Lifestyle :
I grew up with classic baseball announcers. Mel Allen, Red Barber, Lindsay Nelson, Bob Murphy. Legends in their craft. When I moved to Boston, Ned Martin was the voice of the Red Sox. Coming to the west coast, I had the pleasure of hearing Vin Scully with the Dodgers.
As I have been rehabbing from my leg injury and mostly spending time at the house, the MLB baseball package was purchased so I can listen to TV broadcasts all over the country.
Without rating who I enjoy listening to and what market they broadcast from, I have some general thoughts about all of the announcers.
A. Many are verbose, and need to calm down. I want basic information from them. The game needs very little explanation.
B. All the charts, exit angles, speed of the home run are overkill. You can see if the ball leaves the park. How fast it leaves the bat is not important.
C. Back stories are sometimes interesting , most of the time they are not. Knowing a player’s favorite drink or color does not make the game any more interesting.
D. I like the replay rule.
E. I do not care about the speed of the game. If it takes 2 hours or 3 hours, so be it.
F. I understand the announcers are employed by the team but do not be too much of a homer.
G. Some of the new technical achievements I like. Checking out if the umpire is correct calling balls and strikes is cool.
H. Announcers need to have a sense of humor, but not keep repeating the same stories each game.
I. This is similar to my earlier remark, (B) Too much information negates the fun of the game.
I have more thoughts at another time, Let me know what you think.
Keep smoking.