Slow night tonight, with all the local teams off. In fact, the only local team playing tonight is the Knicks, who are already in mid-season form; Boston is blowing them out in a pre-season game. So what better time to discuss a very important topic... announcing.
We're pretty lucky to live in New York for one crucial reason - we have the best announcers available pretty much anywhere. Five of the six broadcasters who regularly work local games have done national broadcasts over the past few years, with only Chico Resch waiting for the call. Sam Rosen does NFL games for FOX, Joe Micheletti worked for NBC for a couple of years after the lockout, Billy Jaffe is an analyst for Versus, Howie Rose worked a MLB game for Fox this year, and Mike Emrick is the voice of both NBC and Versus. Not bad, eh? We also can't forget Al Trautwig and his yeoman work on the final episode of the first season of NBC's The Contender. Obviously, there's lots of talent here in New York.
So, then, who's the best?
That's tough to say. We're all biased towards our own teams, but most of us here are willing to call a spade a spade. Or, at least I think we are. So let's look at these broadcast teams and see what we've got.
- Mike Emrick/Chico Resch. While the Devils are an abhorrent franchise that ruined hockey, they do have a pretty good broadcast. Mike Emrick is no Gary Thorne, the greatest announcer of all time, but the Doc does a pretty good job. He obviously knows the game well. Lots of people find his voice annoying, but there are a lot of worse guys out there. Emrick is also extremely dedicated; each year, he creates a pronunciation guide which provides the correct pronunciation for the name of every player in the league and sends it to every NHL broadcaster.
(Fun Fact: Emrick not only replaced Thorne as "the voice of American hockey", but he also replaced Thorne as Devils broadcaster on SportsChannel in 1993. Emrick also does hold a doctorate in radio/television/film, hence his nickname of "Doc".)
Chico Resch is probably the most generic of the local broadcasters, but he isn't awful. I'm almost certain he wears a toupee, but we won't hold that against him. However, we WILL hold against him his rampant homerism and perpetual defense of Martin Brodeur. As if Brodeur needs the press to constantly toot his own horn.
All in all, the Devils' guys don't to a bad job... but I think we'd all like to hear our own broadcasters.
- Howie Rose/Billy Jaffe. Just minutes into the first game of the 2007-08 season, Zach sent me a text message saying, "Howie Rose is the biggest homer I've ever heard." He's probably right. But Howie Rose is one of those announcers that does an excellent job, but never gets mentioned with the top announcers in the league. God knows he's seen enough bad hockey in his day and deserves the recognition. Rose isn't a traditional hockey guy - he spends half his year calling the Mets on WFAN - but he knows the game extremely well and rarely gets in his own way.
Jaffe replaced Joe Micheletti after the 2005-06 season and has proven to be very popular with Islander fans. Micheletti probably knew the game better, but Jaffe is more entertaining and charismatic. He also has tremendous chemistry with Rose, which is almost a blessing and a curse. It's great to hear these two go at it, but lopsided games can sometimes end up being conversations about anything and everything outside the world of hockey. It's kind of like watching Al Michaels and John Madden or Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez do a game. They're great when the game is competitive, but when the game is out of reach, hilarity ensues. Depending on your tastes, that can be either a great thing or an awful thing.
- Sam Rosen/Joe Micheletti. When I was younger, I used to always turn on the Ranger broadcasts when the Islanders and Rangers faced off. Even though I wasn't supposed to, I always loved Sam and John Davidson. I thought they were very fair and I wanted to hear what they had to say about my team. They also knew the game better than anybody and were very passionate about their team. Now that JD is gone, Sam is the lone old-school Rangers voice, but he's still getting it done. Like Zach always says, it's annoying to turn on a Rangers broadcast and hear someone like John Giannone doing the game.
Most Islanders fans are familiar with the work of Micheletti, though some hold a grudge toward him for going to the Rangers. (Note: Stop. That's stupid. I'm almost certain he didn't have a ton of say in the decision.) He's not the most exciting color guy in the world, but he knows a ton about the game. My personal favorite memory of Micheletti comes from an Islander game he did where the Islanders beat the Sabres, 3-0. At the end of the game, Lindy Ruff sent out all his goons to start a brawl, which is exactly what happened. Micheletti absolutely flipped out and urged viewers to turn the game off. Of course, Ruff never got in trouble for it, and even did the same thing when Chris Neil cheapshotted Chris Drury two years ago.
Anyway. Micheletti and Rosen do a broadcast that's mostly straightforward, but is made fun by the addition of the trivia questions and trivia stats, which none of the other teams keep. Rose and Jaffe keep things loose and fun (and corny), but they clearly know their stuff. And the Devils have a good crew, but we all hate the Devils and nobody watches their games, so F them. We added a poll on this topic, so feel free to voice your opinions.
We're pretty lucky to live in New York for one crucial reason - we have the best announcers available pretty much anywhere. Five of the six broadcasters who regularly work local games have done national broadcasts over the past few years, with only Chico Resch waiting for the call. Sam Rosen does NFL games for FOX, Joe Micheletti worked for NBC for a couple of years after the lockout, Billy Jaffe is an analyst for Versus, Howie Rose worked a MLB game for Fox this year, and Mike Emrick is the voice of both NBC and Versus. Not bad, eh? We also can't forget Al Trautwig and his yeoman work on the final episode of the first season of NBC's The Contender. Obviously, there's lots of talent here in New York.
So, then, who's the best?
That's tough to say. We're all biased towards our own teams, but most of us here are willing to call a spade a spade. Or, at least I think we are. So let's look at these broadcast teams and see what we've got.
- Mike Emrick/Chico Resch. While the Devils are an abhorrent franchise that ruined hockey, they do have a pretty good broadcast. Mike Emrick is no Gary Thorne, the greatest announcer of all time, but the Doc does a pretty good job. He obviously knows the game well. Lots of people find his voice annoying, but there are a lot of worse guys out there. Emrick is also extremely dedicated; each year, he creates a pronunciation guide which provides the correct pronunciation for the name of every player in the league and sends it to every NHL broadcaster.
(Fun Fact: Emrick not only replaced Thorne as "the voice of American hockey", but he also replaced Thorne as Devils broadcaster on SportsChannel in 1993. Emrick also does hold a doctorate in radio/television/film, hence his nickname of "Doc".)
Chico Resch is probably the most generic of the local broadcasters, but he isn't awful. I'm almost certain he wears a toupee, but we won't hold that against him. However, we WILL hold against him his rampant homerism and perpetual defense of Martin Brodeur. As if Brodeur needs the press to constantly toot his own horn.
All in all, the Devils' guys don't to a bad job... but I think we'd all like to hear our own broadcasters.
- Howie Rose/Billy Jaffe. Just minutes into the first game of the 2007-08 season, Zach sent me a text message saying, "Howie Rose is the biggest homer I've ever heard." He's probably right. But Howie Rose is one of those announcers that does an excellent job, but never gets mentioned with the top announcers in the league. God knows he's seen enough bad hockey in his day and deserves the recognition. Rose isn't a traditional hockey guy - he spends half his year calling the Mets on WFAN - but he knows the game extremely well and rarely gets in his own way.
Jaffe replaced Joe Micheletti after the 2005-06 season and has proven to be very popular with Islander fans. Micheletti probably knew the game better, but Jaffe is more entertaining and charismatic. He also has tremendous chemistry with Rose, which is almost a blessing and a curse. It's great to hear these two go at it, but lopsided games can sometimes end up being conversations about anything and everything outside the world of hockey. It's kind of like watching Al Michaels and John Madden or Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez do a game. They're great when the game is competitive, but when the game is out of reach, hilarity ensues. Depending on your tastes, that can be either a great thing or an awful thing.
- Sam Rosen/Joe Micheletti. When I was younger, I used to always turn on the Ranger broadcasts when the Islanders and Rangers faced off. Even though I wasn't supposed to, I always loved Sam and John Davidson. I thought they were very fair and I wanted to hear what they had to say about my team. They also knew the game better than anybody and were very passionate about their team. Now that JD is gone, Sam is the lone old-school Rangers voice, but he's still getting it done. Like Zach always says, it's annoying to turn on a Rangers broadcast and hear someone like John Giannone doing the game.
Most Islanders fans are familiar with the work of Micheletti, though some hold a grudge toward him for going to the Rangers. (Note: Stop. That's stupid. I'm almost certain he didn't have a ton of say in the decision.) He's not the most exciting color guy in the world, but he knows a ton about the game. My personal favorite memory of Micheletti comes from an Islander game he did where the Islanders beat the Sabres, 3-0. At the end of the game, Lindy Ruff sent out all his goons to start a brawl, which is exactly what happened. Micheletti absolutely flipped out and urged viewers to turn the game off. Of course, Ruff never got in trouble for it, and even did the same thing when Chris Neil cheapshotted Chris Drury two years ago.
Anyway. Micheletti and Rosen do a broadcast that's mostly straightforward, but is made fun by the addition of the trivia questions and trivia stats, which none of the other teams keep. Rose and Jaffe keep things loose and fun (and corny), but they clearly know their stuff. And the Devils have a good crew, but we all hate the Devils and nobody watches their games, so F them. We added a poll on this topic, so feel free to voice your opinions.
Chico Resch is horrible and I assume he would turn down a national gig unless the Devils were guaranteed to be on 50% of the games. There are so many other good announcers that you hear on NHL Center Ice that should go national before he does.
ReplyDeleteJoe Micheletti says what he feels. I didn't see the game you talk about, but in 06-07, Matt Cullen took a penalty where he kind of checked a guy. For some reason, it was a penalty. Joe flipped out and said "You might as well drop the sticks, drop the helmets, and play beach volleyball!"
Howie Rose is a nice enough guy, but for some reason, Islander broadcasts bore me, and it's not because it's a Ranger-less game. I can watch other teams play, but the Islanders alone bore me. I don't know why, and I'm sorry.
Ha... no need to apologize. I think it's because they really try to make Ranger games "events" as opposed to just "games". They have the full pre-game, the full post-game, the intermission interviews in the studio as opposed to grabbing some guy on his way back to the locker room, the trivia stats... and these are just the things I can think of off the top of my head. These are all things the Rangers have that none of the other teams do, and these are the things that make Ranger broadcasts a little different and (probably) a little better. I think, given what they have to work with, Rose and Jaffe do a tremendous job. God only knows what they'd be like if they had a winning team to broadcast.
ReplyDeleteI'm not knocking them, I think they're good. Just saying.
ReplyDelete