"Horrific announcers and the baseball broadcast booth"
February 28, 2012
      Nothing is worse in sports in general than a horrific, clueless, and cool-aid drinking announcer. Unfortunately they are rampant, especially in baseball (There are several exceptions). I come from an extremely lucky baseball town where we were blessed with the likes of Carey, Buck, Shannon, and even a tolerable Danny Mac and The Mad Hungarian in recent years on TV. I want to pause, and stress that my opinion of an announcer is strictly based on their professional ability and NOT their personal character or their quality as people. I have been critical of Rick Horton as a Cardinal announcer, for several reasons. I think a lot of his role replacing Al Hrabosky (whom I prefer as the alternative) was because Al was uber-critical of Albert and Yadi not running out ground balls, and blasted TLR in the process, which spurred a public media battle between both sides. Horton didn't earn the job by being better. Sunday games were on local TV for several years, and I remember being elated when I found out the the Sunday games were moved to cable, so I wouldn't have to stomach Horton and Jay Randolph. Then I found out Horton got something like 100 of Hrabosky's games, and it was as bad as I imagined. Getting players' names wrong makes me especially angry, which was a Sunday trademark, and it continued the entire next season. The general good guy, clean living, "I played mediocre enough in the Majors to know a few people" type are very popular with network execs. everwhere. I love the live look-ins on MLB Network during the season, and it is painfully obvious most teams go by the good announcer paired with bozo moniker. It is crazy. I think it is in the unwritten baseball rules that each team must have a Buck or Scully, and have a giddy, drunk, will say anything type next to him. The other solution is to have WWE wrestling style announcers (I know it sounds extreme), where one cheers for the good and the other evil, and they argue back and fourth about it. I had a Facebook discussion with a popular and well connected local sports radio analyst who was defending Horton, and his point was this, "that is the beauty of sports, you can like and listen to who you want". That is wrong, if you watch the Cardinals on FSN, you don't have a choice. You are stuck. Period. Network guys: Give us announcers with a personality that know the game, or I will be reduced to the front porch with KMOX on the radio, a chair, and one of AB's finest. Maybe I won't miss a beat, and I will save on my cable bill! Thanks for reading-Joe