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Guardians 2024

V

vjm

It may not feel like it with a layer of snow outside, but on March 28, the boys from Ontario and Carnegie start their season out west against the Oakland (soon to be Las Vegas) Athletics.

Here's who will be calling the games and where:

On the radio for the 13th straight year it will be the Hammy and Rosey Show, with lead announcer Tom Hamilton and his faithful sidekick Jim Rosenhaus. As usual, the Guards' flagships are WTAM 1100/106.9 and WMMS 100.7 in Cleveland, with longtime affiliates WAKR 1590/92.5 in Akron, WEOL 930/100.3 in Elyria/Lorain, WHBC 1480 in Canton, and WLEC 1450/93.5 in Sandusky/Vacationland

On the TV side, the games will indeed be on Bally Sports Great Lakes for the full season (with a handful of games - including the eclipse tinted home opener - on WKYC NBC 3) with the longtime team of Matt Underwood (play by play), Rick Manning (analyst), Andre Knott (reporter), Al Pawlowski (pre/postgame host), and Jensen Lewis (pre/postgame analyst). Former Indians Pat Tabler and Chris Gimenez will pop in occasionally to spell Lewis, and Gimenez will also spell Manning every so often as well.

Both Tom Hamilton and Rick Manning are entering their 35th season calling Indians/Guardians games (both having started in 1990), breaking the record set by Herb Score, who called 34 seasons worth of games between TV and radio (1964-1997)
 
I love Hammy. I wonder how much time he is going to take off this season? I think he skipped a couple road trips last year. Maybe he should skip the preseason games to preserve his pipes for the regular season.
 
skiwest said:
I love Hammy. I wonder how much time he is going to take off this season? I think he skipped a couple road trips last year. Maybe he should skip the preseason games to preserve his pipes for the regular season.
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I'm sure he'll skip a series here and there. Both he and Rick Manning will turn 70 this year, so I'd bet they're not gonna be there for all 162 games (Manning for sure won't, as Chris Gimenez will spell him occasionally)

It's just like with the Cavs...they brought in Brad Daugherty so Austin Carr (who is going to be 76 this year) doesn't have to travel so much to call every game (AC does pre/postgame in the studio when Daugherty calls the game).
 
skiwest said:
I love Hammy. I wonder how much time he is going to take off this season? I think he skipped a couple road trips last year. Maybe he should skip the preseason games to preserve his pipes for the regular season.
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He's doing the pre-season games out in Arizona. Don't know if he's skipped any of them yet. Hey, I'd call turtle racing if someone wanted to pay for me to go to Arizona.
 
I hope Bally uses Pat Tabler when Manning takes games or series off. I liked his work last year.
Looks like Underwood, and probably Knott, will be there for every Bally broadcast. Doesn't look like they have anyone to step in for either of those two.
Curious as well to see if Hammy takes more games off this year. If this Oakland-Seattle stretch was later in the year rather than at the very beginning, I could see that as a trip he'd skip. I never blame any broadcaster, no matter the age, for taking some time off during the season. I love baseball but that's a grind for six months or more.
 
When Hammy is off, poor Rosey gets stuck doing PBP of the entire game. I know he normally gets someone to sit in the booth with him, but I think they are just providing commentary.
 
Plus his usual pre and post duties.
I like Hamilton, Rosenhaus and Manning but the depth in both the radio and TV booths is lacking to the point of being almost nonexistent, other than that Bally has brought in extra guys who can spell Manning.
 
skiwest said:
When Hammy is off, poor Rosey gets stuck doing PBP of the entire game. I know he normally gets someone to sit in the booth with him, but I think they are just providing commentary.
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On a normal game, Rosey does pregame, Hammy then starts the game, Rosey does the middle innings, Hammy then closes and does postgame.

You don't have as much time for announcer chit-chat as in years past between the pitch clock and the 8 bazillion live reads every game.
 
Is Rick Manning related to Tom Manning, who broadcast the Indians and Ohio State football way back (and teamed with Graham McNamee on the World Series, which gives you an idea of how far back)?
 
WARF 1350 The Gambler is airing Spanish play by play for all Guardians home games this year, with Rafa Hernández-Brito (the longtime Cavs Spanish announcer) calling most of the games, with Octavio Sequera filling in when RHB has Cavs duty, and 90s Indians hero Carlos Baerga will be on commentary.
 
I didn't hear Rosenhaus say it, but I saw a few tweets reporting he said that Hamilton is skipping the KC and LA portions of this road trip and will rejoin the team in Chicago next Monday when they play the White Sox. Pat Tabler was in the booth with Rosenhaus yesterday.
After the Guardians get back from Chicago, 13 of their last 16 are at home. The only exception is a quick weekend trip to St. Louis before five in a row at home to finish the regular season.
 
I think this is the third trip this season in which Hammy has skipped some or all of the games. And I think it is always a trip with west coast games. Maybe he figures since those games air so late here, there won't be very many people listening.
 
If he is going to start skipping so many games then maybe its time to pass the torch. Herb Score didn't skip series, neither did the other old timers. Give another young guy a chance. Hamilton has been with the team what 35 years now? Yeah we love our legends but Joe Tait knew when it was time to step aside so did Herb. Tom is a great play by play guy and I m sure I'll take flak for it but it is how I feel.
 
CleveRadioInsider said:
If he is going to start skipping so many games then maybe its time to pass the torch. Herb Score didn't skip series, neither did the other old timers. Give another young guy a chance. Hamilton has been with the team what 35 years now? Yeah we love our legends but Joe Tait knew when it was time to step aside so did Herb. Tom is a great play by play guy and I m sure I'll take flak for it but it is how I feel.
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Hammy has done the vast bulk of the games.

He takes a series off now and then...so what? Rick Manning does the same thing on the TV side.

Austin Carr doesn't do every single Cavs game - last couple of years he has split analyst duties with Brad Daugherty and on games where Brad is on the call, AC does pre/post game.

Old timers never skipped series back in the day...OK, but this ain't back in the day any more.

All over MLB, longtime team announcers take series off now and then...it saves their pipes and allows them to extend their careers...remember, the last decade or so of his career, Vin Scully never did Dodger games east of the Rocky Mountains.

Would it be so terrible if Hammy did a "stay east of the Mississippi River" schedule? He'd still be doing 120+ games out of a 162 game schedule.
 
I suppose Hammy could skip the pre-season games. Then maybe he wouldn't need to skip as many regular season games.

Austin Carr is 76, so it is no big deal that he doesn't do every Cavs game.
 
I think that day is coming for both Hamilton and Manning. It seems like they're both in pretty good health, although you never know from the outside, but I can see a time where they cut back to just home games and some of the closer road trips. Marty Brennaman in Cincinnati did that once he hit his mid-70s and there are several other examples, including Vin Scully.
No matter how much you love baseball, it has to be a grind when it's every day from late March to, if you're lucky, late October. That's not even counting time in Arizona. I don't blame Matt Underwood for not having other gigs in the offseason when he doesn't miss a Bally-televised game for six months.
 
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