Baseball Broadcaster Impressions: Washington Nationals

Continuing the baseball broadcasters impressions project today with a look at the Washington Nationals Broadcasters 

TV Broadcasters: Bob Carpenter and FP Santangelo

Have you ever witnessed someone who kept falling backwards but still landed better jobs? Lane Kiffin is probably the most prominent example of this. Well the same can be said about FP Santangelo.

FP Santangelo's career has been a strange ride. After his playing career (did you know he played with Barry Bonds?) FP was one of the hosts on "The Rise Guys" show on KHTK in Sacramento. It was during this time the Mitchell Report came out and FP's name just happened to be on it. He addressed his steroid use on air and not too much longer after that he was fired. FP actually said after he was fired that, "KHTK just made the biggest mistake ever." Which may be true because that station has gone through a ton of change the past couple of years and the schedule is completely different now then it used to be. (The Rise Guys moved to the Bay Area to talk on the new FM sports station a couple of summers ago.)

FP then somehow landed backwards into a better job at KNBR in San Francisco. Now hosting a show that runs till Midnight is not exactly a step up until you realized he moved from Sacramento to San Francisco and to a much bigger station. Funny thing was FP actually improved as a radio host and was generally well received talking to the drunks who call in after a Giants night game.


Eventually FP went from just hosting the night show to somehow working on the Giants pre-and-post game show on CSN Bay Area and then filled in for Mike Krukow when Krukow takes his summer vacation to Tahoe. FP drove Giants fans crazy when his third grade analysis of the games, but was considerded a better analysis than JT "That's a good piece of hitting" Snow.

And somehow he ended up at Washington calling Nationals games with Bob Carpenter. Yes FP Santangelo fell backwards up to better jobs. Maybe he should thank KHTK for firing him a few years ago because this wouldn't have been possible if he didn't drive away listeners from a popular morning show.

Unlike former Nats broadcaster Rob Dibble, FP isn't in the booth trying to shock anyone. He isn't going to tell the ladies to "get back in the kitchen" or anything controversial. FP though still talks to the audience like we're all third graders. And this is what drives me nuts. I don't expect broadcasters to get scientific on the broadcasts about players swings and I don't expect them to be the most knowledgeable people when it comes to advance stats, but what I don't expect is for them to talk to the audience like we're all small children.

FP's vocabulary isn't exactly advanced either, I don't expect him to be a wordsmith out there, which can drive me nuts. FP says things like "A bat just died a hero" which will make anyone scratch their head and say "what?". FP will also mention he's played baseball before, he would do this all the time on the Giants pre-game shows and on the radio, which is also a little distracting. We get it FP, you played for Felipe Alou in Montreal and with Barry Bonds for a season. Thanks pal. FP though does have a good charm and is enthusiastic about calling a baseball game and sometimes that's all what you need.

While I can stomach FP, I cannot stomach Bob Carpenter. Carpenter is not only a homer, but the guy has become very cocky since the Nats have become good. He trolled the shit out of the Marlins and Ozzie Guillen this past week after the Harper-Guillen-Pine Tar episode. Basically Carpenter has become a manager for a wrestling heel. Remember Bobby "The Brain" Heenan? That's who Carpenter has turned into since the Nats became good. I root against the Nats now just to hear Carpenter whine like Heenan used to do when his wrestlers lost.

Radio Broadcasters: Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler



I'm not going to lie, I like Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler. I love their Abbot & Costello act they have playing off each other during games. Reminds me of a mini-version of Jon Miller and Dave Flemming.

When I'm listening to a radio broadcast there's only a few things I want. 1. Be told what the score and counts are regularly. 2. Some sort of storytelling. 3. Some sort of banter between the broadcasts. Number 3 is important because there's a lot of dead air during baseball games. It's nice to hear a couple of radio broadcasters play off each other during that time.

Miller & Flemming are great at it. Jim Powell & Don Sutton in Atlanta are also great at it. And Slowes and Jageler have great banter. It's makes the broadcast much more fun to listen to which makes the broadcast go by faster.

It also doesn't hurt that these two don't talk to the audience like we're all small child and it also doesn't hurt that they're not filled with piss and vinegar like carpenter.