Arthur Solomon’s ‘Best Ever’ Baseball And Football Announcers; Vin Scully and Mel Allen!

Telecasts of baseball games, once known as the “summer games,” but whose season now extends into the mid-to late fall, and football games, once known as the “winter games,” but whose season now begins in the summer of one year and ends in the winter of the following year, both have the same problem: The announcers of both sports now sound as if they came out of a broadcasting cookie cutter program. But that was not always the case.

Some examples:

• Red Barber could entertain radio and TV fans with a Southern phrase like, “He’s sitting in the catbird seat,” also with his patented phrases like, “Hold the phone. Manager on the way to the mound;” “He’s running like a bunny with his tail on fire;” “The bases are F O B’s,” Full of Brooklyn Dodger players. 
• Mel Allen, whose Southern drawl charmed New Yorkers for decades, also was the first announcer to insert himself into the game by criticizing bad play as it happened. His “how about that” call is still one of the most famous baseball broadcasters phrases ever. (Both Barber and Allen were both inducted at the same time into the baseball broadcaster Hall of Fame.)
• Dizzy Dean would tell TV viewers to switch to a better game.
• Jack Buck’s catchall phrase “It’s a winner!” could be used for any play that made a difference in a game and the reading of his famous “For America” poem after 9/11, has never been matched by any other sportscaster.
• Harry Caray would lead the crowd in the singing of “Take Me Out To The Ball Game. “
• Harry Kalas, when things didn’t look good for the Philadelphia Phillies, would sing “High Hopes.” 
• Rosey Rowswell, would say,” Open the window, Aunt Minnie, here it comes!” and break a light bulb to sound as if a home run broke a window when announcing for the Pittsburgh Pirates. 
• Phil Rizutto, who would make no secret of leaving the announcer’s booth after the 7th inning so he could beat the traffic over the George Washington Bridge once said, “I like radio better than television because if you make a mistake on radio, they don’t know. You can make up anything on the radio.”
• And, of course, Vin Scully, who many media watchers consider the best baseball announcer ever for his poetic-like use of the English language, which is still unmatched today.

There are also some football announcers who have separated themselves from the herd:

• No one could provide excellent analysis and entertainment at the same time as John Madden did with his zany diagrams of plays. Madden might accurately be cited as the most important sportscaster the NFL has ever had because he had people tune in just to watch his performance, converting many to new fans.
• Howard Cosell is a close second because he wasn’t afraid to express an opinion, as so many of today’s announcers are.
• Don Meredith, who could charm an audience almost as good as John Madden, is known for singing “Turn out the lights, the party’s over,” a line from the Willie Nelson classic “The Party’s Over,” when a game was out of hand.
• Al Michaels, for his consistently fine announcing of a game without using the histrionics of so many of today’s announcers, who describe a play as if it was the first time it ever happened. 
• Dick Enberg, who could make calling a game interesting without using the made-up inside football language used by so many of today’s commentators. 
•  Lindsey Nelson: for his story-telling ability, (on football and baseball) so often missing from today’s announcers in any sport, and for his choice of sports jackets that would never make the “best dressed” list.
• Marty Glickman: for his ability to keep an audience tuned in even when they should have tuned out. (Many in the broadcasting business believe that Glickman might be the most influential broadcaster of all time. He invented phrases that are still used today, and described a basketball game in a manner that became the template for today’s announcers. Glickman said. “I had to paint the word picture. That’s a very important goal. Not only creating in the mind of a listener what it looks like, but what it feels like.” In addition he was a coach to many famous sportscasters, including, Marv Albert, Bob Costas, Dick Stockton, Chris Berman, Sean McDonough, Mike Breen, Bob Papa and Mike Tirico. 
• Cris Collinsworth, whose analysis of complicated plays is delivered in a manner that a first time viewer can understand.     
• Terry Bradshaw, whose entertaining personality makes Fox’s halftime show worth watching.
• Frank Gifford, who relied on his experience as a former player to explain the game to an audience. 
• Troy Aikman, who is never afraid to criticize happenings,
• And Chris Berman, for his ability to make a recap of games entertaining, even when the audience already knows the outcome.

Of course any “best ever” list is subjective, so if I left out your “bests” don’t take it personally. Your opinion is as good as mine, maybe better.

Having said that the two sportscasters below deserve to be on every “best ever” list: Bob Costas, not being afraid to express his opinions and John Facenda, known as the “Voice of God,” who did the narration for NFL Films productions for many years. “He had a voice that could make a laundry list sound dramatic,” Steve Sabol of NFL Films said. 

Today, too many announcers are not given jobs because of their broadcasting skills, but because of their name value. And that’s a shame, because gone are the days when announcers would use both their skills and personalities to differentiate themselves from others.

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Arthur Solomon, a former journalist, was a senior VP/senior counselor at Burson-Marsteller, and was responsible for restructuring, managing and playing key roles in some of the most significant national and international sports and non-sports programs. He also traveled internationally as a media adviser to high-ranking government officials. He now is a frequent contributor to public relations publications, consults on public relations projects and was on the Seoul Peace Prize nominating committee. He has been a key player on Olympic marketing programs and also has worked at high-level positions directly for Olympic organizations. During his political agency days, he worked on local, statewide and presidential campaigns. He can be reached at arthursolomon4pr@juno.com.