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Baseball Coverage

Great to have Danny Graves back this season - in for Reds/Dodgers & Reds/Brewers series. Easy going, plus insights & great sense of humor. (personally would love him in a lot more)
 
Will Marty Brennaman be the last of the outspoken breed of baseball play-by-play? He has battled his way over time to tell it the way he sees it. His disdain expressed last night for letting the Reds pitcher hit w/bases loaded w/1 out, was entirely appropriate. (and Castillo came thru like a champ - smack into a dp) Lucky for the Reds, the Cards were not the Cards of past seasons that would make them pay for lost oppty's.
 
I hope he is not. However, it seems to take time for a new play-by-play man to establish himself to the point that he knows he can be critical without fear of losing his job. It took Marty awhile.
 
Cincinnati Kid said:
I hope he is not. However, it seems to take time for a new play-by-play man to establish himself to the point that he knows he can be critical without fear of losing his job. It took Marty awhile.
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Howie Rose will criticize the Mets, and has had plenty of reason to do so over his time as the voice of the team. Tom Hamilton is over the top with screaming enthusiasm when the Indians do anything positive, but knows bad play when he sees it and usually says so, Unfortunately, other longer-tenured announcers still can't bring themselves to be critical, opting instead for an "Awww, that's too bad. He's trying to hard." approach. Joe Castiglione (Red Sox) and Pat Hughes (Cubs) are the primary offenders here. I'll give Ted Leitner of the Padres and Denny Matthews of the Royals a pass, because they're often announcing games of teams stocked with Triple-A talent who aren't being asked to win more than they lose.
 
Couldn't agree more with several previous posts. As a Cubs fan, the radio and TV crews are extremely hesitant to criticize the team when warranted (which drives me nuts ... I expect it from the radio guys but TV has grown markedly less critical in recent years, a huge departure from the approach Harry Caray, Steve Stone, Chip Caray and even Thom Brennaman took, and I believe Thom might still be there if WGN hadn't given an ultimatum as far as his national work).
As far as Tommy Thrall or whoever Marty's successor is, I just hope the guy is given a chance. I really like what I've heard of Thrall. Unfortunately, there will be that segment of fans that will refuse to give the next guy a chance "because he isn't Marty." Hopefully it's not too large a segment and the successor is given a few years to prove himself.
 
Y - great feedback on other play-by-play. Another terse commentary today from Marty: "3 men up, 3 men down - it has become automatic." !
 
Also enjoyed Marty schooling Cowboy after he scoffed at Marty for picking "Quakers" (trivia question) as previous nickname of Phillies.
 
Extra Innings caller pointed out how with radio on in background and Marty doing play-by-play, just by the tone of his voice & inflection, you can tell how the Reds are doing. This is the problem I have with Cowboy. When the opposing pitcher mows down a Reds hitter, you would think from Cowboy's excitement the Reds were excelling! I wouldn't mind having more of Flynn & Graves in future.
 
rivercity said:
Extra Innings caller pointed out how with radio on in background and Marty doing play-by-play, just by the tone of his voice & inflection, you can tell how the Reds are doing. This is the problem I have with Cowboy. When the opposing pitcher mows down a Reds hitter, you would think from Cowboy's excitement the Reds were excelling! I wouldn't mind having more of Flynn & Graves in future.
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Sorry, but I’ll take Marty and Cowboy any day over this undistinguished crop of guys the Reds have been auditioning for the past several years. Management’s ability to put together a decent radio team for the future is reflective of how well they’ve done rebuilding the team that takes the field. Inconsistent and uninspiring. Where’s Thom? A much better choice if you ask me.
 
As it stands now, I would take Tommy Thrall and Jeff Brantley as the two-man radio team for 2020. I think Thom does a good job although in many TV games and with no real prompting, he will start giving his opinion on something. Obviously there needs to be people to fill in from time to time, but I would prefer those with announcing experience rather than former players.
 
If I'm not mistaken, I think Cowboy started doing numerous play-by-play innings (as opposed to just color commentary) just in the last couple of years due to Marty cutting back. I think Thrall qualifies as the basic play-by-play guy. In that role you have to paint the picture, giving all the details. I prefer Cowboy in the color role only.
 
I really think it will be Tommy Thrall and Jeff Brantley in 2020 with Thrall as the main announcer and Brantley doing several innings during games. It appears that Thom Brennaman will stay on TV although I noticed in recent weeks for road games, it has been Jim Day in the booth with Chris Welch on the television side.
 
I really like the rapport between Thrall & Danny Graves. Danny does great color. And Doug Flynn has fun no matter who he's paired with. As far as fun - I say apply Votto's salary to a new role: Player/Mgr. Now THAT would be fun...but that's for another forum.
 
rivercity said:
I really like the rapport between Thrall & Danny Graves. Danny does great color. And Doug Flynn has fun no matter who he's paired with. As far as fun - I say apply Votto's salary to a new role: Player/Mgr. Now THAT would be fun...but that's for another forum.
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They could have kept Puig and gotten him to do that for much less than they'd have to pay Votto. And wouldn't THAT be fun?
 
Puig always adds fun. BUT the thing is - they gotta eat Votto's salary no matter what - so might as well get double duty out of him. Y - I would take either in place of Bell.
 
Due to relentless rain in St. Louis, Chick did a good job of filling in cancelled game for almost 4 hrs. I thought one of his topics was a great conversation starter: "What team can you not live without?" I usually hang out long enough to at least catch "Mike from Fairfield".
 
Chick does a nice job. Unlike others on the WLW talk-shows, he gets the people calling on the telephone on the air. While some callers aren't too good, it beats hearing a show host go on and on about what he thinks or feels.
 
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