The NBA isn't the only league who will show off their sports package for free for an entire week. MLB and the NHL will also do the same thing in hopes they can lure some people into buying their game packages. When the MLB package is for free I'll surf the channels and look for a game that might be interesting. I've noticed that most of the baseball announcers are dreadful except a few teams (Baltimore, NY Mets, Vin Scully) have competent announcers that I like listening to.
Listening to these other announcers has given a greater appreciation of the guys who call games for my favorite teams the San Francisco Giants, Sacramento Kings, and the San Jose Sharks. Here's the TV broadcasters I listen to and the reasons why I appreciate them.
San Francisco Giants: Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow- 'Kruk & Kuip' as they're affectionately known around this area have been the voices of my childhood. What makes this combo unique is that both of them were former players. Duane Kuiper played for the Indian and Giants during the 70's and 80's and transitioned to being a play-by-play announcer like Pat Summerall. And just like how Summerall allowed John Madden to be the star, Kuiper has allowed Krukow to be the star.
Now Krukow can be a little grating. His "Grab some pine, meat" catchphrase and "eliminating" people can rub some folks the wrong way. Krukow rubs me the wrong way when he starts making excuses for the players (Example: Saying Lincecum doesn't like playing in the heat or has a blister when he's struggling) or says something like "this guy looked good in the batting cages." I'm sorry Krukow, but anyone can look good hitting in a batting cage. Other than that though I enjoy Krukow's wackiness and Kuiper's over the top home run calls and low key approach to announcing games.
Sacramento Kings: Grant Napear and Jerry Reynolds- I've railed against Napear before over his radio show he hosts on our live blogs, but the guy truly is one of the better basketball broadcasters in the league. Napear has great catchphrases like "Put on the board and send him to the line." Napear brings excitement and entertainment value to every broadcast. He makes Kings entertaining even though the Kings have mostly stunk throughout the years. Now if only Napear was more entertaining and acted less like an asshole on his radio show, I might actually listen to him more often.
Napear's broadcast partner Jerry Reynolds is as entertaining as it gets. I've never noticed until this past week, but Reynolds is a lot like Bill Raftery. He brings frantic energy to the broadcast that is very infectious. Reynolds also comes up with nice nicknames for every player. Jon Brockman was "Brockness Monster." Omri Casspi is the "Great Casspi." Yeah it's very Hawk Harrelson, but he's our announcer and we appreciate him for that. Besides his wackiness, Reynolds does off great analysis into the game he's calling and the league in general. After listening to other NBA broadcasters lately, I'm very thankful for this paring.
San Jose Sharks: Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda- Hockey announcers are generally great (except in Washington and Boston) but what sets Hahn apart is that the guy can be really funny in the booth. Check out his impression of Buffalo Sabres announcer Rick Jeanneret.
Or the time he busted out Sir Mix-a-Lot to describe a goal.
Remenda is also great, but he can turn off a lot of Sharks viewers with his love of opposing players. Especially his love of players we hate (Chris Pronger). Other than that though Remenda is a great analysis who brings passion to his job.
So are these announcers great? You have to listen to them to be the judge of that. From what I've heard though listening to other announcers though, they're about as good as it gets.
(Note: I didn't include the Warriors and A's because I don't watch their games all the time. Glen Kuiper is a fine broadcaster for the A's, but I can't stand his partner Ray Fosse.)
Please tell me you did not spend anytime listening to Eric Snow try to analyze Sixers games. That guy annoys me like no local announcer has ever annoyed me before.
ReplyDelete@Justin: No. Since there were only two NBA games last night I was checking them out. The announcers for the Heat, Hawks, Bulls, and Bobcats all stink. Their either boring or huge homers.
ReplyDeleteMake sure you catch a half of Steve Buckhantz on the Wizards games. He thinks that just because he reffed rec basketball games in college, he's qualified to judge every sing;e call that goes against the Wizards. And, who can forget this call:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5d097fAWeI&feature=related