I’m a nerd. No, not the kind of nerd that Ricky Manning Jr and his friends beat up at Denny’s. A broadcast nerd. I love to analyze the analysts.
First thing I did when I saw this years NCAA bracket was guess which game the CBS A-team of Jim Nantz and Billy Packer was going to be at. It didn’t matter that I was in Sweden at the time and wasn’t even going to watch the first round of the tournament.
I’m excited to watch the World Cup final, and it’s not because I like watching a sport where five scores combined is considered an offensive explosion.
It’s because Brent Musberger, the voice of the Midwest, is going to be behind the microphone in Germany.I refuse to watch the White Sox on TV, and it honestly has nothing to do with them being Chicago’s other team. It’s because Hawk Harrelson is by far the worst play-by-play man in baseball.
So why am I writing about this when there are so many other subjects out there that deserve some print? Two reasons:
One- The NBA television contract is set up so that one station gets the entire Western Conference Finals (This year it’s TNT) while the other network (ESPN/ABC) gets the East. This gives me a great chance to closely evaluate two different announcing combinations.
Two- ABC and ESPN released who will be in the booth this fall for college football, and some of the names are a bit surprising.
As I mentioned in my conference finals preview, one of the main reasons why I’m so excited for Suns-Mavericks is because I love the duo of Marv Albert and Steve Kerr. For these games, TNT has also added former Bulls coach Doug Collins, who is a welcome addition to the team. Usually Collins works with Kevin Harlan, but with only one game a night on the channel, they only need one announcing team. TNT has also placed Reggie Miller on the studio team of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley, which is another great move.
I give the trio of Albert/Kerr/Collins an ‘A’, because they not only announce what is happening on the floor, they give insight on what is going on in the huddle. Last night, during the exciting Suns Game 1 win, Collins explained how Steve Nash loves to start going with his right hand (his strong hand), but then turn the defender around by switching to his left, which is about as strong. Sure enough, on the very next time down the court, Nash gets Jason Terry going right, then crosses him and flips in a nice lefty lay-up.
Another strength of the TNT crew is that they never want to become the stars of the show; they let the players do that. After Boris Diaw’s shot with .05 seconds gave the Suns a one-point lead, Albert, Kerr and Collins were silent as they allowed viewers to watch a shocked American Airlines Center react to what had just happened. Some people, including a famous ESPN college hoops voice that shares a first name with our nations Vice President, never shut up. While at times this can add to the excitement, at certain moments it is a disservice to fans who just want to see the action, and not listen to pointless yakking.
ESPN/ABC has gone with the duo of Mike Breen and former Knicks and Grizzlies coach Hubie Brown for the East Finals, as well as next months NBA Finals. While these guys are solid, they could be much better. Breen will tell you what happened, but sounds as excited during a Antonio McDyess free throw as he does during a Dewayne Wade dunk. Brown provides interesting analysis, but I’ve noticed occasionally loses his focus on the game and will begin talking about a completely different subject. (Also known as Harry Carry syndrome for broadcasters) Breen and Brown at times can be very good, but other times are very poor, so they get a middle of the road ‘C’ from me.
The Mickey Mouse organization should have gone with the trio of Mike Tirico, Bill Walton and Steve ‘Snapper’ Jones instead of the B-boys. Tirico, who is the new voice of ‘Monday Night Football’, does a great job of educating viewers while at the same time explaining the action on the field or court. Jones doesn’t say much, but he does fill in with interesting comments and stories. But the strength of this group is obviously Walton. Similar to John Madden in football, everybody that watches the Big Red Head has an opinion on him. I used to dislike him, but as I’ve gotten older and he’s become better trained to be a broadcaster, I love listening to Walton talk. He has so much passion for the game of basketball, it’s impossible for me to not pay attention to what he’s saying.
When basketball finishes, the next of the big sports to start up will be college football. For a long time, you knew which of ABC’s broadcast crews was going to be where. Keith Jackson and Dan Foutes were going to do the big West Coast game, Brad Nessler and Bob Griese were going to handle the South, and Brent Musberger and Gary Danielson would be calling the action from one of the eleven Big 10 cities. (Actually, only ten Big 10 cities, because there has been no National TV game broadcast from Bloomington, IN for six seasons) But now with Jackson retiring, Danielson going to cover the S.E.C. with CBS, and NFL Sunday Night Football going to NBC, Disney had to make some changes with their announcing duos. Here’s what they decided on:
Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit and Bob Davie will doing ABC’s Saturday Night game. I really think this crew will be great. Musberger is a top-notch broadcaster, Herbstreit is the best college football analyst out there, and Davie, the former Notre Dame head coach, is very smart and understands the nuances of football.
Brad Nessler will continue to work with Bob Griese, but now they will be joined in the booth with former NFL Sunday Night analyst Paul Maguire. Nessler is very good, but I’m not a big Griese fan. (Though that could change if his son plays well this season for the Bears) Maguire is OK, but I’m not sure how well he knows the college game.
Dan Fouts will move from color-commentary to play-by-play, and will be joined with Tim Brant. These guys are destined to fail. Not because there bad announcer's, especially since Fouts is a 'Monday Night Football' alum and the voice of last year's amazing Rose Bowl . It’s because there not Keith Jackson, and once you’ve watched a game with Keith Jackson, it’s hard to switch to a different voice.
Other thoughts running through my head:
-Last nights Phoenix-Dallas game was as fast and fun as I thought it would be. Doug Collins made a great point during the game, when he said that the Suns want their opponent to double Steve Nash when he drives to the bucket so he can kick out to their plethora of three-point shooters. If I’m Avery Johnson, I tell my squad to let Steve shoot it 30 times, let him drop 40 points, but hold him to only five assists. Raja Bell, Boris Diaw and Shawn Marrion aren’t fast enough to create their own shot, but when you leave them wide-open, they’ll make you pay.
-If you’re a basketball player who is in shape, how could you not be excited to play in an offense like the Suns have? They go seven deep, and that’s three small forwards and four guards. Fun stuff.
-One last thing about Phoenix. If you want a good explanation on how offensive oriented they are, look at this comparison to the Eastern Conference’s Game 1 winner, the Miami Heat. Miami shot a total of 85 shots in their game one (64 field goals and 21 free throws). The Suns shot an astounding 114. (85 from the field, 29 the stripe) That’s almost 15 more possessions a game.
-In the East, I'm starting to sense that the Pistons are tired. They've had the same starting five for almost two and a half years, and those five guys have played in a total of 61 playoff games since April of 2004. That's three/fourths of an entire extra regular season. I still think they can pull it out though.
-If the rumors are true, the NFL contacted Jeb Bush to maybe fill the role of commissioner. Has the greatest league been asleep for the last six and a half years, counting all their money and not seeing our countries downfall under the leadership of Jeb's older brother? My guess is that if Jeb were in charge, the league would put a halt on the Canadian Football League for fear of Kickers of Mass Destruction. (OK, that was horrible, but I had to do somthing)
-If I was playing the Cubs season on MLB 2006 for my PS2, there’s no doubt in my mind that I’d simulate the rest of the season. Or press the restart button.
-I like how the NY media tries to brush off the Eddy Curry trade by saying that there’s no franchise-changing players in this years draft. So you’re saying that if the Knicks knew it was going to be the #2 overall pick they’d still do the trade all over again? Isaiah Thomas must be dumber than I thought he was.
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2 comments:
Umm, just to clarfiy, Brent Musberger is broadcasting the World Cup Final. He is going to do some studio host stuff I believe, but will definitely not be doing play-by-play during the World Cup final. That will be Mr. Dave O'Brien, who you know most promiently as ESPN's #2 baseball play-by-play guy (behind Jon Miller) (also, the Cubs offered him their announcing job 2 years ago, he accepted it, but ESPN wouldn't let him out of their contract, so he had to turn it down the next day. That led to Len Kasper). He's going to be doing the games with Marcelo Balboa, and they're going to be the top team at the World Cup (meaning they'll do the US games and the big games). Dave's been doing alot of our MLS games to get ready, and while he pretty much knew nothing about soccer before starting announcing soccer (which was in Febuary for some friendlies) he has improved drastically. He's got the typical, deep announcers voice, so thats not an issue, but it was painful to listen to him early on because he didn't know the game. But, he's really worked on learning the game, and is actually pretty good right now. Anyways, the announcing teams for the World Cup are going to be:
Dave O'Brien and Marcelo Balboa
J.P. Dellacamera and John Harkes
Rob Stone and Robin Fraser
Glenn Davis and Shep Messing
Adrian Healey and Tommy Smythe.
The top three teams will all be on site in Germany, while the last two will call off of monitors in Bristol, and that is probably the ranking of prominence of the crews (though Rob and J.P. are probably even at #2).
Anyways, personally I'm glad that Musburger isn't doing the games, because I highly doubt that he knows the game well enough to be any good at soccer. However, it would also be tight, because if he kept doing soccer I could probably end up meeting him and chilling with him, which would be super tight. Yeah, so thats the insider news on the WC announcers, though I'm pretty sure all that info is public, so its not that exciting. Word, I hope you're doing well, and I hope you're at the Cubs game now, because its a dandy.
OOOPS, I meant he's not broadcasting the World Cup final, not he is.
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