Baseball Broadcaster Impressions: Cleveland

Continuing the Baseball Broadcaster Impressions Project today with a look at the Cleveland Indians broadcasting teams. 

TV Announcers: Matt Underwood and Rick Manning 

I don't know what is worse? A gigantic homer of an announcer or a pair of announcers that make you want to fall asleep? Me personally though I can ignore a homer. I can't ignore a pair that makes me want to take a nap. Say what you want about guys like Hawk Harrelson, but at least Hawk keeps me interested into a game. The same can't be said for the Cleveland Indians announcers Matt Underwood and Rick Manning. 

I have never listened to an entire TV crew that makes me fall asleep. Usually it's one announcer of the other. Not the case though in Cleveland. And not only do these guys make you want to fall asleep, they also never say anything stupid enough to make you notice the broadcast.

I have no idea if Underwood and Manning's boringness is due to the fact the Indians are not the most exciting team to watch or are they this dull all the time? The only time I've heard Underwood get excited is when someone hits a home run on the Indians. That's it. The rest of the time it's just dullness and sleepy time. Indians fans deserve better than this. 

Radio Announcers: Tom Hamilton and Jim Rosenhaus 

I've never really had an opinion on Tom Hamilton mainly because I don't listen to many Indians broadcasts and I hardly ever watch B1G football games (Sorry RJBO). I've heard both negative and positive reaction to Hamilton but mainly from B1G football fans. The positive is from Hamilton's duties as the Indians radio voice. After listening to a couple of Indians games I'm kinda mixed on Hamilton. 

I along with my Internet friends have been blessed with great announcers in our childhood: kt100 with Jon Miller and Chuck Thompson, Justin and James with Harry Kalas, Long with Tom Cheek, and RJBO with Ernie Harwell. I couldn't have been the only one in the group to pretend to be an radio announcer, mimicking the sounds of the announcer from my favorite team (Okay so I'm probably the only one.) But remember as a kid though when he used to pretend like you were announcing a game and would say things like "the bases are juiced" or "he hit a big whopper!"? Okay maybe you weren't that lame. 

That is exactly how Tom Hamilton sounds when he's announcing a Indians game. He sounds like a kid with his simplistic language describing the game. And you know what, it's kinda fun listening to it. Not every broadcaster has to be a master of words like Vin Scully, just entertaining enough to keep you interested. And Hamilton keeps me interested into the game. 

My one complaint with Hamilton is that he's a shouter. Always shouting. He's like George Costanza's father. Normal voice and THEN SCREAMING! I could do without that part. 

Jim Rosenhaus, Hamilton's partner, is pretty sub-par but he doesn't bring the broadcast down.