SUNDAYYou're a Hall-of-Fame broadcaster --even HOF broadcasters make mistakes; we're all human. That said, Jon Miller's mucho screw-up of Hunter Pence's Grand Slam was uncalled for; screw all the "he made a great save!" Save, my ass! He fucked up, folks. Even Miller would say it, I know he would. Probably still shaking his head, like, "what the hell was I thinking?" It's not the end of the world but the Giant's booster club, circa 2016 reacted like God had been assaulted --again, the Bay Area has become a breeding ground for the permanent sheep society. Aren't we beyond that? Too much Akron, Ohio, not enough Brooklyn. San Francisco used to be a sophisticated area with people who didn't put ketchup on a hotdog; now its beginning to resemble the people who think American Idol is a documentary.
First off, Jon Miller is a very good broadcaster, not a great one. Bill King was great. Not in baseball, but in order, basketball and football. Miller is not even the best play-by-play announcer in the Bay Area. That would fall to Ken Korach on the A's and Randy Hahn on the Sharks. Miller is clearly in love with himself and has to always be cutesy when describing the action, as if we folks listening, outside the Giants amen corner give a damn he does a fairly good imitation of Vin Scully. But after 101,000 times, it's boring, Jon. Maybe you could try a Hawk Harrelson every now and then. The Scully thing has jumped the shark.
*If what I hear is genuine, KTVU is about to unleash another veteran reporter sometime before the end of the month. No, I doubt it's Tom Vacar.
*At KNTV, (NBC Bay Area) they're gearing up for the Summer Olympics but nobody really wants to go to Rio. Someone has to though and it's not going to be Raj Mathai.
*KRON: The High Priestess in the morning factoid: if you dare challenge her and/or land on her shit list, it's bye bye baby.
*The latest Hawaii project debuts on KPIX Monday Morning. Can hardly wait.
Darya probably hired someone to wipe & flush the toilet after she squeezes out last night's steak.
ReplyDeleteGotta agree about Bill King. His calling those Raider games is about as good as it gets.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to King and the Raiders, I've never heard a better football radio play-by-play man.
DeleteJon Miller lost his fastball years ago. No wonder ESPN dumped him
ReplyDeleteAnnouncers and guys in the media who think they have great booming voices become so full of themselves. Jon Miller gets too playful during his broadcasts so he can enjoy his own vibrations in his head. No wonder most of his hair has fallen off. He is only 63-64 years old but looks like he could be 85.
DeleteMaybe he should get an orange rug like Vin.
DeleteSlow day??? nobody cares...but you!!!!
ReplyDeleteYou are totally on the money with your assessment of Bill King. He was a decent baseball announcer, but the greatest basketball announcer of all time. I have never heard a true pro make the mistake that Miller did. His call was far from a save. IMHO, it made it worse. Overall, I like John, but he is no better than #5 amongst Giant baseball announcers, behind
ReplyDeleteRuss Hodges, Lon Simmons, Al Michaels, and Hank Greenwald.
On the subject of Hahn and the Sharks...
ReplyDeleteHis partner, Jamie Baker, has definitely improved in his analyst role. And old 13 is working well with Hahn (though Hahn seems to work well with everyone).
Baker is just a Sharks shill. Exactly what the Sharks wanted when the fired Remenda.
DeleteRAH RAH GO SHARKS!!! That is Baker contribution
@4:47
DeleteYou're exactly on the mark, Baker is no more than a shill for Sharks management
That's why when Randy Hahn covers a notional game for NBCSN he always has Bret Hedican covering as the color analyst. Baker is no more than a Sharks PR machine. Bring back Drew
I don't get your item on Rio. I have heard them say at least twice on KNTV that Jessica Aguirre is going to Rio. Both times Raj said it and Jessica acknowledged it, on air.
ReplyDeleteIt's Sunday morning and my wife and I are enjoying what has become a regular thing -- mimosas and KCBS's Dave Padilla. Here's how it works. We buy a couple of bottles of champagne and orange juice. Every time Padilla flubs a line, we take a sip. By about noon we're blitzed. The guy doesn't pre-read his copy, so he's always making embarrassing mistakes. Hard to believe he's an anchor on a major market station, but it's a lot of fun to listen to.
ReplyDeleteYou think Padilla's bad, how about Shepard Smith doing the noon Fox News news. It's like he's never seen the copy before and you can see how his mind works (or more likely, doesn't work) when he sees the first couple letters of a word and just picks out of the air the word he thinks it's going to be if he bothered finishing reading it. It frequently isn't and about 5% of the show is him correcting the word ("that is", "I should say", etc.) or mangling the sentence while trying to make his incorrect word work. It's pitiful and it's sad. He must have the goods on someone to keep that job.
Delete1:31 -- Shepard Smith is a member of the same club as Anderson Cooper & Don Lemon, so his mind is on other things...ASS!!!!
DeleteAre you getting laid by 12:15? If so, that seems like an ideal Sunday. Minus the Padilla part.
DeleteSandra Smith on Fox TV has great legs.
DeleteBill King was great at baseball also. Not as great as(in my order; football and basketball) but none the less great. I'm biased perhaps. Many a night I had my little radio under my pillow as a kid in the 80's past my bedtime listening to him bring me PBP of Rickey, Dwayne, Davy, Kingman, Burrough, Piccholo, Polonia,Carnwey et al on 560
ReplyDeleteI'm not a Giants fan by any means, but I saw nothing wrong with Miller's call. In fact, I found it funny and laughed. We don't always have to take things so seriously. Baseball is a game, just a game.
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget about Lon Simmons who was great announcer for the Giants (and I think the A's) and the 49ers. His home run call of
ReplyDelete'You can tell it good-bye" of a home run rings better than "Adios Pelota" by Miller.
All of that great baseball work (including the A's broadcasts), and some wonderful football calls as well...
DeleteJim Marshall's wrong way run. Steve Young's "impossible" run against the Vikings. Montana to John Taylor to beat the Bengals in the Super Bowl. Lon's "TOUCHDOWN FORTY NINERS" is right up there with his signature "TELL IT GOOD-BYE."
The Fat Man is overrated. The announcer isn't the show. The announcer compliments the game. The Fat Man talks down to people, not at them. That's what separates him from the Vin Scullys. Vin is like a welcomed guest in your home. The Fat Man is the unwanted in-law.
ReplyDeleteKen Korach is a gem. Very underrated.
Darya needs to show more cleavage in the AM.
I think you mean "complement."
DeleteBill King was the greatest football/basketball PBP ever. We were blessed with his talent. Miller has slipped badly, but he could choke on rocks and be better than the pompous Dave "I went to Stanford and know many big words" Flemming. How about ripping that clown...
ReplyDeletehow about Cackle Boy's 5th game WS call call? i never liked this guy. glad he's frequently 'on assignment'. hope his next assignment is to triple A
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHd-Dj19dLY
Always been overrated. Not even the best in his state obviously.
ReplyDeleteAs for Akron, that's a tough place. Rich hasn't been there. Bad example. More like Palm Springs. Yes, the Bay Area has lame sports fans in general.
The Hunter Pence grand slam followed a Buster Posey strikeout. The Pence grand slam made everyone forget Posey's strikeout, thus making Hunter Pence Buster Posey's new best friend. I thought it was brilliant.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant??!!?? You're easily pleased. Miller admitted he blew the call in an interview with Marty Lurie the next day.
Delete@9:47
DeleteThe call was wrong, as he admitted. But the 'save' was brilliant.
Compare that to King's annoying "check that" followed by a correction.
Who cares about Marty Lurie?
DeleteWhich broad is KRONNNNNNNN's high priestess...Darya, Anny or Robin?
ReplyDeleteWhat happened?!
Miller is ok. I've had many opportunities to listen to Dodgers broadcasts, and he's no Vin Scully. But then no one is. But I will take Bill King over Chick Hearn. The latter just didn't agree with me.
ReplyDeleteThe one on the Giants' staff who really needs to tone it down is the PA announcer. It's baseball, not WWE wrestling or monster trucks. A PA announcer is supposed to be pleasant and informative, not insert themselves into the equation. And it must be noted that this criticism has nothing to do with their race, or gender.
One of the worst Bay Area sports broadcasters has to be Joe Angel and his lousy home run calls. Bye, Bye, Joe Angel. As Sir Charles Barkley would say...that was turr-ible. Good riddance.
DeleteSo I take it that you don't put Joe's work "in the WINNNN column," 6:03?
DeleteDidn't know that Randy Winn has a column.
DeleteWe can debate where Miller stands relative to past Giants announcers (agree he's behind Simmons and Hodges, but ahead of Greenwald and Michaels). What really shouldn't be debatable is the quality of the overall Giants broadcast compared to what other markets around the country get. Some of you guys should take a listen and then come back and comment on the Giants broadcast. It won't take long to find that most of the country (Vin Scully and few others excepted) are saddled with Jamie Baker-homer types that are shills for their clubs and really tiresome to listen to. You don't realize how good we have it out here.
ReplyDeleteShills? Tiresome? Like Krukow?
DeleteAgreed. Miller has never done anything for me. He's okay. Best broadcasters not mentioned in the thread? Here's a few: (not in any particular order)
ReplyDelete1). Dan Rusanowsky - he makes hockey sound fun for the non-fan (me)
2). Tim Roye - Warriors fans: turn down the tv sound and turn up the radio. TR is 100x better than whatever dope is on local tv doing the games.
3). Up & comers: Justin Allegri & Kevin Richardson - PBP and color for San Jose State football. One of the best college football teams on air in the west.
Time to retire: Joe Starkey. He's half-blind and can no longer see the entire field. His Cal football broadcasts are an embarrassment. He was never very good and now he's just plain bad.
Also just plain bad: The guy doing Stanford football. Horrible. You would think that a school like Stanford with the many millions they have in the athletic department alone, could afford to hire someone half-way competent to call their football games. No. Chance. Whatsoever.
OK, which one of you posted this -- Justin or Kevin?
DeleteThumbs up on the Rusanowsky assessment!
Deletewhat kind of LSD does rusanowsky take? lol! no really, he sounds like he inhales helium in his vaporizer! shoots SCOOORE!!
ReplyDeleteAt ending of Sundays game ,Miller mentions some bizarre starting rotation with LA Orel Hershiser in it then corrected it.Did anybody catch that? I was traumatized.
ReplyDeleteWhile I respectfully disagree with many of my fellow commentators, Jon Miller is a great broadcaster, and he stands side-by-side with Russ and Lon as the greatest baseball broadcasters in bay area history. While I loved Bill King as a Warriors and Raiders announcer, he paled in comparison to the aforementioned as a baseball announcer. Dave Fleming is a very good baseball announcer and he may go down as a Dick Engberg type, a versatile announcer who is superlative at every sport he broadcasts. While I am a Giants guy, I really appreciate Ken Korach, Glenn Kuyper and Ray Fosse. I appreciate good broadcasting, and I can definitively say that the SF bay area is blessed with the best announcers in the country. I hope that the bay area enjoys the wealth of riches.
ReplyDeleteI would kill myself if I had to listen to an A's TV broadcast.
ReplyDelete