The Best US TV Play By Play Announcer Tournament: Round 1 Continued

If you have no idea what this is about, please read this post before continuing.

Well the Old Timers and Young Guns regions are halfway through with the first round, and Verne Lundquist is the only seed lower than #4 to win, and he creamed Jon Miller. Gus Johnson hammered Ian Eagle, ditto with the heavy favorite Marv Albert over Dick Enberg, and Dan Shulman beat Matt Vasgersian.

Next up, the two regions will be done with round 1 with the 2/7 and 3/6 seed matchups.

(2) Harry Kalas vs. (7) Bob Uecker (Old Timers Region)

The Skinny: Both are known for baseball commentary, but these guys are absolute greats. Kalas, in case you didn’t know, is the voice of NFL Films and the voice of the Phillies, his grave voice and passion is spectacular. Uecker is the radio voice of the Brewers, and “Juuust a bit outside” is probably his tagline (Major League reference).

Potential Downfall For Kalas: His voice is perfect for your funeral narration…..

Uecker: His baseball career was so bad that it may end up hurting his chances in this one.

Who is moving on?

(3) Vin Scully vs. (6) Brent Musberger

The Skinny: Scully has called numerous World Series and was the TV commentator for “The Catch” for CBS. Even at his age (which is between 100-150 years old), he is still belting those home run calls. Musberger has hosted too many sporting events to count, his “You are looking live!” line never gets old, and his most notable game was Doug Flutie to Gerald Phelan……you know the rest.

Potential Downfall For Scully: Talks too much….puts up useless info on baseball players, but then again, it IS baseball.

Musberger: Come on, there’s a DRINKING GAME after him!

Who is moving on?

(2) Mike Breen vs. (7) Mike Tirico (Young Guns Region)

The Skinny: While these men work every game with nightmare partners, they stand out as the best in their 3 men booth. Breen has done a very good job calling NBA games and even did some Arena Football for NBC, he’s very consistent and oh yeah, “BANG!”. Tirico has a passionate voice, he’s the only thing that prevents me from destroying the TV set whenever MNF comes on, and an even better radio announcer.

Potential Downfall For Breen: Seems to cheer for the home team or the star player a tad too often.

Tirico: Too vanilla…..

Who is moving on?

(3) Kevin Harlan vs. (6) Sean McDonough

The Skinny: The deep voiced Harlan should be the lead announcer for the NBA on TNT once Marv Albert retires or croaks, great knowledge and much of the time lets the crowd do the talking instead of himself. He’s one of the tops for the NFL on CBS and seems to be getting bigger games in terms of importance. And how can you not like “LEBRON JAMES!! WITH NO REGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE!”? McDonough is the youngest to ever call a World Series on TV at the age of 25, so I think that should prove him worthy of a spot on here.

Potential Downfall for Harlan: Sometimes in the NFL on CBS he seems to have problems with knowing when to raise his voice for a certain play.

McDonough: Voice cracks quite often…..

Who is moving on?

We move to the other part of the bracket next time………

Imagine What They Could Do With Dick Van Dyke

You see, this is what happens when you don’t change your last name have auto-filter, One News Now. FOX Sports has nothing on these censors. Tyson Gay shall forever be known as Tyson Homosexual here…..

Tyson Gay, Gaylord Perry, D’Cody Fagg, Butch Davis, the list goes on and on.

The Best US TV Play By Play Announcer Tournament: Round 1

EDIT: Voting for this part is now over, go here for the new set of matches.

After some slight tweaks in one section of the bracket, it’s finally here! It’s the opening round of the US TV Announcer Tournament.

Here’s how it works:

• I put up the poll for you to vote (you’re going to have to go to the link because WordPress won’t get of the chair and make their own poll er….doesn’t accept embedded polls besides Polldaddy).
• Once all of the first round contests are over then the polls will be closed and I’ll post the results.
• Rinse, wash, repeat.

HERE WE GO!!!

(1) Marv Albert vs. (8) Dick Enberg (Old Timers Region)

Skinny: Both men have covered an extensive amount of sports from baseball to football to basketball to tennis to hockey, these legends have done it all. Albert has commentated on the Super Bowl for Westwood One for many years, he routinely does a great job with the NBA on TNT, and of course, “OH!! A SPECTACULAR MOVE!!!!! BY MICHAEL JORDAN!”. Enberg has done radio and TV, called the last NBC hosted Super Bowl (at least until this season when NBC gets the rights), many playoff basketball and football games professionally and at a collegiate level, and is currently commentating at Wimbledon.

Potential Downfall For Albert: You darn well know what it is……

Potential Downfall For Enberg: Sadly, his senility is showing yet he gets a bulk of NCAA Basketball games, his mind wanders off into another world that we do not care about.

Who’s better?

(4) Jon Miller vs. (5) Verne Lundquist (Old Timers Region)

Skinny: They’re balding, they’re corpulent, they’re old, and they are still going strong in the commentary business. Miller is still doing Sunday Night Baseball and is also the San Francisco Giants radio man. In his early days he was the voice of the University of Hawai’i basketball team. Lundquist really has a fun partner to work with in Bill Raftery on the NCAA on CBS, and called the famous Christian Laettner game with Duke against Kentucky. He also does the SEC on CBS with his passionate voice, and was the voice of the Masters before Jim Nantz swooped in.

Potential Downfall for Miller: Works with Joe Morgan…….forgetting quite a bit basic rules of baseball.

And for Lundquist: Cliches….

Who moves on?

(1) Gus Johnson vs. (8) Ian Eagle (Young Guns Region)

Skinny: Ian Eagle has improved with his basketball and football commentaries and really captures the excitement well…..Gus Johnson is great.

Potential Downfall for Gus: Too much yelling on mundane plays.

And For Eagle: Eye-In Eagle……can’t get over that name, and how many times is he going to say “That’s a MAN’S JAM!”?

Who advances?

(4) Dan Shulman vs. (5) Matt Vasgersian (Young Guns Region)

Skinny: Shulman is well known for his nights with Dickie V on ESPN College Basketball nights, and really shined in the NBA Playoffs with Doris Burke. Vasgersian has a lot of humor in his play-by-play no matter what sport (baseball, football, etc.), and knows his stats and shows brilliant enthusiasm.

Potential Downfall for Shulman: He’s actually Canadian (works in the US full-time now though so he’s in!), and history shows they don’t win much in sports.

And…Vasgersian: Lags behind plays in football and it gets quite annoying.

Who advances?

Next post coming up will have the 2 vs. 7 and 3 vs. 6 of those regions.

NBA Draft Thoughts

I know I haven’t talked much about the NBA Draft but I’ll do it today.

• This draft class is weak, I mean it’s super weak. Maybe it’s because of the lack of guys from North Carolina and Duke (although there is nothing wrong with seeing no Dukies in the draft for ESPN to slob all over!), the lack of big names after Mayo, Bayless, Rose, and Beasley, but nothing about this draft is making me go bananas.
• Michael Beasley is indeed 5′8 and 145 pounds, he would make a very good guard for the Miami Heat.
• Jermaine O’Neal to the Raptors was a terrible trade for both sides. Jermaine has become nothing but a bust since he left Portland.
• The Sonics should think about drafting Mario Chalmers as a replacement for Luke Ridnour should he go. Earl Watson is in a word: Useless.
• Jerryd Bayless will be a good NBA player, I think he’s a good shooter when pulling up, his quickness is one of his top specialties, and if the Clippers are really smart, they’ll skip Mayo and go with Bayless.
• Speaking of which, OJ Mayo didn’t impress me at all in college, he shoots way too much, a very erratic player, he’s going to the bench when he gets picked.
• Just for local flavor, don’t be surprised if Kyle Weaver (Wazzu) goes in the first round.

Player Most Likely to Succeed

• Why not Derrick Rose? While there have been some duds like Kwame Brown and Danny Manning, Rose is an all-around great player that will learn from the veterans like Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich. His jump shot is very good, he can draw contact in the paint as well as create for other players. As for him playing with Joakim Noah…….

One Giant Bust

• The Lopez Twins. Okay, neither of them impressed me at all in March Madness. The problem I see in them is their lack of athleticism, they are just tall, not consistent shooters at all.

I will be over at Awful Announcing for the live blog of the draft, if you want a mock draft, too bad…..

The Best US TV Play By Play Announcer Tournament

It’s too often that we hear about the worst announcers, worst sideline reporters, worst TV sports personalities, and yes, while there are indeed plenty up there, we need to pay homage to the best play-by-play man on television. Here is the bracket of 32 announcers that was divided into 4 regions:

• Old Timers Region. This is for announcers that are 65 or older, but are still belting out home run calls, touchdown screeches, and slam dunk hollers.
• Young Guns Region. Announcers that are under 50 make up this region. The winner of the Young Guns will face the winner of the Old Timers.
• Retired/Deceased Legends Region. They are either dead (which makes them retired) or retired, simple.
• Golden Mic Region. The region with the rest of the best. The winner of this region will face the winner of the Retired/Deceased Legends Region in the final 4.

Here are the qualifications to be in this tournament:

• Must commentate on at least 2 sports.
• Needs to be on national TV at least once.
• Name must not be “Bryant Gumbel, NFL Network”.

Now some questions that I’ll answer……

Who Determines The Winner?

You do! With the help of Pollcode (because WordPress refuses to make a poll of their own), you determine the winner of each contest.

Who Created The Seedings?

I did. Some of it is personal opinion, some of it is opinions from others around the radio, internet, and television, and the rest is common sense on who is in and who is out.

Ahem….The Matchups?

Oh yeah umm…..after the jump you’ll see it.

Baseball is Played in a Park, THE BASEBALL PARK!

As you probably know (it’s been plastered all over the news for 2 days, you should know!), comedian George Carlin was killed via heart failure at the age of 71. He was responsible for making congress come up with a list of words you can’t say on TV, he twisted the English language around in his stand-up routines. Overall, Carlin was, and will likely remain, the most influential comedian of our time. Always thinking, always observing, quick wits, he wasn’t afraid to be politically incorrect, he just took it to you and presented his opinions to an audience for over 50 years.

The 9 Lives of Turkey

Turkey are definitely the “Cinderellas” of Euro 2008. Guess how many minutes they’ve lead in this tournament? A total of 4 minutes in 4 games, one of them they lost 2-0. Yet, they are in the semi-finals of the European Championships for the first time ever.

They needed to beat the co-hosts Switzerland to stay alive in the group stage, and after falling 1-0 at the half, they got an equalizer in the 57th minute on a header by Semih Senturk. Just when they were destined for a draw, Arda Turan’s deflected shot hit the back of the net, and in stoppage time, Switzerland were out, and Turkey’s final match against the Czech Republic would still have meaning.

Their 2nd comeback was considered one of the greatest in Euro history. The winner of Czech Republic/Turkey would advance to the quarterfinals, and a draw in the match would’ve meant penalties because all of the tiebreakers had run out. Jan Koller headed the ball home in what would be his final goal in international competition, and Jaroslav Plasil made it 2-0 in the 62nd minute. Looks like it’s game over right? Arda Turan scores in the 75th minute and it looks like Turkey have a chance at penalties. They were pressuring and pressuring and Petr Cech, considered the best goalkeeper in the world, in the rain, made the fatal mistake of failing to catch a simple cross, and Nihat took advantage of an empty net, 2-2 in the 87th minute.

Penalties seemed to be the destiny for these two sides, which was a shame, because it was a classic match. Nihat though was onside in the 89th minute, a wonderful pass found his feet, and he lofted it past Cech for the winner, 3-2, and Turkey pull off a miracle. However, Turkish goalkeeper Volkan Demirel was sent off for stupidly shoving Koller in the back near the end of the game. He will not play again until the final should they advance.

Next came Croatia, the team that won all of their group games, including a stunning upset of Germany. The game had to go to extra time after a stale 90 minutes, and with 3 minutes to go, there was no sign that there would be a goal in this game. In the 119th minute, the Turkish goalkeeper, Rustu, made a poor decision by following the ball near the touchline (his near post), he could not get to it, and the 2nd cross found Ivan Klasnic for the winner….so they thought.

Just 1 minute (minimum) of stoppage time, Rustu needed to kick the ball as far as possible and hope for a miracle from his teammates. It would be the last kick of the game, and another Turkish miracle.

ESPN in Desperate Search For Someone With a Mullet

Barry Melrose will be leaving the 4 letter to head over to coach the Tampa Bay Lightning. The only guy on the network with a mullet will get back on the bench for the first time since 1995, when he was head honcho for the Los Angeles Kings. He took them to their only Stanley Cup appearance in 1993, in which they lost to the Montreal Canadiens in 7 games. Coincidentally, that’s the last time a Canadian franchise has even won the Stanley Cup.

I think if it’s not for Barry, Linda Cohn, and Steve Levy, then ESPN would never ever ever ever air even one hockey game. Melrose, as the only NHL analyst they have has always been good for the network and this is a big loss for them.

It will be interesting to see how Melrose will do now that the two line pass doesn’t exist, the offsides rules have changed, shootouts are now implemented, and Gary Bettman is commissioner.

Good luck!

Don’t Call Me Pacman

Pacman Jones doesn’t want to be called “Pacman” anymore. Adam Jones sounds a lot less threatening apparently, via Slam!:

That would be the preference of Adam Jones, the suspended Dallas Cowboys cornerback who has been known by the nickname throughout his life. He’d like to be called by his given name and make Pacman a thing of the past.

“There’s really just a lot of negativity behind it,” Jones said. “It’s just time for a change, man. I’m doing everything to make sure that I’m all right as a person, mentally and emotionally.”

Jones missed all the 2007 season with the Tennessee Titans while serving his NFL suspension that has not been completed lifted. The Cowboys acquired Jones from the Titans for draft picks in April.

A lot of negativity? I didn’t know eating dots was such a big deal!  Sorry Adam, it won’t help by changing your name, and with your rap sheet, I think prisoner #423453 will soon be your new nickname.

Hopefully the other Adam Jones isn’t going to take up football any time soon.

And My Worst Nightmare May Come True

I love watching the Olympics, summer and winter alike. I did not watch any coverage on NBC because frankly, having to deal with “human interest” stories and the fact that they like to think only the US is participating is a little big annoying. The CBC in Canada did a much better job, they actually showed events live and yes, they knew there was more to the Olympics than speed skating and hockey.

I thought to myself “I shouldn’t be complaining, as long as ESPN don’t get the Olympics then watching it on US TV won’t be that bad.” Well……

With two months to go before the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, studios already are crunching numbers in preparation for bidding for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Summer Olympics. That process is expected to be completed within the next year.

The question is, how much are the Games actually worth? Already NBC has secured sponsorships that will drive advertising revenues north of $1 billion well before Beijing’s Aug. 8 Opening Ceremonies.

Studio sources said the International Olympic Committee probably will receive a hefty hike in the price of rights to the Games to around $2.25 billion from the $2 billion NBC paid to air the 2010 and 2012 Olympics.

Fox, which was a player in the previous bidding, will be kicking the tires, and insiders expect ESPN to be a driving force, win or lose, in the final price to air the event. Sources at both companies confirmed the studios are interested and will be involved in the bidding.

Of course, NBC, which would have aired the Olympics seven times in a row, still remains the frontrunner to retain rights to the event, according to those same studio sources.

Complicating matters is that the IOC has not selected a location for the 2016 Games, with time-zone-friendly locales such as Chicago and Rio de Janeiro up against exotic locations such as Qatar and Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

Could you imagine the 2016 games in Chicago (I’m not guaranteeing anything) with Tim McCarver calling the gold medal match between the US and Japan with Joe Buck? And Chris Berman wrecking the highlights of snowboarding in Sochi?

I’m begging for NBC to keep their rights because if ESPN or FOX grab the rights then I’m moving to England to watch it on the BBC.