Two of the greatest, Richie Ashburn and Harry Kalas, hands down!

Announcers are part of the entertainment. Regardless of what they do, they will not please everyone. That is just the plain and simple. So if one has a homer announcer and the ratings are good, then the announcer is entertaining and drawing an audience. And that is the name of the game. For news bias is a killer as it doesn’t attract an audience. Look at the Kneepad Media and its declining sales, viewership and readership. People don’t want a liberal homer, they want it straight. So in one case bias is a plus. In another case it’s a negative. Guess which one will be in business in 5 years?

Good for Harrelson. If someone is employed by a major league team like the "Hawk" wants to cheerlead, that is fine by me.

I miss Jack Buck. He was just outstanding until the last year or so when he lost a step or two. "Cepeda swings, and there's a long drive to right, way back it might gone!"

Now that I've dated myself, I'll go away.

There will be bias. Using mlbtv, one may choose Home or Away announcers - a very good feature.
However, "The Hawk" and partner take it to new heights, I turn them off, as I do for others, notably one half of the Rays' team who simply can't keep his trap shut.

As a Yankee fan I love Remy and Orsillo more than the Yank's Kay/Singleton; they simply have more personality/fun while getting the job done.

Oh for lazy summer afternoons when the ballgames were on radio. The announcers were quiet for long periods as the sounds from the field (crowd, vendors, cat calls, etc.) filled the imagination. One could tune a radio to that sound alone.

It's one thing for the announcer paid by the home team to show bias. It would be another for the network broadcasters to show the same favoritism. Their industry would condemn it as unprofessional. Sportscasters and sportswriters (distinguished from sports columnists and commentators) are the last remaining element of reporters who consider objectivity to essential to credibility. Imagine if their news counterparts had as much integrity.

I loved my "homer" announcers, from Jack Brickhouse to Harry Caray to Ron Santo. Those announcers made watching the Cubs fun. I never understood why some people complained that Harry or Ron made too many mistakes, they'd get names wrong or forget what the count was. So what? The umps knew the count and you could read the players name for yourself.

Announcers such as Harry, Ron and Hawk add passion and humor. The network announcers suck the life out of the game. Watch a network game and you realize just how dull baseball really is.

Not everyone can be a Vin Scully. If the ratings are good more power to em. I seem to remember Harry Carey was a bit of a homer, A Cubs fan and a Bud man.

What in the world does it matter if your hometown announcer or announcers tilt homeward? The audience is mostly local and therefore probably fans. Here in Rangerland, one of our announcers is a former Ranger player and manager, Tom Grieve. We would expect nothing less than Ranger love from Tommy.

Harrelson's homer-ism notwithstanding, he's easily one of the worst announcers out there, for a long list of reasons beyond being a homer.

What about The Zombie doing the Notre Dame play-by-play for NBC? Pat Haden at least gave some credit to the opposing players; don't know how his replacement is doing - I quit watching because of Hammond.

Sure, WSJ, the Yankees and the Mets announcers are not homers. Frankly, I wish Matt Underwood and Rick Manning would pull for the Indians more, but I go easy on them because, well, they have to attend Indians games, don't they? By the way, how many weeks did they have to listen before the Indians won a game. Ah, 1997, when we won the World Series -- well when we came two outs away. Sigh.

Two words: Harry Caray.

Harry would take his shirt off and call the game from the boozy bleachers. That's a homie, right there.

I drank a couple beers one Sunday morning with Harry and a few other guys after a Howard Cosell Invitational, many years ago in the SoCal desert. Shortly thereafter, he had his stroke, and Cubs fans from here to Pluto rallied for Harry until he got well and took back his mic. That was so cool -- I'll never forget it. Never.

The local guys are supposed to be biased. That's the point, yo.

Baseball is a summertime amusement and nothing more. Lighten up.

I remember listening on the radio, Lou Boudrieu and Vince Lloyd. Those two could always make the Cubs sound like pennant winners.....
Great tag team!

The only thing more obvious than Hawk's being a homer is his love for everything Carl Yastrenski. Luckily, Steve Stone is there to offer his brilliance. So Chicago fans had Hawk and Santo a few years ago. Both sides had issues. Hawk is horrible, but his bias makes him lose a lot of credibility. He is the former GM of the Sox.

Harrelson is HORRIBLE!

he's only fun to listen to when the White Sox are losing, he's pathetic, being a homer is one thing but being a sore loser is childish and hawk whines like a 6 yo girl who has lost her favorite barbie doll.

I think the network announcers should be impartial, but if I am watching the Reds network I expect them to be pulling for the Reds.

I used to listen to the Braves back in the 70s when Ernie Johnson and Milo Hamilton were announcers. The Braves went through a bad stretch and were simply awful.

Ernie kept things positive, Milo openly criticized the fans and the team. Guess who wasn't invited back.

I love baseball. Local announcers who love their home teams might compromise their professionalism a bit by rooting either subtly or outright, but as long as I can picture the game in my mind by hearing the call, the television picture just adds another dimension to the fun.

But my all time favorite announcer was ol' Diz, who was one of the greatest pitchers who ever lived: the last 30 game winner in the National League. I just found a vignette with Diz and the dying Bambino back in 1948. Try to keep the tears out of your eyes when you read it.

"Quickest Thinking of the Year: Pulled by Dizzy Dean the day in June when Babe Ruth made a personal appearance at Sportsman's Park. Diz was supposed to pitch to the Babe. Ruth stepped to the plate, but in his weakened condition, the bat dropped off his shoulder. Sensing danger in the situation, Diz stepped off the mound, strode to the plate and pointed to right field - where the Babe used to clout them. Everybody recognized the gesture immediately." - The Sporting News (1948)

Isn't that great?

You stole my thunder, #11! I was very surprised to see the Indians announcers in the #2 spot. Rick Manning dogs the Indians out all the time! Still remember where I was and what I was doing during game 7 of the 1997 WS. Sigh...

This table is based on the number of biased comments made in ONE game for each broadcast team. I notice the Yankee broadcasters got a zero. There mustn't have been any A-BOMBS! for A-ROD! in that game.

Bob Prince and sometimes co-owner Bing Crosby for the Pirates. Different world, different time. Missing it more every day.

I remember back when I was a kid (OK, sort of) and was an avid Dodger fan. Vin Scully was so professional, fair and impartial that he made me mad on occasion.

We are still blessed to have wonderful Vin Scully, the class announcer of all times. We love him!

My favorite announcing moment had to be Ranger announcers Josh Lewin (at the time) and Tom Grieve cheering on Bengie Molina as he legged out a triple to complete a cycle in Boston. For those who may not know of Molina, imagine the crawler that took the space shuttle to the launch pad rounding the bases.

They would accentuate typical good plays (and it's a long fly ball...), with relatively normal delivery the rest of the time. But for this, they sounded like they were rooting for Secretariat at Belmont Park.

"Come on Bengie! Come on Bengie! Ha haa!!!"

Double post, sorry, special topic.

Here's to the great Red Barber, sittin' in the cat bird seat.

RIP.

"Sittin' in the catbird seat" – used when a player or team was performing exceptionally well. This expression was the title of a well-known story by James Thurber. According to a character in Thurber's story, the expression came from Red Barber, but according to Barber's daughter, her father did not begin using the expression until after he had read the story.