazzo are quite good. Part of the charm is Gary and Howie are long-time Met fans and have amazing recall over events that happened going back to the original Mets of 1962. While they are homers to a degree, they will be critical at times. If you want to hear homers, listen to other team's broadcasts and pick out how many times "we" gets used.

Seton Hall is lucky to have Gary Cohen working basketball games. Consider that SJU has John Minko and RU Jerry Recco (who I like but isn't in Gary's league).

It's probable the Mets TV booth features the only announcing team with two Ivy Leaguers. Cohen is a Columbia grad and Ron Darling attended Yale.

Also, Ralph Kiner was the last of the Mets' original trio of broadcasters to work with them. Although, his appearances were severely limited his last several years, Kiner still did occasional games through 2013 and passed away in February 2014.

Bob Murphy retired after the 2003 season. Former WFAN programmer Mark Chernoff once told me and a few friends the story of how he was the one who had to let Murph know that he wasn't going to be retained beyond that final season. He was terrible late in his career as his years long smoking habit was causing audible issues on air. Murph passed away during the 2004 season.

 

[walshtrips]

Somewhat off subject. The worst TV sports announcer is Bill Walton in my opinion, I cannot watch a college game game when he's doing commentary. The Mets and Yankees teams are head and shoulders above Walton.

 

[hinson32]

Somewhat off subject. The worst TV sports announcer is Bill Walton in my opinion, I cannot watch a college game game when he's doing commentary. The Mets and Yankees teams are head and shoulders above Walton.

To each his own I guess. I love Walton. I understand he is being a clown, but I find him interesting I do not really care who wins the Oregon St-Arizona game, so find him funny.

 

[MBF72]

Cone is good but can't hold a candle to Darling. One of the Yankees' problems is the ever rotating cast of characters in the booth. I don't even recognize some of them. Always liked Beltran as a player but don't get the Yankees employing him after his role in the Astro's World Series* run in '17.

 

[Seton75]

Somewhat off subject. The worst TV sports announcer is Bill Walton in my opinion, I cannot watch a college game game when he's doing commentary. The Mets and Yankees teams are head and shoulders above Walton.

Bill is my generation. I get him, I got high, I mean played hoops with lots of guys like him in the old days...lol

But if he aggravates, I get that too...

 

[TheHall87]

Somewhat off subject. The worst TV sports announcer is Bill Walton in my opinion, I cannot watch a college game game when he's doing commentary. The Mets and Yankees teams are head and shoulders above Walton.

At one time Walton was a very good analyst -- and still can be at times.

Unfortunately, his analysis, much like Vitale's, has devolved into schtick. It's become about how many times he can work his various catchphrases and references into a broadcast.

That's fine if that's what you like. If you don't, there's the mute button.

 

[radecicco]

PAC 12 Conference of Champions. What’s Bill going to say now.

 

[MBF72]

Walton makes Vitale seem as if he is the most focused color guy in the history of television.

 

[lloyde dobler]

As a Met fan I admit I am biased but Gary, Ron & Keith are far superior IMO and for that matter on the radio side Howie Rose and Wayne Randazzo are quite good. Part of the charm is Gary and Howie are long-time Met fans and have amazing recall over events that happened going back to the original Mets of 1962. While they are homers to a degree, they will be critical at times. If you want to hear homers, listen to other team's broadcasts and pick out how many times "we" gets used.

Seton Hall is lucky to have Gary Cohen working basketball games. Consider that SJU has John Minko and RU Jerry Recco (who I like but isn't in Gary's league).

It's probable the Mets TV booth features the only announcing team with two Ivy Leaguers. Cohen is a Columbia grad and Ron Darling attended Yale.

Also, Ralph Kiner was the last of the Mets' original trio of broadcasters to work with them. Although, his appearances were severely limited his last several years, Kiner still did occasional games through 2013 and passed away in February 2014.

Bob Murphy retired after the 2003 season. Former WFAN programmer Mark Chernoff once told me and a few friends the story of how he was the one who had to let Murph know that he wasn't going to be retained beyond that final season. He was terrible late in his career as his years long smoking habit was causing audible issues on air. Murph passed away during the 2004 season.

Murph also had a lot of vision trouble at the end

 

[SHUHoopsFan]

Not local. I don’t think there’s a better announcer in the sport than Smoltz. Listening to him talk baseball is as good as it gets. He’s better than anyone the Mets or Yankees have in the booth.

 

[lloyde dobler]

Not local. I don’t think there’s a better announcer in the sport than Smoltz. Listening to him talk baseball is as good as it gets. He’s better than anyone the Mets or Yankees have in the booth.

But he doesn’t stop…. Talks way too much.
Paralysis by analysis, or whatever that expression is.

 

[SHUHoopsFan]

But he doesn’t stop…. Talks way too much.
Paralysis by analysis, or whatever that expression is.

My opinion is he doesn’t talk enough. Always been a fan of letting the smartest guy in the booth do most of the talking. He’s extremely bright about the game and basically gives you the feel of what players are talking about in the dugout, what they’re seeing out of the pitchers hand, or what coaches are likely going to be correcting with mechanics. The guy really explains the science of the game. Any young kid who wants to be better or any parent who wants to teach their kid to be better can learn a ton from Smoltz on the air.

 

[HallLine69]

Not local. I don’t think there’s a better announcer in the sport than Smoltz. Listening to him talk baseball is as good as it gets. He’s better than anyone the Mets or Yankees have in the booth.

ugh....he's far too smug for me

 

[metalpirate07]

As a Met fan I admit I am biased but Gary, Ron & Keith are far superior IMO and for that matter on the radio side Howie Rose and Wayne Randazzo are quite good. Part of the charm is Gary and Howie are long-time Met fans and have amazing recall over events that happened going back to the original Mets of 1962. While they are homers to a degree, they will be critical at times. If you want to hear homers, listen to other team's broadcasts and pick out how many times "we" gets used.

Seton Hall is lucky to have Gary Cohen working basketball games. Consider that SJU has John Minko and RU Jerry Recco (who I like but isn't in Gary's league).

It's probable the Mets TV booth features the only announcing team with two Ivy Leaguers. Cohen is a Columbia grad and Ron Darling attended Yale.

Also, Ralph Kiner was the last of the Mets' original trio of broadcasters to work with them. Although, his appearances were severely limited his last several years, Kiner still did occasional games through 2013 and passed away in February 2014.

Bob Murphy retired after the 2003 season. Former WFAN programmer Mark Chernoff once told me and a few friends the story of how he was the one who had to let Murph know that he wasn't going to be retained beyond that final season. He was terrible late in his career as his years long smoking habit was causing audible issues on air. Murph passed away during the 2004 season.

I double checked these dates too before I got to this post because I distinctly remember driving in my dad’s Crown Victoria (I called it the Land Yacht) as a newly licensed 17 year old during the summer in the early 2000s, listening to Mets games on the radio with Bob Murphy calling the games, and Howie Rose/Fran Healy and sometimes Kiner were the TV crew on SportsChannel/FSNY at the time. I can only imagine how awful that was for Chernoff to have that conversation. It’s tough when the legends hang around too long. This was before my time but I remember watching a documentary on Marty Glickman and they covered how he was hard to listen to with the Jets games at the end.
Also, I was today years old when I learned from Wikipedia that Jack Murphy the sportswriter who the stadium in San Diego was named after was Bob Murphy’s older brother.

 

[lloyde dobler]

I double checked these dates too before I got to this post because I distinctly remember driving in my dad’s Crown Victoria (I called it the Land Yacht) as a newly licensed 17 year old during the summer in the early 2000s, listening to Mets games on the radio with Bob Murphy calling the games, and Howie Rose/Fran Healy and sometimes Kiner were the TV crew on SportsChannel/FSNY at the time. I can only imagine how awful that was for Chernoff to have that conversation. It’s tough when the legends hang around too long. This was before my time but I remember watching a documentary on Marty Glickman and they covered how he was hard to listen to with the Jets games at the end.
Also, I was today years old when I learned from Wikipedia that Jack Murphy the sportswriter who the stadium in San Diego was named after was Bob Murphy’s older brother.

And Bob being an old-school, keep it straight broadcaster never referred to the stadium that way whenever the Mets played there

 

[TheHall87]

I double checked these dates too before I got to this post because I distinctly remember driving in my dad’s Crown Victoria (I called it the Land Yacht) as a newly licensed 17 year old during the summer in the early 2000s, listening to Mets games on the radio with Bob Murphy calling the games, and Howie Rose/Fran Healy and sometimes Kiner were the TV crew on SportsChannel/FSNY at the time. I can only imagine how awful that was for Chernoff to have that conversation. It’s tough when the legends hang around too long. This was before my time but I remember watching a documentary on Marty Glickman and they covered how he was hard to listen to with the Jets games at the end.
Also, I was today years old when I learned from Wikipedia that Jack Murphy the sportswriter who the stadium in San Diego was named after was Bob Murphy’s older brother.

I think Chernoff knew that conversation had to happen -- and for that matter based on his telling I think Murphy did as well. There were some other factors that went into things as I recall but the driver was that Murph had slipped precipitously in his later years.

For that matter, Kiner had suffered a Bell's Palsy attack which made him a tough listen in his final years. At least in his case, he was working a limited schedule and it was on tv where he didn't have to describe action and paint a word picture.

 

[SHUSource]

In the booth, Smoltz is like the Troy Aikman of baseball: only there because he was a big-name playe who now acts like he gets paid by the word to offer next to nothing, all in a flat monotone that makes it unlistenable. .

Both are must-not-see-TV.

 

[SHUSA]

Somewhat off subject. The worst TV sports announcer is Bill Walton in my opinion, I cannot watch a college game game when he's doing commentary. The Mets and Yankees teams are head and shoulders above Walton.

lappas ?

 

[shu09]

Smoltz is a great analyst. One of the best and very intelligent.