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In a report for CBS, Jon Friedman profiles Ron Darling, Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez, who “loyal fans and many critics say [are] the best announcers in baseball.”
…speaking of broadcasters, i’m not sure what to make of Wayne Hagin, who took over as the play-by-play man for WFAN…i’m starting to think i’d rather listen to just Howie Rose…on his own…ala Vin Scully…i prefer howie’s play by play, and i prefer howie’s commentary…what’s more, hagin is almost too polished…he has a lot of gravitas and a traditional cadence, and i miss the genuine excitement that the broadcast used to have…sorry, wayne…
Hagin stinks. too bad there isn’t a way to have the TV broadcast on the radio too.
I agree. Hagin turns me right off. For one thing, he sound very generic, bordering on that wacky disc jockey voice.
For another thing — and this is a complaint I have with all the Mets announcers to a greater or lesser degree — he is overly praising of the opposition. Everybody is just the best ever and having a “fantastic” game.
But I could overlook all those things if it weren’t for the fact that he just plain says some stupid, untrue things that prove that he is not really all that knowlegeable. Here is just one specific case. I wonder if anyone remembers hearing this:
When they were playing the Braves during the first week of the season in Atlanta, during one game he stated the following about Chipper Jones — and I will paraphrase because I don’t remember his exact words:
“Chipper Jones — he’s a certain Hall of Famer and he still has a lot of career left.”
Huh?
Don’t get me wrong, Chipper Jones is an excellent ballplayer. But HE’S 36 YEARS OLD! And he gets injured all the time. How can a knowlegeable baseball person say that he has a lot of career left in him? And as far as him being a certain Hall of Famer, I have two words for Wayne Hagan:
Jim Rice
Tell me where I can find HIS plaque in the HOF. It looks very much like Chipper and Jim Rice will have similar type careers — except for the fact that Rice did it in the era before the terrible pitching and the crazy home run totals.
So if Chipper is a certain hall of famer, why isn’t Rice in?
Anyway, Hagin says a lot of stupid stuff. It’s embarrassing. It seem like he just likes to hear himself talk. He says a lot of boring, fluffy cliche-type things.
sounds like sour grapes, just because he praised chipper. i dont mind announcers giving due where its earned, otherwise you end up with yankee announcers who never credit the opposition, and you end up thinking the only way the yankees can lose is if the yankees beat themselves, not if the other team/player outplays them.
Yes, you are right about the Yankee announcers, particularly John Sterling, who whines about every pitch and every call that goes against the Yanks.
But you kind of missed my point. It wasn’t so much that he praised Chipper — hell, Chipper has worn the Mets out over the years. It’s the fact that he so flippantly declared Chipper a sure Hall of Famer and stated that he has a lot of career left. Clearly, neither are immediately true. Both are possible, I suppose, but neither are undisputed facts as his comments seemed to indicate.
you’re right about that, i dont think he’s a certain hall of famer, and i certainly dont think he has a lot of career left
I’m going to have to disagree with you guys here. As far as health goes, yes, he does have his issues, but let’s face it, with today’s medicine it’s not a far fetch for a guy to play into his 40’s, and with Chipper’s numbers and ability I certainly wouldn’t rule it out. He can easily go into the AL and DH - he will surely produce good enough numbers to remain in the bigs. So if you think about it, by saying that Chipper has a lot of career left he could mean 4-5 years, which in reality is a lot of career for a professional sports player.
As far as HOF goes, I would say that Chipper may not be a sure lock as of today, but he certainly will be by the time he’s done playing. Let’s compare him to Rice:
RICE JONES
playing time: 16 yrs 16yrs to date
HR: 382 390 (will be at least 450)
RBI: 1451 1313 (will be at least 1500)
AVG: .298 .308
SLG: .502 .547
OPS+: .128 .143
Plus Chipper is a career 3B while Rice is LF - makes a big difference for HOF. Rice has been to the postseason twice, Chipper was on a division winning team for 11 straight years.
I’m not a big Chipper fan - as a matter of fact, I hate the guy, but you gotta give him his dues. He’s a great player and he WILL be in the HOF.
I do think Chipper is a Hall of Famer… but I don’t understand one thing. Why would you choose to compare him to Jim Rice? If you are trying to make a case for Chipper in the Hall of Fame, wouldn’t you want to compare his numbers to someone that is actually in the Hall? I’m sure his numbers stack up to a lot of them.
Also, Chipper did spend a few years in the OF as well.
WHO ELSE IS GOING TO THE GAME IN PHILLY ON SATURDAY?????????????????????????
THEY REFUSe TO MAKE poST SO WE CAN MEET UP AND HAVE METS NATION BE VISIBLE
I do not care for Wayne Hagin. I love listening to baseball on the radio and i just can’t get comfortable with him, i don’t know why. I don’t think he has a voice for New York (if that makes sense). Can we see if Uecker is available?
I second that motion…bring in “Harry Doyle”!
“juuuuuuuuuust a bit outside”
Ueckerist: Excuse me, Furson, but could you please stop yiffing with that dog? Your flagrant yiffery is bothering our pitcher.
ThatDamnFurry: how much am I bothering him? where is he
Ueckerist: Juuuust a bit. Outside.
After Bob Murphy, you can only go down, and you’ll never hear better.
Amen.
i couldn’t agree more. hagin is not good, which is probably why he bounces around a lot. he’s very stiff and cold. doesn’t connect at all. i was thinking the same thing about howie taking it on by himself. sometimes, when i can’t sleep, i’ll listen to vin call a dodgers game and just love him. he’s the best.
I can listen to Vin Scully over and over again, especially the 2nd best call in baseball history:
“little roller up along first, behind the bag AND IT GETS BY BUCKNER. HERE COMES KNIGHT AND THE METS WIN IT!”
The only better call was Russ Hodges on the Shot Heard Round the World in ‘51.
Actually “It gets through Buckner!”
Yeah, gomets is doing what I do a lot, and that is to confuse Bob Murphy’s call with Vin Scully’s. Murphy said by and Vin said through.
Easy to confuse the two best baseball voices ever.
I’d rate the SNY team amongst the best on TV in any sport.
Hagin is a hard listen, painful at times! Almost as bad as Gary’s face is for TV.
Gary’s face or Howie’s face? Which do you prefer?
I think Howie, sadly, has a face made for radio. Maybe that’s why he’s so good at it.
Gary is great. Murph was my all-time favorite, but Gary is top notch. However, in the Cohen/Rose debate, I have to side with Gary because they showed a picture of him once from the 70s and he looked pretty cool with long hair and a beard. He could get that look back, even if it was only through a wig. But Howie? Good as he is, there’s no help for that mug. And by the way, I love him, but he always sounds like he’s shouting.
I never thought I’d miss Tom McCarthy but he’s considerably better than Hagin….who’s overly structured and doesn’t really work well yet with Howie…..
In retrospect, Tom McCarthy wasn’t all that bad.
But the guy he replaced — Ted Robinson — was HORRIBLE. Absolute rubbish.
There should be a law: Tennis guys are prohibited from announcing baseball.
I’ve still yet to hear Hagin, so I can’t really form an opinion on him.
Gary, Keith and Ron are great. To people who are not Mets fans, Keith is the only one I could see taking exception too. I still dig him though.
I love these guys too, but someone should tell Keith that the word neither should not be used in the place of the word either! This bothers me. And the word “irregardless” is not a word. I know, I know…why should I care? I do, call me crazy.
It’s okay, their otherwise noble approach enbiggens us all. ;)
“irregardless” not being a word is a promulent misconception…it’s become an official word through usage