Pittsburgh sports announcers!!!
- Thread starter Blue Goose
- Start date
Steigerwald announces for blind people. He doesn't realize we can see what's going on. He speaks as if he is on radio, and knows he'll never be as good as Mike Lange.
Very true. But Mike Milbury is a dickhead. Called Bob Johnson the "professor of goonism" during the '91 playoffs and has held a grudge ever since. McGuire is fine. Emerick is great and loves the city of Pittsburgh in general.
His voice is a little weaker and higher pitched than back in the day. But he is getting up there in age.
Yeah I like Greg Brown also. Love Bob Walk. Steve Blass is what he is. He is the Pirates "Myron" I guess. I think Joe Block is too vanilla. And I don't get why John Wehner has that job.
Not to mention he is reputed to drink a bit.
I'll take Block over the screeching Greg Brown or the stat-soaked Lanny Frattare any day. I won't listen to the audio on TV is Brownie is calling the game.
Pirates' color men are three shoots off the same plant: White former players who owe much to the Pirate organization and are loyal soldiers. Rock and Walk voices are barely distinguishable. Walkie has at least a smidgen of bluntness. Rock is seldom critical to the point of anger. Blass never is; he is a company man to the core and more of a storyteller.
I have nothing against Paul Stiegerwald personally but he is not Mike Lange.
The Steeler crew is a clown act.
I listen to Pitt's radio and wish we had a Tony Caridi-level talent calling our games. Crisp and accurate. Time for Billy to move into a pregame-postgame role.
Pirates' color men are three shoots off the same plant: White former players who owe much to the Pirate organization and are loyal soldiers. Rock and Walk voices are barely distinguishable. Walkie has at least a smidgen of bluntness. Rock is seldom critical to the point of anger. Blass never is; he is a company man to the core and more of a storyteller.
I have nothing against Paul Stiegerwald personally but he is not Mike Lange.
The Steeler crew is a clown act.
I listen to Pitt's radio and wish we had a Tony Caridi-level talent calling our games. Crisp and accurate. Time for Billy to move into a pregame-postgame role.
I like Bob Walk's dry humor. Brown to me is a homer yet sort of in an endearing but much less colorful way than how Cope was. Blass needs to hang it up. Bob Gibson and Ernie Banks retired a long time ago. I don't mind the stories, but baseball has changed to an analytics game so stop hating on it and accept it or move on. Wehner is just boring.
Craig Wolfley is a nice guy, but his act makes Steelers games unlistenable.
Even with Steigerwald, that crew with Bourque, Errey, Lang, Potash are the best of the pro teams in town. I know that it is a different format, but I really like Jay Caufield in the studio between periods and after the game.
Craig Wolfley is a nice guy, but his act makes Steelers games unlistenable.
Even with Steigerwald, that crew with Bourque, Errey, Lang, Potash are the best of the pro teams in town. I know that it is a different format, but I really like Jay Caufield in the studio between periods and after the game.
- I like Steigerwald. He gets fired up. I like my team's announcers to be homers. You want to watch a game with a friend who also roots for your team or do you want to watch a game with some @$$hat who roots for the other guys?
- Blass is ok - I don't mind him and I like his stories of his days playing
- Brown is wonderful. I love his homer enthusiasm, his voice is solid, his sense of playfulness is fun to listen to. I think he's the best Pirates announcer in my lifetime and I've been a fan since age 7 in 1960.
- Wehner always sounds like he's pissed off, but his technical commentary is very very strong and often enlightening.
- Walk is just terrific - love him.
- Block has an incredibly good voice, but hasn't found an on air personality that really works for him, imho. His jokes sort of fall flat to me and he has no trademark phrases that resonate. "There it goes" or whatever is just incredibly lame. It's like he's calling the money shot in a porn flick or something. Back to the drawing board, Mr. Block.
- Someone mentioned Bob Prince - I came to really dislike him in his last several years. He fell into that typical "old man" thing of getting on a particular horse and then just never freaking let it go. I'd be like Alright, Bob - I get it - the bunt we didn't get down in the 3rd inning was important - now STFU about it and move on pleeeeeeeze"
Meh. The guy is OK, like I said above. I probably would appreciate him more without the a-holes they have working with him. Overall they make the package distasteful and although the local crew are a bit hokey and definitely homers (though Errey often points out when the Penguins get lucky calls or are playing poorly), I much prefer them.
Coincidentally I had a late event on Tuesday and coming home, put the Pens game on the radio. Only for about 20 minutes or so. But again, it sounded bizarre to me. Phil Bourque sounded like he was there; he had a cleaner feed, and there was more of a sound from the crowd in the background. Lange sounded like he was not there, like he was watching it from a monitor or such. There was more of a hollow sound.
Its baseball, slow and steady. I find Brown to be unbearable. Every win is the 7th game of the world series, the Pirates can do nothing wrong and no other front office is as good as the Pirates. Steigy is not as good as Lange but I guess he is OK. With the speed of the game I don't know how anyone calls Hockey.
Loves some of these appraisal posts on pgh announcers. Have to add that I think Joe Block is like a jinx for the Bucs. It's like he forgets that he's on the Pirates payroll. The Joe Block commentary makes me think I don't have the home team radio station tuned in. He's the worst.
I'm watching the Bucs at San Diego and they say that Joe block has the weekend off, how does that happen? they should give him the season off. Rob King in for him
I wish Block would take the rest of the year off.And he can take that Robbie idiot with him.How did they not hire or consider Rob King to start with? Pitt should really consider him when Bill's day behind the mic is done.
I really don't get why Rob King doesn't get more of a chance around here.
He's certainly a hard worker at his profession...... hopefully if not seriously considered for further advancement in this market.....get the heck out of it !! But maybe he''s been promised something better down the line or maybe not ambitious enough to leave " the burg " . HTP/Forever!!!
Like Brown calling a win in May like it is the deciding game of the World Series, too over the top.
Greg Brown sucks, if they ever hide his stat sheet and ban his stupid remarks about a players 6 game hitting streak 4 years prior, he would sit there for 4 hours with his lips moving and no sound coming out.
yeah, and the interesting thing is that with the proliferation of sports channels you get to listen to a wide variety of baseball announcers. That being said, there really is no variety. Here in central PA we get the pirates, phillies, nationals and orioles....all the announcers and color guys are pretty much the same and I would even put the pirate guys near the top. Its baseball, unless you can throw in some nudity or people doing stupid things on youtube between pitches it is kind of hard to be keep everyone entertained for 162 games a year.
I think it comes down to insight. The local guys are always going to provide better insight into the home team than the national guys.
none of the Pirates "color" announcers provide any type of analysis or strategy They have longed outlived their usefulness and should be replaced.
Also Hillgrove should retire
Also Hillgrove should retire
Nah, HillBilly is an icon. He deserves to go out on his own terms.
What he desperately needs is a close friend that he trusts who can quietly point out to him that he has become really bad at his job and that it's time for him to move on.
I grew up listening to Harry Kalas with the Phillies (a true legend) and was hoping we could land his son Todd when he was looking for a new job at the same time as Block. Probably too expensive.
I thought I was the only one who had that as an enduring memory. But on that fly ball, it was a 303 can. Pirates had a shot in that pennant race (was it 1969?), but that ninth-inning collapse took the wind out of the sails for the rest of the season.
Prince was so disheartened after Alou's drop that (at least as I remember it) for what as left of the rest of the game (this happened in the bottom of the 9th), he didn't call batters or pitches, just let the action describe itself. All you heard from Prince was "Base hit." "Base hit." " Base hit." "Pirates lose."
I recall it being bottom of 9. Didn't recall the rest but sure as hell recall the morbid feeling I got so your description of Prince fits perfectly.
It was a very high pop up to mid center. Alou wasn't on the run.
It was a very high pop up to mid center. Alou wasn't on the run.
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