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Mariners Announcers

W

WKomm

Believe it or don't - I'm not crazy about going all negative. But it's getting ridiculous this season. There's like a dozen guys and all of them together can't begin to fill the empty chair left by Dave Niehaus.

I like Mike Blowers but if I hear him referred to as "Blow" one more time ...

If I hear Ken Levine use an unbelievably juvenile line like calling the Cleveland Indians "The sons of the wigwam" one more time ... (I honestly thought I'd somehow stumbled into some Art Fern audio)

If I hear Ron Fairly use the insipid term "Oh baby" one more time ...

If I hear Dave Sims with that endless wheezy laugh over some stupid "inside" story one more time ... let alone the mangled kind-of-Bostonish pronounciations ...

If I hear any more of the cartoonish "Wedgie/Ichi/Miggy/Smokie/Carpie" nonsense ...

I will scream. I will light incense and pray. I will consult a shaman to see to see if the Niehaus spirit can be reincarnated in some young, talented announcer. Listening today as I washed the car (silly me) I heard mistake after mistake after mistake. Wrong names, wrong pitch count ("Oh - the first pitch would have been the last pitch. That was the second pitch") unbelievable. Check this out from Wiki - the current roster of Mariner announcers:

Ken Wilson (1977-1982, 2011-present)
Rick Rizzs (1983-1992, 1995-present)
Ken Levine (1992-1994, 2011-present)
Ron Fairly (1993-2006, 2011-present)
Dave Henderson (1997-2006, 2011-present)
Dave Valle (1997-2006, 2011-present)
Jay Buhner (2002-2005, 2011-present)
Dave Sims (2007-present)
Mike Blowers (2007-present)
Dan Wilson (2011-present)
Julio Cruz (Spanish language, 2002-present)
Alex Rivera (Spanish language, 2007-present)

I wasn't exaggerating about a dozen guys. It has gotten out of hand. This is a list of Yankees announcers:

Michael Kay is the play-by-play announcer and Ken Singleton, Al Leiter, John Flaherty, and Paul O'Neill work as commentators as part of a three-man, or occasionally two-man, booth.

FIVE.

Hey, Mariners management? Are those $8 beers paying to keep a dozen announcers (and that doesn't count the other folks like Angie Mentink and Jen Mueller.

Change next season, please.
 
Yes, the year after Niehaus died it was the right decision. Now it is time to name the lead announcers. Do it quick, it is time.
 
AQH said:
We get it, you don't like KIRO. Can we move on, please?
Click to expand...

Just curious and someone please correct me if I'm mistaken... what does KIRO have to do with this? I always was under the impression that the Mariners announcers / play by play and color talent were hired and payed by the Mariners...

Along those same lines... YES- give Rizzs the gig as lead guy.

A couple of other issues with content... saying that a player is "___ years of age". How about "he's 24" and keep it at that?

When stating the year 2012- IMHO it's 20-TWELVE, not TWO THOUSAND TWELVE... or the dreaded TWO THOUSAND AND TWELVE etc...

RR
 
Randy Roadz said:
AQH said:
We get it, you don't like KIRO. Can we move on, please?
Click to expand...

Just curious and someone please correct me if I'm mistaken... what does KIRO have to do with this? I always was under the impression that the Mariners announcers / play by play and color talent were hired and payed by the Mariners...

Along those same lines... YES- give Rizzs the gig as lead guy.

A couple of other issues with content... saying that a player is "___ years of age". How about "he's 24" and keep it at that?

When stating the year 2012- IMHO it's 20-TWELVE, not TWO THOUSAND TWELVE... or the dreaded TWO THOUSAND AND TWELVE etc...

RR
Click to expand...

Randy,
Was about to make the same comment. Not a KIRO decision. The announcers are Mariner employees.
 
AQH - You bang your own drums here all the time. This is mine. And I post an average of about once every few months, so step off, please.

It's not that I dislike KIRO-FM ... I dislike what it's become. It's fairly recent. And fixable. But that's another post.

Ok - so the announcers are hired and paid by the Mariners. An obvious fact I overlooked. Still - the point is: too many, too lame. Randy makes good, PD points. And I think Rizzs does a good job. In away, it's typical Seattle - takes forever to come to a decision. IMO, it's really tough to listen to this season. Of course we're all broadcast pros (right?) and certainly more critical. Still ...

Time to change.
 
Boys Boys..! Chill. I've listened to a few of those broadcasts. He's right.. It seems Mariners sports play by play, pre game/post game has joined the circle jerk club of seeing how many superstars and wanna-bees you can cram in the booth at one time from game to game.. A play by play and a color voice used to work and sound just fine..Someday soon I hope, someone is going to discover that cramming as many bodies into the CR or a booth produces a sound that's akin to a trainwreck. It sort of works on TV but not radio.
 
WKomm said:
AQH - You bang your own drums here all the time. This is mine. And I post an average of about once every few months, so step off, please.
Click to expand...

Don't even begin to lump my content with the vitriol you have against KIRO.
 
I remember reading somewhere that the reason for not naming a permanent replacement for Dave was that Nintendo was thinking about cashing out its ownership share.
 
Jack Griffin said:
I remember reading somewhere that the reason for not naming a permanent replacement for Dave was that Nintendo was thinking about cashing out its ownership share.
Click to expand...
I'm not clear on why or how that would impact broadcast staffing? But, I would agree that the team may be for sale. 35 years without a World Series visit. Not even a good ALCS showing. ???
 
The Mariner announcer situation is totally ligit on this site. I hope they narrow it down to 2-3 guys, and perhaps 4 combined on both radio/tv, as it was in the 90's, as is with most MLB teams.

However, the announcer situation is secondary to the team making major moves to become a contender. If current management and/or ownership is content with secondary players, it will never happen. Come on owners, you have a great ballpark, a potential fan base that loves winning, and yet there seems to be little effort to make it better.

IMO, invest in great talent, and Seattle will pay you back bigtime providing there is success on the field. This isn't rocket science, as we have already seen this in '95 and again in '01.
 
None of this debate would be around if the team even remotely could be seen as a potential winning franchise. If they could just hit the ball with the stick....
 
Wino - I think I still would have posted this even if the Mariners were undefeated at this point. The idea that 12 people as inane as the ones on TV/radio now is a good thing (SOMEone must have thought so) is beyond me. And maybe they could pay for a few A level players if the fired 8 of the announcers. A local owner with love for the game would help as well.
 
I appreciate your snarkiness, JG - but why would you ask that I call the VP of Communications for the Mariners? I'm just expressing an opinion in a public forum. If I give my two cents on some current broadcast law, should I call the FCC?

Randy and I would have a nice conversation but I'm just too busy these days. I'll have my people call his people ... let them hash it out.
 
The cost of a play-by-play announcer pales in comparison with a player's salary. I'm pretty sure $$$ was not the major reason the Mariners opted for this strategy in the booth. It's like most of their personnel decisions: not designed to win.
 
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