Announcers

[kupman]

I am wondering 'is it just me?' The game calling and color announcers in both f-ball and b-ball have been irritating me. Well, they do not all irritate me. There are a few good ones, but most just annoy me.

Last night, I put my TV on mute (something I am doing more and more of) with 2 minutes to go in the 1st quarter because I could not stand to listen to Sir Charles anymore. He said the Kings are undersized like 50 times in the first 15 minutes. Yeah Charles, we know. I turned up the volume a few times in the game only to go back to mute after about a minute because I went right back to irritated. It was not that he was saying anythiny inaccurrate - just irritating.

Also during the Fiesta Bowl ( a truly terrific game) the color announcers kept making one mistake after another. Then right before the final play of one of the best games ever they start talking about 'maybe we should have play-off.' I mean, shut-up. Please don't bring that up right now - geez.

Basically, I guess that I am asking is there anyone else around here that has been watching games on 'mute' because the announcing of the game is just bad.

 

[uolj]

Yes, I am constantly annoyed by announcers/analysts in all sports. It seems like they talk way too much, and in their hurry to say anything they often say incorrect or absurd things.

Even the best have this issue. For example, a couple times last night Marv Albert would announce the wrong call (it was a foul, not an out of bounds, or a travel instead of a foul), then a minute later would say, "now they're saying it's a traveling violation." No, Marv, it was a travel the entire time, you just needed to wait a second to see what the official signaled instead of immediately announcing an assumption.

I'm a detail-oriented person, and it always bugs me when details are wrong. Combine that with a general trend in announcing that seems to value quantity over quality, and I'm not a big fan of most announcers or analysts in sports.

Of course it is a very difficult job, and no matter how many mistakes I notice while watching, I'm sure I'd be making twice as many if I were the one announcing. That doesn't mean I have to like, it though.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

The worst has been Bryant Bumble on the NFL network. He constantly misappropriates the game terminology - my biggest annoyance is every time a team gets stopped on 3rd down he says "And xxx turns the ball over on downs". If I'm not paying attention I actually think a team went for it on 4th down. All season he did this.

 

[Bricklayer]

I was actually pleasantly surprised by Sir Charles last night. I expected the Big Buffoon, but for a half he was actually contributing.

Irritations would be:
Vitale
Walton
Barkley (in studio --s mentioned, held it together last night)
Hubie annoys me
Stockton
Mussberger
Snapper
Miller (either Reggie or the failed comic experiment on MNF)
Anthony (from the studio)

local guys like
Tommy Heinsohn
Walt Frazier
Jerry Reynolds

But I think the Albert + Harlan duo are good play by play guys. Tolbert and Collins are good color guys. Guys who used to be good like Madden, and maybe now Fratello, still have their moments. Even bland guys like Kerr have gotten considerably better. Mark Jackson has potential. Its not all bad.

 

[kupman]

No, it is not all bad. But I would say that more bad than good exists right now. It is almost like they do not have a big enough pool of good announcers to cover all the games on TV now.

Mussburger: he is on my 'bad' list. During the big OSU - Michigan game he said 'here is the play of the game' like 10 times.

Keith Jackson and Dan Fouts: just terrible. Thank God Jackson retired. He could not see or keep up with the game and he made mistakes constantly. I think they just left him in there so that he could use his fake Southern accent and famous phrases that got old 10-15 years ago.

note: I realize that I may be just getting old grouchy.

 

[Nazman]

As much as this displaced Philadelphian has despised Barkley for any number of reasons over the years i also have to admit that i thought the guy did a pretty decent job w/ his first run at game commentary. I was somewhat surprised to find it a significant departure from all the bs of his pre and post game stuff w/ the TNT crew.

Having said that i would have still preferred to hear all the bantering that was going on between Vlade and Grant courtside but stuck w/ the TV all the way. Anybody have anything else to offer re; any good stuff that went on w/ Vlade. Always treasure seeing him around Arco.

 

[4cwebb]

Keith Jackson and Dan Fouts: just terrible. Thank God Jackson retired. He could not see or keep up with the game and he made mistakes constantly. I think they just left him in there so that he could use his fake Southern accent and famous phrases that got old 10-15 years ago.

For my money, even a way over the hill Keith Jackson is still better than a lot of the other options out there for a college football game. One of the main problems is that when he "retired" the first time he kept doing PAC-10 games (because he lives in CA), which just wasn't right, imho. Keith Jackson was born to announce the out-dated style of Big 10 games so he can make (dated) cracks about linemen.

At this moment, though, I cannot think of a worse play-by-play announcer than Bryant Gumbel...if you've listened to him attempt to call a NFL football game, you know what I'm referring to. Just painful.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

For my money, even a way over the hill Keith Jackson is still better than a lot of the other options out there for a college football game. One of the main problems is that when he "retired" the first time he kept doing PAC-10 games (because he lives in CA), which just wasn't right, imho. Keith Jackson was born to announce the out-dated style of Big 10 games so he can make (dated) cracks about linemen.

At this moment, though, I cannot think of a worse play-by-play announcer than Bryant Gumbel...if you've listened to him attempt to call a NFL football game, you know what I'm referring to. Just painful.

I just don't get why someone hasn't yanked him aside and said dude, get it right. Get him a glossary or something.

I also agree with you that while the game has passed Jackson by he's better than a good chunk of the other options. Sadly so is Mussberger to a certain extent. I think a lot of it just has to do with the tone of their voices, some of these newer guys may as well just be sitting in the living room with you, they just don't feel right and it sounds a lot more like they are just chatting about the game rather than announcing what is taking place.

 

[kupman]

they just don't feel right and it sounds a lot more like they are just chatting about the game rather than announcing what is taking place.

....very good point. It often reminds me of the person who shows for the SuperBowl party and while they have not seen a game all year, they feel the need to talk constantly and make one uninformed comment after another about the game. Very annoying.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I don't know if its related or not, but on the football telecasts these days they always show them standing up in some room against a green screen with whatever logo or advertisement composited over it like a bunch of weather guys. Sometimes you're wondering if they're even at the game or just in some studio in New York and why are they standing there instead of sitting at some hi-tech desk with access to a zillion stats. If they really call the whole game like that which I will presume they do it would explain a lot.