Chip Shots Top 10: Favorite Baseball Announcers
The untimely death of Philadelphia legend Harry Kalas yesterday got me to thinking about who my favorite baseball announcers are (were.) Here's my personal top ten:
Jack Buck-In my mind, simply the best. The way he could build to a dramatic moment was unreal. He left you spellbound. I loved the cadence he had with his descriptions. My favorite home run call of all time is still his radio call of Kirk Gibson's home run in game one of the 1988 World Series: "I don't believe what I just saw." He always signed off his broadcasts with "thank-you for your time this time until next time, so long."- Harry Caray-If you missed him with the White Sox, you missed the best Harry ever. When Bill Veeck put him together with Jimmy Piersall, it may have been the wildest pairing in baseball history. Where else could you hear lines like "Jimmy, you're crazy!" "Yeah, Harry, and I have the papers to prove it!" Harry was always honest too which led to rifts with players like Dick Allen and BIll Melton. Is there any better home run call than "it might be, it could be IT IS?" Yes, and we'll cover it next.
- Jack Brickhouse-Lost in the "Harry the Legend" phenomenon, Brickhouse was not only Mr. Baseball. He did Bear games with Irv Kupcinet ("Dats right, Jack), He also did Sox games, Bulls games and for a time, covered news. You've probably heard his call of Willie Mays 1954 World Series catch off the bat of Vic Wirtz (on the Dumont Network) on baseball highlight shows. Brickhouse suffered through some awful Cub teams, but if you ever listened to him you'd know that if the Cubs were ten runs down, he still held out hope they might rally.For me, there's nothing better than "back she goes, back., back HEY HEY! "
- Curt Gowdy-Invited into your home on Saturdays during baseball season and Sundays during football season, he was televisions first true artist, letting the pictures do the talking. I always liked his understated and laid back style. He was the anti-Gus Johnson.
- Vin Scully-No list of baseball announcers could ever be complete without him. Not only the fact that he's been calling Dodger games for sixty years, but just the fact the man has never stammered once on microphone. He is the gold standard when it comes to word pictures and elegance.
- Ernie Harwell-I used to love to tune in WJR in Detroit and listen to Ernie Harwell call the Tigers. He, like Scully, is not only one of the most intelligent guys to ever call a baseball game, he was one of the most eloquent.
- Skip Caray-One of the funniest voices of the game I can ever remember...especially back in the days when the Braves were bad. And he was always sneaking the movie plugs in. Braves games were better when the Braves were getting killed. That's when Skip was at his wry best.
- Red Rush-He also recently just passed away. He's my first memory of a White Sox broadcast with his line to Bob Elson: "Commander, if Buddy Bradford went any farther back for that one, he'd need a ticket."
- John Rooney-One of the outstanding all sport radio voices in the country as well as underrated and lesser known. Had an outstanding run with the White Sox until the Chairman was too cheap to re-sign him, leaving radio play by play to (ugh) Ed Farmer. "That's a White Sox winner!" is stolen from Jack Buck.
- Dave Niehaus-I first got to hear him on a regular basis back when you could listen to baseball on the Internet for free before baseball took over all the rights and the broadcasts. Anyone who can come up with a signature line like "Get out the rye bread and mustard, Grandma, it is grand salami time!" is bound to be one of my favorites.
Awesome list. I totally agree with Jack Buck being the number one.. don't think anyone could be better.
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